5
Hexagram 5, Xu: “Waiting.” Everything is already prepared; the time has not yet come.
The image of the hexagram
Below is the Qian trigram (heaven), above is Kan (water). Water over heaven: the clouds have gathered, but the rain has not started yet — all that is left is to wait.
General meaning
The answer is favorable, but it calls for patience. Xu says that what you need will come on its own if you don’t force it: trying to speed things up here will only spoil them. The classic image is a meal while waiting: live a normal life during the pause instead of sitting by the door.
In love and at work
In relationships: a pause that is not your choice — the other person is deciding, circumstances get in the way, the timing is off. Persistence right now comes across as pressure. At work: waiting for an answer, a decision, a deadline; it is also a good time to put neglected things in order. To the question “should I start now?” the answer is no — later.
What to do
Don’t hurry anything. Work on what you can do without waiting for someone else’s decision, and come back to the question in a month.