Darkening of the Light in Decision

Be honest about the weather first: this is a hostile stretch where the bold, visible move gets punished. The Judgment strips the counsel to one word — in adversity, persevere. Line 1 makes the timing plain: when the dark strikes at the outset of an effort, lower your wings, withdraw from visible striving, and accept the lean going rather than compromise. Don't strive from despair or bitterness for visible gains; the ego's demand for progress in a dark time only feeds the dark. The one action this hexagram does license is the informed exit. Line 4: once you've seen the heart of the situation and know it can't be fixed from within, leave — openly, in good order, before the storm breaks. That departure isn't flight; it's the conclusion of the reconnaissance. Every other move waits.

Waiting here is not defeat — it's the active discipline of keeping the flame lit under the earth. If you cannot leave (line 5), take Prince Chi as the model: outward yielding total, inward light untouched; hide the flame in the deepest chamber and tend it there, because the tyrant falls and the light survives him — it always does. If you've been struck but not crippled (line 2), the striking move is to turn from nursing the wound to helping others through theirs; that conversion is this line's fortune. And if all seems lost, read line 6 for structural comfort: the dark power, having devoured everything, overreaches and devours itself — its zenith is the hour before its fall. Hold fast precisely then. The light needs only witnesses at dawn; your job while stuck is to remain one.