Your current situation can be depicted as "Revolution (Molting)" transforming into "The Well".
In front of you lies "Lake" which transforms into "Water". That means that joy, pleasure, and attraction are being transformed into danger and the unknown. Behind you lies "Fire" which transforms into "Wind". That means that brightness and warmth are being transformed into penetration and following.
The Situation
49. Ko - Revolution (Molting) Above (in front): Tui - The Joyous (Lake) Below (behind): Li - The Clinging (Fire)
Comment by Richard Wilhelm:
The Chinese character for this hexagram means in its original sense an animal's pelt, which is changed in the course of the year by molting. From this word is carried over to apply to the "moltings" in political life, the great revolutions connected with changes of governments. The two trigrams making up the hexagram are the same two that appear in K'uei, OPPOSITION (38), that is, the two younger daughters, Li and Tui. But while there the elder of the two daughters is above, and what results is essentially only an opposition of tendencies, here the younger daughter is above. The influences are in actual conflict, and the forces combat each other like fire and water (lake), each trying to destroy the other. Hence the idea of revolution.
The Judgement for the Current Situation
Revolution. On your own day You are believed. Supreme success. Furthering through perseverance. Remorse disappears.
Comment by Richard Wilhelm:
Political revolutions are extremely grave matters. They should be undertaken only under stress of direst necessity, when there is no other way out. Not everyone is called to this task, but only the man who has the confidence of the people, and even he only when the time is ripe. He must then proceed in the right way, so that he gladdens the people and, by enlightening them, prevents excesses. Furthermore, he must be quite free of selfish aims and must really relieve the need of the people. Only then does he have nothing to regret. Times change, and with them their demands. Thus the seasons change in the course of the year. In the world cycle also there are spring and autumn in the life of peoples and nations, and these call for social transformations.
The Image for the Current Situation
Fire in the lake: the image of Revolution. Thus the superior man Sets the calendar in order.
Comment by Richard Wilhelm:
Fire below and the lake above combat and destroy each other. So too in the course of the year a combat takes place between the forces of light and the forces of darkness, eventuating in the revolution of the seasons. Man masters these changes in nature by noting their regularity and marking off the passage of time accordingly. In this way order and clarity appear in the apparently chaotic changes of the seasons, and man is able to adjust himself in advance to the demands of the different times.
Interpretation of the Changing Line(s)
Line 1: Wrapped in the hide of a yellow cow.
Comment by Richard Wilhelm:
Changes ought to be undertaken only when there is nothing else to be done. Therefore at first the utmost restraint is necessary. One must become firm in one's mind, control oneself–yellow is the color of the mean, and the cow is the symbol of docility–and refrain from doing anything for the time being, because any premature offensive will bring evil results.
Line 2: When one's own day comes, one may create revolution. Starting brings good fortune. No blame.
Comment by Richard Wilhelm:
When we have tried in every other way to bring about reforms, but without success, revolution becomes necessary. But such a thoroughgoing upheaval must be carefully prepared. There must be available a man who has the requisite abilities and who possesses public confidence. To such a man we may well turn. This brings good fortune and is not a mistake. The first thing to be considered is our inner attitude toward the new condition that will inevitably come. We have to go out to meet it, as it were. Only in this way can it be prepared for.
Line 4: Remorse disappears. Men believe him. Changing the form of government brings good fortune.
Comment by Richard Wilhelm:
Radical changes require adequate authority. A man must have inner strength as well as influential position. What he does must correspond with a higher truth and must not spring from arbitrary or petty motives; then it brings great good fortune. If a revolution is not founded on such inner truth, the results are bad, and it has no success. For in the end men will support only those undertakings which they feel instinctively to be just.
The Future
48. Ching - The Well Above (in front): K'an - The Abysmal (Water) Below (behind): Sun - The Gentle (Wind)
Comment by Richard Wilhelm:
Wood is below, water above. The wood goes down into the earth to bring up water. The image derives from the pole-and-bucket well of ancient China. The wood represents not the buckets, which in ancient times were made of clay, but rather the wooden poles by which the water is hauled up from the well. The image also refers to the world of plants, which lift water out of the earth by means of their fibers. The well from which water is drawn conveys the further idea of an inexhaustible dispensing of nourishment.
The Judgement for the Future
The Well. The town may be changed, But the well cannot be changed. It neither decreases nor increases. They come and go and draw from the well. If one gets down almost to the water And the rope does not go all the way, Or the jug breaks, it brings misfortune.
Comment by Richard Wilhelm:
In ancient China the capital cities were sometimes moved, partly for the sake of more favorable location, partly because of a change in dynasties. The style of architecture changed in the course of centuries, but the shape of the well has remained the same from ancient times to this day. Thus the well is the symbol of that social structure which, evolved by mankind in meeting its most primitive needs, is independent of all political forms. Political structures change, as do nations, but the life of man with its needs remains eternally the same–this cannot be changed. Life is also inexhaustible. It grows neither less nor more; it exists for one and for all. The generations come and go, and all enjoy life in its inexhaustible abundance. However, there are two prerequisites for a satisfactory political or social organization of mankind. We must go down to the very foundations of life. For any merely superficial ordering of life that leaves its deepest needs unsatisfied is as ineffectual as if no attempt at order had ever been made. Carelessness–by which the jug is broken–is also disastrous. If for instance the military defense of a state is carried to such excess that it provokes wars by which the power of the state is annihilated, this is a breaking of the jug. This hexagram applies also to the individual. However men may differ in disposition and in education, the foundations of human nature are the same in everyone. And every human being can draw in the course of his education from the inexhaustible wellspring of the divine in man's nature. But here likewise two dangers threaten: a man may fail in his education to penetrate to the real roots of humanity and remain fixed in convention–a partial education of this sort is as bad as none–or he may suddenly collapse and neglect his self-development.
The Image for the Future
Water over wood: the image of The Well. Thus the superior man encourages the people at their work, And exhorts them to help one another.
Comment by Richard Wilhelm:
The trigram Sun, wood, is below, and the trigram K'an, water, is above it. Wood sucks water upward. Just as wood as an organism imitates the action of the well, which benefits all parts of the plant, the superior man organizes human society, so that, as in a plant organism, its parts co-operate for the benefit of the whole.
49. Ko - Revolution (Molting)
48. Ching - The Well