I Ching Lü (Wanderer) Meaning: Hexagram 56

Lü (Wanderer) 旅 appears, and a person is usually not on their own kang. Travel for work, lodging, immigration, staying at a friend’s, a project in someone else’s company, a guest at a wedding: all Lü.

Correct the picture first. Lü is Fire over Mountain, Li above Gen. Mountain below — stopping; fire above — brightness clinging. Fire on a mountain cannot stay: a traveler’s lamp. Many people read it as Bi (Grace) 賁, Mountain over Fire. Bi is Gen above Li: mountain above, fire below, fire under a mountain — ornament. One is being a guest. One is decorating. Only above and below differ, and the meaning is far apart.

Lü is also not Feng 豐. Feng is abundance, a dwelling, a house. Lü is after abundance, losing the dwelling. The Xu Gua wrote this line dead.

Why after being poor in greatness comes Lü

The Xu Gua says: 「窮大者必失其居，故受之以旅。」 Those poor in greatness must lose their dwelling, so Lü follows. Before it is Feng. Great to the end, you lose a place to land. Not moral punishment. Physics: too large, the old seat cannot hold, and the person becomes a guest.

So draw Lü: need not first imagine you will wander. It more often says: you are not the host now. Not the host, and strategy must change to a guest’s strategy. A guest forcing the host’s role: in Lü disaster comes fast.

The Tuan says: 「旅，小亨。柔得中乎外而順乎剛。」 Lü: small opening. The yielding obtains the center outside and yields to the firm. Small opening. In class I write these two characters large. Not great opening. Small opening. Outside you can open a length. Do not think of opening all. The yielding outside obtains the center, and yields to the firm: then you can travel. The sense is earthy: on someone else’s ground, the posture must be yielding; the direction must recognize who is firm, who decides. Stop and cling to brightness: the mountain stops, fire is bright. Able to stop, and a little light, and people are willing to keep you a night.

The judgment: 「小亨。旅貞吉。」 Small opening. The wanderer’s persistence is fortunate. Persistence is correctness, keeping the measure a traveler should keep. Fortune sits on small and persistence — not on rebuilding the inn into your own palace.

Career is being a guest; wealth is traveling money

Ask about career and draw Lü: the common picture is being posted out, a station, working at a client’s, dropped into an old team, an industry changing, a person in transition. You can be very professional, and still a guest. A guest’s professionalism shows in not flipping other people’s drawers, doing what is in your part clean.

In strategy, Lü suits short aims, skill you can take with you, keeping relations at “people are willing to open the door again.” It does not suit merging in a Lü stage, reorganizing the moment you arrive, gambling the lodging-place as a place to grow old. Small opening is this use: first get through, get through looking like something, then talk large.

In wealth, Lü looks at resources, traveling money, an axe of funds. Six in the second: 「旅即次，懷其資，得童僕貞」— the wanderer arrives at lodging, holding resources, obtaining a servant’s persistence. Finding a place to stay, money in the bosom, a reliable helper: Lü’s best setup. Money should be on you (or in your control). Do not smash it all into local fixed assets. Nine in the fourth: 「旅于處，得其資斧，我心不快」— the wanderer at a dwelling, obtaining resources and an axe; my heart is not glad. A landing and tools, the heart still not glad. Why not glad? Because it is still not home. Draw nine in the fourth: in career you can have a seat, a salary. Emotionally, admit “this is not the end.” Need not make a scene because you are not glad.

Investing, lending, guaranteeing for a local friend: Lü is mostly a red light. You are a guest. When risk happens, you are asked out first. Turning money into skill you can take, credit, papers: more matching than turning it into a local house, shares.

Interviews, exams in another place, a short project: Lü can be fortunate. Fortune is in being a traveler like one: polite, with traveling money, not petty, not setting fires.

Lü in love: you are a passer-by; the other may be too

Ask about love and draw Lü: the relationship carries “temporary,” “two places,” “not yet a home.” Not necessarily fake. Not yet settled. Long distance, meeting while traveling, warming each other in a foreign place: all sit on this hexagram.

If you are single and draw Lü, the match is mostly not in hometown daily life. It is on the road, away, in a brief occasion. You can meet seriously. Do not move the household register at once. Lü’s love most fears two ends: one treating one night as a homecoming, one treating a true heart as traveling money spent at random.

If you are already together, Lü is common in living apart, one side posted out, one side back at the family of origin. Fighting “who is host” injures most. A guest should have a guest’s consideration; a host a host’s receiving. Six in the second, obtaining a servant’s persistence: in the relationship there must be a steady, small support system — a trusted person, a stable way of contact, a sum for living apart. Nine in the third: 「旅焚其次，喪其童僕，貞厲」— the wanderer burns the lodging, loses the servant; persistence is dangerous. The lodging burned, the helper gone, however persistent still dangerous. In love: the shared nest is gone, the person in the middle who passed messages, looked after life, is also gone. Still talking principle then, and principle becomes fire.

The upper nine is heavier: 「鳥焚其巢，旅人先笑後號咷，喪牛于易，凶。」 A bird burns its nest; the wanderer first laughs, then wails; losing an ox at the border; unfortunate. The nest burned. Laugh first, then cry. An ox lost at the border. An ox is steadiness, capital you can plow. Draw the upper nine: do not be proud further, do not treat lodging as play. Spending too gladly away, showing off away, treating local relations as a game: afterward you will wail. First laugh then wail: the sentence in Lü least willing to let people get lucky.

A few lines must be taught right, or a traveler is advised into a refugee

Initial six: 旅瑣瑣，斯其所取災. The wanderer petty and fussy; this is how disaster is taken. Out the door and already mean, calculating, petty. Not poverty itself taking disaster. Hanging poverty on the face, counting small money until people’s hearts bristle. Draw the initial six: luggage can be simple. The pattern cannot be small. Complain less about lodging, catch fewer small faults in others. Disaster is taken by yourself.

Six in the second: 旅即次，懷其資，得童僕貞. Arriving at lodging. Holding resources, money on you. A loyal helper. This is Lü’s standard kit. Draw six in the second: first complete these three — a place to land, money you control, a reliable person. These three there, small opening stands.

Nine in the third: 旅焚其次，喪其童僕，貞厲. The inn burned, the helper gone. Too firm. The mountain’s stopping should stop; fire too fierce burns the dwelling. Too firm, too burning, on someone else’s ground: dwelling and hearts gone together. Draw nine in the third: reduce fire at once. Fewer orders, fewer changed rules, less playing host. Persistence is dangerous: you think you stand correct, and the situation is still perilous.

Six in the fifth: 射雉，一矢亡，終以譽命. Shooting a pheasant, one arrow gone; in the end praise and a charge. Shoot a pheasant, the arrow also gone, and in the end you still obtain honor and appointment. Traveling abroad, do not seek fullness. Seek one handsome result, one point of recognition. Losing one arrow (cost, a chance, a tool) is still acceptable. Draw six in the fifth: it suits using one accurate showing to exchange identity. Not firing ten shots.

Upper nine: 鳥焚其巢，旅人先笑後號咷，喪牛于易，凶. High enough to burn the nest too. Li is fire, and at the top: too bright. Proud first, then crying. At the border, steadiness lost. Draw the upper nine: lower the voice, lower the fire, go home or at least drop a grade of lodging. More important than playing another night.

Nine in the fourth’s not-glad: do not treat it with the upper nine’s fire. Not glad is a traveler’s normal temperature. Treat not-glad by burning the nest, and not-glad becomes misfortune.

In class Lü asks only one sentence: are you the host now

If you are the host, you should not draw Lü. Drew Lü: first invite yourself down from the host’s chair.

Away, traveling for work, immigrating, being a guest, being a guest at work: I use the same traveler’s rules.

1. Small opening, not large. A large plan can be written in a notebook. This month only do the stretch you can take with you, can account for.
2. Do not be petty. Poor is allowed. Mean calculation is not.
3. Guard lodging, helper, traveling money. Dwelling, helper, funds: three things in Lü that cannot burn. One of them smoking: stop, put the fire out first.
4. When you first laugh, pause. Lü’s laugh is often the upper nine’s prologue.

Ask whether travel is fortunate: Lü does not forbid going out. It is a going-out hexagram. Fortunate or not looks at whether you are a guest like one: traveling money, a place to stay, whether you will provoke local fire. Ask about immigration: Lü says you are still in transition, identity not settled. Do not treat transition as completion. Ask about work: a dropped-in manager most needs this hexagram. You have fire (craft, name); below is mountain (their old order). Fire burning a mountain looks very bright. What burns is your own lodging.

Feng is abundance; Lü is a guest after abundance. Read the two together, and people will not, in Feng, build the house into the upper six, then in Lü burn the inn once more. Xun 巽 comes after Lü: traveling with nowhere to be received, you must learn how to enter. Related: I Ching Feng Meaning | Hexagram 55 How to Read: Abundance, How to Guard the Light at Midday, I Ching Xun Meaning | Hexagram 57 How to Read: Wind, How to Enter and Yield Without Losing Yourself. Away, if change comes suddenly: I Ching Zhen Meaning | Hexagram 51 How to Read: Thunder, How to Meet Sudden Shock.

I Ching Lü (Wanderer) FAQ

If I draw Lü, should I not go out?

Lü is going out, being away. Not a ban on travel. Travel by a traveler’s spec. No traveling money, no lodging, a restless heart: then you should not go. Already on the road and drawing Lü: what you do is complete lodging, funds, helper — not at once refund a ticket and pretend this is not happening. Sometimes going home is itself another stretch of Lü.

Work, I drew Lü: should I resign?

More like telling you: you are a guest at present — not that you should vanish at once. Dropped in, on trial, project-based, fighting someone else’s war: all Lü. First make small opening, so people are willing to keep you, then talk converting or leaving. Resigning on the fire of a burned lodging: easy to wail first.

Why are Lü and Bi (Grace) so easily mixed?

Both Li and Gen, above and below swapped. Bi is fire under a mountain: ornament, dressing, making a matter look well. Lü is fire on a mountain: a passer-by, not settled, must be bright and must not burn. Ask about makeup, packaging, ritual: Bi. Ask about lodging, travel, being a guest: Lü.

First laugh then wail: will love certainly be deceived?

Not necessarily deception. Pride at a height, then losing the nest. Investing, earning a sum then being trapped; travel, high first then trouble; a relationship, sweet first then finding there is no seat: all this rhythm. See yourself first laughing: look at the nest. Still there? Burning? More useful than crying afterward.

For an online hexagram, try free love divination and match both birthdays with this reading.