What is I Ching?
The I Ching, or Book of Changes, one of the oldest ancient Chinese classical text, describes an ancient system of Chinese cosmology and philosophy. When used in divination, this book has become somewhat of an oracle with an increasingly popular following. In this divination, an item (such as coins, yarrow stalks, or dice) is cast to build a hexagram. Each line is either representing Yin (the passive or feminine force) or Yang (the active or masculine force). The resulting hexagram is then looked up in the I Ching itself to show a passage describing what each of the 6 lines means. There are 64 possible hexagrams, each of which can be further broken down into groups of 3 lines called trigrams.
How to Get Started
First, you probably want to get a copy of the I Ching (with hexagram pictures included). Here is another good translation. Then, choose a method of creating a hexagon. We’ll use coins today, but you could pick yarrow stalks, dice, marbles, etc. There are 64 different hexagram possibilities. The idea is to use chance/fate to create a hexagram, then look up the associated passage in the I Ching. Depending on the way the hexagram gets laid out, some of the lines may be considered old, and thus changing. So, a secondary hexagram may come out of the first.
All of this may be a little confusing, and that is okay. I have listed all of this information on the podcast website. Go to fireflychronicles.org. I am brand new to this, but I was just so excited at this new divination technique that I had to share it with you.
It is important to understand that a hexagram is just 6 horizontal, parallel lines.
Hexagram
Lines are numbered from bottom (line 1) to top (line 6). Divided lines represent Yin and undivided lines are Yang. Lines can be new (unchanging) or old (changing).
- Old Yin (yin changing into yang) can be divided and gray or have the symbol —x—
- Young Yang (unchanging yang), are undivided with the symbol ——–
- Young Yin (unchanging yin), are divided and have the symbol — —
- Old Yang (yang changing into yin), can be solid and gray or with the number 9 and symbol —o—
When you have old yin or yang lines show up in your hexagram, all this indicates is that you will end up with a second hexagram and a second passage of the I Ching to interpret at the end.
For this portion, I will use coins, because it seems to be very quick and easily accessible. While you toss all three at once for each line in the hexagram, there are several ways of counting the coins. Below is one method. Use three coins with distinct head and tail sides.
- Begin with the first (bottom) line and ending with the sixth (top) line.
- Toss all three coins at the same time.
- Write down the resulting line.
- Heads = 3, Tails = 2
- Total the value for all three coins. The total will be six, seven, eight or nine.
- Write that number down for that line.
- 6 = old yin, 7 = young yang, 8 = young yin, 9 = old yang.
- Once six lines have been determined, the hexagram is formed.
- Look up the initial (moving) hexagram in the I Ching and read the passage.
- Then, make the changes that need to be made, if any, to end up with a second (resolved) hexagram.
- —x— becomes ——–
- —o— becomes — —
- Look up the second hexagram and read the associated passage.
- Interpret both passages together.
Here is an example, if you get: 7, 7, 9, 8, 8, 6,
Your Hexagrams will read like this:
— x ————————-o—-— —— —Hexagram 31, Xian |
>>
(change to)
|
—————————— —— —— —Hexagram 12, Pi |
