Traditional Reading of I Ching Hexagram 29, The Abyss, the Water

I Ching Hexagram 29

The hexagram 29 of the I Ching, The Abyss, is composed by the repetition of Water. This element symbolizes danger, and therefore this hexagram indicates a danger of a peculiar sort, since it is repeated. Water is that which maintains the limits of lands. It creates the territories on which we live because they are exterior to it. This means that danger is not necessarily something negative because it is a power that shapes new situations. Its positive effects can be seen when we get used to it as in our daily relation with the see and the lake. It is through this sort of repetition that danger can become productive. Water does not opposes itself to obstacles but progresses through a slow process on which it will finally open new ways to pass through obstacles and create thereby new configurations.

Quick guide for interpretation

The continual recognition of danger promises liberation.

I Ching Hexagram 28