I Ching

Hi silvereye,

I've tried out different sites that offer free I Ching readings and they never seem to feel right - I also had consistently bad readings from these sites - now I have my own I Ching and coins I won't have online readings done again lol (plus the readings I'm doing now have all been pretty positive and encouraging).
The visual I Ching book and cards I have are ok but they seem to lose the spirit of the I Ching and they're not that easy to use or interpret - the coins are much easier

Re: I Ching at tarot.com

silvereye said:

Has anyone tried the I Ching reading in tarot.com?

Click to expand...

Have I used tarot.com? Well, there is a short answer… no. There is also a long answer, which I am going to give you anyway,

To me speaking with the IC is more like hearing from another, while with the Tarot it is like tapping into the universal unconscious. I guess if I was more Jungian than I claim I would say I am communicating with my ‘wise old woman’, but to me it doesn’t feel like that. It feels like speaking with another spirit, not me. Let me give you an example.

The day before yesterday I had been having problems at work. I had pretty well been creating them myself, with my Aries personality, I knew that. Trying to have bigger fireworks than anyone else, and of course I was getting pushed back. So I went to consult the oracle, and I got 56, The Traveler, with lines 3,4 and 6 moving leading to 23, Splitting Apart. Now the image of 56 is fire, blazing rapidly, burning things up and moving on, over the solid, unmoving mountain. The lines I drew were not getting through to me. 3 and 4 are close to the position of power, but not in it, and that causes them to make mistakes. 6 is flat out just going too far for who you are. I was literally twisting inside, trying to see it. (I see it now, but somehow my eyes were veiled at that point) So, I did something that always works for me, but may not work for others. I often use the IC like some old timers use the Bible. I open it at random and read the lines my eyes are drawn to. Okay, sounds strange, but it is a bit like spreading out the deck quickly and randomly drawing a card for insight. The book opened at 48 The Well. Now 48 is wood below and water above and the surface image is dipping the bucket at the end of a wooden pole into the well to get water. I cannot think that most of you would not be able to see where that is going.
I find IC a stern but often wryly humourous voice. Anyway, my mind calmed and I saw myself, blazing away, while underneath me the bureaucracy was stolid and unmoving… and unmoved… by me. I saw that yes, I did have a good position, near but not at the top. And I took to heart the warnings about what behaviour that implies.
Lines 3 and 4 could be interpreted as ‘right now’, or ‘near past and right now’, while line 6 is divinatory in nature. Line 6 is the fire burning too hotly and destroying what you yourself created. The mountain (the bureaucracy) is not injured by this… it puts the fire (me) out, or lets it burn itself out. A warning. IC delivers warnings, as in… ‘if you continue on your current path’… much as the Tarot does. Know who you are. And of course… continuing on the current path leads to 23 Splitting Apart… everything is lost and you have to start over. 23 means losing your base, your foundations, generally going too high without being wide enough to support it. While it is true than often a seed falls to the ground and re-grows, you have to take into account how old you are and whether you have time or strength to start from scratch.
So, there is the long answer. I need a more personal connection so I don’t use computer programs for IC. But, what the heck, we are all different and if it works for you, I have no cause to complain!!
And, I know this is painfully long, but I do have one more comment for Emily. The reason the Wilhelm translation is a touchstone for most other works (except the Karcher/Ritsma translation) is that he spent decades living in China. He was a true Sinologue and immersed himself in the culture, without losing his identity as a Westerner. This is a more difficult achievement than it sounds. In this way, studying for years under a Chinese master scholar, he was able to translate the essence of a culture which has a long and very different history than that of the West. His great achievement was to bring this work to the West in a way that Western minds could absorb it. He was brilliant and deeply spiritual. He also translated other Chinese spiritual works, of which one I treasure is the Secret of the Golden Flower, a text for meditation. Since I do not seem to be able to meditate, I guess it didn’t ‘work’ for me, but I love its imagery anyway.
Sorry to be so long-winded.

I Ching Tarot

Does anyone here own an I Ching Tarot deck?
Cause I was just reading the newspapers today and found an article talking about I Ching Tarot deck created by a man from Hong Kong. I tried searching through the net but couldn't find any reviews on the internet.

Hi Silvereye,

I think they may be an I Ching deck featured in the decks section here but I can't remember the full name or if it's just called 'I Ching'

Hi Marion,

I am getting on better with the Wilhelm translation, its tough reading but seems to be fairly clearish lol, in fact I've not been using the Carol Anthony book for the last few hexigrams I've cast because the interpretations between the two books were so very different for the same hexigram and it's Wilhelm's I Ching that seems to be calling me.
I like Clarity's site, especially the message board, but I wish there was an I Ching site as popular as this one but if there is I haven't found it yet (yet )

recently i bought the "bamboo oracle" by chao-hsiu chen. it's based on the i ching hexagrams. when i tried i ching a while back using the traditional methods, i was too impatient to spend the time to get the hexagrams. i couldn't relate to the "book of changes". i liked the more instant gratification i got thru the imagery and symbolism of the tarot. however, i must say i like the bamboo oracle. it uses cards with colorful pictures and bamboo divining sticks for extra insight. it doesn't take long to get the hexagrams. this involves choosing 6 cards i'm drawn to and then drawing the hexagram in order of the cards drawn. the book is short, sweet and to the point. i find that i don't feel too impatient w/ this one. the readings are good. i may even dig up my old ching books to get deeper interpretations than the book that comes w/ the cards and sticks. i really can't remember the names of what i have but one is pretty thick and the other is called a modern translation.

Hi truthsayer,

Your bamboo oracle sounds interesting, I've never heard of this one before.
I agree that you need to get a translation of the I Ching that you can relate to - one of the books I had was by Steven Karcher, a library book, and I wasn't able to relate to it at all, I was glad that I hadn't bought it. In fact the only one that does seem to make sense to me is the Wilhelm one.
It also makes the choice of translations harder because they are not readily available in bookshops where I live so I can't browse and get to look through any. Waterstones is the biggest bookshop I can get to and they only had 3 I Ching related books in, two translations and a guide lol - (and I bought one of them)

I wonder why I Ching isn't as popular as the tarot? Or is it just in the West that its not popular? Is it popular in the East? (Think I've had one coffee too many lol )

there are a few i-ching cards that i have seen, and i also checked out the "i-ching tarot", which i was not pleased with. i found the art to be okay, but the cards (which did not seem especially
related to tarot) labled on the bottom border with a page number from the book. i do not like cards that require me to be dependent on the book--just my own personal "druther".
there is also the "visual i-ching", which has very pretty artwork. a friend of mine has a set called "the i-ching cards", which is also illustrated. i have seen at a book store a deck also called "i-ching cards", without a book, but including coins.

I haven't worked too much with IC but I saw these IC coins at the new age store up the street so its a little inspiration to try again! I think she has the sticks there too.

Speaking of Carol K. Anthony... she has a wonderful little book called "Love, An Inner Conenction ". Its about using IC to enhance and gain understanding in relationships. It helped me when I used IC to read the trigrams in a different context.

~ january

I've started to use 'The Everyday I Ching' by Sara Dening. I've seen good recommendations for this book so I bought it - it is very clear, again based on Wilhelms translation so its not unfamiliar - soon I'll have as many I Ching books as tarot lol.

Also its amazing what you can pick up sometimes, I went to the coast over the Easter Bank holiday and found an amazing little shop, right in a touristy area, selling tarot decks, crystals, Native American, I Ching and many books. I came out laided with crystals and 3 new I Ching coins lol Then luckily I ran out of money but I did get what I wanted lol