There are two methods for consulting the I Ching: using shaman-flower (筮) stalks or using coins. In either case, one approaches the procedure with some sense, whether vague or precise, of the question or issue to be addressed. Shaman-flower is the common yarrow (Achillea millefolium), and using it is quite complicated; but it is the original method and might be considered the only truly “accurate” method because the coin method produces results with substantially different probabilities. The coin method is by far the most commonly used, but some people prefer the shaman-flower method because of the tactile experience of using the stalks and because there is a meditative quality to performing its repetitive procedures. The shaman-flower procedure has evolved and changed over time, and its original version is not known. The version given here provides the essentials without superfluous details and seems best suited to the approach of this translation.
SHAMAN-FLOWER METHOD
Lay a bundle of fifty shaman-flower stalks in front of you. First set aside one stalk, which is not used. This is said by the early commentaries to represent the “Supreme Ultimate” (太極: t’ai chi), the generative Absence from which yin and yang arise, and all the ten thousand things in their perpetual transformation. The reason for this is because by setting this stalk aside you create an absence that allows the whole numerological procedure to work. Now, determining whether each line in the relevant hexagram is yin or yang (divided or solid) requires three operations with three steps each:
OPERATION 1
1. Divide the bundle approximately in half, to produce a yin bundle and a yang bundle. From the right-hand bundle take one stalk and place it on the table.
2. From the left-hand bundle, take away groups of four stalks until there are four or fewer remaining. Put these remaining stalks on the table beside the one stalk.
3. Do the same with the right-hand bundle.
Now, set the stalk from step 1 aside and count the stalks remaining. Mathematical principle dictates that there will be either 4 or 8 stalks. The numerical values for these are:
4 stalks = 3
8 stalks = 2
Write this number down. Then set these stalks aside with the “Supreme Ultimate” stalk from step 1.
OPERATION 2
Using the remaining stalks, repeat the procedure in Operation 1. However, after the three steps, do not set aside the stalk from step 1. Count all of the stalks. Again, the total will be 4 or 8. Translate them into the numerical value and write this number beside the first.
OPERATION 3
Repeat operation 2 and add the resulting number to the first two.
Now add the numbers obtained from the three operations. The total will be 6, 7, 8, or 9. These numbers translate as follows:
Young lines are strong and unchanging. But old lines are weak and in the process of changing into young lines of the opposite nature. That is, old yin becomes young yang, and old yang becomes young yin. This means the hexagram is in transition to another hexagram (see below for the implications of this). Draw this yin or yang line as the bottom line in the hexagram, and if it is an old line, mark it with an x through the middle.
Performing this entire procedure six times generates the six lines of the hexagram, from bottom to top. Once you have the six lines, find the hexagram by locating the upper and lower trigrams in the table here, and follow the appropriate row and column to where they meet. That is the primary hexagram to consult by reading the initial Statement, the Presentation, and the Image commentary. If there are any old, changing lines, they are also especially relevant and should be consulted (though many consult all of the Line commentaries in any case). Then identify the hexagram created once those lines change to their opposites and consult that hexagram as well, for your situation is in flux toward the conditions addressed in that hexagram.
COIN METHOD
This much simpler method requires three coins, preferably Chinese bronze coins with a hole in the center. Whatever coin is used, identify a “head” side and a “tail” side. The “head” side is given a value of 3, and the “tail” side a value of 2. For each line of the hexagram (beginning at the bottom), the three coins are tossed and the numerical value of the three together tallied. The number will always be 6, 7, 8, or 9. After six tosses, the hexagram is determined. Then find the hexagram here and proceed as in the shaman-flower method.
