Hexagram 24: Return

An elderly father embraces his kneeling son, who has returned home after squandering his inheritance in distant lands. Rembrandt painted this biblical parable late in life, illuminating the moment of reconciliation with warm light against surrounding darkness. The son's clothes are tattered, one shoe worn through to bare foot. His father's hands rest on his back—one masculine and strong, one feminine and gentle, as if both parents welcome him. Witnesses gather in shadow, observing the restoration.

The I-Ching names this Fù (復), Return—the character combining "movement" and "repeat," suggesting the cyclical comeback of what was lost. The hexagram shows Earth (Kūn) above Thunder (Zhèn): receptive stillness over arousing movement. A single yang line enters from below after five yin lines have accumulated—the winter solstice moment when light begins its return. In ancient practice, this configuration appeared after long decline, when the first sign of renewal stirred beneath barren ground. The prodigal's return mirrors the sun's.

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The Judgment text speaks to Rembrandt's scene: "Return. Success. Going out and coming in without error. Friends come without blame. To and fro goes the way. On the seventh day comes return. It furthers one to have somewhere to go." The text describes natural cycles—going out and coming in like breath, like seasons, like the son who left and now returns. The "seventh day" refers to the seventh month in the Chinese calendar, when yang energy begins its return after reaching its nadir. Ancient diviners saw return as inevitable if one survives the nadir—but survival requires having somewhere to return to. The father's house must still stand.

The Image Text observes: "Thunder within the earth: the image of the Turning Point. Thus the kings of old closed the passes at the time of solstice. Merchants and strangers did not go about, and the ruler did not travel through the provinces." At the turning point, movement must be minimal to allow the reversal to establish itself. Rembrandt painted stillness—the son motionless in his father's embrace, not yet risen. In the I-Ching sequence, Return follows Splitting Apart: after complete disintegration comes the first seed of renewal. The next hexagram is Innocence, when return restores original nature uncorrupted by experience.