Hexagram 40 'Deliverance' in the I Ching. One of 64 archetypes underlying Human Design.
Hexagram 40: Deliverance — The I Ching Art of Release
Hexagram 40, Xiè (解), is one of the most relieving images in the I Ching. After the heavy, knot-bound tension of Hexagram 39 (Obstruction), this figure arrives like the moment thunder breaks a long drought — not by force, but by loosening what was stuck. Deliverance speaks to anyone emerging from a period of pressure: a difficult project, a strained relationship, a season of being held back. The hexagram is a manual for that exhale.
The Structure: Thunder Above, Water Below
Hexagram 40 is Thunder over Water (雷水解). The lower trigram is Kǎn (Water — the abyss, danger, the deep), and the upper trigram is Zhèn (Thunder — the arousing shock that breaks inertia). The image is a rolling storm that cracks open a stagnant pool. Water and thunder meeting is not destructive here; it is the natural process by which tension dissolves. The storm delivers what the stillness could not.
The Judgment: Release With Direction
The Judgment reads: Deliverance. The southwest furthers. If you have nowhere to go, return home and keep to your mother. Perseverance brings no blame.
Two practical instructions hide in this short text. First, the southwest furthers. Southwest is the direction of the Earth trigram — stable, receptive, the realm of the body's work, of relationships, of land and inheritance. When pressure releases, do not chase the dazzling far horizon; consolidate in the humble, grounded direction. Second, return to the mother. The "mother" of the entire I Ching is Hexagram 1, the Creative. Return there means going back to your origins, your principles, your original source. When you finally break free, you are not abandoned — you are invited home.
The Image: The Moral of the Storm
The Image says: Thunder and rain set in: the image of Deliverance. Thus the superior man pardons mistakes and forgives misdeeds.
This is the ethical heart of the hexagram. Liberation is not just a private event; it reshapes how you treat others. Stagnation breeds resentment, suspicion, the chronic keeping of accounts. When pressure lifts, the wise response is magnanimity. Let small debts go. Stop rehearsing old grievances. Forgive, not because the wrong was small, but because the holding-on is now the heavier weight.
Walking the Six Lines
Each line traces a stage of genuine release.
- Line 1 — No blame. You are not at fault for the season you have passed through. Begin without self-punishment.
- Line 2 — Catching three foxes, gaining the yellow arrow. Foxes represent cunning doubts or hidden obstacles; the "yellow arrow" is centered, correct action. Perseverance here dissolves lingering confusion.
- Line 3 — Bearing a yoke, robbed of the load. A warning: if you carry old grievances into the new freedom, you invite fresh trouble. Travel light.
- Line 4 — Deliver your toes; let go of the companion. The line that frees you from the small, clinging ties. Know what is yours and what belongs to the group.
- Line 5 — If only the superior man can deliver himself, it furthers. True deliverance is self-deliverance. Wait for the right person, or deliver yourself. Going to the small succeeds; going to the great overreaches.
- Line 6 — The prince shoots the hawk on the high wall and gets it. The closing image: a clean, focused strike at a long-standing problem, executed from a position of clarity. Freedom is not soft. It is precise.
Practical Counsel for a "40" Moment
If you have drawn this hexagram, the work is not to push harder — that was Hexagram 39's lesson. Now:
1. Move toward what is grounded. Home, body, rest, real people, craft. Avoid escapist dazzle.
2. Forgive one specific thing. Don't generalize. Pick a single account, settle it inwardly, and close the ledger.
3. Travel light. Audit what you still carry from the obstructed season — and set it down.
4. Be the deliverer of yourself. Stop waiting for rescue, apology, or vindication. Act from your center, like the archer with the yellow arrow.
Hexagram 40 is the I Ching saying, in a single image, what every wise elder knows: the storm is not your enemy, and the loosening is the gift. The art is to receive it without clinging, and to walk southwest, into the ordinary earth, unburdened.