I Ching trigram
Mountain
Mountain (☶, Gèn) is one of the eight trigrams of the I Ching — the natural forces the 64 hexagrams are built from. Its essence: stillness · limit · rest. Mountain appears in 16 positions within the 64 hexagrams: as the upper trigram in eight and as the lower trigram in eight, and carries itself twice in hexagram 52 (Holding Still).
Atlas context
Mountain
A visual symbol used as context for reading change.
Mountain as the upper trigram
The eight hexagrams with Mountain on top.
- 4. InexperienceNot every not-knowing is emptiness — sometimes insight still stands before you in rough clothing.
- 18. Repair WorkWhat has spoiled is not mended by shame or perfume, but by work.
- 22. GraceForm can make a thing visible, but it must never pass itself off as substance.
- 23. CrumblingWhat has lost its base falls apart not through enmity, but through the loss of what held it up.
- 26. Great RestraintGreat force is not loosed here, but gathered until it is worthy of a direction.
- 27. NourishmentWhat you feed shapes you; what you take in later speaks back out of your own mouth.
- 41. DecreaseDecrease turns fruitful when the loss takes away something needless and leaves the essential untouched.
- 52. Holding StillNot every movement deserves completion; sometimes holding still is the last right act.
Mountain as the lower trigram
The eight hexagrams with Mountain at the bottom.
- 15. ModestyWhat truly has height has no need to display it.
- 31. ResonanceWhat truly moves you does not force; it moves because it enters.
- 33. RetreatRetreat here is not defeat, but a form of dignity under conditions that have gone wrong.
- 39. ObstacleWhere the road is not open, it is not your speed that proves itself, but your direction.
- 52. Holding StillNot every movement deserves completion; sometimes holding still is the last right act.
- 53. Gradual GrowthWhat wants to arrive and last gets further here only by growing slowly and in keeping.
- 56. The WandererWhoever has no firm ground must handle their bearing all the more carefully.
- 62. Small ExcessWhen the small holds sway here, the way is not the grand gesture but the right fineness.
The eight trigrams
Each hexagram is a stacking of two trigrams. See all eight natural forces or all 64 hexagrams.
Start small
Read what is moving in your own situation.
A trigram takes on meaning within the hexagram it appears in, and a hexagram in relation to your own question. Ask one and read what appears.