䷨41 · Decrease
Mountain above lake — what is below is decreased to enrich what is above; voluntary giving up that produces growth.
The Hexagram
Hexagram 41, *Sǔn*, is the image of decrease — what is below given up to enrich what is above. The classical name is *Decrease*. The hexagram counsels: *if there is sincerity, supreme good fortune, no blame; one may be persevering in this; it furthers one to undertake something; how is this carried out? One may use two small bowls for the sacrifice*. The lesson: voluntary decrease — giving up something below in order to enrich something above — is a profound discipline. The smallest sincere offering, given with full presence, is greater than the largest insincere one.
When you pull this hexagram
Something is being asked of you to decrease — a habit, a possession, a relationship-pattern, a mode of being. The hexagram says: give it up sincerely. Even a small sincere giving is great. The decrease below feeds the growth above.
The changing lines
Line 5 is *someone does indeed increase him; ten pairs of tortoises cannot oppose it; supreme good fortune* — the sincere decrease that calls down enormous reciprocal blessing. The universe responds.
In love
You are being asked to give up something — a defense, a habit, a way of being — that has been blocking the love. The decrease frees the increase.
In work
Cut the unnecessary. The decrease frees energy for the increase. The smallest sincere offering is greater than the largest insincere one.
The gift
*Voluntary giving-up.* The recognition that decrease, sincerely offered, calls down increase that no calculation could have produced.
The shadow
Performed decrease. The giving-up that is in fact a strategy. Sincerity is the discriminator.
3 questions to sit with
- What in my life right now is asking to be decreased — voluntarily given up — to free the next level of growth?
- What is the *two small bowls* — the smallest sincere offering — that I can make today?
- Where am I performing decrease as strategy when the hexagram is asking for sincerity?
Want a reading written for your specific situation? — $9
If this hexagram landed and the question is bigger than a single page can hold, I can write a hand-written reading for you, your relationship, or the decision you are sitting with. Delivered by email within 48 hours.
Request your $9 reading →