I Ching

The I Ching is the Chinese Book of Changes, the oldest classic text from China. It is a system of symbols contained in a book designed to identify the order that chance events express, using numerology and chance to make predictions and give enlightenment on what is happening around the querent.

The working of I Ching is simple whether you’re using the book itself or just casting oracle bones. You select a passage by flipping through the book, in the first case; many people do this with the Bible every day. Or you can cast the oracle bones. Each has the numbers of passages from the book inscribed on them The way the bones fall give you a message about the passages they are concerned with.

I Ching’s text is arranged into sixty-four statements or predictions, each represented by a set of six parallel horizontal lines, each line either broken or solid. These lines are drawn onto the oracle bones used in casting as well, where the lines are broken down further into trigrams, or sets of three horizontal lines. In these sets, '|' indicates yang, the creative principle, and '¦' indicates yin, the receptive principle. These may be arranged in a variety of shapes, from a circle to the four axes.

When the bones are cast, the top three lines in a hexagram are the inner aspect; the bottom three are called the outer aspect. Both refer to a change that is occurring in the querent. The two trigrams are looked up on a grid, with the upper three across the top and the lower three down the side; where they cross is represented by a number that refers to a section in the book I Ching. Scholars have commented on and analyzed each of these sections, and these analyses have been absorbed into the I Ching proper. Each hexagram is a mnemonic for a complete philosophical concept.

The I Ching has been read for centuries as both a divinatory and an enlightenment tool, with the philosophy centered around the ideas of balance through opposites and acceptance of change. It is closely associated with Confucianism, and was required as a part of the all-important Civil Service Exams. It has as much to do with Taoism as with Confucianism, making it also a balance between two different Chinese philosophies.

Over the years, the wisdom within the I Ching has been applied to governments and business, one’s personal life and the directions of entire governments. Several East Asian flags reflect marks of the I Ching in their design. The West has often sought the wisdom in its pages to direct their own affairs and also to understand the east.

Like tarot in the West, the I Ching is used both for divination and enlightenment. In both, a collected body of wisdom is used to explain what is going on in a divination. Yet in both, the important aspect of the oracle is not to tell the future or divine the present, but rather to allow the seeker after the truth to understand himself and his own motivations better. Both also require years of study to fully understand, though they are simple enough to grasp the basics of.

If you wish to understand yourself, the I Ching is one path to your center, or at least part of a path.