Hexagram 46: Pushing Upward Changing to Hexagram 17: Following

I Ching casting meaning · Sheng → Sui

Pushing Upward, successful in its own climb, is moving into Following — the instruction is to attach your ascent energy to something already moving upward rather than always charting your own route. You've proven you can climb; now prove you can join an existing expedition and make it better. Somewhere nearby a capable leader is going your direction; a trend is rising that aligns with your path. Choose what to follow based on values and direction, not flattery or ease. Following makes you complicit — choose well. Once you commit, bring your full climbing experience to bear. The climber who can follow as well as lead is the climber who gets invited on the expeditions that actually reach the highest peaks.

A casting that moves from Pushing Upward into Following means the situation you asked about is not static — it begins as one pattern and resolves into another. The first hexagram describes where you stand; the second describes where events are carrying you.

Highlighted in red: lines 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are moving — counted from the bottom. A moving line is where the change is actually happening: it flips from yang to yin or back, and that flip is what turns Pushing Upward into Following.

The situation: Hexagram 46, Pushing Upward

Steady ascent. Growth climbs step by step, unopposed.

A tree growing inside the earth, pushing upward at its own unhurried pace — and the season says yes. This is the ascent hexagram: promotion, progress, rising visibility, all of it available, none of it instant. The growth here is organic, which means two things. It can't be rushed, and it doesn't need to be — the direction is with you. Climb step by step: the small credential, the honest effort, the meeting with the person a level up. Find a mentor or advocate; upward paths run through people now. Effort applied steadily to this slope compounds fast. The summit is real. Take the stairs.

Structurally, Pushing Upward is Wind below Earth — the inner state meeting the outer condition. That pairing is the lens for everything above.

Where it's heading: Hexagram 17, Following

Smart following. Attach to what's actually moving.

The changed hexagram is the trajectory, not a verdict. As the moving lines settle, the energy of Pushing Upward gives way to Following (Sui) — Thunder below Lake. The advice that belongs to this outcome: Follow the strongest current this week — but keep your standards and exits.