I-Ching for Beginners

serenaserendipity

I would like to start an I-Ching for Beginners thread.

In this thread, we will leave out some of the more esoteric offshoots or roots of I-ching, and focus on the very basic techniques for using the I-Ching in daily life.

I would also encourage people to ask questions or offer simple interpretations of hexagrams.

But we will leave out the historical roots, the binary mathematical significances, and all other things which most of the I-Ching threads have been discussing...
Any takers?

I will begin with the next post, a simple way to begin with I-ching...
Sincerely,
Serendipity
 

serenaserendipity

I-Ching in Daily Life; Before you begin

Hello--
I want to begin this thread offering a few tips about I-Ching for beginners because I have felt very blessed in my life to come to know the I-Ching. Much in the way that many of us here have brought tarot into our lives, I have been using the I-Ching for many years and it has really influenced and helped me in very positive ways. And since I am much more familiar with I-Ching and am just getting to know tarot, I would like to "give back" to this tarot community by offering some of my knowlege about the I-Ching.

So, if you are curious to begin with I-Ching,
here is a short list of things you will need:
An I-Ching book (any, but Wilhelm/Baynes is the "RiderWaite" of Iching)
3 Pennies (or Chinese coins)
A clear mind
An open-ended question (not yes or no, can be simple or complex in topic. I have asked about complex legal situations, intense relationships, and even got a very accurate and appropriate reading about a CAT once!)

If you like, you can also write down your question on a piece of paper or in your journal...


Next post will offer instructions on doing your reading...
 

brenmck

I am interested in this, and the non-technical approach would be welcome. I'll stay with it as long as I'm comprehending. Sounds a little chicken-drip, I know, but it's the best I can do.

~B~
 

brenmck

serenaserendipity said:
An I-Ching book (any, but Wilhelm/Baynes is the "RiderWaite" of Iching)

Is the John Blofeld translation any good?

~B~
 

serenaserendipity

Doing the Reading; Asking the question and throwing the coins

Now,
to begin the reading...

Gather the coins in your hand, right hand above the left (left hand representing intuition)

Clear your mind like a blank screen and formulate your question

Shake and toss the coins, 6 times total.

Each time the coins land, note how many heads and how many tails.
Count the heads...
Here is your code:
One head, two tails = YANG, written as ONE LONG DASH
Two heads, one tail = YIN, written as TWO SHORT DASHES

If you get ALL HEADS or ALL TAILS,
that's a special line, one which represents a situation changing over time.

Those are interpreted thusly:
All heads = OLD YANG (changing into Yin) written as Dash circle Dash,
like this
-o-

All tails = OLD YIN (changing into Yang) written as
-x-

You can think of the old yang as an old bone breaking,
and old yin as an old broken bone knitting back together into a young bone



Write down the lines, starting from the bottom, going to the top

Your six lines will make a HEXAGRAM.

Look up the hexagram in the Iching book (every I-ching book has a hexagram chart), starting with first matching the bottom three lines, and then going to the column with the top three lines...
to form a hexagram!

For example
___ (one head, two tails)
___ (one head, two tails)
- - (two heads, one tail)
- - (two heads, one tail) = Hexagram 20, which means Contemplation
- - (two heads, one tail)
- - (two heads, one tail)

If it were instead, three heads for the top line, it would look like this:
-o- _ _
___ ___
- - which would mean _ _
- - Hexagram 20, changing to Hexagram 8 ---> _ _
- - _ _
- - (Seeking Union) _ _

Which would mean, in very simple terms, about a wise person going off by themselves to think about their life, and then after a time, coming back to seek out the company of others in their community again...

(please forgive the lopsideness of the hexagrams, since I am trying to do this ala Basic style!)

ok, that's all for now folks, any questions?

sincerely,
serendipity
 

serenaserendipity

don't worry about your innocence!

Like the Tarot, the I-Ching has a hexagram called
#4 Youthful Folly

and sometimes, when you are first starting, you'll get this hexagram, and it will say something like "supreme fortune to the innocent one who consults the oracle"

but then if you ask the same question too many times, the oracle will chastise you and say something like
"the first time, good fortune, the 3rd time, folly"

Don't worry, the Blofeld edition is perfectly good. It's just when the translation is over simplified, you lose some of the subtleties of the reading... but the Wilhem/Baynes cleaves so strongly to the original text that it can be quite thick to cut through and interpret--

but sometimes the I-ching will "speak" to some quite literal element in your life, and when you use the more simpler versions, the reading will have a little less "finesse", but that's ok...

i also tend to find that the I-ching somehow tapers its reading to whatever text you're using... this is pretty inexplicable, but i find it doesn't really help when i try to cross-reference...

So don't worry!
Just try it out and see where it takes you!

Sincerely,
Serendipity
 

serenaserendipity

Tarot Vs. I-ching in the Matrix of Time and Space

This title sounds quite esoteric, but really all I am trying to refer to is this:

I find in my personal experience that Tarot is really wonderful for getting a quite colorful and rich picture of the circumstances and cross-influences surrounding a situation in life...

Whereas, the I-ching relates more directly to one's path in life, and seeking the highest spiritual path, but also quite practically, what will be the result of the action you are considering to take...

you can ask the i-ching for Advice... like what is the best thing to focus on today?

whereas, I find the tarot more easily answers a question like "What is my current situation with X, or, What is my current situation in life right now?"

Of course, either one can be used to provide an illuminating snapshot or spiritual or practical advice...

I have just found the I ching to be more PATH (in the matrix) oriented, and the tarot to be more Space (in the Matrix) orientated....


sincerely,
serendipity
 

bradford

I-Ching for Begiinners-

~B~

RE: Is the John Blofeld translation any good?

It's in the top 12 (of more than 100).
But not in the top 3.

If you want to supplement Wilhelm with someone more contemporary try Thomas Cleary (just his plain I Ching), Richard Lynn or Alfred Huang
 

serenaserendipity

i-ching recommendations

i find the thomas cleary i-ching workbook very good, also i find the alfred huang wonderful, but he is so strict with his translations as to be almost scholarly...

i like the thomas cleary because of the beautiful chinese calligraphy, but i find his translations a bit wordy, though wonderfully worded, and completely lacking in the metaphorical allusions i utterly love, such as "a gift of 10,000 tortoiseshells cannot be refused"

or "he comes on a white horse, not to rob, but to woo"

there sometimes is a quite literal allusion the iching is making, for example, your friend could be driving a white car and you are not sure whether to trust him or not when he is coming to visit you, but the iching is telling you you can...
but in the cleary version, the white horse part might be totally left out... because he tries so hard to leave out the esoteric parts!
sincerely,
s.
 

serenaserendipity

i think you should use whichever iching book finds you!

i believe there is so much serendipity with i-ching, that you should just use whatever iching book you happen to stumble across--

after all, it's not like you can peruse the images online like you can tarot decks!

i think there's some element of chance that must be respected when it comes to i-ching...

sincerely,
s.