Misalignment

Entering from the wrong position.

The situation

You're in this on terms that aren't quite right — unclear standing, unofficial role, rushed entry. Pushing forward makes it worse.

What it asks of you

Accept the actual position and work within it. Know where this leads before investing more.

Where it leads

The six lines

1. initial The girl married off as the secondary wife. A lame man can still walk. Setting out goes well. 歸妹以娣，跛能履，征吉
2. second A one-eyed man can still see. This suits someone who keeps out of sight. 眇能視，利幽人之貞
3. third Waiting to be married off, and going back to be married as the secondary wife instead. 歸妹以須，反歸以娣
4. fourth The marriage runs past its date. Late has its own timing. 歸妹愆期，遲歸有時
5. fifth The emperor gives his daughter in marriage, and her sleeves are plainer than her attendant's. The moon is nearly full. 帝乙歸妹，其君之袂不如其娣之袂良。月幾望，吉
6. top The woman holds up a basket with nothing in it; the man cuts the sheep and no blood comes. Nothing comes of it. 女承筐无實，士刲羊无血，无攸利

The line texts are the oldest layer of the book. They are pictures, not instructions, and they are meant to be held against your own situation rather than decoded.

How this one is built

Written out as six lines, bottom to top, this pattern is 001011 — a solid line is 1, a broken line is 0. Every relationship above is arithmetic on those six digits, not interpretation: reverse the order and you get the other side, flip every digit and you get the opposite reading, take the middle four and you get what sits underneath. Anyone can check the result, which is what separates a structure from a fortune.

The sequence is built the same way. The sixty-four are arranged in thirty-two pairs, and turned upside down it becomes Increments. The rule holds for all thirty-two pairs without exception — twenty-eight joined by reversal, four by inversion.

In the received order it sits between Increments and Peak. The order is not alphabetical or random: the old commentary reads it as a chain, one situation giving rise to the next.