The Visionary I Ching

The I Ching is the oldest of the classical divination systems. It is also reckoned by many to be the oldest book in the world. It is thought that the text portion was first written before 1000 BC. The I Ching’s actual discovery and much of its early history, however, are the stuff of legend.

There are a number of myths surrounding the origins of the eight trigrams and the development of the I Ching system. The most famous of these involves Fu Hsi (2852–2737 BC), the mythical first Emperor of China, who is reputed to be the inventor of writing, fishing and trapping, as well as the discoverer of the I Ching trigrams. In one legend Fu Hsi is said to have observed a turtle emerging from the Yellow River. Knowing that wisdom came from the direct and close observation of nature, he had a cathartic realization of the significance of eight symbols he saw on the turtle’s back. He saw sets of three solid or broken lines -- which became the I Ching’s trigrams -- and how they reflected the movement of energy in life on Earth.

A similar myth describes Fu Hsi’s contemplation of other patterns in nature, including other animals, plants, meteorological phenomena and even his own body. These myths describe how he identified the elements that arose from his understanding of the connectedness of all things, and patterns of change through the interplay of yin and yang.

There is evidence of early Chinese divination rituals where tortoise shells were heated over a flame until they cracked, when the emerging new patterns (presumably trigrams) were read and interpreted. In some cases the shells were marked with their interpretations and stored for reference. I have had the privilege of seeing a few of them that are preserved and on display at the National Museum in Taiwan, China.

Another version also involving tortoise shells describes descendants of the “many Fu” -- an ancient clan of female diviners -- who read the shells of live turtles. According to the legend, they became the queens and royalty of the Shang Dynasty -- which had been considered mythical until archeological evidence proving its existence was discovered in 1899. Some say Lao Tzu, the enlightened father of Taoism and author of the other great classic, the Tao Te Ching, was a descendent of this clan.

The Taoist/Confucian tradition posits that juxtaposing a set of the possible permutations of yin and yang with the elements of Chinese creation mythology produced the foundation of the I Ching. Pairing up the various combinations of yin (a literal, ancient meaning of which is the shady north side of the hill) and yang (the sunny south side of the hill) gives you four primary symbols. With the addition of another yin or yang line, the eight trigrams emerge.

The basic arrangement of the I Ching hexagrams that has survived to this day is attributed to a certain King Wen, who lived around 1100 BC. Legend has it that toward the end of the Shang Dynasty, when the unjust emperor Zhou Wang imprisoned Wen, he used his confinement to meditate on the trigrams, pairing them up to produce 64 possible hexagrams. Each pair of trigrams took on a meaning specific to their combination. In what we might assume was an enlightened state of mind, King Wen assigned each of the 64 hexagrams a name, adding a few sentences to explain their meaning. It is said that his son, King Wu, added additional interpretative text, bringing the I Ching closer to its current form. To this day, this sequence of the 64 hexagrams is referred to as the “King Wen sequence.”

Confucius, who came a few hundred years later, was the I Ching’s greatest patron, taking the interpretative texts to the next level with the addition of extensive commentaries, or “Wings.” Confucius was interested in the I Ching as a manual for how to make the right decisions in the management of change, do the right thing and live a life of the highest virtue. According to his Analects (VII, xvi), Confucius, who lived to be a very old man, is reputed to have said, “If some years were added to my life, I would devote fifty of them to the study of the oracle, and might avoid committing great errors.”

Historical evidence substantiates that the Book of Changes and its 64 hexagrams were part of an ancient oral tradition that predates recorded history. The actual practice of using the hexagrams to refer to specific interpretations probably didn’t occur until the fifth century BC. Between 475 and 221 BC (known as the Warring States period), the I Ching texts were consolidated into a book to make it easier to consult and share with others during that time of extreme upheaval. Sometime afterward, the I Ching was spared from the Ch’in Dynasty’s massive book burning because it was considered one of Taoism’s five “Great Classics.”

The I Ching we use today is not substantially different from the 168 BC version. The main difference is that the hexagrams appear in a different order. The order in use today was first proposed around 100 BC, but was not the standard until the third century AD. Throughout what we know of Chinese history, the rulers of China, as well as the general public, used the I Ching before printing was available. In that period the most common method for casting the I Ching was the yarrow stalk method. The best yarrow stalks for this were considered to be the ones that grew on Confucius’ grave, but this supply was limited! The introduction of the coins method hundreds of years later solved that problem.

An ancient method for I Ching casting involves a relatively laborious process involving fifty stalks of the yarrow plant. Similar to the way that some astrologers report that, in spite of computers being able to do the calculations instantaneously, drawing charts by hand is a ritual that helps them develop a better sense of a client’s birth chart, casting the I Ching with yarrow stalks instead of coins takes considerably longer and, for some, promotes a stronger sense of presence. Like the coin toss method, this process has six cycles, with each outcome producing one line of the hexagram. And as we have seen with the coin-toss method, the hexagram is assembled from the bottom line up, like a building.

If you want to use the yarrow stalk method, you don’t have to actually use stalks of the yarrow plant grown on the grave of Confucius. You can purchase suitable sticks at a craft store, or substitute bamboo stalks, barbeque skewers (with sharp points removed), or thin wooden dowels. In any case they should be of uniform size (not much more than one-eighth of an inch diameter), clean, and roughly ten inches long. Be prepared to spend at least an hour on the yarrow stalk method of I Ching casting. Here’s how you do it:

1. Center yourself. Focus on the question at hand. Put an I Ching book or some representation of the I Ching on the floor in front of you. Remove your bundle of 49 stalks from their container and hold them in your hands.

2. Divide the bundle into two similar-sized bundles (do this randomly, no counting), and put one bundle on each side of the I Ching.

3. From the bundle on the right, remove one stalk and place it above the book.

4. Pick up the bunch on the left and divide it into bundles of four stalks. The bundle that is left over will have 1, 2, 3, or 4 stalks -- place them with the single stalk above the I Ching.

5. Repeat step four with the bunch on the right. After adding the final bundle to the pile above the I Ching, there should be either 5 or 9 stalks.

6. Collect the bundles on the right and left of the I Ching into one bundle. Repeat step 2 (divide roughly in half and put the bundles back on either side of the book).

8. Repeat steps 4 and 5. Now there should be 9, 13, or 17 stalks above the book.

9. Collect the bundles on the right and left of the I Ching into one bundle. Repeat step 2 (divide roughly in half and put the bundles back on either side of the book).

11. Repeat steps 4 and 5. Now there should be a total of 13, 17, 21, or 25 stalks in the top pile.

12. Collect the bundles on the right and left of the I Ching into one bundle in your hands. (With 36 stalks in hand, there should be 13 stalks left above the book; with 32 stalks in hand, there should be 17 stalks left above the book; with 28 stalks in hand, there should be 21 stalks left above the book; and with 25 stalks in hand, there should be 24 stalks left above the book. If you didn’t end up with one of these combinations, you made a mistake and must begin again.)

13. Count the stalks in hand; divide by four (36/4=9; 32/4=8; 28/4=7; 24/4=6). This number corresponds to the bottom line of the hexagram. Write down the first line on a piece of paper (remember that the first line will be the bottom line of the six lines in the hexagram).

14. Repeat all 13 steps five more times, adding a line on top of the previous ones each time to construct your hexagram. Once you’ve completed this process 6 times, you will have your hexagram.

All of the I Ching hexagram illustrations featured in this book (and the App) were scanned from full-color watercolor paintings by artist Joan Larimore. Some of the original works are still available for purchase directly from Joan, whose contact information is available from the Divination Foundation. Ms. Larimore has been a student of the I Ching for decades and used the ancient oracle to inspire her art. She describes her process below.

Each of the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching is based on a metaphor created from two elements in the natural world -- specifically, the eight traditional Chinese elements -- Heaven, Earth, the Abyss, Mountain, Fire, Lake, Wind and Thunder and Lightning. From the meaning I took from each hexagram, I registered the time of day and a particular emotional climate and began to paint. I began this series in July 1990. It took six and a half years to complete. The work was done in synchronistic order -- throwing the coins in the manner prescribed by the I Ching to determine which hexagrams would be painted next. This work has to do with the dynamic sensuality of the natural world in all kinds of weather. You could even say that the “cosmic weather” is what the I Ching is about.

Paul O’Brien developed and published the world’s first divination software, which was the I Ching program named Synchronicity for Macintosh in 1989, which ultimately evolved into the world’s largest divination websites -- I-Ching.com and Tarot.com. He eventually added horoscopes and astrology content, which was syndicated by AOL, Google, MySpace and other large portals ten years later. After selling the very successful online astrology and divination franchise in 2007, Paul founded the non-profit Divination Foundation (Divination.com) with a mission to help people and organizations make better decisions (with the possible help of intuitive activation by means of authentic divination). His Visionary Decision Making process relies on developing the receptivity of one’s intuition to the inspiration and guidance drawn from the “collective unconscious” -- Jung’s term for a realm that is tapped by the I Ching as the source of “Creative Power.”

O’Brien is the author of another book about how divination systems work and what they have been used for throughout history and in modern times -- Divination: Sacred Tools for Reading the Mind of God. His third book, Great Decisions, Perfect Timing: Cultivating Intuitive Intelligence was published in 2015. Besides being a non-profit director and author, O’Brien is an inspirational speaker on the topic of strategic decision-making and perfect timing. He has been host of Pathways Radio, a podcast and radio show of interviews focused on personal and cultural transformation, for over 30 years on KBOO.fm, broadcast throughout Oregon and available for free via your favorite Apple or Android podcast app, or at Divination.com.