Back to I-Ching
I-Ching Hexagram · 益 · Yì
42. Increase
The high nourishes the low — and both grow. Use this flow to help, not to hoard.
Keywords
Benefit · Generosity · Growth
The field
Wind and thunder strengthen each other, and the higher gives downward to the lower. Increase here is the inverse of the previous hexagram — and it is the more dangerous of the pair. Receiving asks more discipline than releasing. The current is generous now: an ally lifts you, a teacher offers time, a season turns in your favor. Wilhelm is firm about the rule of this period: what comes in flows further. Use the increase to help, not to hoard. The growth that arrives because you served the work rather than yourself becomes durable. The growth used to inflate the self thins the moment the wind turns. Generosity here is not virtue. It is structural.
Stance
When something arrives, ask what it is for, not just what it gives. Pass on what you can. Mentor someone with the time you were given. Fund the smaller project from the bigger one. Stay specific in gratitude — name the people, name the help. The flow continues through houses where it does not get pooled at the door.
Shadow
The shadow treats the increase as proof of personal greatness and starts spending the goodwill on display. It also forgets the people behind the lift, attributing their gift to its own work. Watch for the new largeness in your voice, the slightly performative generosity that stops when no one is watching. That is the self eating the rise.
Changing lines
When lines move, the increase finds its long form. The right things have been built; now they need maintenance. Continue the giving as a habit rather than a high. The next chapter is no longer the windfall — it is the steady work of being someone through whom good things keep moving. Your reputation begins to be made there.
Line pattern
▬▬▬▬▬
▬▬▬▬▬
▬▬ ▬▬
▬▬ ▬▬
▬▬ ▬▬
▬▬▬▬▬