‘Formalising one’s access to intuition’ is a workable view of divination; I think it helps people who might otherwise find the whole thing altogether too weird to try it out. (Next question - where does intuition come from?)

Is it always sunny in Japan?

Excellent article.

Cheers from sunny Japan,
Charles

Adele, I agree about not consulting when you know the answer already - but there’s knowing and knowing, it seems to me. When I talk about learning what you already know, I’m thinking of intuitive knowledge that you don’t quite believe in, or can’t quite recognise as real knowledge.

Dilson -

Sometimes divination may reveal circumstances that are unknown to us,though.

Absolutely. Specific facts, sometimes, like ‘he’s already married’ or ‘there’s structural damage to the roof’. Or reassurance that turns out to be based on facts you didn’t know, like ‘not selling the house now is not a big disaster’ (this just before the house price boom).

But there are lots of readings where Yi doesn’t impart this kind of information, and yet the effects are just as profound…

Hi Pamela! And good luck with the extended family.

That’s a very good point, about decisions arising from an underlying commitment, conscious or not. Though I hadn’t quite worked that one out, I think it reflects in one of my favourite decision-related questions for the oracle:

“What would it mean for me to do this?”

That brings out the personal meaning of following a particular path. The great value of that is the way it taps straight into deeper awareness: is this what I want to create? the story I want to live? You can see this (well, if you divine for other people you get to see this) in the different ways people respond to the same hexagrams. It’s not a question of getting a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ reading, but of recognising a path as your own, or not.

I’m not sure about my ‘training wheels’ comment. It implies that one grows out of divination - I’m sure that’s true for the occasional sage, but somehow doubt it’ll happen for me in this lifetime.

I’m a newbie to this blog, and here I’m jumping right in…

In addition to “the din of internalised ’stuff’” and external pressures, there is another way to look at making decisions: from your heart-felt commitments and what you want to stand for in the situation (= the values and/or outcomes you hold dear.) ‘What you want to stand for’ means what you’re committed to keep working for, even when you don’t know how, and even when there’s no agreement from others.

For example, I am standing for peace, love, and mutual respect in my whole extended family. (This is on my mind as I get ready to head down to a big family gathering.) When I make decisions big or small regarding any of them, my way becomes clear when I remember this stand.

(Of course we have less positive commitments, too: I used to have an unconscious commitment to being right — no matter what! — that got in the way of my bigger commitment to peace, love, and mutual respect. No surprise there…)

I love the idea that “divination acts as something like ‘training wheels’ for the intuition.” This seems just right to me. And I think our “intuition” and our “natural direction” involve our awareness of these underlying commitments and stands — which we may not have articulated, but which divination helps bring to consciousness.

It is becoming aware of what really matters to us, and articulating it, that allows empowered decision-making. It’s great to know there are ‘training wheels’ for this challenging but liberating process.