Here's how you can make the best use of I Ching’s healing and guiding energies for divination

A few lucky people who know I Ching as a method of divination, know its eclectic mysteries as the I Ching reveals its deepest mysteries only to a chosen few. Over 3000 years, Chinese astrology has been used to predict good crops in farming, arrange marriages, help plan wars, influence business or political decisions, playing a pivotal role on matters of personal and social significance in its country of origin.

The I Ching has complementary additions in Tibetan and Japanese metaphysics, medicine and cosmology.

Chinese astrology, medicine and the country’s two major philosophies of Taoism and Confucianism have their origin here.

In the original practice of the I Ching, yarrow stalks are used to create a Hexagram to predict the future; today even bamboo skewers, wooden sticks and more often coins are used in place of yarrow.

Advantage I Ching

1. I Ching’s strength over other methods of astrology lies in the fact that it can mirror a situation with impeccable accuracy. This mirroring of a current situation reflects as a reaction on the reader and few are able to grasp the depth of the ‘oneness’ thus presented. Next, the I Ching tracks changes; and this is where the predictive element of the art lies. Changes in the elements of nature and how they reflect on life situations and on the bodily humors (or physiology of glands) is for the experienced reader to delve further into naturopathy, healing, paths to be avoided, diet, longevity and many other aspects of life and environment.

2. Consultations based on Sun Signs or Moon Signs could be too specific about what one should do or not do creating stress and anxiety in the reader.

3. I Ching hexagrams on the other hand mirror your life. It suggests future course of action through self-reflection; stories with universal implications (metaphors) lead to insight which if contemplated at length could lead to deep rooted change in attitudes, thoughts, responses to life events and seen as dramatic personality and situational changes – all due to insight.

The Practice of I Ching

In the practice of I Ching yarrow or coins are cast to form a stack of lines called a ‘Heaxagram’, which is interpreted based on a book that was culled from changes that were observed and commented upon as early as 136 B.C.E. called Ten Wings which later evolved into the modern The Book of Changes. The 64 interpretations in the modern version of the book are in the form of beautiful stories entailing classic metaphors; other versions have 356 or 128 interpretations. The Hexagram with 6 lines can further be read as a Triagram which would entail Japanese divination called ‘The Eight Triagrams and Their Changes’, revealing deeper truths about the situation.

All About Hexagrams

Reading the lines is easy if you follow a few guidelines. Conventionally for a reading, 50 yarrow sticks are cast, but now, usually a set of three coins is used. The coins are cast six times with or without any intent where ‘heads’ stand for ‘yang’ energy and ‘tails’ for ‘yin’.

The first set will form the first line, the second will be drawn above the first and the 6th will be at the top of the Hexagram. Each reading is placed as lines above one another. The yang line is unbroken, while the yin line is in two parts.

The first line reveals the crux of the issue at hand, the second line reflects what’s changing here and now, thus, if the basic premise could be supported can be deciphered from this very important second line.

The third line mirrors underlying yet fundamental personal, internal challenges which entail strengths, weaknesses, flaws, with implicated ordeals that they could encompass.

The fourth line reflects other external influences especially related to people. This line encompasses the combined effects of the first three lines.

The fifth line unveils the unforeseen, unexpected or unanticipated forces at play in the circumstance. The sixth line assesses the yin and yang energies and provides a path towards achieving balance.

Fun fact: Indian astrology follows a lunar calendar and we follow our own one moon. Chinese cosmology follows the lunar calendar and a parallel 12-year elemental cycle supposedly following Jupiter’s path. With Jupiter’s 79 moons, no wonder Chinese cosmology is greatly complicated and mysterious.

(The writer is a Reiki and Naturopathy practitioner)

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