butterfly spider said:

My first mentor of the I Ching was a Chinese girl who had come over to Britain in 1977 as part of a bridge-building attempt, to a top University in the UK. She had a grey suit that she had been given and a book containing the dos and donts of living in western society. The evils of living to be avoided, the perils of drink and the subversive nature of women - it was all there. She introduced me to all of this - and the I Ching and I am eternally grateful.

Her whole family used the I Ching. Her Grandmother, her ancestors and whole community used it - even though it was considered at the time, a crime. To have coins that were used specifically for the purposes of divination could, I was told, be subject to a jail sentence. So, they used whatever means they had - stalks, combs, stones, beads, even toe nail cuttings. Given that they were just invented tools, then no specific side, or facet, or edge, was given - it was just the intention that was important. If a certain edge, or curve was considered a yin or yan then that was the intention, so it was the right one to take.

There is no right or wrong, it is just a knowing what to choose - it might be abstract, or completely nonsensical to observers. Indeed, I have a thinking that this is entirely the point of using toe nails. Who could arrive at a house and see a load of toe nails on the table and think that they had any significance. She once used forks - which were spun and the direction counted as a yin or yan line......

Just a thought as I do not think it matters one jot what you use, or which way it lands, or wether it is heads of tails.

The expression - cannot make heads or tails of something, probably stems from this...

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