Increase (Hexagram 42)

What this is

Wind and thunder reinforcing each other, the powers of growth at full strength: increase that flows downward from above to enrich what is below. Yi is Increase, the figure of abundance shared, of the strong giving to the weak, of the favourable season for great undertakings. Hexagram 42, 益 (Yì): the upper trigram Xun (Wind, ☴) over the lower trigram Zhen (Thunder, ☳); its six lines, read from the bottom upward, give the figure ䷩.

What it governs

It governs increase, generosity, and the favourable time for bold growth. In the Oracle it presides over the prosperous day when conditions favour expansion and great ventures, and when the highest use of plenty is to give it downward and to grow toward the good.

Its properties

Its image is wind and thunder strengthening one another, mutual reinforcement; the wise, seeing good, imitate it, and seeing fault in themselves, correct it. The virtue is the generosity that sends increase downward and the readiness to grow by imitating good and amending fault; its element wind and thunder in fertile union. The shadow is increase hoarded instead of shared, the greed that grasps abundance for itself, or the recklessness that mistakes a favourable season for a license to overreach.

Where else it appears

The downward-flowing increase is named wherever the strong are called to enrich the weak. Yi is the good ruler whose plenty blesses the people, the master who gives talents to be multiplied, the alchemical multiplication where the stone increases what it touches. Wind and thunder reinforcing each other are the powers of growth combining, the favourable hour when to give is to gain.

Where you meet it on the Oracle

It appears as the day's I Ching hexagram. Drawing Increase marks a prosperous day favourable for great undertakings: conditions support bold growth, and the highest use of your abundance is to share it downward and to better yourself by imitating good. Read it as a strong green light for generosity and expansion. The Oracle's own note on this figure: “Thunder beneath Wind — increase; the superior sees good and imitates.”

Why it matters

Increase matters because the favourable hours for growth are precious, and abundance is meant to flow, not to pool. It asks you to act boldly while the season favours it, to send your increase downward to those below you, and to grow inwardly by copying what is good and correcting what is not.

Correspondences

element

Wood

number

42