Just curious about I Ching readers

I was wondering, how many of us use the I Ching, or Yi Jing or whatever transliteration your favourite author uses. The Book of Changes.
And, if you do consult it, how? coins? (real Chinese or your nation's currency?) yarrow stocks? cards? marbles? your own way you created?

To answer my own questions. I use it, often. I prefer Yi Jing since it is closer to the way it is pronounced (though likely would still make a Chinese speaker laugh). I use a modified version of the coin throw (Canadian pennies), which I read about in one of the books. It makes the coin throw have the same statistical odds as using the yarrow stalk method.

So, does the room just echo or are there others? It is so rarely mentioned. Marion

I like "The Complete I Ching" by Master Alfred Huang (Inner Traditions, 1998). This translation includes some historical background and a lot of details related to the I Ching divination tradition, such as how the hexagrams interconnect with each other. It is very readable and practical - the book is intended for serious use as an oracle. There is also a beautiful ancient ideograph for each hexagram, to help interpret the meaning. Several methods of casting the oracle are discussed, including one that uses 16 cards: You make two sets of 8 cards (in two different colors), one card for each of the 8 trigrams. To construct the hexagram, you shuffle each set separately, and draw one card from the "top" set and one from the "bottom" set.
To get the moving line, you can roll a die (I use a bag of 6 pebbles).

This works well for me since I relate to cards and rocks much better than coins, and the traditional yarrow stick method takes more time than I'm willing to spend on it.

I am now working on a more elaborate set of cards (I should have pictures of it up on my website in a few days).

Lorena/Ironwing

Good Topic--Thanks, Marion!

The I-Ching is the oracle I turn to for honest personal guidance, as it remains untainted by my own subjectivity--an issue I sometimes come up against with personal tarot readings.
My I-Ching readings don't have room for the bending or twisting of meanings, so I can't pull any punches with myself. I find that it will even call me on such dishonesty if I still insist on trying to hedge my own answers.
Currently, I'm using I-Ching cards to draw my hexagram, and then I toss a game dice (die?) to get the changing lines.
The cards are an old set published by U. S. Games, with the hexagram on the front and text of the meaning and changing lines on the back.
The deck is certainly not the prettiest one out there (it rated only one star in the AT gallery), but I like that all the information is on the cards. I've had this deck a long time, long before I discovered tarot.
I've also used the coins and sticks, but I always come back to the cards.
Ditto on the Huang translation--it's one I also favor.
Here's other books I'm currently enjoying, listed by author/editor:
>Brian Browne Walker
>Wu Wei
>Robert G. Benson
>Jack M. Balkin
>Diane Stein (for a specifically female perspective)
They're all titled "I-Ching" or "Book of Changes" or both .
And, of course, there's the Wilhelm text. It's like going back to the King James translation of the Bible, for all that poetry and a little comfort.
PEACE,
Tauni

The Book of Changes (no David Bowie)...

Ironwing said:

I like "The Complete I Ching" by Master Alfred Huang (Inner Traditions, 1998). This translation includes some historical background and a lot of details related to the I Ching divination tradition, such as how the hexagrams interconnect with each other. It is very readable and practical - the book is intended for serious use as an oracle.
Lorena/Ironwing

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Ya, I agree. I use the Yi King often, and the two books that were close to that before finding Mstr. Huang's was James Legge and Wolfe(?) I can't remember. They were okay, but Huang is the most complete book I found that made sense to this soul.

Most people find that using currency (of any type) is the easiest. I've purchased a set of wooden sticks with numbers of lines on them and drew them instead of tossing coins. Strangely, it works. <grins sheepishly>

I've a set of cards by Grimaud

in French with very pretty Asian landscapes and motifs. I like the deck because my grandmothers who normally read Japanese enjoyed looking at the characters and cards. They thought it was just an art thing that I liked.

I have a small translated book and just have used the deck pull a few times, as it is only a few weeks old. It is the prettiest set of I Ching cards that I've ever had, being with color and French phrases and keywords that sound very lovely.

It comes with cheesy plastic discs and a colored, checkerboard style "table" or little cardboard pullout of colors and showing if it is wind, water, etc.

This is a get-acquainted thing for me right now and I only pull one card during a week and just enjoy looking up the poetic phrases in English. Over time, it will be something different for me to learn.

Marion said:

I use a modified version of the coin throw (Canadian pennies), which I read about in one of the books. It makes the coin throw have the same statistical odds as using the yarrow stalk method.

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Marion, could you describe that method please ?

kaz

Hi Kaz, yes.

Know which side means 3 to you and which side means 2. I will refer to them that way, because heads and tails might be confusing.

You take only two of the three coins and toss them.

Pick up one of the coins you just threw.
>> if they were both 3's, just take one.
>> if they were both 2's, just take one
>> if you threw a 3 and a 2, pick up the 2 and leave the 3 on the table.

Throw the last two coins (the one you reserved and the one you just picked up) together and the three now on the table give you the numerical value, 6,7,8 or 9.

Here's the reasoning: Throwing three coins vs the yarrow stalk method (which almost no one uses because it takes almost half an hour to do all the counting and manipulating but is the traditional method). (Scientific American, 1974) "The odds of obtaining a changing yin line (6) are 1/16 with the stalks and 2/16 with the coins. Odds for obtaining a changing yang line (9) are 3/16 with the stalks and 2/16 with the coins."
So with stalks it is more like to get a 9 and less likely to get a 6, but using just three coins there is an equal chance. Supposedly the above method allows the coins to give the same odds of giving a 6 or a 9 as the yarrow stalks.

Edited for clarity and two typos.

Another way of consulting the Oracle is with something called "The I-Ching Sticks."
They are six long, four-sided bars that look something like squarish carrot sticks.
Each side of each stick has a line that builds a hexagram when they are all layed down, one above the other. Broken, unbroken, and changing lines are all marked on each of the sticks, as such:
---o--- or ---x--- (changing lines)
------- or --- --- (unchanging lines)
So, I mix the sticks in the bag, or roll them together in my hands, then lay them together, horizontally on the cloth...and ta-dah, there's my hexagram!
I like the ease of this method, especially if I am conducting a reading for someone else.
Anybody else use these?

thanx marion.
thats a smart way of throwing hexagrams that comes really close to the yarrows.

i have a book of changes, its the wilhelm translation, but i am not good at using it.
i ching gives a more exact feeling than tarot to me, thats why it interests me, i maybe should get another translation that is easier to use.

Hi Kaz,
I know the overwhelming vote here is for Huang, which I have but don't like all that much. May I recommend the Stephen Karcher translation in 'The Elements of' series? He has written an amazing number of translations, some of which make me roll my eyes. That one is available used quite readily through amazon resellers.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...ll/ref=dp_pb_a/102-1914376-9815340/aeclectic/

He and Rudolph Ritsma did a massive tome on I Ching a few years ago, exhaustive scarcely begins to describe it, original sources, the lot.

I Ching: The Classic Chinese Oracle of Change: The First Complete Translation With Concordance
by Rudolf Ritsema, Stephen Karcher

Because of that his work has a great deal of authority and his language is very penetrating. The "Elements of" book has been reissued under a new title which I can't call to mind. But it says quite clearly on it that it is a reissue of the older book.
Hope that helps. Marion