Duration/Constancy - Hexagram 32

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Thunder over Wind.

Both thunder and wind represent the elemental wood. Visualise a plank of wood - it is firm, stable, definite, concrete, tangible. You know what you are getting. What you see is what you get. Perhaps, that's another reason why Hexagram 32 is labelled as "Constancy", "Duration", etc. Intuitively, accounting is classified under wood.

The action of thunder is arousing, a stimulus to movement while that of wind is to penetrate. Thunder is the sound caused by lightning. Sound is a form of energy, being transmitted via air molecules to our ears, suggesting movement from one place to another. Likewise, wind moves from one place to another. Hexagram 32 suggests movement of some sort, in spite of its "wooden" quality. Perhaps an active plank of wood. Or the beanstalk in Jack and the Beanstalk. Thunder moves ahead and Wind follows after him.

Without considering changing lines, thunder represents the external environment - there's something that arouses action and movement, e.g. job opportunities in the market. Wind represents within, self, inner self. The self wants to move too, to penetrate into the space that's cleared or made available by thunder. It's as if the wind goes forth to meet thunder. This is congruent with the explanation in various I Ching books - thunder and wind represent the eldest son and the eldest daughter respectively. The former leads the latter. So, it's the external world that's stirring up action from the inner world.