Mountain

A mountain is read as a fixed obstacle or a fixed vantage — something that will not move, so you either climb it or go around. Mountains are Earth at scale. Traditional reading asks whether you were climbing, standing on top, or looking up, since each sets a different distance between you and the thing.

Natural features are read by state and conditions. A mountain is read as a fixed obstacle or a fixed vantage — something that will not move, so you either climb it or go around. Traditional readings look at whether it is calm or disturbed, near or distant. A mountain that is smaller on approach than it looked from a distance — a widely reported effect — is read as an obstacle that shrinks under examination.

In Chinese tradition mountains are also the dwelling of the established and the retired, which is why the image can read as removal from ordinary affairs as well as obstruction. It is grouped under Earth (土) in the five-element system.