I Ching Holitzka Deck

Alta

rachelcat said:
How do you read with I Ching cards? Do you just pull one card?
No, I pull two. To get the moving lines.
And then do you look up the meaning of the hexagram in a book?
That is how I do it, yes. To start. Then I use my intuition and knowledge.

I seem to remember a book recommending you draw 2 cards in order to get changing lines (the ones that are different between the first and second cards). I have a feeling you would get a lot more changing lines that way than through coin tossing.
I can't see why you would get more moving lines that way. What makes you think that?
Would that make a difference to you?
It might if I thought that were true.
Are you concerned about the difference in odds between yarrow stalks, coin tosses, and drawing 1 or 2 cards?
When I throw coins I use a method I detailed somewhere in another thread. I'll see if I can find it. It makes the odds correct. I cannot see how the cards have anything to do with the odds when you through coins, draw stalks whatever. Maybe I am not seeing the point though.

I have begun to study I Ching, but I find the bibliomancy/sortilege aspect (having to look up the reading in a book) makes it less immediate and more cumbersome than tarot reading, where the meanings are in my head! How do you feel about that?
I love I Ching, it is my constant companion and has been for the better part of two decades. Seems just as immediate to me, but then I am very used to both Tarot and I Ching and find neither cumbersome. It is true though, I cannot memorize the meanings of all 64 hexagrams, plus up to 6 changing lines and the trasnforming, Inner etc etc hexagrams. I do have to look them up.

I use both methods, though I Ching speaks its message to me more easily and clearly. I am very attracted to the visual aspects of tarot and also to the written and numerical aspects of IC. Go figure, must have two sides to my brain and they both like 'mancy.
 

rachelcat

Thanks for your reply

You are probably right that the reason I feel less comfortable with I Ching is that I'm just not as familiar with it. You make me think that I need to give it some more chances!

Are any of our friends here big statistics buffs? I wonder if someone could calculate the differences in the odds of getting the various lines. I read that the odds for coins and stalks is slightly different, and that the way to get the odds of stalks (without using stalks) is to draw from 4 different colors of 16 beads in various proportions. (I don't have the book with me, or my cup of beads, so I'll have to let you know the ratio later!) I have absolutely no idea how one would calculate the odds for hexagrams and changing lines in order to compare them with other methods. Does anyone want this mathematical challenge?