Dear All,
sometimes I have the feeling that Yi answers about my feelings even if I'm asking something regarding others. For example: What does he want from me? is a question regarding someone else in my life. I receive an answer and I have the feeling that the answer is how do i feel about this person. Could you clarify?

Thank you, thank you

I suppose it's down to experience. After a while you just get to know. Not always, but generally the more you build a relationship with the I Ching the more you able to use both your intuition and careful contemplation to find out what the answer is revealing to you.

Generally, I think that's how the Yi works. It very often offers a snapshot of your thoughts and feelings which prompted the question since it is concerned with offering insights into your deep self, therefore, it goes to the heart of the impulse behind the question to stimulate learning and the potential for understanding which can lead to self-development. Every person who has some small success in understanding themselves will have its effects manifested in his relations with others. You might even say it is a success for the Universe as it comes to know itself through us.

That doesn't mean it will not answer questions about others or even world events but it seems to work best when we ask questions related to personal growth, spiritual matters - at least that's my experience.

You might want to start an I Ching notebook to record all of your more important readings. This way, you'll be able to look back over the years for comparison and cross-checking. That way, you can build a knowledge base which is very personal, aligned as it is to your own personality and path.

This might have interest concerning 'an I Ching notebook' as suggested by topal:

http://onlineclarity.co.uk/answers/2010/12/05/i-ching-journal-software/

and

https://sites.google.com/site/ichingsoftware/home

What Topal said.

And sometimes it's just plain hard. It can be frustrating. Sometimes if you step away from it for a while, even for a few minutes or an hour or two, something will click in and you'll think, "Oh! That's what it means."

If you get an answer that just doesn't seem to fit in some way, even if you can't put your finger on why, it could be a sign that Yi is trying to tell you something other than a literal answer to your question. You might find yourself thinking, "What on earth are you talking about, Yi?" or "That...doesn't make any sense."

Sometimes you have to look at an answer as kind of a cloud, rather than a point of light, if that makes sense. Rather than focusing like a laser on the actual specific question you asked, try to see if Yi might be addressing the subject in a fuzzier, more general way. So if you ask, "What does he want from me?" and the answer doesn't seem to fit a structure like, "He wants ______," then maybe Yi is trying to tell you something else about your relationship.

I can remember asking some question once, getting an answer, not understanding how it addressed the question, and then fussing at Yi, "That's not adverbial! I wanted something adverbial!" I'm sure what was going on was that Yi was telling me something relevant, but because it didn't fit into the narrow format I thought I wanted, I just got exasperated and threw the whole thing out. (I can't examine it now with a clearer head, because it was before I was keeping my readings on my computer. It's in one of many paper notebooks, where it will remain unless I stumble across it accidentally. But I do remember the "adverbial!!" silliness.)

I continue to do things like that, quite often. Frustration, impatience, and desperation for an answer can badly undermine one's ability to actually get the answer that Yi might be actually, helpfully, giving you. Being upset about something, or being too close to it at that moment, does not help your receptivity.

It's much easier said than done. Experience helps, as Topal said. Hilary has made the suggestion (which I can't find right now in her blog, after trying a few unproductive search terms, so I hope I'm saying this accurately) to do readings from time to time about things you're not emotionally invested in, just to build your experience. You'll start to get a feel for how Yi answers, and you'll develop some interpretative tools for yourself.

To repeat, though: easier said than done. A person can have all this proper advice perfectly well in their head - and disregard every single bit of it in the heat of the moment. (I know this.)

I'd highly recommend the forum's hexagram search to see how other people have experienced particular readings in real life. Some threads are more complete than others; just keep reading. Also, Hilary's blog is a veritable cornucopia of wisdom on almost all aspects of the I Ching, including a lot of practical advice about problems encountered in real-life divining.

It can also help to make notes for yourself, so you'll have a pithy list to refer to about particularly good examples you've seen of hexagrams and lines, both your own and others'.

Yes, I have experienced your feelings too. I scratched my head, tried to understand, tried by intuition. Very often I understood the answer much later - always write down your questions and the received answer.
The biggest shock for me was 4, 4th line, read years later.

But now I would simply say: ask. Since I discovered the RTCM method (‘Retrospective Three Coin Method’) developed by Carol Anthony and Hanna Moog, I always ask the wise for every guess I have if it is right. When I get a tentative yes (thre coins: yes, yes, no) I understand that I am a step nearer to understanding but still did not catch the clue, so I ask for inspiration and try again.

The answers of the wise are in my opinion not a cloud, but very precise, but sometime very difficult to understand. The wise has a restricted set of words to answer and develops a sort of dry humor which demands much fantasy from his pupils..

For example once I asked about a person I would have loved in that days to meet on the way from work to the underground to do some small talk. I saw the person leave work, I hurried out too, but didn't meet.
I asked Yi and the answer for this situation was 40, 1st & 4th line -> 19.

After some days I simply slowed down my walking and surprise! met who I want to meet. And yes, it was a 19 experience. (Later I understood that the person did very often some shopping after leaving work.)

What was the idea behind the answer of the oracle?
Line 4 of 40 tells "Unloosing the thumbs" (of the foot, many commentaries tell). Many commentaries interpret this line 4th as that you have to loose false friends you did need in the past but now more. But this time, the wise meant it literally: what happens when you loose the thumb of one foot? You go slowly! He simply told me to go slow.

So even with the RTCM method it is sometimes not so easy to understand immediately an Yi Ging answer. Anyway, you can always ask for your guesses if they are right. If you have series of tentative yes or no (++- or --+) you can do meta questions too, as for example if the time is ripe to understand the answer, or if you should stop asking for now, and so on.

Yes, I have experienced your feelings too. I scratched my head, tried to understand, tried by intuition. Very often I understood the answer much later - always write down your questions and the received answer.
The biggest shock for me was 4, 4th line, read years later.

But now I would simply say: ask. Since I discovered the RTCM method (‘Retrospective Three Coin Method’) developed by Carol Anthony and Hanna Moog, I always ask the wise for every guess I have if it is right. When I get a tentative yes (thre coins: yes, yes, no) I understand that I am a step nearer to understanding but still did not catch the clue, so I ask for inspiration and try again.

The answers of the wise are in my opinion not a cloud, but very precise, but sometime very difficult to understand. The wise has a restricted set of words to answer and develops a sort of dry humor which demands much fantasy from his pupils..

For example once I asked about a person I would have loved in that days to meet on the way from work to the underground to do some small talk. I saw the person leave work, I hurried out too, but didn't meet.
I asked Yi and the answer for this situation was 40, 1st & 4th line -> 19.

After some days I simply slowed down my walking and surprise! met who I want to meet. And yes, it was a 19 experience. (Later I understood that the person did very often some shopping after leaving work.)

What was the idea behind the answer of the oracle?
Line 4 of 40 tells "Unloosing the thumbs" (of the foot, many commentaries tell). Many commentaries interpret this line 4th as that you have to loose false friends you did need in the past but now no more. But this time, the wise meant it literally: what happens when you loose the thumb of one foot? You go slowly! He simply told me to go slow.

So even with the RTCM method it is sometimes not so easy to understand immediately an Yi Ging answer. Anyway, you can always ask for your guesses if they are right. If you have series of tentative yes or no (++- or --+) you can do meta questions too, as for example if the time is ripe to understand the answer, or if you should stop asking for now, and so on.

Hexagram 2. The Receptive says,
The superior man with breath of character carries the outer world.
- Wilhelm

To me this seems to be saying that what we see in the outer world is based on what we have in our inner world. For example, if you drive a red car, you will tend to notice red cars in the world around you, but if you are a white car person you will notice all the white cars in your outer world. The broader you experience in the past - the greater variety of colored cars you've driven - the more colors you'll recognize.
Likewise, when you ask the I Ching about someone else, you will be able to understand their situation and the hexagram you got for them because it resonates with a situation in your own inner world. You would not have attracted that person to you with their particular question if you didn't have something similar going on in your own world. Everything in your world is an out picturing of your inner self. So it is very common when we consult the I Ching that we get an answer that speaks to the person we're reading for and for other issues in our life too.

At least, that's been my experience,
Rosada

Yi (to me) is like a set of clothes: one size does not fit all, nor does a child's size fit when we're adults. The more we grow inwardly, the more inward Yi's answers become directed toward. The more materialistic we grow, the farther and more obscure Yi's answers appear.

I also perceive the Yi is almost like a Buddhist doctrine, in that the more our desire is inflamed, the more we suffer. Joy with detachment and suffering with attachment seems to be as much dharma with the Yi as with the Buddha's teaching. If I ask with detachment, where are my key's, the answer will likely be pragmatically associated with the location of my keys. If I'm in a panic over the loss of my keys, the Yi will speak to my panic state - calm down (51), you're not yourself (54).

I very recently purchased a guitar and its supposed to be brought to the shipper tomorrow, possibly. It will be traveling clear cross country, so it will be at least a weak before it arrives. I'm excited about it and hope it will be my Holy Grail of guitars. Of course that notion is ridiculous, as it's only a guitar and it's doubtful it will cause me to suddenly become a virtuoso which will lift me to a state of eternal bliss. Yet I yielded to the temptation to ask, will it be shipped tomorrow as hoped, and embedded in the question were all my hopes, dreams and wishes for happiness. Yi's answer was 27.2 - 41. Now I suppose I could finagle an answer relative to my question from that, but knowing my own mind and heart, the idea expressed had more to do with my restless desire, a form of self-inflicted suffering by Buddhist standards and a reminder that my attachment is the source of suffering, and to just chill; it will get here when it gets here, fool. I got the message and I'm cooling my jets back to cruise control.

You just get to know when something's wrong with your approach, and are seldom surprised at being corrected. It is ones own happiness Yi seems to care about most. Real happiness though, not the kind of wishful thinking or fear which causes us to suffer. I see this as Yi's dharma. Though there's still nothing wrong with asking where ones lost keys are located, or even how someone else may think or feel, unless our own anxiety or happiness is dependent upon the answer.

edit: Was just emailed with tracking. It should be here Friday. Sometimes what will be, will be.
edit: Make that Monday. But maybe Tues, or Wed, or maybe...

Sooo, wrote (#8 in this thread) "If I'm in a panic over the loss of my keys, the Yi will speak to my panic state - calm down (51), you're not yourself (54)."

I've had such experince - not with those particular hexagrams - where the I calmed me down:
http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/frie...te-or-encouraging-results&p=164369#post164369

It whas in the thread Aha!! Answers little chat just... (#168 & #169)

rosada said:

Hexagram 2. The Receptive says,
The superior man with breath of character carries the outer world.
- Wilhelm

To me this seems to be saying that what we see in the outer world is based on what we have in our inner world. For example, if you drive a red car, you will tend to notice red cars in the world around you, but if you are a white car person you will notice all the white cars in your outer world. The broader you experience in the past - the greater variety of colored cars you've driven - the more colors you'll recognize.
Likewise, when you ask the I Ching about someone else, you will be able to understand their situation and the hexagram you got for them because it resonates with a situation in your own inner world. You would not have attracted that person to you with their particular question if you didn't have something similar going on in your own world. Everything in your world is an out picturing of your inner self. So it is very common when we consult the I Ching that we get an answer that speaks to the person we're reading for and for other issues in our life too.

At least, that's been my experience,
Rosada

Click to expand...

I am a bit late to the party (to the thread that is ), but given that it's a question to which i gave a lot of thought, i decided to reply too. My own experience is along the lines with Rosada's, besides, i added to it the theory of (so- called ) shared karma. I wouldn't know how would this apply to pro-readers who would cast 30 readings in a row, on some fair for example, but then i am not even sure anyone reads I Ching like that (vs. Tarot which is being read like that often) BUT, with close friends and acquaintances for whom i read - the Yi, i feel, always refers both to the sitter's question AND to some aspect of my life/psyche... and i explain it by the fact that those people are not in my life by chance, that, obviously, we have some things in common to work on, thus the "coinciding" castings. Now, something which to me sort of proved this theory is the following: i have more experience with reading for others with Tarot, and in particular, reading for strangers; now, if two close friends are being read for, no matter how well the deck is shuffled, there will be some identical cards (in 5 cards spreads, out of 78 cards and a thoroughly shuffled deck) and, most often, even the general theme of the reading will be similar... Interesting, is it not?