‘DIY’ tips for I Ching divination
I imagine anyone who’s consulted with Yi must have had the experience. Ask question; receive answer; say ‘Huh??’
And this is where it’s easy to go wrong – where the desire that caused us to ask in the first place won’t accept this lack of clarity, and we find a reason to ask another question, quick. (I touched on this in my post on ‘How long does a reading last?‘ – in response to which Steve Marshall pointed out that answers to big questions can last ten years and more.)
Here’s a very-frequently asked question. This relationship may have been going ecstatically well or this project may have been an intolerable risk yesterday/ last week/ last month, but is that still the case? How long does a reading apply for?
There’s a phrase in the Judgements of hexagrams 31 and 44, along with 4, line 2: ‘taking a woman’. Its usual interpretation is ‘taking to wife’, though it’s the same word used to mean ‘take by force’ or ‘capture an animal’. What are we to make of the phrase? And does it mean something different in readings for men and women? And what have translators and commentators made of it?
I often get emails asking what the I Ching is and how to get started. And while there is enough to reflect on in the I Ching and its traditions to keep anyone engrossed for several lifetimes, getting started with it is absurdly simple.
James Lewis describes what I know as the yang, ‘inspiring’ pattern of change as the Key Hexagram: If you consider that lines that do not change are yin, and that lines that do change are yang, then you can write down a third hexagram. This is what I call the… Read more »A simpler take on ‘pattern of change’ hexagrams
A very interesting question, this: can Yi answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’? Is it a good idea to ask ‘yes’/’no’ questions? If not, why not? I Ching Community: Yes – No answers
Trying to print out a great big German treatise on the Yijing – first all odd-numbered pages, then all-even numbered ones on the back. Except of course the printer picks up several pages at once on the second time through, prints on the back of the wrong sheet, and generally… Read more »So the tarot has a sense of humour, too!
