Hexagram 14, Great Possession

The figure

Heaven below, the father, strength and the creative push. Fire above, the middle daughter, light and clarity. The sun at noon over an open sky. Five solid lines and one broken line in the fifth place, which is the ruler's place in a hexagram, so the figure shows one soft, open line sitting in the seat of power with five strong lines serving it.

I like that detail. Everything in the figure is strong except the one at the top, and that is why it works. Power held softly. A ruler with an open hand and the whole sky behind them. The picture is the fullness of a day, the harvest in, everything lit and visible, nothing left in shadow.

Great Possession is paired with Hexagram 13, Fellowship, which is the same six lines turned over so the fire burns under the sky.

When it comes up in a reading

When I cast Great Possession the first thing I do is check what the person has already. This hexagram comes up when there is plenty on the table, in money, in skills, in people, in opportunity, and the person asking is often the last to see it. The sun at noon leaves nothing hidden, including the good things you have been walking past.

The guidance is about carrying plenty well. The book is clear that abundance comes with two traps. One is thinking you earned it alone. The other is sitting on it. Both turn plenty sour fairly quickly. The hexagram asks for the open hand of that fifth line, generous because it can afford to be and clear because the light is good.

I also read it as a time for discernment. When you have a great deal, the question changes from how do I get more to what is this for. Which of the many things you could do deserves the resources you have. The light of noon shows you everything, and the skill is choosing.

If the question was about money or work, Great Possession says the means are there or coming and the character test is what you do with them. If it was about a relationship, read it as having more than enough between you and needing to stop counting. If it was about a decision, it says you are well placed and well supplied, so choose from strength and share the result.

As a birth hexagram

If this is your birth hexagram, or if it keeps coming back to you, things gather around you. Opportunities, people, knowledge, resources. Whatever your outer circumstances, something in the way you are set up draws in what other people have to chase. Your life at sixty is usually richer than most in every sense of the word, and you did not always go looking for it.

You have presence. People notice you when you walk in, and you rarely have to push for it. There is substance inside and it registers. You tend to become known in your field without a campaign, because what you are is visible.

Your gift is capacity in more than one area at once, and the ability to share it without running dry. What you have multiplies when you give it away. You also show people that plenty and integrity can live in the same house, and plenty of people need to see that.

The shadow is entitlement. Things came easily and you start to believe you deserve them, and the gratitude drains out, and with it most of the warmth. The other shadow is hoarding. The gathering habit keeps gathering past the point where sharing would have served everyone better, including you. Flow is what keeps abundance alive. A dam with no outlet is just a flood waiting to happen.

At maturity you have built real plenty in money, in relationships, in knowledge, and you have learned to give it out well. The benefit spreads a long way and your name is attached to generosity more than to wealth, which is the better name to have.

If a line moves

When one of the six lines is moving, I read where it sits before I read anything else. The two lower lines are the beginning of the matter, having something and the first question of whether it is going to cause harm or do good. The two middle lines are the heart of it, where the plenty is at its fullest and the temptation to show off or to hold too tight is strongest. The two upper lines are the end of it, where the open hand of the fifth line meets its reward, and where the warning is about going too far and letting plenty curdle into pride. The moving line changes to its opposite and gives a second hexagram, where the matter is heading. The How to Cast a Hexagram page walks through it with a worked example.

Across the traditions

The Eight Trigrams page gives you Fire and Heaven on their own. The Chinese Astrology section has the yin and yang this whole book is built on. In the tarot I set Great Possession beside the Ten of Pentacles, the family, the dogs, the old man and the coins laid out across the whole card. That pairing is my own and I hold it lightly.

What do you already have in abundance, and who would be better off if you shared it?

If you would like this read against your own chart, my readings are here.