It can also symbolize elements of life that do not change. Reading at a Glance: The Well is associated with the reservoir of unconscious activity like fear and inspiration. Who looks outside, dreams who looks within, awakes. Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. You can spend a lifetime and still never come anywhere close to exhausting the resources that are inside of you. Zong Gua (underlying cause) 21 Biting Through: Discern If you are looking for knowledge, the I Ching is the most comprehensive divination form.Hu Gua (hidden influence) 38 Opposition: Accommodate Asking the I Ching a question is never a bad idea, but be prepared to receive an honest assessment and a workable outcome. The I Ching is not a quick fix for divining an answer, but rather an investigative journey into the issues that concern us, with a common-sense approach to fixing them. We’ve learned that the guidance is intense, specific, and needs analyzation – that is what interpretation is all about! When we arrive at our given hexagram, we look it up in the book, and there we find our advice-answer-guidance. We have learned that the I Ching is a book of wisdom based on the ancient-yet-relevant teachings of Confucius, that is accessed through the tossing of coins, which give us a count of lines that make up what is known as a hexagram. And while many of the hexagrams’ names seem archaic and outdated, the wisdom inside is rich and relevant – that is, the miracle of ancient wisdom is always relevant. The sides on a coin determine which hexagram is ours to discover, and that determination happens when we toss the coins six times.Įach hexagram has a message that is unique to each question asked of the I Ching. As mentioned, this is not a walk in the park – this is a study, a spiritual scripture that demands devout practice and skillful intuition.Įach Hexagram consists of two parts, an upper trigram and a lower trigram. The I Ching’s hexagrams cover the gamut of human experiences, and each hexagram can be found in the book, written with flourished prose and insight. There are 64 hexagrams in the I Ching, which also have within them changing lines that give the reader a second set of hexagram meanings to interpret. Read this article next: 5 Underrated & Powerful Divination Systems What Are the Hexagrams of the I Ching?

If you were to find out your Chinese Zodiac animal, you could then bring that knowledge to an I Ching reading, where the Book of Changes would further on that knowledge. The I Ching will not talk about the Year of the Rat, nor will it mention historical dates in time, but it most definitely can help understand the Chinese Zodiac. However, it is based on common sense and real-life matters of the heart. It is not based on the Chinese Zodiac, nor is it based on any astrological predictor. However, it can, if astrology is mentioned in the original inquiry. We use the hexagrams for specificity and individual guidance. Within its pages are words of divine wisdom. In the same way, one thinks of a “divining rod” as an object that can lead us to water, so it goes with the I Ching. We “divine” an answer by asking it of the oracle, and the “oracle” is the I Ching itself, also known as The Book of Changes. If we ask, we receive – that is divination. The I Ching has so much to offer if one has the curiosity to find out more. The I Ching is a book of wisdom one could potentially flip through the pages and place their finger on a page and get an answer – that is divination. How Does the I Ching Relate to Divination?Īnything can be considered divination if a seeker wishes to know what is unknown and uses a physical method to get their answer. The coins are picking up on our energy, reflecting us, taking on our concerns they are building an answer for us. If we are inquiring about love, we concentrate on our question while we are tossing the coins. There are 64 hexagrams within the I Ching, and it is through the tossing of the coins that we come up with the correct guidance for our particular situation. When we finish tossing the coins, we add up the lines and numbers, and we get “our” personal hexagram - the hexagram that holds the information we need and the answers we are looking for. It may sound complicated, but it’s quite easy to catch on to once you’re involved. Heads have a numerical value, as do tails, and after we toss the coins six times, we build what is called a hexagram based on the numerical outcome of the coin toss.

The coins have two sides and depending on how they fall, they display either heads or tails.

I ching throw