In the introduction to The Original I Ching Oracle by Ritsema and Sabbadini, I found an image for an I Ching reading that I wish I’d thought of for myself: an hourglass.
‘In the top half of the hourglass all the complexity and confusion of our existential situation gets narrowed down to a very pointed, specific question. In the lower half, starting from that narrow focus, the oracle’s answer opens up to embrace a much larger dimension.’
Perfect – that’s exactly how it looks. (Except that this hourglass is probably open at both ends 😉 ) And looking at the reading as hourglass, you can see that the question you ask needs both to focus inward, and to allow for the answer to open outward. It has to be specific so that you will have a focal point in understanding the answer. To change metaphors – it’s your way into the answer, and it lets you orientate yourself in its landscape of imagery. And the question also has to be sufficiently open that it doesn’t limit the possibilities for understanding and ways of seeing.
Such questions are often very simple indeed: it may be the kind of question you would naturally think of anyway. A perfect ‘open focus’ question would be to ask for a picture, like Timothy Conger just suggested in a comment on my relationship readings post:
“What kind of friend am I being?”
I think it takes a certain amount of courage to ask for a picture with oneself at the centre, though. The I Ching is not a great respecter of bruised egos…
A variation on Timothy Conger’s suggestion is to ask, “What do I need to know about my relationship with ___________?” I ask that question about people quite frequently.