The muddle If you’re new to the I Ching, you could be forgiven for wondering why there are apparently two hexagrams called ‘Obstruction’: Hexagram 12 (according to such translators as Cleary and Richter) and Hexagram 39 (according to Balkin, amongst others). Neither hexagram is one you’d generally rejoice to see… Read more »Obstructions
I went away for a week this summer and met a lot of new people. As you can imagine, the “what do you do?” conversations are always interesting for me. “What do you do?”“Divination, with the I Ching.” And once we had got past the “you do what with the… Read more »The relatable oracle
Hexagram 49, Radical Change Fire in the lake: awareness shining through all kinds of human interaction and exchange. I’ve imagined before that this could be the shaman’s eyes shining through his mask; it’s certainly the light of astronomical awareness shining through the calendar. ‘In the centre of the lake there… Read more »Light inside: Hexagrams 49, 55 and 63
Adeola shared a remarkable question and reading for this episode of the I Ching with Clarity podcast: “How is this travelling life shaping my character? (what kind of person am I becoming?)” Yi’s response: Hexagram 14, Great Possession, changing to 53, Gradual Progress: changing to I hope you enjoy this… Read more »‘What kind of person am I becoming?’
36, Brightness Hiding With Hexagrams 13 and 22, and maybe even 30, I could build up a picture of how li inside projected its light through the outer trigram, bringing awareness and enlightenment to it. When I get to Hexagram 36, with light inside earth, this becomes altogether trickier. It’s called, at… Read more »Light inside: Hexagrams 36 and 37
Recently, when I don’t have any particular news to link to, I’ve taken to making my forum signature read, “You are the expert on your own readings.” I’ve found this is something people really need to hear. There’s a very widespread tendency to rush to commentaries, or the helpful people… Read more »You are the expert
One intriguing way to learn more about hexagrams is to study them in groups: contrasts and opposites, groups that are joined in sequence, nuclear families, and so on. Recently, I’ve been looking at the groups of hexagram that share a trigram in the same position, like for instance mountain on… Read more »Light inside: Hexagrams 13, 22 and 30
