Reading For Others Class

If you’re fascinated by the Yijing – and you can see when your friends, family or clients could benefit from its help – and you want to be able to share that with them – then the ‘Reading for Others’ class could be for you. Please sign up below so I can let you know when it’s next available!

About the class

At the end of the last Reading for Others Class, back in 2021, I asked participants how things had changed for them since we began…

What changed as a result of the class?

What we’ll cover

Just as the Foundations Course covers the fundamentals for confident interpretation, this one will equip you with all you need to interpret readings for other people. When someone is lost, or stuck, or turning in circles round a difficult decision, you’ll be able to help with a reading.

You already know how Yi helps – the experience of recognition, insight and deep connection that comes in conversation with the Oracle. The Reading For Others class is about making that experience possible for other people.

Think of it as inviting thirsty people to the Yijing-Well and making sure their thirst is quenched.

The Reading for Others course (the study materials for the class) cover three areas:

The Well Rope: interpretation skills to draw out the answer present in a reading

The Bucket: communication skills to make the reading accessible

A Well-Keeper’s Manual: developing your resourcefulness as a reader

The Well Rope: interpretation for others

With your own readings, you know ways to reach their essence – or to allow it to come to you. But how can you understand and recognise someone else’s answer as Yi is speaking to them? And more importantly, how can you bring that experience of recognition within their reach, even if they’re completely new to the oracle? How can you support someone else’s relationship with Yi?

The ‘Well Rope’ part of the class covers:

listening to the querent and helping them find their real question
- developing your own ground rules about questions
- when – and how – you might encourage someone to rephrase their question
- inspiring questions (for coaching or spiritual work)
grasping and communicating the outline of a reading
- understanding the primary/relating hexagram framework as an answer to someone else’s question
- communicating reading structure to a querent who’s new to Yi
- conveying an ‘essence’ of a hexagram through distinctions and stories
- working with an unchanging reading
Helping a querent navigate changing lines
- ‘contradictory’ lines
- multiple moving lines (even when you don’t have long for the reading)

The Bucket: communicating the reading

It’s not enough only to ‘draw’ the reading for your querent; you need to give it to them, as something they can own, take with them and use in practice.

Choosing the best modality for you to deliver the reading
- pros and cons of written readings vs live conversation
- designing your own ideal reading ‘recipe’ to fit your own gifts
How much technical Yijing stuff to include?
- communicating moving lines without technical overwhelm
- when to ‘show your workings’ as you use your interpretive tools, and when not to
Giving (really giving) people images to think in
- suggested steps for sharing an image so the querent experiences their own moment of recognition
What if the querent rejects the answer – then how can you give it to them?
Summarising a reading and making it ‘portable’
Giving a good reading when time is limited
When, how and why you would follow up after the reading

The Well-Keeper’s Manual: developing your resourcefulness as a reader

Understanding who you are as a diviner and what you give to others. How to keep on becoming a better reader – and how to stay whole and more or less sane in the process.

Developing your understanding of your own unique gifts and challenges as a diviner
- (With suggested questions for Yi – and of course I’m available to discuss the answers)
What to do when you’re stuck with interpretation
- what I turn to first
- using interpretive tools to answer specific questions about a reading
- additional, clarifying readings: what you might ask, and when, and what to share
Developing your own resources as a reader
- how to use your own journal (and how not to use it)
- building up a library of examples, parables, quotations…
- ongoing learning, recommended resources
Ground rules and confidence with querents
- When and how you might get Yi’s help with the relationship
- When would you decline to read?
- Maintaining your own emotional resilience and avoiding burnout
- The limits of a diviner’s responsibility

Where, when and how

Class dates and timing

The next class begins at the beginning of September – if you’re interested in joining, please book yourself a chat with me so we can discuss whether this is a good fit:

If you’re interested in the class, please add your name to the list below, and I’ll let you know when you can join.

How it works

The class will be a small group of no more than 12 people. There will be…

an engaging online course (plus the pdf version to download and keep)
structured practice in pairs to integrate each new idea and tool
individual feedback on your recorded pair sessions
a private forum for class students only (to get questions answered, discuss topics in depth with other students, share and collect resources, practise readings and run shared ‘reading experiments’)
weekly Zoom meetings for the group – for Q&A, integration and yet more live reading practice.

As you can maybe tell, I believe that this is best learned through practice! This Class can provide a safe space to give readings and get in-depth feedback.

But if this looks like a lot, don’t worry. The core learning happens via the online course and paired practice; Zoom meetings and private forum are there as more of a ‘safety net’ to ensure you have all the support – and all the practice opportunities – you could possibly want. If you miss a Zoom meeting, that’s not a disaster.

This class will be held under the Change Circle ‘roof’, because Change Circle’s resources – from WikiWing to Reading Circle to the Foundations Course to I Ching chats – can all be a huge help in reading for others. This means that if you’re already a Change Circle member you get a nice, fat discount; if you’re not, you’ll have access to Change Circle for the duration of the class.

Quick course preview

I find presentation makes a big difference when it comes to online learning. So… the Reading for Others Course is presented as clearly and memorably as I can, in a true course format where you can track your progress. A couple of screenshots to give you an idea…

Class synergy

Cost

The Class will cost £400 (about $503 or €503), with an installment option.

Sign up for notifications

If you’re interested in the class, please add your name to the list below, and I’ll let you know when the next one starts.

Let’s talk before you join: book a chat here

Please note: there are currently more chats booked than there are spaces left in the Class, so if you book now I can’t promise there will be a space available. (But there might be, of course, as not everyone decides to join.)

Since this is a class about reading for other people, it’s going to be completely collaborative. So we really need to get a congenial group of people together – with shared enthusiasm and commitment to the group, willingness to participate in pair work, and compatible views on Yi. (Not identical views – that would be inexpressibly boring – but similar enough that we can easily work together.)

So… that’s why this is a booking form for a private chat, not an order form. It’ll be a kind of ‘fitting room’ chat: I get an in-depth understanding of what you want from the class, we get a feel for one another’s approach to Yi (please do come with a reading in mind!), and you ask any questions you have about what’s on offer and check it’s what you want. And then we can decide whether the class is a good fit for you.

Start by clicking a date when you’d like to talk:

Questions Answered…

What if I can’t make the group meetings in my timezone?

I’ll do my best to schedule the meetings at a time when everyone can make them, in all the participants’ different timezones. But there will always be a recording available – and if you can’t make it to a meeting, I’ll be glad to answer your questions via the forum. (That’s the great benefit of having a forum: it enables people on opposite sides of the globe to have fluent conversations.)

Am I ready for this class, or am I too much of a beginner?

The core idea of the class is to be able to give other people that same experience of connection, insight and guidance that you have from your own readings. So if you can interpret your own readings with confidence and fluency, then yes, you’re ready for the Reading for Others Class.

If you’re interested in the class but not sure whether you’re ready for it, please apply anyway! We can talk through your take on a reading of your own and see whether the class feels like a good fit for you.

How tech savvy do I need to be?

Tech savvy enough to click a link to join a meeting. Group meetings will be on Zoom, which I expect you know already. You can participate from your computer, phone or tablet, or if you don’t have an internet connection at the time of the call, you can dial in with just your phone. For pair practice, use whatever tech suits you both – I can help with some easy options if you like.

What if I get behind?

You cannot ‘get behind’ in this class.

Firstly, because it’s not a list of things to learn, it’s a framework, ideas and guidance for you to develop your own unique approach and skills. If you already know your way round a reading, you already know all you need to participate in the weekly Zoom gatherings. Also, each gathering includes Q&A on whatever questions the people on the call want to ask.

The same goes for paired practice: if you want to practise listening for questions and your partner wants to practise summarising a full reading, you can still offer one another helpful feedback. There’s absolutely no need for you to be working on the same thing.

How much time do I need to set aside for this?

First – this is not school; I do understand you have a life. I’ve designed the Class to ensure that you don’t miss out on any content when ‘life happens’:the content is all in the online course that you can access whenever, so the weekly gatherings are optional (and recorded anyway), and so on.

However, working with other students is a crucial part of the Class. Your fellow-students need you to be available to provide feedback as they practise their reading skills – both through the online forum and in scheduled one-to-one calls as ‘reading partners’. Please allow at least an extra half-hour a week for this in addition to whatever time you take for private reading, absorbing and integrating.

How do I get your help with my questions?

Three ways:

1. In the Q&A meetings
2. On the forum
3. Individual feedback on recorded pair sessions

You can just show up at a meeting with your question and ask it, or if you’d like me to prepare a more in-depth answer please do send me your question in advance. The only rule is you need to be at the meeting to get your question answered there. If you can’t make it to a meeting, just post your question on the forum.

Will you be covering 9 Star Ki/ Wen Wang Gua/ … ?

No, nothing like that at all. My approach to the Yi is… well, exactly what you see all over this website. I’m fascinated by Yi as a way to see deeply into human nature and interactions; I love it for its down-to-earth practicality; I’m devoted to it as a way of spiritual connection. My expertise (and interest) does not cover Wen Wang Gua or 9 Star Ki or any of the technical predictive methods.

Is this going to be right for me? or How can I sign up?

The last thing I want is to have someone stuck in a class that isn’t a good fit for them – and the only way to be sure it’s a good fit is for us to talk. So when I open the doors for this Class, I’ll be sending you a link to a booking form first, not an order form. (Make sure you’re on the notification list!) We’ll set up a call where we can talk through your needs, expectations, level of experience and so on; then we decide whether this is right for you.