Each of the trigrams has a different essence and "personality". Each has multiple names and slightly different interpretations that different scholars have given to them. As you work the I Ching, the trigrams become like old friends. Here is an introduction to the trigrams, using some watercolors that I made while vacationing in 2012:
Chien is a very powerful trigram. It is the first one. The powerful animals tiger and dragon are associated with it. It is very firm, strong, and associated with creativity and heaven. Chien is the most unyielding trigram, the most male, as K'un is the most yielding and female.
Paraphrased from Wilhelm
"These unbroken lines stand for light-giving, strong, active and of the spirit. The trigram is consistantly strong in character, and since it is without weakness, it's essence is power or energy"
Chen shakes things up. If you see chen in your answer, things are getting shaken up in your life! It has a jolly shaking quality, like a big happy man shaking the earth and laughing as the little humans jump around, but not in a malicious way, and the results of the shake-up are usually really good.
From Wilhelm:
"Shock brings success
Shock comes - oh, oh!
Laughing words - ha, ha!"
I think of Tui as a joyous maiden, dancing on the waves of a lake. It generally means some pleasantness to come when you see Tui in your answer.
From Wilhelm:
"The joyous means pleasure. The firm is in the middle, the yielding is without. To be joyous - and with this to have perseverance - furthers; thus does one submit to heaven and accord with men."
Wilhelm (29, K'an repeated):
"If you are sincere, you have success in your heart, and whatever you do succeeds."
Li means Light and clarity. Answers containing Li will say something about things becoming clear, or radiance spreading. The sun comes out when Li is showing. Clarity is not always good news, but it is usually a relief. One Feng Shui cure for an obstructed front door is to put a doubled Li hexagram above them, so as to give clarity.
Wihelm (30, Li repeated)
"Thus the great man, by perpetuating this brightness,
illumines the four quarters of the world"
From Wilhelm (2, K'un repeated): "The broken line represents the dark, yielding, receptive primal power of Yin. It is the perfect complement to the Creative (Chien) - the complement, not the opposite, for the Receptive does not combat the Creative, but completes it. It represents nature in contrast to spirit, earth in contrast to heaven, space as against time, the female-maternal as against the male-paternal."
Ken is solid and stable and still, like a mountain. To me, Ken is comforting, as he shows up in many of my most reassuring answers. When I see Ken, I feel I am coming home. To me, Ken is a grounding influence.
Sun is a subtle, gentle, creeping in kind of influence. It can be good or bad. It's often kind of unexpected. Don't get confused - Sun is the name of the trigram, but it does not represent the sun in the sky - it's symbol is the Wind.
From Wilhelm (57, Sun doubled)
"Penetration produces gradual and inconspicuous effects. It should be effected not by an act of violation but by influence that never lapses."
