‘DIY’ tips for I Ching divination
It’s a cliché of every I Ching introduction: the oracle is an aid to decision-making. Of course, it’s also perfectly true. Historically, the ancient Chinese divined on decisions about marriage, warfare, whether to open the fields, what to offer to the ancestors. Nowadays people consult the I Ching on which job to take, whether to buy a house, whether to stick with a relationship or leave it…
I’ve been hearing from quite a few people lately who are wondering what to do when they’re consulting the I Ching, and their coins behave oddly. What if one rolls away? What if it ends up under the furniture? Or propped up against something so it doesn’t land flat? Of… Read more »I Ching coins questions
One of the trickier aspects of interpreting an I Ching reading has to be working out what scale the oracle’s using. By which I mean, if it says ‘good fortune’, is that a lottery win or a pot of jam in the raffle (for instance)? Does ‘misfortune’ mean mild inconvenience,… Read more »Grasping the scale of an I Ching reading
Here’s an excerpt from Osho, talking about divination to a student of astrology. He says that it’s possible to make predictions about people only because ‘people live like mechanical things’. (Strong words, but you know what he means.) “If you know the past of the person, unless the person is… Read more »Osho: not predicting the future
A sidenote to yesterday’s post about past, present and future… Often what we most want to know is how to do something. How to be in a relationship, how to get through a difficult time, how to make the most of an opportunity, and so on. Then we start spinning… Read more »More on seeking predictions
I have an email asking me for “some instruction on how to identify the past, the present and the future through I Ching reading. I would like to receive any useful comment relating to this topic. My intent is to have more confidence when doing a reading for myself.” Well,… Read more »Past, present, future
I’ve become aware recently of an emotional pattern that makes people reluctant to try a reading with the I Ching. These are open-minded people, interested in spiritual growth and self-knowledge. So they don’t dismiss the idea of divination unthinkingly, as something that obviously couldn’t work. Nor do they avoid it… Read more »Fear of divination?
