Gathering Together in Love

The bond is consolidating — deeper commitment, merging worlds, families and friends assembling around you. Two counsels. First, name the temple: the shared centre — values, purpose, what you're building — that both of you orient by; couples gathered only around each other's company wobble under mass, while those gathered around something above the pair hold. Second, the unfashionable image: renew the weapons — where much collects, the unforeseen collects too. Anticipate the frictions that mass brings (in-laws, logistics, jealousies at the edges of your circle) rather than being ambushed by them. Bring great offerings: this is no season for stinginess of time, warmth, or commitment.

Love reaches most people through gatherings — the circle, the community, the assembled table — and this hexagram says join and gather rather than hunt alone. But its deeper counsel is the leader's: only the self-gathered collect others well. Compose your own doubt first; a scattered, wavering centre draws scattered, wavering company. If you're sighing at the edge of a formed circle (line 3), enter by the modest route: alliance with whoever will receive you, the humility of joining from the rim — slight embarrassment, and the way in that pride was blocking. When wavering between connections (line 1), stop oscillating: call out clearly to the one that's true, and one grasp of the hand ends the confusion.