49. Revolution
Judgment
Revolution — on your own day, you are believed. Supreme success. Continuing perseverance brings remorse that vanishes.
Image
Fire in the lake — the superior person sets the calendar in order and makes seasons clear.
Changing Lines
Wrapped in yellow ox hide — restraint. The time for revolution has not yet come.
When revolution comes on its appointed day — no remorse. The right time for change.
Going forward brings misfortune — danger through hasty revolution. Perseverance brings remorse.
Remorse disappears — the people believe in revolution. Great success through just change.
The great person revolutionizes like a tiger — not needing to divine, one believes. Authority in change.
The superior person changes like a panther — the petty person changes his face. Going forward brings misfortune. Staying brings good fortune.
Reading Revolution today
When Revolution (革) appears in a modern casting, it's rarely about ancient kings or dragons in any literal sense. The hexagram speaks in metaphor about a shape your situation is taking right now. The lower clinging fire sits beneath the upper joyous lake, pairing clarity, attachment to what shines, perception with openness, conversation, shared pleasure. Read this as the inside meeting the outside: how you carry yourself underneath versus how the situation arrives on top.
The hexagram's recurring themes — revolution, change, transformation — usually surface in real life around decisions where the question is less "what should I do" and more "what does this moment actually want from me." Read the Legge judgment above slowly, then sit with the changing lines if any showed up in your cast: the lines are where the hexagram's advice becomes specific to your question, not the situation in general.
Questions Revolution answers well
- What does this hexagram say about my current situation?
- Should I act, wait, or step back from this?
- Where is the real change happening underneath the surface?
- Who or what is this hexagram pointing me toward?
Curious how this would read against your own question? Cast Revolution as a live reading in Hexora →