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