Hexagram 14.2 — Great Possession (Second Line)
Da You · 二爻 — A Great Wagon for Loading
大有卦 · 九二(大车以载)
Read from the bottom upward. The highlighted bar marks the second line (二爻), which is the focus of this page.
If You Just Cast This Line
You have drawn the second line of Great Possession, a hexagram that describes abundance, resources, and the capacity to hold and deploy wealth wisely. The second line sits at the foundation of the inner trigram, representing the structural integrity needed to carry great loads without collapse.
This line speaks to capacity, infrastructure, and the practical systems that allow prosperity to be sustained and transported. "A great wagon for loading" means you possess — or must build — the vehicle strong enough to bear the weight of your success. Abundance without structure leads to waste; structure without vision leads to stagnation. This line harmonizes both.
Key Concepts
Original Text & Translation
「大车以载,有攸往,无咎。」 — A great wagon for loading. There is a direction to go. No blame.
The image is one of robust transportation: a wagon built to carry heavy loads over long distances. The line affirms that you have — or are developing — the capacity to handle what you possess. The phrase "there is a direction to go" indicates purposeful movement: resources are not hoarded but deployed toward meaningful aims. "No blame" reassures that investing in infrastructure, even when it feels slow or unglamorous, is the correct path.
Core Meaning
The second line of any hexagram addresses foundations, relationships, and the inner structure that supports outer action. In Great Possession, this line emphasizes that abundance is a responsibility, not merely a reward. The wagon symbolizes systems: financial controls, operational processes, team roles, supply chains, emotional bandwidth, relational agreements — whatever framework allows wealth to move safely from potential to impact.
This line also speaks to readiness for journey. Possession alone is static; the wagon enables movement. You are being called to prepare for expansion, distribution, or transition. The counsel is neither to rush nor to hoard, but to build capacity thoughtfully so that when opportunity or obligation arrives, you can carry the load without breaking down.
Practically, this means investing in the unsexy essentials: documentation, training, redundancy, maintenance, clear communication channels. These are the axles and wheels of your wagon. Neglect them and even modest success becomes unmanageable; honor them and exponential growth becomes navigable.
Symbolism & Imagery
The wagon is an ancient symbol of commerce, migration, and logistics. It represents human ingenuity applied to the problem of scale: how do we move more than we can carry on our backs? The answer is engineering — wheels, axles, harnesses, balance. In the context of Great Possession, the wagon is the difference between wealth that sits idle and wealth that circulates, compounds, and serves.
Fire above, Heaven below: the outer trigram (Li) is clarity and visibility; the inner trigram (Qian) is creative force and strength. The second line, being yang in a yin position, suggests dynamic energy applied to receptive, foundational work. You are not passively waiting; you are actively building the platform that will carry future action.
The wagon also evokes teamwork. One person cannot push a great wagon alone. This line hints at delegation, collaboration, and the wisdom of distributing load across multiple supports. It is an invitation to think systemically: what roles, tools, and rhythms must align for sustainable movement?
Action Guidance
Career & Business
- Audit your infrastructure: review your tech stack, financial controls, hiring pipeline, customer support workflows. Identify single points of failure and reinforce them.
- Invest in operations: this is the moment to hire the COO, implement the CRM, document the playbook, or automate repetitive tasks. Boring work now = freedom later.
- Clarify your roadmap: "there is a direction to go" means you need a destination. Define quarterly milestones and resource allocation plans.
- Build redundancy: cross-train team members, maintain cash reserves, diversify suppliers. A great wagon has backup wheels.
- Communicate capacity limits: be transparent about what you can and cannot take on. Overloading the wagon leads to breakdown and reputational damage.
- Celebrate infrastructure wins: when a process runs smoothly, when a system scales without friction — acknowledge it. Culture follows what you reward.
Love & Relationships
- Strengthen relational infrastructure: establish regular check-ins, shared calendars, financial transparency, conflict-resolution protocols. These are the "axles" of partnership.
- Prepare for transitions: moving in together, marriage, children, career shifts — all require upgraded capacity. Discuss roles, expectations, and support systems in advance.
- Distribute emotional load: ensure both partners contribute to household management, emotional labor, and decision-making. A wagon with uneven weight tips over.
- Invest in shared tools: therapy, coaching, retreats, courses — whatever helps you navigate complexity together.
- Acknowledge what you carry: name the responsibilities, dreams, and histories you each bring. Visibility prevents resentment.
Health & Inner Work
- Build sustainable routines: health is a wagon that carries you through decades. Prioritize sleep architecture, meal prep systems, and movement habits that scale with life changes.
- Strengthen structural capacity: focus on joint health, core stability, cardiovascular base, and metabolic flexibility. These are the foundations that allow you to "carry load" — literal or metaphorical — without injury.
- Create recovery protocols: active rest, deload weeks, massage, therapy. Maintenance is not optional; it is what keeps the wagon rolling.
- Audit your inputs: what you consume (food, media, relationships) either strengthens or weakens your capacity. Curate deliberately.
- Prepare for stress: build resilience through breath work, cold exposure, or mindfulness. When life loads the wagon heavily, you want shock absorbers in place.
Finance & Strategy
- Upgrade financial infrastructure: use accounting software, automate savings, consolidate accounts, set up tax-advantaged vehicles. Make money management effortless.
- Diversify intelligently: spread risk across asset classes, geographies, and time horizons. A wagon with one wheel is fragile.
- Plan for deployment: "there is a direction to go" means capital should have a purpose. Define investment theses, allocation percentages, and rebalancing triggers.
- Maintain liquidity: keep enough cash or near-cash to handle surprises. Illiquid wealth is a loaded wagon with no road.
- Document your strategy: write down your financial plan, decision rules, and review cadence. Future-you will thank present-you.
- Seek expert support: accountants, advisors, estate planners — these are the engineers who help you build a wagon that lasts generations.
Timing, Signals, and Readiness
This line often appears when you are in a phase of consolidation before expansion. You have achieved some measure of success, and now the question is: can your systems handle more? The timing is not yet "go big" — it is "go deep." Strengthen what you have before adding more.
Watch for these signals that your wagon is ready: (1) processes run smoothly without your constant intervention; (2) team members can make decisions autonomously within clear guidelines; (3) you have financial runway and operational slack; (4) you feel calm rather than frantic when contemplating growth. When these align, the wagon is sound and the road is open.
Conversely, if you feel stretched thin, if small problems cascade into crises, if you are constantly firefighting — these are signs the wagon needs repair before you load it further. Pause, reinforce, then proceed.
When This Line Moves
A moving second line in Hexagram 14 often signals a shift from building capacity to deploying it. The infrastructure you have invested in is about to be tested by real-world demand. This is not a warning but an affirmation: you have done the foundational work, and now the journey begins.
The resulting hexagram (determined by your divination method) will show the nature of that journey — whether it emphasizes collaboration, caution, acceleration, or adaptation. Study the new hexagram to understand the terrain your wagon will traverse.
Practical takeaway: when this line moves, review your checklists one final time, communicate clearly with all stakeholders, and then trust the systems you have built. The wagon is ready. The direction is clear. No blame attaches to those who prepare well and move purposefully.
Concise Summary
Hexagram 14.2 teaches that abundance requires infrastructure. The great wagon symbolizes the systems, processes, and relationships that allow wealth — material, relational, creative, or spiritual — to be carried forward without collapse. This line calls you to invest in capacity, clarify direction, and prepare for purposeful movement. Build the wagon strong, load it wisely, and the road will open. No blame comes to those who honor the unsexy work of foundations.