I Ching Hexagram 24: Return - Meaning, Changing Lines and Guidance

I Ching Hexagram 24, Fu or Return, is five yin lines with a single yang line reborn at the bottom, the winter solstice hexagram of the turning point. This guide covers the Thunder-under-Earth trigram pair, the Judgement and the Image, all six changing lines and the hexagram each one becomes, and how Return reads for a decision, a relationship and work.

What does I Ching Hexagram 24 (Return) mean?

I Ching Hexagram 24, called Fu and usually translated Return or The Turning Point, means a single line of yang has come back at the very bottom of a situation after being stripped out of it completely. The figure is five yin lines with one yang line underneath them, in the first place. In the King Wen sequence Hexagram 24 follows Hexagram 23, Splitting Apart, where the last yang line sat exposed at the top and was about to fall off the figure. Hexagram 24 is what happens next: the light does not disappear, it reappears from below. The Xu Gua commentary states the reasoning directly, that things cannot be exhausted forever, and that what is split apart above returns underneath. So the hexagram 24 meaning is a reversal already under way rather than one still being hoped for. It is small, one line out of six, and it is also decisive, because it changes the direction of the entire figure. Readers treat Hexagram 24 as the moment a fever breaks, a debt starts shrinking instead of growing, or an estranged person finally answers a message. Nothing has been rebuilt. Rebuilding has become possible.

Hexagram 24 belongs to the twelve tidal or sovereign hexagrams, the set that maps the solar year onto the steady advance and retreat of yang through the six places. Fu is assigned to the eleventh lunar month and the winter solstice: the longest night, and for exactly that reason the night after which days lengthen. That placement governs how the hexagram is read. The turn arrives at the coldest point, not once conditions have softened, so casting Hexagram 24 while everything still looks bad is a consistent answer rather than a contradictory one. The single yang line is also the ruling line, which is unusual - in most figures authority sits in the fifth place, near the top. In Hexagram 24 the whole meaning rests on the bottom line, the least visible and least protected position on the board. That structure is the instruction: the thing that will change your circumstances is currently small, low down, and easy to crush by accident.

Is Hexagram 24 a good hexagram to receive in a reading?

Hexagram 24 is favorable with a specific limit. Return confirms the trend has reversed and that going out and coming in bring no error, but the recovery it describes is one line deep. Readers take Hexagram 24 as proof they are past the bottom, not as permission to act at full scale.

What is the Chinese name of Hexagram 24?

Hexagram 24 is called Fu, written with the character meaning to return, to repeat or to recover. The sense of retracing a road already walked sits inside the word, which is why Hexagram 24 so often points to resuming something abandoned rather than starting something unprecedented.

Why is Hexagram 24 linked to the winter solstice?

Hexagram 24 holds the eleventh month position among the twelve tidal hexagrams, the point where the first yang line re-enters after Hexagram 2 leaves the figure entirely yin. That corresponds to the winter solstice, which is why Return is read as light beginning again at the moment of deepest cold.

Which trigrams form I Ching Hexagram 24, and why do they mean Return?

Hexagram 24 is formed from Zhen, the trigram of Thunder, below, and Kun, the trigram of Earth, above, producing the image of thunder buried inside the earth. Zhen is one yang line under two yin lines, carrying arousal, shock, sudden movement, spring, and the eldest son. Kun is three yin lines, the pure receptive: earth, field, yielding ground, fallow season. Stack them in this order and the meaning of Hexagram 24 follows mechanically. There is real energy in the situation and it is genuinely moving, but it is underground, with nothing showing at surface level. Thunder heard from below the soil has not yet broken into open sky. The yang line that makes Hexagram 24 significant is the same line that drives Zhen, sitting in its own first place, so the hexagram's ruler and the lower trigram's engine are one and the same. The four yin lines of Kun above are not hostile to it. Because Kun yields by nature, the earth in Hexagram 24 covers the returning thunder the way soil covers a seed, and readers treat that covering as protection rather than suppression.

The clearest way to see what the trigram order does in Hexagram 24 is to set it against Hexagram 16, Enthusiasm, which uses the identical pair reversed. Hexagram 16 places Zhen above and Kun below, thunder bursting out of the earth, and reads as energy that has broken the surface: music, momentum, a crowd that can be roused. Hexagram 24 takes the same two forces and buries the thunder, converting everything Hexagram 16 expresses outward into something held inward and unspent. Same power, no outlet yet. That is the difference between a movement people can already hear and one only the person holding it knows about. It is also why Hexagram 24 resists the advice most growth-flavored figures give. Zhen wants to move, and in Return it would have to push through four yin lines of earth with a single line of strength.

What does the trigram Zhen contribute to Hexagram 24?

Zhen supplies Hexagram 24 with its single yang line and all of its motion. As the trigram of Thunder and of the eldest son, Zhen brings initiative and the impulse to begin, and in Hexagram 24 that impulse occupies the lowest place in the figure, strong in intent and small in reach.

What does the trigram Kun contribute to Hexagram 24?

Kun supplies Hexagram 24 with four of its five yin lines and with the quality of yielding cover. Because the upper trigram is pure earth rather than a resisting force, the mass of yin above the returning yang reads as fallow ground and shelter, not as an obstacle to be broken through.

How is Hexagram 24 different from Hexagram 16, which uses the same trigrams?

Hexagram 16, Enthusiasm, puts Zhen above Kun, thunder emerging into the open. Hexagram 24 reverses the order and buries the thunder. The energy is identical; in Hexagram 16 it is visible and contagious, in Hexagram 24 it is underground and known only to the person carrying it.

What does the Judgement of I Ching Hexagram 24 say?

The Judgement of Hexagram 24 in the Wilhelm-Baynes rendering reads: Return. Success. Going out and coming in without error. Friends come without blame. To and fro goes the way. On the seventh day comes return. It furthers one to have somewhere to go. Every clause does specific work. Success is stated flatly at the start, unusual for a figure this depleted, and it rests on the fact that the returning yang line entered unopposed. Going out and coming in without error describes free movement in both directions, because Kun above offers no resistance to the line rising from below. Friends come without blame means others of the same kind will follow the first yang line in, which the tidal sequence guarantees, and their arrival carries no fault. To and fro goes the way names the cyclical mechanism that produces the hexagram at all. On the seventh day comes return fixes the timing. The final clause, it furthers one to have somewhere to go, is the one readers most often skip and the one that changes the practical use of Hexagram 24 most.

The seven-day count in the Judgement of Hexagram 24 is usually explained through the tidal hexagrams. Yang begins losing ground at Hexagram 44, Coming to Meet, where the first yin line slips in under five yang lines. The cycle then passes through Hexagram 33, Retreat, Hexagram 12, Standstill, Hexagram 20, Contemplation, Hexagram 23, Splitting Apart, and Hexagram 2, The Receptive, arriving at Hexagram 24 as the seventh stage. Read that way, the seventh day is not a literal week but a statement that the return is produced by a cycle completing. The last clause pulls against any temptation to treat that as passivity: the returning line will grow whether or not it is aimed, and an unaimed recovery wastes itself. The cycle supplies the energy, the reader supplies the destination.

Does the Judgement of Hexagram 24 promise success?

The Judgement of Hexagram 24 states success in its second word with no conditions attached. What it promises is that the reversal will hold and that movement in and out will not produce error. It does not describe abundance, completion or reward, all of which sit further along the cycle than Return does.

What does 'friends come without blame' mean in Hexagram 24?

In Hexagram 24 the phrase refers to the yang lines that will follow the first one in as the tidal cycle continues toward Hexagram 19 and Hexagram 11. Read practically, allies and resources begin arriving once the turn has happened, and accepting their help at this stage incurs no fault.

What does 'it furthers one to have somewhere to go' mean in Hexagram 24?

The closing clause of the Judgement of Hexagram 24 tells the reader to hold a destination in mind while the returning yang grows. Recovery in Return is guaranteed by the cycle but not aimed by it, so the clause assigns the reader the one job the mechanism does not do on its own.

What does the Image of I Ching Hexagram 24 say?

The Image of Hexagram 24 reads: thunder within the earth, the image of the turning point. Thus the kings of antiquity closed the passes at the time of solstice. Merchants and strangers did not go about, and the ruler did not travel through the provinces. This is one of the most concrete pieces of advice in the book, and it is startlingly restrictive for a hexagram that announces recovery. The ancient kings met the solstice by shutting the mountain passes, halting trade traffic, keeping travelers off the roads, and grounding the ruler's own tour of inspection. None of that is punishment or emergency measure. It is a deliberate reduction of activity timed to the moment the new yang appears, on the reasoning that a force this small is disturbed by traffic. Applied to a reading, the Image of Hexagram 24 tells the person holding a fragile recovery to close their own passes: stop the announcements, postpone the negotiation, decline the invitation, and let the thing consolidate underground where it currently lives. Return is the rare hexagram that pairs good news with an instruction to do less.

The tension between the Judgement and the Image is the most useful thing about Hexagram 24 in practice. The Judgement says movement in and out brings no error and that having somewhere to go furthers the reader. The Image then shuts the border. Commentary resolves this by separating direction from traffic: knowing where you are headed costs the new yang nothing, while exposure, negotiation and scrutiny cost it a great deal. The ruler in the Image is not idle, he is at home. This is why Hexagram 24 so often turns up for people who have just decided something privately and are itching to make it public. In a business question Return argues against launching or pitching immediately after a turnaround becomes visible internally. In a personal question it argues against telling everyone the reconciliation is happening before the first line has any company.

What does 'closing the passes' mean in Hexagram 24?

Closing the passes in the Image of Hexagram 24 refers to shutting the mountain crossings at the solstice so trade and travel stopped. In a reading it means restricting who has access to a new development, cutting outside traffic while the returning yang line in Hexagram 24 is still single and low.

Does the Image of Hexagram 24 advise rest or action?

The Image of Hexagram 24 advises rest, and specifically the suspension of useful activity rather than the abandonment of harmful activity. Merchants stop moving, strangers stay off the roads, the ruler cancels his provincial tour. Hexagram 24 treats this pause as the correct response to good news, not to bad.

Who is the ruler in the Image of Hexagram 24?

The ruler in the Image of Hexagram 24 is the sovereign whose customary duty is touring the provinces to inspect them. By keeping him home at the solstice, the Image extends the closed-pass rule to the highest authority in the state, making the point that in Hexagram 24 nobody is exempt from the pause.

What do changing lines 1, 2 and 3 of I Ching Hexagram 24 mean?

The first three hexagram 24 changing lines cover the returning yang itself and the two yin lines closest to it. Line 1, the nine at the beginning, reads: return from a short distance, no need for remorse, great good fortune. This is the ruling line of Hexagram 24 and the only yang line in the figure, and its virtue is that it turned back early, before the wandering became serious. The Xici, one of the Ten Wings, attaches this line to Confucius's student Yan Hui, praised for never repeating a fault once he had recognized it. Line 2, the six in the second place, reads: quiet return, good fortune. It holds the central place of the lower trigram and sits directly on top of line 1, returning by keeping close company with what is good beneath it rather than by any effort of its own. Line 3, the six in the third place, reads: repeated return, danger, no blame. Perched at the restless top of Zhen, it turns back over and over because it keeps drifting off again, and the classic grants it no blame precisely because the returning keeps happening.

Read as a run, lines 1 through 3 of Hexagram 24 show the quality of return degrading in exact proportion to distance from the yang line. Line 1 is the yang itself and needs no correction. Line 2 is adjacent and borrows its steadiness. Line 3 is two places away, at the top of the moving trigram, and can only manage a return that has to be repeated. The transformed hexagrams reinforce the pattern. Line 1 changing turns Hexagram 24 into Hexagram 2, The Receptive, stripping the yang back out and warning against spending the one asset the figure has. Line 2 changing produces Hexagram 19, Approach, where two yang lines now advance together. Line 3 changing produces Hexagram 36, Darkening of the Light, the figure of keeping your light hidden, which is the natural consequence of falling away and coming back on repeat.

Why is line 1 of Hexagram 24 the most fortunate line?

Line 1 of Hexagram 24 is the returning yang itself and the ruler of the hexagram, and its verdict of great good fortune rests on the shortness of the distance traveled. A mistake noticed immediately costs almost nothing to correct, which is why commentary pairs this line with a student famous for never repeating an error.

What hexagram does line 2 of Hexagram 24 change into?

Line 2 of Hexagram 24 changing produces Hexagram 19, Approach, in which two yang lines occupy the bottom of the figure and advance together. That transformation matches the line text of quiet return and good fortune, since the reward for staying close to the first yang line is a second one arriving.

Is line 3 of Hexagram 24 a warning?

Line 3 of Hexagram 24 carries the word danger but not misfortune, and it ends with no blame. Repeated return describes an on-again, off-again pattern that is genuinely risky and still correct in direction. Hexagram 24 forgives the instability because the person keeps coming back rather than staying gone.

What do changing lines 4, 5 and 6 of I Ching Hexagram 24 mean?

The upper three hexagram 24 changing lines sit inside Kun, farthest from the returning yang. Line 4, the six in the fourth place, reads: walking in the midst of others, one returns alone. It is the only line in Hexagram 24 holding a correct correspondence with the yang line at the bottom, and also the only line in the hexagram given no verdict of fortune or misfortune at all. It describes someone traveling with a group who turns back while the rest walk on, and the classic declines to score the outcome. Line 5, the six in the fifth place, reads: noblehearted return, no remorse. Central in the upper trigram and in the ruler's own place, line 5 has no correspondence with line 2 to lean on, so its return is generated by its own weight of character rather than by any relationship. Line 6, the six at the top, reads: missing the return, misfortune, misfortune from within and from without. Armies set marching in this condition suffer a great defeat, ruinous for the ruler, and for ten years no further attack is possible.

The transformations of the upper three lines of Hexagram 24 are unusually dramatic. Line 4 changing turns Return into Hexagram 51, The Arousing, doubled thunder, the shock that follows a solitary decision to break ranks. Line 5 changing produces Hexagram 3, Difficulty at the Beginning, which fits a return undertaken on principle rather than on support: the choice is right and the early going is hard. Line 6 changing produces Hexagram 27, Nourishment, the open mouth, read as an instruction to go back to basics after the opportunity was lost. Line 6 earns its severity structurally too. It is the top line of Kun, the farthest possible point from the returning yang, and by the time energy reaches it the hexagram has nothing left to give. The ten-year figure is the classic's standard expression for a full cycle spent in recovery.

Why does line 4 of Hexagram 24 say one returns alone?

Line 4 of Hexagram 24 corresponds with the yang line in the first place, the only correct pairing in the figure, so it is drawn back toward the source while surrounded by yin lines that are not. Walking in the midst of others and returning alone describes that pull, and Hexagram 24 assigns it no verdict either way.

What does line 5 of Hexagram 24 ask of the reader?

Line 5 of Hexagram 24 asks for a return made from character rather than from encouragement. Holding the ruler's place with no supporting correspondence below it, the noblehearted return is a self-examination nobody required, and its verdict of no remorse reflects a correction made freely rather than under pressure.

Why is the top line of Hexagram 24 the worst line in the hexagram?

Line 6 of Hexagram 24 stands at maximum distance from the returning yang and at the end of Kun, where no movement remains. Missing the return means the opening was recognized and not taken, and the line doubles its misfortune inside and outside before adding a ten-year image to measure how long the loss lasts.

What are the nuclear and opposite hexagrams of I Ching Hexagram 24?

The nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 24 is Hexagram 2, The Receptive. Taking lines 2, 3 and 4 as the lower nuclear trigram and lines 3, 4 and 5 as the upper gives Kun in both positions, since every one of those lines in Return is yin. The opposite hexagram of Hexagram 24, produced by changing all six lines, is Hexagram 44, Coming to Meet, where a single yin line has slipped in beneath five yang lines. Hexagram 24 also pairs by inversion with Hexagram 23, Splitting Apart: turn Return upside down and Splitting Apart is what you get, which is why the King Wen sequence sets them side by side. Each relationship says something usable. A nuclear Kun means the interior of Hexagram 24 is pure ground with no structure in it, which explains why the Image calls for stillness rather than construction. Hexagram 44 as the opposite makes Return one hinge of a two-hinge year, the winter counterpart to a summer figure whose single entering line is treated as a warning rather than a gift.

The Fu and Gou relationship is the most instructive of the three. Hexagram 24 and Hexagram 44 are structurally identical operations run in opposite polarities: in each, one line of a new kind enters at the bottom while five lines of the old kind hold everything above. The I Ching treats the two arrivals in completely different tones. The yang line entering Hexagram 24 is welcomed, given the ruling role, and surrounded with advice about protection. The yin line entering Hexagram 44 is met with the warning not to marry such a maiden, because what looks minor will keep advancing. That asymmetry gives readers a practical test. If Hexagram 24 has arrived, the small new thing at the bottom of the situation is the thing to defend, and the nuclear Kun underneath says there is no internal scaffolding to build on yet.

What is the nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 24?

The nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 24 is Hexagram 2, The Receptive. Both inner trigrams drawn from lines 2 through 5 of Return come out as Kun, because all four of those lines are yin. The all-yielding interior explains why Hexagram 24 counsels sheltering the new yang rather than putting it to work.

What is the opposite hexagram of Hexagram 24?

The opposite of Hexagram 24, formed by reversing every line, is Hexagram 44, Coming to Meet. Where Return has one yang entering below five yin at the winter solstice, Hexagram 44 has one yin entering below five yang at the summer solstice, and the classic welcomes the first arrival while warning against the second.

How are Hexagram 23 and Hexagram 24 related?

Hexagram 23, Splitting Apart, is Hexagram 24 turned upside down, and the two form a single pair in the King Wen sequence. Hexagram 23 shows the last yang line stranded at the top and about to be lost; Hexagram 24 shows the same line re-entering at the bottom.

What does I Ching Hexagram 24 advise for a decision or a work situation?

For a decision, Hexagram 24 answers yes to resuming and no to launching. The word Fu carries the sense of traveling back along a road already walked, so Return favors reopening a shelved project, reapplying somewhere that once said no, restarting a discipline that lapsed, or going back to a draft abandoned months ago. It is markedly less enthusiastic about a wholly novel venture with no history behind it, because the energy in Hexagram 24 comes from a cycle completing rather than from something being invented. In work questions Return turns up around former employers, former industries and skills left unused for years, and it reads those returns favorably. The risks it flags are all about scale and exposure. One yang line under four yin lines of earth cannot support a public relaunch, a large hire or an aggressive target, and the Image of closing the passes argues directly against pitching a recovery that is still one line deep. On money, Hexagram 24 says the trend has turned and the amount is small: the first month the balance moves the right way, not the month the shortfall is cleared.

The most practical use of Hexagram 24 in a work reading is as a timing instrument. Return does not tell you whether the plan is sound, it tells you where you are in the cycle, and the answer is the start of the upswing with the low point behind you. That reframes the usual question. Instead of asking whether to commit, the reader asks how much traffic the new thing can survive, and Hexagram 24 sets that number low. Changing lines sharpen it considerably. Line 1 favors an early, small correction to a course already begun. Line 3 speaks to the third or fourth restart of the same abandoned effort, workable but unstable. Line 6 is the one to respect in a work question, because it describes an opening that was seen, weighed and allowed to close, and it prices that mistake in years.

Does Hexagram 24 mean yes or no to a decision?

Hexagram 24 leans yes for anything involving going back, and hesitant for anything unprecedented. Return draws its strength from a completed cycle, so it supports resuming, rejoining and revisiting. For a genuinely new commitment, Hexagram 24 says the timing has turned favorable while the resources are still one line deep.

What does Hexagram 24 say about returning to a former job?

Hexagram 24 reads favorably on returning to a former employer or field, since Fu literally means retracing a road already traveled. The caution is scale rather than principle: Return advises going back quietly and in a modest capacity rather than negotiating hard on the strength of a recovery that is still underground.

What does Hexagram 24 mean for money and finances?

Hexagram 24 in a money question means the direction has reversed and the amount is still small. Readers take Return as the first month a debt shrinks or income rises, not the point of clearance, and the Image of closing the passes argues against raising spending to match a trend that has only just turned.

What does I Ching Hexagram 24 mean in a relationship reading?

In a relationship question, Hexagram 24 means contact resuming after a break. Return is the standard hexagram for reconciliation, for an ex making contact, for a friendship reopening after silence, and for the point in a strained partnership where warmth becomes noticeable again. Its verdict is favorable and its condition is strict: the returning feeling in Hexagram 24 is one line under four lines of earth, and the Image tells you to close the passes around it. That translates directly into behavior. A first message is not a conversation about the future, and one good evening is not a reunion. The changing lines carry most of the nuance. Line 1 is the argument stopped early, before anyone said the sentence that takes a year to undo. Line 3 is the on-again, off-again cycle, granted no blame but explicitly labeled dangerous. Line 4 is the person who turns back toward the relationship while their whole circle walks the other way, and the classic conspicuously refuses to grade it. Line 6 is the reconciliation that was offered, recognized and left too long.

What separates Hexagram 24 from other reconciliation figures is that it takes no position on whether the relationship deserves reviving. Return describes a mechanism, not a verdict on character. Yang comes back because the cycle brought it back, and the advice is entirely about handling the arrival. That is why experienced readers lean on the second half of the Judgement in relationship questions. Having somewhere to go means knowing what you actually want from the reopening before it develops momentum of its own, because Hexagram 24 guarantees growth without guaranteeing the growth goes anywhere good. For someone single, Return usually points backward: an old connection resurfacing, a social circle reactivating, or the reader's own appetite for company coming back after a flat period.

Does Hexagram 24 mean an ex will come back?

Hexagram 24 is the figure most often read as an ex returning, since Fu describes something absent re-entering from below. Return supports the possibility of contact resuming and says nothing about whether the reunion should be pursued. Readers check the changing lines, especially line 3 for repeat cycles and line 6 for a chance already missed.

What does Hexagram 24 advise after an argument?

Hexagram 24 advises turning back immediately, which is the content of line 1: return from a short distance, no need for remorse, great good fortune. Applied to a quarrel, Return says the cost of a correction rises sharply with delay, and an apology made the same day belongs to a different category than one made a month later.

What does Hexagram 24 mean if I am single?

For a single reader, Hexagram 24 usually points to something returning rather than something arriving. Return commonly indicates an old connection resurfacing or the reader's own interest in companionship coming back after a withdrawn period, with the same instruction to keep the development quiet while it is small.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Hexagram 24 in the I Ching?

Hexagram 24 in the I Ching is Fu, translated as Return or The Turning Point. Its figure is one yang line in the bottom place with five yin lines above it, formed from Zhen (Thunder) below and Kun (Earth) above. Fu holds the winter solstice position in the tidal cycle, and it marks the moment yang re-enters a situation it had been stripped out of entirely.

Is Hexagram 24 Return a lucky hexagram to receive?

Hexagram 24, Return, is one of the more encouraging figures in the I Ching, though its good fortune is early rather than large. The Judgement opens with the word success, and five of the six lines carry favorable or neutral verdicts. The exception is the top line, which speaks of missing the return and measures the loss in ten years. Hexagram 24 promises the direction has changed, not that results have arrived.

What are the trigrams of Hexagram 24?

Hexagram 24 is built from Zhen, the trigram of Thunder, below, and Kun, the trigram of Earth, above, giving the image of thunder buried inside the earth. Zhen supplies the single yang line and all the movement in Hexagram 24; Kun supplies the quiet ground covering it. Because Kun yields rather than resists, that earth shelters the returning thunder instead of smothering it.

What does 'on the seventh day comes return' mean in Hexagram 24?

The phrase in the Judgement of Hexagram 24 refers to the length of the cycle that brings yang back. In the tidal hexagram sequence, yang begins withdrawing at Hexagram 44 and passes through Hexagrams 33, 12, 20, 23 and 2 before reaching Hexagram 24 as the seventh stage. Readers take the line as a statement about timing: the return is produced by a cycle completing rather than by anyone's effort.

Which hexagrams come before and after Hexagram 24?

Hexagram 23, Splitting Apart, comes immediately before Hexagram 24 in the King Wen sequence, and Hexagram 25, Innocence, comes immediately after. The pairing with Hexagram 23 is structural, since turning Splitting Apart upside down produces Return. The move on to Hexagram 25 shows what a returning yang line grows into next: unforced action with no scheming behind it.

What does Hexagram 24 mean with changing line 6?

Line 6 of Hexagram 24 is the only genuinely bad line in Return: missing the return, misfortune from within and from without, and armies set marching in this condition suffer a defeat that leaves the country unable to attack again for ten years. Sitting at the top of Kun, as far from the returning yang as the figure allows, it describes an opening noticed and not taken. Changed, it produces Hexagram 27, Nourishment.

What does Hexagram 24 mean in a health reading?

In a health question, Hexagram 24 reads as convalescence rather than cure. Return describes the first real upturn after a low point, and the advice attached to it is the Image of closing the passes at the solstice. Readers take that as an instruction to protect the recovery by cutting activity back rather than resuming a normal schedule, since the yang line in Hexagram 24 is strong in direction and small in quantity.