Hexagram 19 · Approach
臨 · Lín
The Judgment
Approach has supreme success. Perseverance furthers. When the eighth month comes, there will be misfortune. Two strong lines rise from below like spring arriving in the land. Growth, opportunity, and responsibility all come toward you together. Use the favourable season fully, and remember that it has a horizon.
The Image
The earth above the lake: the image of approach. Thus the superior person is inexhaustible in his will to teach, and without limits in his tolerance and protection of the people.
Interpretation
A season of growth and opening is arriving. Doors that were closed are moving, people are receptive, and your influence extends further than it did. This is the time to advance, to take on more responsibility, to make the offer or the approach you have been contemplating. Two things make it work. First, come toward people rather than waiting for them; the hexagram is about approach in both directions, and warmth is the operative quality. Second, be aware of the built-in time limit. The eighth month warning means that this favourable phase will turn, so do not dawdle, and do not build as though the good conditions were permanent. Use the season to establish something that can survive a harder one. Teach, mentor, hire, expand, forgive. Generosity now is unusually well repaid, and the relationships you form during a rising phase are the ones that hold when the tide goes out.
Love
A warm approach, a new closeness, or a relationship deepening quickly. Move toward the person openly and generously. Take the opportunity while it is here, and build something real rather than assuming there is endless time. Warmth offered first, without waiting to be met, is what opens the door here.
Career
Promotion, expansion, or new responsibility arrives. Say yes and step up. Lead with encouragement rather than control, develop the people under you, and prepare quietly for the tighter conditions that will eventually follow. Develop the people under you and prepare quietly for the tighter conditions ahead.
Advice
Advance now with warmth and generosity, knowing the favourable season has an end.
Line by line
Joint approach. Perseverance brings good fortune. You advance together with someone of like mind. Shared momentum makes the beginning strong, provided you both stay upright about how you use it.
Joint approach. Good fortune. Everything furthers. The advance now carries its own momentum and even the eventual turning of the season cannot spoil it. Move with confidence rather than caution here.
Comfortable approach. Nothing that would further. If one is induced to grieve over it, one becomes free of blame. Easy charm without substance achieves nothing. Genuine concern about that corrects it.
Complete approach. No blame. You come the whole way toward the other person, without reservation or self-protection, and connect with exactly the right partner for the work. Nothing is held back.
Wise approach. This is right for a great prince. Good fortune. Lead by choosing capable people and letting them work, rather than by doing everything yourself. Delegation is the mark of real authority.
Great-hearted approach. Good fortune. No blame. Someone who could have withdrawn comes back to help anyway, out of sheer generosity. Wholehearted, unrequired kindness brings the best outcome available. Nothing was owed and everything was given.