Choosing beads to consult with

[taiga16]

I have a 64 bead necklace made of black and white beads. The pattern is such that all 64 hexagrams can be created by picking a single bead and then noting the five beads that come after it.

Here’s the pattern. I’ve broken it up into units of 6 just to make it easier to follow.

w,w,w,w,w,w,
b.b.b.b.b.b,
w,b,b,b,b,w,
w.w.w.b.w.b.
b,b,w,w,b,b,
b,w,b,w,w,w,
b,w,w,b,w,b,
w,w,b,b,w,w,
w,b,b,w,b,w,
b,w,b,b,w,b,
b,w,w,b.

Is there any photos?
Could you share if possible?
Thanks.

 

[Liselle]

Is one yin and the other yang, Rosada, is that how it works?

 

[my_key]

Hi Rosada
Do you produce a resulting hexagram just by having a second random selection of 6 beads?

 

[rosada]

A person could do that of course but I don’t. I just go with the one hexagram so it’s not the same in depth reading as you get when you can have change lines. The necklace does help one get familiar with all the hexagram patterns though.

It’s freaky synchronistic this old thread has resurface at this time as I just this last week volunteered to lead a workshop for teens at our local library where the kids and I will make the necklaces - “The World’s Oldest A.I. - The I Ching on a String!” and hopefully thus spark an interest in the ancient oracle.
Having this thread appear now seems like a message it would be good to offer the bracelet option too.. Can you explain to me how you use it?

 

[remod]

I love using beads on a closed string like a necklace of a bracelet.
I learned about using a DeBruijn sequence on Russell Cotrell's site, which cites Clarity as a source as well
I use them to cast single lines, so I've built some using 16 beads.
I mainly used a two-color scheme (white/clear for yang, black/dark for yin) where grouping signifies the moving/non-moving lines:


But the one I like the most is the one-color scheme, where small knots (or an additional link in the chain) separate the groups:


In both cases, a group with one bead is a 6 (moving yin), a group of three beads is a 9 (moving yang), a group of five is a 7 (non-moving yang) a group of seven is an 8 (non-moving yin).
The two-color scheme is helpful in immediately recognizing the nature of the line, the one-color scheme will give you more freedom in choosing the beads.
For the De Bruijn one I used this sequence:

but identifying moving/non-moving lines is a little bit tricky (see below*). I haven't really used it much.

Bracelets were my preferred method before I got engrossed in using custom cards.


* For those interested, to get a line from a De Bruijn 16-bead bracelet, you first assign bead colors to yin/yang. Let's assume white->yang, black->yin. Pick a bead, the color will tell you the nature of the line (yin/yang). Now group together the bead you picked with the next three ones. If among the four beads, there are EXACTLY three white (yang) lines, then it is a moving line. Note that if there are four white beads is not a moving line!

 

[rosada]

Very cool, thank you!

 

[Liselle]

Rosada, in yours, which (of black and white) is yin and which is yang? How does it work?

(Added: I see Russell says

Yang is white, yin is black.

Is yours the same, or the opposite?)

 

[rosada]

Doesn’t matter. String the beads up and tie the string in a circle to make a necklace. Run them through your fingers and pick one at random. Consider that bead to be line one and the bead next to it line two and so forth for six beads to create your hexagram.

 

[remod]

If anyone wants to check different De Bruijn sequences, there is an online generator.
Each time you click on "OK", you'll get a new sequence that is good to generate all the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching.
Just assign 0/1 to yin/yang as you see fit (I usually go with 0->yin, 1->yang since 6 and 8 are even an 7 and 9 are odd, but it's just me.)

Some examples:

0000001010111101101110100110101000100001110001100111111001001011
0111101010000001110011111100001000110100110010010101101100010111
1111110111001001011001101101010001010111100001000000110001110100

And if you just want to go with 16 beads for casting lines one by one, here is some sequence you can use:
0000100111101011
1111000011010010
0000111101100101

 

[remod]

@rosada , just in case you think it can be useful to have an alternative activity for the kids (say, in case there are not enough beads for everyone), can I suggest you look at the four-cards method I described in one of my past posts?
The cards can be created with blank business cards and two markers of different colors (but also just one!) and can be decorated at will depending on personal preference. Or one might prepare a template to be printed/folded/colored.

Let me know if you need any any more info/help.

 

[rosada]

That sounds worth exploring, remod. Can you direct me to the post where you describe the four-cards method?
Many thanks!

 

[remod]

That sounds worth exploring, remod. Can you direct me to the post where you describe the four-cards method?
Many thanks!

Hi Rosada. Here it is: https://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/fri...r-casting-i-ching-hexagrams.32037/post-320819

In that post, I said that you need four cards back/front but you can also use only the front and have two cards of one type and two cards of the other:



Actually, I think it would be better to use only one face.

To cast a line, you shuffle and rotate them at will and then lay them one on the other as shown below:


You lay the first card horizontally, then the second one a little bit downward, and then the third one. The last card is placed vertically and must always be oriented with the line at the bottom, regardless of its orientation after the shuffling.

The line that appears on the top card is the line you received (yin/yang). If there are exactly the same number of black dots and red dots on the left side, it's a moving line. In the example above, that one is a 6 (a non-moving yin) line. The probabilities are exactly the same as if you were using 16 beads.

Do not hesitate to ask for more, I'll be happy to help.

An easy way to try these cards is to download and print this PDF:
https://github.com/rdentato/castingiching/releases/download/v1.0.0/I.Ching.Four.Cards.pdf

 

[Liselle]

You make really impressively nice-looking graphics, Remod. (Not to mention your fount of casting ideas.)

 

[rosada]

Wonderful! I will need to take sometime to study this…