I Ching - Book of Changes
One of the oldest Chinese text written, in fact predating Lau Tzu by over 2,000 years, it contains an elaborate divination system. Key is the meditative alignment of the spiritual, mental and physical with the Tao and Yin Yang principles before and during the divination.
The oldest and most elaborate procedure involves the "Yarrow Stalk Method" using fifty different lengths of sticks. A simpler form is the "Three Coin Method," which became popular during the Southern Sung Dynasty (1125 - 1279 CE) and is the most commonly used in the West.
Yao Lines
Greater Yin
moving toward Yang - 9 |
______O______ | |
Lesser Yang - 8 | _____
_____ |
|
Lesser Yin - 7 | __________ | |
Greater Yang
moving toward Yin - 6 |
_____ X _____ |
Lesser yin/yang tend to be stable and remain in their original yin/yang qualities. Greater yin/yang tend to move and become their opposite, yin to yang and yang to yin.
Throw the three coins a total of six times and read them from bottom to top. And you have a Gua, two sets of trigrams, an upper and lower set.
☵ ☶
Now consult the Hexagram lookup table.
Upper →
Lower ↓ |
☰ Ch'ien Heaven |
☳ Sun Wind |
☵ K'an Water |
☶ Ken Mountain |
☷ K'un Earth |
☴ Chen Thunder |
☲ Li Fire |
☱ Tui Lakes |
☰ Ch'ien Heaven |
1 | 34 | 5 | 26 | 11 | 9 | 14 | 43 |
☳ Sun Wind |
25 | 51 | 3 | 27 | 24 | 42 | 21 | 17 |
☵ K'an Water |
6 | 40 | 29 | 4 | 7 | 59 | 64 | 47 |
☶ Ken Mountain |
33 | 62 | 39 | 52 | 15 | 53 | 56 | 31 |
☷ K'un Earth |
12 | 16 | 8 | 23 | 2 | 20 | 35 | 45 |
☴ Chen Thunder |
44 | 32 | 48 | 18 | 46 | 57 | 50 | 28 |
☲ Li Fire |
13 | 55 | 63 | 22 | 36 | 37 | 30 | 49 |
☱ Tui Lakes |
10 | 54 | 60 | 41 | 19 | 61 | 38 | 58 |
Now consult the I Ching Interpretations
return to Yin Yang