IS THE I CHING THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR YOU?
As always, I’m going to be completely honest with you. Studying the I Ching (pronounced “ee cheeng”) gave me a colossal headache. But wait! Don’t turn away yet. The challenge with the I Ching is that it’s full of a lot of different terms and steps. I can truthfully tell you that I had to read four books before I could really grasp the way the I Ching works in order to make it easier to understand. I think I did it, so no headache for you! But let’s back up and start with the question “What exactly is the I Ching?”
The I Ching (aka the Book of Changes or the Book of Change) is an ancient Chinese holy book. It’s a book of divination, but it’s also a book of answers to any question you want to ask it. As with any divination tool, the way you ask the question matters; if the question is not well thought out, you’ll get gobbledygook for an answer.
The I Ching is a system based on 64 hexagrams. Hexagrams are six stacked lines—some of which are solid and some of which are broken into two pieces. Here’s an example:
Figure 8.1. Hexagram 22, pi (grace)
The lines are created and read from the bottom up, and each line is given a numerical value of 6, 7, 8, or 9. If the line is associated with 7 or 8, then that line is considered to be stable and unchanging. If it’s 6 or 9, then that line is in movement.
The I Ching is, after all, the book of change. The divinatory advice it provides isn’t just insight into where you are at this moment, but a spiritual barometer of which way the wind is blowing. It tells you what change is coming and what type of change it is. It also gives insight into your part in whatever question you’ve asked it.
Once you’ve figured out which hexagram answers your question (I’ll explain how that happens later in the chapter), you turn to the page in the book that talks about that particular hexagram and read what insights it has for you. Usually, a hexagram will lead you to a second hexagram, so you’ll read that page as well. The answer you receive might make sense right away—and if it does, you have my greatest admiration. However, the most likely scenario (especially for a beginner) is that you’ll think you did it wrong. You didn’t. Like I said before, the I Ching makes you ponder, and in the pondering, great insights can come.
JUST A LITTLE HISTORY
The I Ching goes back 3,000 years or so. Like many other holy books, it was written by several people over a period of years: Fu Xi, King Wen, Wen’s son the Duke of Zhou, and Confucius (yes, that Confucius).
Originally, the I Ching wasn’t made up of hexagrams (figures of six lines) at all. It consisted of eight trigrams (figures of three lines) brought to us by Fu Xi. Later, King Wen combined the eight trigrams to create 64 unique hexagrams of possible messages. He created what were called judgments (or sometimes decisions) for each one that more or less told you whether things looked favorable or not. His son Duke Wen later added meanings for each line. These things helped make the I Ching easier to understand, but it was still confusing. That’s when Confucius got involved. He became fascinated with the I Ching and wrote commentaries on each hexagram to explain in more detail what they meant.
Over the millennia, and in the turbulence that was China’s government (as well as its competitive mystical communities), the I Ching went in and out of hiding like a groundhog. Now you see it—now you don’t. Eventually, in the early 1900s, various scholars became fascinated with it, bringing it back to the attention of the general public.
If you’re interested in all the complex history and the story behind the I Ching, there are many books written by college professors that are a strain on the eyes and the brain to read. Some Chinese scholars disagree with the books written by American or European authors as having been “Westernized,” so if you’re keen on the details, you might want to keep that in mind when choosing authors.
A PATH MADE BY MILLIONS
As I mentioned in Chapter 1, oracles work because people worked with them and believed in them. The I Ching is one of the oldest of all the oracles, so the pathways through the metaphorical forest are well worn. It also has a connection to our subconscious (much like runes) that comes from the pondering of the words.
FIRST THERE WAS ASPIRIN, THEN THERE WAS CLARITY
As I mentioned earlier, fully grasping how to work with the I Ching was a little challenging at first. There are lots of terms for specific aspects of the I Ching that seem almost designed to confuse you. To me, it was a little like reading “To get an answer from the I Ching, you must first boozle the geegles. After the geegles are set in place by the konglebu, you can then use three coins [Oh yay! I can understand three coins!] to create the lederhosen [I’m sorry—what?] that’ll lead you to the first caygle to provide your answer.”
I’m not kidding. It’s like that.
So what I’m going to do now in this rundown is probably infuriate a bunch of I Ching experts by explaining this to you in as simple a way as I can. Please believe me when I honestly say with all my heart that in the end, I found the I Ching amazing and worthy of study. It’s not for everyone, but it’s worth a try. Okay. Here we go.
The I Ching is made up of 64 hexagrams, which are sets of 6 lines that lead you to the judgments, or commentaries, on those hexagrams. (It’s like looking up a guidebook entry when pulling a tarot or oracle card.) Each hexagram represents a symbol that has a name. The symbol has a meaning, but don’t worry about that now. You can learn that later if you want, but you don’t need to know what the symbols mean to get answers from the I Ching. (Also, there’s disagreement about the names attributed to each symbol; don’t worry about that either.) All you need to care about is what page each hexagram leads you to and what the message there is.
First, think of a question and write it down. When forming your question, remember that the I Ching doesn’t lend itself to “or” or “and” questions very well. So don’t ask the I Ching, “Should I move to Chicago or Los Angeles?” And don’t ask the I Ching, “Should I take this new job, and will it make me rich?” In fact, the I Ching probably shouldn’t be your go-to oracle for extremely simple or routine questions. A question like “Should I go on a date with Bobby?” is probably better answered by a pendulum or an oracle card. The I Ching is good for open-ended questions on weighty matters, like getting insight into life changes or big challenges currently happening to you.
Next, you’ll be creating your own hexagram. This used to be done in a complicated way with sticks called yarrow stalks. It was very complex and took half an hour to create just one hexagram—but we can do better than that.
First off, you’ll need three identical coins: three pennies, or three nickels, or three of whatever your coinage is. The side of the coin with a face (often called heads) will equal a value of 3. The back of the coin (or the side often called tails) equals a value of 2.
Now pick up the three coins, shake them in your hands, and let them fall onto whatever surface you’re using. Add up the value of the coins. If you see two heads and one tail, then that’s 3 + 3 + 2 = 8. This is the first line of your hexagram.
Don’t like math? I’ve gotcha covered!
Those are the only option: 6, 7, 8, and 9. When building your hexagram, here’s how those numbers translate:
Keep using the three coins like dice. Rattle them about in your hands and drop them a total of six times, each time noting the line type and the number. Make sure you write it down. Also remember that hexagrams are created from the bottom up!
When you’re done with your first hexagram, you should have something like this:
(Line 6) _____________ 9
(Line 5) ______ ______ 8
(Line 4) ______ ______ 6
(Line 3) _____________ 7
(Line 2) ______ ______ 8
(Line 1) _____________ 7
Now that you have your hexagram, let’s talk about what those numbers mean. I told you that the I Ching is about where you are, changes that are coming, and what your part in all of it is. The numbers 7 and 8 represent no change. But 6 and 9 show that movement is happening. For each hexagram, there’s a general message, but there’s also a specific message for each moving line. After reading the general message for the hexagram, you then read the messages for the lines with a value of 6 or 9. In our hexagram example, that would be the fourth and sixth lines.
All I Ching books have a chart to show what hexagram you’ve created. The top trigram (top three lines) is listed at the top of the chart, and the lower trigram (the bottom three lines) is shown along the side. Match the top trigram and the bottom one to identify which hexagram you just created. Figure 8.2 shows what they usually look like.
Figure 8.2. Hexagram chart
A quick look at the chart in Figure 8.2 shows that the hexagram created in the example is #22, pi (grace). So you would turn to that page, read the general overall message, and the specific messages for the lines that show movement. The overall message is your situation right now. The movement lines show where changes are happening.
Okay. The next part gets a little tricky. But I’ll try to make it as easy as I can.
You’re now going to modify the hexagram that you created to reflect the changes that are happening. This is the second hexagram for your reading, which represents your part in what’s going on.
For every line with a value of 9, you’re going to change the solid line to be a broken line. For every line with a value of 6, you’ll change the broken line to be a solid line. For the above example, the hexagram would be changed to this:
(Line 6) ______ ______ 9
(Line 5) ______ ______ 8
(Line 4) _____________ 6
(Line 3) _____________ 7
(Line 2) ______ ______ 8
(Line 1) _____________ 7
A quick look at the chart in Figure 8.2 identifies this second hexagram as #55, feng (abundance). You would then turn to the page about that hexagram and read the general message, but not any of the line messages. Just the general message.
I know that seems like a lot to take in, but now that I’ve explained it in detail, let’s summarize the steps:
That’s as simple as I know how to make it. And once you’ve done it a couple of times, it does become easier and easier to follow.
If your message doesn’t make sense to you, just let it rest. Don’t start over and ask the same question to see what different answer you get. I promise that, just as with other oracles, that’s going to confuse you. The I Ching is an oracle of patience. The answer will come to you if you let it.
MANIFESTING WITH THE I CHING: IT-CHING TO SUCCEED
Manifesting with the I Ching is about getting answers. You can ask it “What’s blocking my heart’s desire?” and you’ll get deep and enlightening information. You can ask the I Ching how to heal emotional wounds that keep romance at bay or what’s causing an illness from a spiritual and subconscious level. The I Ching can help you make changes in your life—and frankly, who you are—so that the things you’re wanting to manifest can come to you through the Law of Attraction.
I CHING, RUNES, AND ANGEL NUMBERS (OH MY!)
If you read Chapter 6, “The Magic of Runes,” then you recall that I drew a rune from the pouch and then just magically opened the book to the exact same rune. Two days later, I pulled another rune; it was the same rune I pulled before. When I reached for a totally different book on runes, I again opened the book right to the exact page I needed! This was impressive to me.
In doing my first reading with the I Ching, I was equally impressed. I created the hexagram, and then went to look for the corresponding page. What amazed me was that the message of the hexagram was the same message I’d just gotten twice from the runes. I was so blown away, I had to call a friend to talk to her about getting the same message three times from two different oracles, over five days!
Later in that same week, I had an energy clearing with an amazing healer. She had brilliant things to say during our time together. After it was over, I decided to ask the I Ching, “What was the most important thing that I learned from this healing session?”
I started tossing pennies, and I was amazed even before I read the message associated with the hexagram. The hexagram came up with 7777 in the middle of the numbers. 7777 in angel numerology means you’re on the right spiritual path. In total, the numbers directed me to hexagram 44. As you may recall from the angel chapter, 44 means “the angels are with you.” Both of these are things that the energy healer had told me! When I read hexagram 44, it also matched one of the energy healer’s main points.
I am a true believer in the I Ching!
THE RAD-SCOOP ON THE I CHING
The I Ching sees all things as having a spiritual aspect. If you ask the I Ching, “Should I take this job?” it’ll give you a very definite answer. But it’ll also make you think (and think and think) about the part of that question and the situation you now find yourself in that has to do with the Universe as a whole.
To me, there’s no doubt that the I Ching is a thinking person’s oracle. It isn’t about yes or no. A pendulum will give you simple yes or no answers if that’s what you’re seeking. With the I Ching, it’s about yes and why. It’s about no and why not.
I’ve been 100 percent honest with you that I found the I Ching complicated and challenging to get my head around. Part of that is possibly because I was reading scholarly books on the topic rather than a sort of I Ching for Dummies. In researching oracles, I like to understand things at a deeper level so that I can explain them to others in a simpler way. There’s so much more to the I Ching than I’ve explained to you in this book. But to explain it all would make this chapter a book of its own.
Now that I understand how to use the I Ching, I’m truly impressed. For deeper issues or more important questions, I’m sure I’ll turn to it for answers. Would I turn to the I Ching for simple questions or quick answers? No, I really don’t think I would.
If divinatory work is something you’re interested in for deep and spiritual reasons, you’ll love the I Ching. If you want answers to questions that’ll bring about deep inner understanding and perhaps days of revelations, the I Ching will make you positively giddy.
If those things do not inspire you, then it might give you a headache.