Hexagram 48.6 — The Well (Top Line)
Jing · 上爻 — The well is complete and uncovered
井卦 · 上六（井收勿幕，有孚元吉）
Read from the bottom upward. The highlighted bar marks the sixth line (上爻), which is the focus of this page.
If You Just Cast This Line
The oracle text of this top line brings The Well to its culmination. It speaks to the moment when a resource that has been cultivated, maintained, and protected is now ready to serve the community without restriction. The sixth line of The Well represents the completion of a long process — infrastructure is sound, water is pure, and access is open.
Its message is generous availability. "The well is gathered from and not covered" means the work is done, the value is proven, and now it must be shared freely. This is not reckless exposure but confident offering: you have built something reliable, and keeping it hidden or restricted would betray its purpose. Supreme good fortune comes from trust and openness.
Key Concepts
Original Text & Translation
「井收勿幕，有孚元吉。」 — The well is drawn from and not covered. There is trust. Supreme good fortune.
The image is of a completed well, rope and bucket in place, water tested and clean, the covering removed so all may drink. The counsel is to make your work, knowledge, or resource available without hoarding or gatekeeping. The well does not choose who drinks; it simply offers what it has. When sincerity and openness combine, the result is maximum benefit and lasting reputation.
Core Meaning
Line six sits at the summit of the hexagram, where effort transitions into legacy. In The Well, this position represents the moment when private labor becomes public good. You have dug deep, reinforced the walls, ensured the water is pure — now the only remaining task is to remove the cover and let people draw freely. "Do not cover" is both literal and symbolic: do not restrict access through ego, fear, or artificial scarcity.
Practically, this line distinguishes between stewardship and possession. Stewardship maintains quality and ensures sustainability; possession hoards value and creates dependency. The well that is covered may preserve its water, but it fails its purpose. The well that is open, maintained with sincerity, becomes a center of trust and collective flourishing. Supreme good fortune arises not from control but from confident, generous service.
Symbolism & Imagery
The well at its completion is a symbol of infrastructure that transcends its creator. It was built by hands, but it serves generations. Water from wood (the trigrams of Hexagram 48) suggests nourishment rising through structure — the invisible made visible, the deep made accessible. The uncovered well is an invitation: "This is for you. It will not run dry. Come when you need it."
This imagery also addresses the tension between protection and availability. Early in a project, you guard the work — testing, iterating, preventing contamination. But at the top line, guarding becomes withholding. The well is ready. Covering it now would be an act of mistrust — in the work itself, in the community, or in the natural renewal that comes from use. Openness here is not naïveté; it is the confidence of something well-made.
Action Guidance
Career & Business
- Publish and distribute: if you have built a tool, framework, process, or body of knowledge that works, make it accessible. Open-source where possible, document generously, teach freely.
- Remove friction from access: simplify onboarding, clarify instructions, reduce gatekeeping. Let the quality of the work speak for itself.
- Shift from builder to maintainer: your role now is to ensure the system stays clean and functional, not to control who benefits from it.
- Trust the community: users, clients, or collaborators will often extend and improve what you've built. Let them.
- Reputation through reliability: supreme good fortune in this line comes from being known as a dependable, generous source. That reputation compounds over time.
Love & Relationships
- Be emotionally available: if you have done the inner work — therapy, reflection, boundary-setting — now is the time to show up fully, without walls or performance.
- Offer without scorekeeping: give your presence, attention, and care freely. Trust that reciprocity will emerge naturally from sincerity.
- Invite others in: share your life, your space, your routines. Let intimacy deepen through openness rather than through control.
- Model trust: when you act as though the relationship is secure, it becomes more secure. Covering the well (withholding, testing, suspicion) creates the very insecurity you fear.
Health & Inner Work
- Share what has healed you: if a practice, insight, or modality has brought you clarity or strength, teach it. Mentor, write, or simply model it in daily life.
- Remove shame barriers: speak openly about your process — struggles included. Vulnerability here is not weakness; it is the uncovered well.
- Maintain without rigidity: keep your routines clean and consistent, but do not hoard your energy. Rest, play, and connection are part of the cycle.
- Trust your resilience: you have built capacity. You do not need to protect yourself from every demand. Engage generously; recovery will follow naturally.
Finance & Strategy
- Deploy capital confidently: if your research is complete and your thesis is sound, commit fully. Hesitation now is covering the well.
- Share insights: publish your frameworks, contribute to communities, teach your methods. Generosity in knowledge often returns as opportunity.
- Build for access, not exclusivity: products, services, or platforms that lower barriers and serve broadly tend to scale sustainably.
- Trust the market: if you have built real value, the market will recognize it. You do not need artificial scarcity or hype. Let quality and availability do the work.
Timing, Signals, and Readiness
How do you know the well is truly ready to be uncovered? Look for these signs: (1) the core work is complete and tested — it functions reliably under stress; (2) you feel calm rather than anxious about sharing it; (3) early users or collaborators have validated its value; and (4) keeping it restricted feels like a burden rather than a precaution. When these align, the covering is no longer protection — it is obstruction.
If you still feel the need to control access tightly, ask whether that is wisdom or fear. Wisdom maintains quality and sustainability; fear hoards and micromanages. The top line of The Well asks you to trust what you have built and to trust the people who will use it. Supreme good fortune comes not from perfect control but from sincere, open service.
When This Line Moves
A moving sixth line often signals a transition from completion to renewal. You have brought something to full maturity and made it available; now the system begins to evolve through use and feedback. The resultant hexagram (determined by your specific casting) will show the next phase — often a shift in focus, a new cycle, or a reconfiguration of roles. Study the hexagram your divination produces to understand the specific trajectory of change.
Practical takeaway: moving from "the well is uncovered" does not mean abandoning it. It means your relationship to it changes. You become the steward of a living system rather than the sole creator. Maintenance, iteration, and responsiveness replace the intensity of initial construction. Let the work serve; let it grow beyond you.
Concise Summary
Hexagram 48.6 is the apex of contribution. It asks you to remove the cover from what you have built and let it serve freely. "The well is drawn from and not covered" is an instruction in trust: trust in your work, trust in the community, and trust in the natural abundance that flows from sincerity. Supreme good fortune comes not from guarding value but from offering it generously and maintaining it faithfully.
