Gate 12 · Caution

What it is like

At the right moment your words can move people. The same sentence in a different mood can sound strange, so waiting for the right time isn't dodging anything.

When someone close has it

Some days this person speaks beautifully and to the point, other days they'd rather stay quiet. Try not to push for a talk, and let their moment come.

A question for today

What mood am I in today, and is it a good time for an important conversation?

The six lines of gate 12

1. Line 1 · Held Word

   This line protects a word until there is firm ground beneath it. You would rather say less but know what you rest on, and you keep to people and matters you know from the roots. On an ordinary day it looks like a moment of silence before an answer, which others sometimes do not understand. Sometimes this caution closes you in so tightly that a good sentence never comes out at all.

2. Line 2 · Unhurried Silence

   You have always had a sense of when to speak, and you do not need to practise it. You do best in your own rhythm, without pressure, and others sense on their own when to ask you, and then your word lands. You can wait out a bad mood without making a matter of it. When the people around you press, it is easy to nod along for the sake of peace, although inside the word sounds quite different.

3. Line 3 · The Unspoken

   Here the word learns from the times it does not land. You say something at the wrong moment, see that it sounded foreign, and carry it inside until you understand what went wrong. Each such sentence teaches you mood better than any advice. Sometimes the awkwardness held inside grows, and then it is easy to avoid the conversations that could untangle it.

4. Line 4 · Word in Season

   This line says what needs saying among people who know you and trust your sense of timing. When something is stuck, you can speak the sentence that gets it moving, and everyone around shares the benefit. Those close to you know that when you speak up, it is not without reason. Sometimes, among strangers, the same sentence has nothing to rest on, and it is easy then to lose heart for speaking at all.

5. Line 5 · Stalemate Broken

   Here others see you as someone who will speak the word that ends a standstill. You can break a silence that bothers everyone, and you do it with care, remembering that a good moment is easy to lose. What you say is often practical and fits many situations at once. When people expect a statement from you for every occasion, it is easy to speak while the mood does not yet allow it, and accuracy pays for that.

6. Line 6 · Break After Silence

   This line looks from a distance at long periods of silence and knows that after them comes a word that changes something. Over the years you learn that waiting is not a loss, and you show others this by how calmly you wait out your own standstills. Your life can be a picture for people that silence has an end. Sometimes you stand aside too long and the breakthrough waits for your move longer than it has to.

The centre of this gate

• Throat

Channels through gate 12

• 12–22 · Openness