Decrease (Hexagram 41)

What this is

The mountain above the lake, the lake's depth diminished to raise the mountain: decrease that enriches above by drawing from below. Sun is Decrease, the figure of loss willingly accepted, of giving up the lesser to gain the greater, of simplicity and the discipline of doing with less. Hexagram 41, 損 (Sǔn): the upper trigram Gen (Mountain, ☶) over the lower trigram Dui (Lake, ☱); its six lines, read from the bottom upward, give the figure ䷨.

What it governs

It governs decrease, sacrifice, and the loss that, rightly accepted, becomes gain. In the Oracle it presides over the day for letting go, for simplifying, for the discipline of curbing excess, when a sincere offering of less brings more than grasping would.

Its properties

Its image is the lake at the mountain's foot, its waters drawn down to nourish the heights; the wise curb their anger and restrain their desires. The virtue is the sincerity that makes even a small offering acceptable and the self-discipline that turns decrease into growth; its movement the willing reduction of the lower to enrich the higher. The shadow is the loss accepted with resentment, the false economy that starves what should be fed, or the refusal to give up anything at all.

Where else it appears

The fruitful sacrifice is named wherever giving up the lesser wins the greater. Sun is the widow's two coins worth more than great gifts, the discipline of fasting that feeds the spirit, the seed that is given up to the soil to multiply, the alchemist's loss of the gross matter that the subtle may rise. The lake lowered to raise the mountain is the soul that gives up its excess and is enriched.

Where you meet it on the Oracle

It surfaces as the day's I Ching hexagram. Drawing Decrease tells you the day favours letting go and simplifying: curb your anger and your desires, accept a needed loss with sincerity, and trust that giving up the lesser opens room for the greater. Read it as the wisdom of doing more with less. The Oracle's own note on this figure: “Lake beneath Mountain — decrease; simplify with joy.”

Why it matters

Decrease matters because much that we cling to is excess, and the soul grows by what it gives up as much as by what it gains. It asks you to accept loss without bitterness, to discipline your wants, and to make even a small sincere offering, trusting that decrease at the right time is the truest increase.

Correspondences

element

Earth

number

41