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I-Ching Hexagram · 蠱 · Gǔ
18. Work on the Decayed
Something inherited has decayed. Repair it now — the rot spreads if you wait.
Keywords
Repair · Ancestry · Reform
The field
Work on the Decayed names what happens when something inherited has gone soft inside. A family pattern, an old agreement, a project nobody wanted to reopen — wind has stopped moving inside the mountain and the air has spoiled. The hexagram is not punishment. It is a clear-eyed inventory. You did not cause all of this, but you are the one standing closest to the smell. Repair asks for patience and method: three days before the turning point to understand the rot, three days after to set the new course. Quick fixes only delay the conversation. The work is unglamorous and slow, and it returns something that had quietly stopped working to a state that can carry weight again.
Stance
Open the cupboard. Name what is rotten without theater and without blame — the energy you spend on outrage is energy not spent on the repair. Take three slow days to look. Then act, not in one heroic gesture but in a sequence small enough to finish. Honor what was good in the old form even as you replace what failed.
Shadow
The shadow is purity. You decide everything inherited is contaminated and burn the whole house to feel clean. Or the opposite — you preserve the rot out of loyalty and call it tradition. Both miss the work. The hexagram asks you to discriminate, not to perform either rebellion or piety. What part actually feeds you. What part actually has to go.
Changing lines
Changing lines mean the repair is moving from analysis into action, or the inheritance itself is being renegotiated. Something old is loosening its grip. Watch carefully who else is in the room — a family member, a colleague, a part of yourself you had filed away. The shape of the new arrangement depends on the next honest conversation.
Line pattern
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