I Ching Hexagram 8: Holding Together - Meaning, Changing Lines and Guidance

I Ching Hexagram 8, Holding Together (Bi), means voluntary union around a center worth belonging to, pictured as water lying on earth and ruled by the single yang line in the fifth place. This guide covers the Judgement and the Image of Hexagram 8, all six changing lines and the hexagrams they produce, its nuclear hexagram 23 and opposite hexagram 14, and how Hexagram 8 reads for a decision, a relationship and work.

What does I Ching Hexagram 8, Holding Together, mean?

I Ching Hexagram 8, Holding Together, means voluntary union around a center worth belonging to. Its Chinese name is Bi, written with a character picturing two figures standing side by side and facing the same way, and that picture carries the teaching: alignment rather than proximity. In the King Wen sequence Hexagram 8 follows Hexagram 7, The Army, and the traditional Sequence commentary explains the order plainly, since among a multitude there must be a reason to unite. Hexagram 7 organizes people through discipline; Hexagram 8 binds them through attraction. Structurally the figure is five yin lines with a single yang line in the fifth place, the seat of the ruler. Everything soft in the hexagram orients toward that one firm line, which is why Hexagram 8 reads as a group finding its natural center rather than a crowd pushed into shape. The answer is favorable but conditional. Hexagram 8 puts two questions to you before granting its good fortune: whether the center you are joining is sound, and whether the moment for joining is still open.

What separates Hexagram 8 from other hexagrams of cooperation is that its union is centered rather than merely mutual. Hexagram 13, Fellowship with Men, shows companions meeting in the open; Hexagram 45, Gathering Together, shows a crowd assembling around a shrine. Hexagram 8 shows something narrower and more binding, a body of people each of whom has made an individual attachment to the same point. That is why the line texts keep using the verb bi with an object, holding to him, and why each yielding line is graded by its relationship to the fifth. Nobody in Hexagram 8 belongs collectively. In a reading this means Hexagram 8 asks about the quality of a bond rather than the size of a group. Two people can be a complete Bi; a large organization with no genuine center is not one at all. Anyone drawing Hexagram 8 for a team or a partnership is being asked to name what everyone is oriented toward, and to say whether it deserves the orientation.

Why is Hexagram 8 called Holding Together rather than Union?

Holding Together is Wilhelm's rendering of Bi, and it preserves the effort in the Chinese. Union names a state; holding together names an activity that has to be renewed. Wilhelm keeps Union as a bracketed alternative, and Alliance, Closeness and Grouping all circle the same character.

Where does Hexagram 8 sit in the I Ching sequence?

Hexagram 8 is the eighth figure of the King Wen sequence, paired with Hexagram 7, The Army, the same six lines inverted. It is built from Kan, water, above Kun, earth. Among the six hexagrams holding a single yang line, Hexagram 8 is the one whose yang occupies the fifth place.

Is Hexagram 8 about friendship or about loyalty?

Hexagram 8 is about loyalty, and friendship is one form it takes. Its line texts use the language of attachment to a center rather than affection between equals: holding inwardly, holding outwardly, holding to the wrong people. Hexagram 8 applies to any bond with a shared point of orientation.

Which two trigrams form Hexagram 8, and why does water over earth mean Holding Together?

Hexagram 8 is formed by Kan, water, above and Kun, earth, below, and water lying on earth means Holding Together because nothing comes between the two. Pour water onto ground and it finds every hollow, fills every depression and settles into contact with the whole surface it touches. No gap is left anywhere. That total contact is the physical picture the hexagram is built on: closeness so complete that the boundary stops mattering. Kan supplies the water and also the hexagram's single yang line, since Kan is one firm line held between two yielding lines. With Kan on top, that firm line lands in the fifth place, so the ruler of Hexagram 8 is structurally the heart of the water trigram. Kun below supplies receptivity, breadth and the capacity to be shaped, three things earth has and water needs. Reverse the arrangement and the meaning collapses: earth over water gives Hexagram 7, The Army, where the water is buried underground and the mass has to be commanded rather than attracted.

The pairing also explains why a favorable hexagram carries a warning inside it. Kan is not a comfortable trigram. Elsewhere in the I Ching it means the abyss, danger, the pit, and doubled it produces Hexagram 29, The Abysmal. Water gets its way by yielding, and it can flood a field as easily as irrigate one. Spread thin above the earth it is at its most benign, but never quite loses its edge, which is what the Judgement is nervous about. The same closeness that makes union valuable makes betrayal possible, because water soaked into ground cannot be lifted out cleanly. Kun is not passive here either; without earth, water disperses. The practical instruction of Hexagram 8 follows from the division of labor: the party offering the union supplies direction and risk, and the party accepting it supplies the ground that makes the arrangement stable.

What does the Kan trigram contribute to Hexagram 8?

Kan contributes the water, the single yang line and the element of risk. Sitting above in Hexagram 8, its central firm line occupies the fifth place and rules the figure. Kan means flowing into every available space, which gives Hexagram 8 its contact without gaps, and it also means the abyss.

What does the Kun trigram contribute to Hexagram 8?

Kun contributes earth, receptivity and the ground that holds the union in place. As the lower trigram of Hexagram 8 it is three yielding lines that accept the water and give it shape. Without Kun the water would disperse, so Kun converts attraction into a durable arrangement.

How does Hexagram 8 differ from Hexagram 3, which also has water above?

Hexagram 8 places water over earth; Hexagram 3, Difficulty at the Beginning, places water over thunder. Earth accepts water and lets it spread, giving the smooth contact of Hexagram 8, while thunder pushes upward against it and produces struggle. Changing the bottom line of Hexagram 8 delivers exactly that shift.

What do the Judgement and the Image of Hexagram 8 say?

The Judgement of Hexagram 8 grants good fortune to Holding Together, then tells the questioner to consult the oracle a second time about whether sublimity, constancy and perseverance are present, promising freedom from blame if they are. It adds that the uncertain gradually join, and that whoever comes too late meets misfortune. Two features are unusual. Hexagram 8 is one of the very few places in the I Ching that instructs you to divine again on the same matter, which reads as a deliberate slowing down: the hexagram will not let you commit on a single throw. It then ends with a hard deadline, the bluntest sentence in an otherwise generous reading. Together they set the shape of Hexagram 8 in practice. The union is worth having, the qualities at its center must be checked before you enter, and the checking has to be fast because the arrangement is forming now and will close.

The Image of Hexagram 8 says that water is on the earth, and that seeing this, the kings of antiquity established the myriad states and kept close relations with the feudal lords. It teaches leadership by distributed attachment rather than central control. The king does not rule one undifferentiated territory; he grants many states to many lords, then invests in his relationship with each. Unity depends on a set of individual bonds radiating from one center, exactly as the five yielding lines of Hexagram 8 each relate individually to the yang line in the fifth place. That is why the Image speaks of drawing near to the lords rather than commanding them, and why it names lords rather than subjects: a lord holds ground of his own, so his loyalty is a choice. The Image is also the one place in Hexagram 8 addressing the person at the center rather than the person joining, and its method is territory plus proximity.

Why does the Judgement of Hexagram 8 tell you to consult the oracle again?

The Judgement of Hexagram 8 sends you back to the oracle because the value of Holding Together depends entirely on what you are holding to, and the hexagram itself cannot tell you whether the center is sound. A second consultation is the traditional test, and a rare explicit instruction to re-divine.

What does whoever comes too late meets with misfortune mean in Hexagram 8?

The latecomer line in Hexagram 8 means the alliance closes. Unions form by accumulation, and once enough people have attached to the center the arrangement sets and the remaining places vanish. Someone arriving after that is not joining a union but petitioning one, which is why Hexagram 8 calls it misfortune.

How do you apply the Image of Hexagram 8 to a modern organization?

Applied to an organization, the Image of Hexagram 8 means delegating genuine ownership and then keeping a direct personal relationship with each person who holds it. Both halves are required. Delegation without contact produces drift, contact without delegation produces dependence, and Hexagram 8 treats the pair as one method.

What do the first three changing lines of Hexagram 8 mean?

The first three changing lines of Hexagram 8 describe joining sincerely from a distance, joining from within, and joining the wrong people. The six at the beginning says to hold to the center in truth and loyalty, which is without blame, and gives the image of sincerity like a full earthen bowl, so that in the end good fortune comes from outside. This line sits furthest from the ruling fifth place and has no correspondence with the fourth, so it has no natural route inward. What it has is honesty, plainly shown, and the promise here is that unadvertised sincerity gets noticed by people the line never approached. Changing it turns the lower trigram from earth to thunder and produces Hexagram 3, Difficulty at the Beginning. The six in the second place says to hold to the center inwardly, and that perseverance brings good fortune. This is the most fortunate yielding line in Hexagram 8, because line 2 corresponds directly to line 5. Changing it produces Hexagram 29, The Abysmal.

The six in the third place is the warning line of Hexagram 8: you hold together with the wrong people. The Chinese phrase names people who are not the right people, and the structure explains the failure precisely. Line 3 has no correspondence with the fifth line that rules the hexagram, and its partner across the figure is the sixth line, the one that ends in misfortune. It also sits at the top of the lower trigram, the transitional position where a line is neither settled below nor established above. This is someone attached upward past the center, toward whatever lies beyond it. The text attaches no verdict at all, and readers treat that silence as the mercy in it. Nothing has been decided, so the line is a description you are meant to act on before a verdict becomes necessary. Changing the third line turns the lower trigram into mountain and produces Hexagram 39, Obstruction, an accurate account of what staying would cost.

Why does good fortune come from without in the first line of Hexagram 8?

The first line of Hexagram 8 stands at the bottom with no correspondence to draw it upward, so it cannot make its own way to the center. Its sincerity, pictured as a full earthen bowl, is simply visible. Good fortune arrives from outside because someone else notices and brings the line in.

What does holding to him inwardly mean in the second line of Hexagram 8?

The second line of Hexagram 8 sits inside the lower trigram and corresponds to the ruling fifth line, so its loyalty is genuine and correctly aimed. Holding inwardly means the attachment need not be displayed to be real, and perseverance here means not converting private commitment into public performance.

How do you recognize the wrong people described in the third line of Hexagram 8?

The third line of Hexagram 8 describes attachment to a center that has no correspondence with you. Readers test for three things: whether the group possesses the sublimity, constancy and perseverance the Judgement names, whether the bond survives disagreement, and whether belonging requires becoming someone you would not otherwise be.

What do the last three changing lines of Hexagram 8 mean?

The last three changing lines of Hexagram 8 describe joining openly, ruling well, and arriving with no center left to join. The six in the fourth place says to hold to the center outwardly as well, and that perseverance brings good fortune. Line 4 sits directly beneath the ruling fifth line in the upper trigram, close enough that concealment would be absurd, so where line 2 was told to hold inwardly, line 4 is told to hold outwardly. Hexagram 8 treats visible loyalty in this position as correct rather than showy, because someone that close to the center who hides their attachment reads as untrustworthy. Changing the fourth line turns the upper trigram from water to lake and produces Hexagram 45, Gathering Together, where the private bond becomes a public assembly. Lines 2 and 4 together give the practical teaching: the same commitment is expressed inwardly at a distance and outwardly up close, and reversing that gives either display without substance or secrecy without cause.

The nine in the fifth place rules Hexagram 8 and carries its most memorable image. The text speaks of the manifestation of holding together, and describes the king hunting with beaters on only three sides, letting the game that runs off in front go free, so that the citizens need no warning and there is good fortune. The royal hunt was driven by beaters closing from all directions; this king deliberately leaves the fourth side open. Anyone who wants to leave, leaves. What stays, stays by choice, and a union made only of what stayed by choice needs no enforcement. That is the leadership doctrine of Hexagram 8 in one picture: do not close the circle. Changing the fifth line removes the single yang and produces Hexagram 2, The Receptive, the union with no visible head at all. The six at the top then shows the cost of arriving after everything is decided, finding no head for holding together, and misfortune. Changing it produces Hexagram 20, Contemplation, where the latecomer can only look on.

What does the hunt with beaters on three sides mean in Hexagram 8?

The fifth line of Hexagram 8 pictures a royal hunt driven from three sides with the fourth left open, so game running forward escapes. It means leadership that leaves an exit. Those who remain have chosen it, and Hexagram 8 says such a group needs no warnings, since nothing is held by force.

Why is the top line of Hexagram 8 the only one that ends in misfortune?

The top line of Hexagram 8 has passed above the ruling fifth line, so it finds no head to hold to. It is the Judgement's latecomer made into a line: the union has formed and closed beneath it. Every other line still has a center available, and this one does not.

What is the difference between lines 2 and 4 of Hexagram 8?

Line 2 of Hexagram 8 holds to the center inwardly from inside the lower trigram, while line 4 holds outwardly from directly beneath the ruler. Both bring good fortune through perseverance. The difference is proximity, and Hexagram 8 assigns private loyalty to distance and declared loyalty to closeness.

What are the nuclear and opposite hexagrams of Hexagram 8?

The nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 8 is Hexagram 23, Splitting Apart, and its opposite is Hexagram 14, Possession in Great Measure. The nuclear figure is built from the inner lines: lines 2, 3 and 4 of Hexagram 8 are all yielding and form Kun, earth, while lines 3, 4 and 5 form Gen, mountain, giving mountain over earth. That is Hexagram 23, disintegration, a single yang line pushed to the very top with nothing solid underneath it. The relationship is exact and unsettling. Both figures contain the same lone firm line, but in Hexagram 8 it holds the fifth place, supported and central, and in the nuclear figure it has been driven to the sixth, about to fall off the top. The hidden core of Holding Together is one position away from coming apart, which is what the sixth line of Hexagram 8 describes when it finds no head. This is why the Judgement insists on a second consultation: a union with one center is efficient and also fragile.

The opposite hexagram of Hexagram 8, produced by changing all six lines, is Hexagram 14, Possession in Great Measure, fire over heaven. The mirroring is neat: Hexagram 14 has five yang lines and a single yin line, and that yin line also sits in the fifth place. Both hexagrams are governed by a solitary line in the ruler's seat, with the polarity reversed. In Hexagram 8 a firm center attracts many yielding lines and the question is belonging; in Hexagram 14 a yielding center is served by many firm lines and the question is possession. Read as a pair they mark the two ways a single point can organize a group, by being the thing everyone holds to or the thing everyone holds up. Hexagram 8 also has an inverted partner, Hexagram 7, The Army, the same figure turned upside down, moving the yang line from the fifth place down to the second. Among the three, Hexagram 8 is the most exposed: its center is visible, chosen and unenforced.

How is the nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 8 calculated?

The nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 8 is built from its inner four lines. Lines 2, 3 and 4 become the lower trigram, all yielding, giving Kun. Lines 3, 4 and 5 become the upper trigram, two yielding beneath one firm, giving Gen. Mountain over earth is Hexagram 23, Splitting Apart.

Why does Hexagram 8 have Splitting Apart as its nuclear hexagram?

Hexagram 8 contains Hexagram 23 as its nuclear hexagram because a union with one center is structurally close to collapse. Move the single firm line of Hexagram 8 one place higher and it loses its support entirely. The nuclear figure names the risk the Judgement addresses by asking for a second consultation.

What does Hexagram 14 reveal about Hexagram 8 as its opposite?

Hexagram 14, Possession in Great Measure, is Hexagram 8 with every line reversed, and it also has a solitary ruling line in the fifth place. The contrast defines Hexagram 8 by inversion: Hexagram 14 concerns what a center holds, Hexagram 8 concerns who holds to a center.

How do you read Hexagram 8 for a decision?

For a decision, I Ching Hexagram 8, Holding Together, answers yes to commitment and adds a time limit. Its instruction has three parts taken straight from the text. Verify the center, using the Judgement's own method of a second consultation and its own standard of sublimity, constancy and perseverance. Commit properly, meaning wholly rather than provisionally, since Hexagram 8 contains no line describing partial membership. Then do it now, because the Judgement states that the latecomer meets misfortune and the sixth line shows what that looks like. Hexagram 8 is a poor answer for anyone hoping to keep options open. Every favorable line belongs to someone who has attached to something, and the two unfavorable positions belong to someone attached to the wrong thing and someone who attached to nothing until it was too late. Faced with a choice between two paths, Hexagram 8 points to the one involving other people and a shared center rather than the one preserving independence.

The changing lines refine the timing considerably. A first line means you are early and unrecognized, and the instruction is to be plainly sincere and let recognition come to you rather than campaigning for it. A second line means the relationship is correct and the answer is to hold steady without display. A third line means stop, because the decision as framed attaches you to the wrong group. A fourth line means declare yourself, since this is no longer a decision you can make quietly. A fifth line means you are the center of the decision, and the instruction is to leave people a way out rather than working to secure their agreement. A sixth line means the decision has already been made without you. Where several lines change at once, practitioners weight the fifth most heavily, since it rules the hexagram, and read the others as conditions around it. The resulting hexagram then describes what the union becomes once the decision is taken.

Does Hexagram 8 ever advise against joining?

Hexagram 8 advises against joining in one place, the six in the third place, which says you hold together with the wrong people. Elsewhere it favors attachment. Hexagram 8 also warns against joining too late in its Judgement and top line, but that is a warning about timing rather than about standing apart.

What does Hexagram 8 say about acting alone?

Hexagram 8 has no favorable reading for acting alone. Every line is defined by its relationship to the ruling fifth line, and the one position lacking such a relationship, the top line, ends in misfortune. When a solitary course is the question, Hexagram 8 points toward the alternative involving other people.

How urgent is the timing warning in Hexagram 8?

The timing warning in Hexagram 8 is unusually blunt, stating without qualification that whoever comes too late meets misfortune. Readers treat it as describing a closing arrangement rather than a general virtue of speed. Hexagram 8 still requires verification, so the instruction is to check quickly and then move.

What does Hexagram 8 mean in a relationship reading?

In a relationship reading, I Ching Hexagram 8, Holding Together, means a bond of genuine closeness that is asking to be made explicit. The water and earth image is unusually intimate for the I Ching, describing contact with no gap anywhere along the surface, and readers count it among the strongest indications of compatibility in the sixty-four figures. What Hexagram 8 does not describe is two equals floating free. It always has a center, and in a couple that center is usually the shared thing the relationship is organized around: a household, a plan, a commitment, a person one partner is oriented toward. Part of reading Hexagram 8 for a relationship is naming what that center actually is, because the Judgement's demand for sublimity, constancy and perseverance applies to it. Line 2 permits private loyalty at a distance, but line 4 requires open declaration once you are close, so closeness that is real but undeclared is the specific tension Hexagram 8 surfaces.

Hexagram 8 in a relationship reading also inherits the fragility of its nuclear figure. Hexagram 23, Splitting Apart, sits inside every drawing of it, and in relationship terms names the failure mode: a bond built on one point of attachment has nothing left if that point moves. Practitioners use this to separate the healthy version of this closeness from the anxious one. In the healthy version both people hold something in common and each keeps ground of their own, which is the Image's arrangement of granting territory and staying close. In the anxious version one person is the entire center and the other has no separate ground, at which point Hexagram 8 begins to read like its nucleus rather than itself. For a new relationship, Hexagram 8 is favorable and time-limited in the same breath. For an existing relationship, the third line is the one to check honestly, since it is the only place in Hexagram 8 that names attachment itself as the error.

Is Hexagram 8 a good sign for a new relationship?

Hexagram 8 is a favorable sign for a new relationship, describing closeness with no gap between the two parties. The qualification is timing: the Judgement of Hexagram 8 warns that whoever comes too late meets misfortune, so the hexagram encourages moving toward the bond rather than waiting to feel certain.

What does Hexagram 8 say about defining a relationship?

Hexagram 8 splits loyalty by position. Line 2 holds to the center inwardly and line 4 holds outwardly, and both bring good fortune. Applied to a relationship, Hexagram 8 indicates that closeness eventually requires open declaration, and that a bond near the center which stays undefined is out of step with its position.

What does a changing third line mean in a relationship question about Hexagram 8?

A changing third line in Hexagram 8 means the attachment itself is misdirected, since this is the line naming the wrong people. It carries no verdict, which readers take as room to withdraw. The line changes Hexagram 8 into Hexagram 39, Obstruction, describing the difficulty that follows from staying.

What does Hexagram 8 mean for work and career?

For work and career, I Ching Hexagram 8, Holding Together, means your position depends on who you are aligned with rather than on what you produce alone. The hexagram redirects the question. Someone asking about a promotion, a job change or a hard project is being told the decisive variable is allegiance and its clarity, not effort considered in isolation. Line 2 describes the reliable person whose loyalty is real but unadvertised, a strong position that goes unrewarded until someone notices. Line 4 describes the person close enough to the center that neutrality has become conspicuous, and instructs them to declare. Line 1 describes the newcomer whose only asset is visible sincerity. Line 3 describes having attached to the wrong faction, sponsor or company, and the absence of a verdict there is the room to leave before it hardens. Hexagram 8 is direct about the fact that organizations run on these attachments, and insists you know which center you have chosen.

For anyone leading at work, Hexagram 8 concentrates its advice in the fifth line and the Image, and both point one way. The king hunting with three sides open forgoes the game that runs forward, which at work means letting people leave, declining to lock in the ones who want out, and accepting the smaller committed group that results. The Image adds the mechanism: grant real territory, then stay personally close to whoever holds it. A manager applying Hexagram 8 gives away authority and keeps the relationships rather than the reverse. The hexagram also carries a warning for founders in its nuclear figure, Hexagram 23, Splitting Apart. An organization where every attachment runs to a single person is efficient at the size Hexagram 8 describes and disintegrates when that person moves, which is the transition from the fifth place to the sixth. The remedy inside the hexagram is the Image's own arrangement of many lords with their own ground.

What does Hexagram 8 advise about workplace alliances?

Hexagram 8 advises choosing an alliance deliberately and holding it clearly. Its Judgement asks you to verify that the center has sublimity, constancy and perseverance before joining, and its third line warns about attaching to the wrong people. Hexagram 8 treats workplace allegiance as real and consequential.

How should a manager apply Hexagram 8?

A manager applying Hexagram 8 follows the fifth line and the Image: leave the fourth side of the hunt open so people can go, delegate genuine territory, and keep a direct relationship with each person holding it. Hexagram 8 warns that a center holding everything alone becomes its nuclear figure, Splitting Apart.

Does Hexagram 8 favor changing jobs?

Hexagram 8 favors changing jobs when the move is toward a center you have verified and away from the wrong one, the situation its third line describes. It does not favor moving into isolation, since Hexagram 8 has no favorable line for standing apart. The warning about lateness applies to any specific opening.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is I Ching Hexagram 8 a good or bad answer?

I Ching Hexagram 8, Holding Together, is a favorable answer with two conditions attached. The Judgement grants good fortune, then warns that the union must have sublimity, constancy and perseverance at its center, and that whoever comes too late meets misfortune. Hexagram 8 is therefore good news about belonging and bad news about hesitation. Readers treat it as a yes that expires.

What is the Chinese name of Hexagram 8 and what does it mean?

The Chinese name of Hexagram 8 is Bi, written with a character that pictures two figures standing side by side facing the same direction. That image is the meaning: alignment rather than mere proximity. English translations render Bi as Holding Together, Union, Alliance, Closeness or Grouping. Richard Wilhelm's version, brought into English by Cary F. Baynes, uses Holding Together, the phrasing most Western readers meet first.

Which line rules Hexagram 8 in the I Ching?

The nine in the fifth place rules I Ching Hexagram 8. The hexagram has five yin lines and one yang line, and that solitary firm line sits in the fifth position, the seat of the ruler. Every yielding line is graded by its relation to it: line 2 corresponds to it, line 4 leans on it, line 3 misses it, line 1 approaches from a distance, line 6 has passed above it.

What does the third line of Hexagram 8 warn about?

The six in the third place of Hexagram 8 warns that you hold together with the wrong people, naming people who are not the right people. It is the only line in Hexagram 8 that treats the attachment itself as the error. Structurally it has no correspondence with the ruling fifth line and pairs instead with the top line, which ends in misfortune. No verdict is attached, which readers take as room to withdraw.

What hexagram does Hexagram 8 become when the fifth line changes?

When the fifth line of Hexagram 8 changes, Hexagram 8 becomes Hexagram 2, The Receptive. Turning the single yang line to yin leaves six yin lines, the pure Kun figure, and removes the center the whole hexagram was gathered around. Readers take it either as a union that no longer needs a visible leader or as the loss of the person everyone was oriented toward.

How does Hexagram 8 differ from Hexagram 7 in the I Ching?

Hexagram 8, Holding Together, is Hexagram 7, The Army, turned upside down. Both have one yang line among five yin, but in Hexagram 7 that line sits in the second place, buried inside the lower trigram, giving a general commanding from within the ranks. In Hexagram 8 it rises to the fifth place, in the open, so people gather to it freely. Hexagram 7 organizes through discipline, Hexagram 8 through attraction.

Does Hexagram 8 mean I should join or lead?

Hexagram 8 answers from whichever position your question puts you in. Five of its six lines are yielding lines describing how to join well: sincerely from a distance, inwardly, mistakenly, openly from the side. Only the fifth line describes leading, and it prescribes the royal hunt with beaters on three sides and the fourth left open. Asked about joining, Hexagram 8 says join and say so. Asked about leading, it says leave the exit unguarded.