Line 1 is the foundation – it is the underlying theme of the hexagram, the support on which it is built. Its keynote is called introspection. Introspection is to look inward, to study and to investigate – in order to be prepared. When you think about those words you can see that these are strategies that would be useful in overcoming insecurity. The 1st line is basically insecure. Realize that the 1st line is down there at the bottom - it knows something is happening and other things are going to happen but it has no idea what. It’s supporting a structure about which it knows very little. Consequently they are driven to be introspective and to study. They want the foundation to be as solid as possible – able to deal with whatever the structure above may undergo.

Let’s take a few of these keynotes and apply them to a specific Gate to see how we might use that information.

Let’s go to the 62nd gate – the Gate of Details. Line 1 is insecure about the details and is consequently rehashing them internally. They will come up with some detail that seems correct, but then their imagination kicks in with “Well, but what if such and such were to occur?” They will create any number of possible future scenarios (remember this is in the Logic circuit) and work out the possible details of all the slight variations. These people are very insecure about the details – until they have fully studied all possibilities. Once they have accounted for all the variations they have a better sense of security.

Self Study: Look at your first lines and combine the keynote with the keynote of the gate. Example: Gate 11, 1st line. Gate 11 is gate of Ideas. ...Insecure in your ideas, as one example. Can you think of others? Share your thoughts in the Forum.