Hexagram 42, Increase, joins wind and thunder amplifying each other — a season of growth that rewards action. Learn how to use a favorable wind, and how to increase yourself.
Yi pairs wind above with thunder below — wind lending force to thunder, thunder lending power to wind, two energies amplifying each other: the hexagram of increase. It mirrors Hexagram 41: there the lower gave to the upper; here the upper gives to the lower — leadership yields benefit downward, hearts lift, and the whole becomes more prosperous. The oracle is brisk: 'it furthers one to undertake something; it furthers one to cross the great water.' The classic describes the energy as 'increase without fixed direction' — help arriving from every quarter. And the commentary gives the most reliable self-increase ever written: 'seeing good, move toward it; having faults, correct them.'
Drawing Yi means the tailwind is blowing your way: external support is available, patrons are open-handed, and the return on action is high — this is one of the hexagrams that plainly says move. Hesitation wastes the season. Three principles. Steer the wind: even a tailwind needs a rudder — aim the increase at what genuinely matters. Increase others and be increased: this hexagram's arithmetic is circular — sharing, yielding benefit, and helping come back amplified. Keep increasing yourself: convert the good season into real inner growth through those two clauses — move toward the good, correct the fault. And heed the top line's warning: those who only take and never give end by losing even what they had.
In love, the relationship is in a mutually nourishing phase: supporting each other, growing together — a fine time to plan the future or learn something new as a pair; for singles, initiative is the charm itself, and showing up pays unusually well now. In career, push forward freely: new projects, new markets, new alliances all catch the wind-and-thunder momentum; leaders who share gains downward now — raises, credit, authority — buy morale and loyalty worth far more than the cost. Money is rising: invest actively but with aim, and note that investing in your own capability returns highest of all; when profits come, share some — that keeps the circle of increase turning.
Yi is a tailwind, and no wind blows forever: while help comes from every quarter, do the thing, help the person, fix the fault. The finest increase remains those two clauses — move toward the good you see, correct the fault you find. Market winds die down; that flywheel never does.