I recently had an email from ‘M’, who’s baffled by a recent reading. M’s particular question was a little unusual, asking what he himself is really looking for in a given situation, but the basic problem he’s having is familiar: “Essentially, I am confused as how to interpret the original… Read more »The old ‘resulting hexagram’ conundrum
(This post is about the basics. If you know them already, you can skip this and seek out something more sophisticated.) ‘How important are the changing lines?’ Someone emailed me to ask that: his ‘I Ching’ book had taught him to read one hexagram with one changing line for every… Read more »How important are the changing lines?
I like reading tarot blogs – there’s a whole supportive culture out there of readers, and the challenges they face are not so different from those encountered by Yi people. For instance, here’s Brigit writing warmly and with a good dose of common sense about dealing with difficult clients.… Read more »‘Not possible’ querents, impossible readings
When people ask me how they can become more fluent and confident with their readings, I always, predictably, say something about experience. Consulting with Yi is a relationship and a practice – not something you can learn how to do first, and then start doing it. You get to know… Read more »Learning the I Ching from experience
This is a topic that came up in the I Ching Community with reference to weekly and annual readings – how people can be frightened by them, maybe scared into paralysis by a sinister-looking line – and it got me thinking about the scariness of readings in general. What is… Read more »Scary readings
Or annual readings, or readings for the season or even just for the day… all the readings where the question is just, ‘What do I need to be aware of for this period of time?’or maybe just,‘Advice?’ You might have some ongoing issues in mind – we usually have, after… Read more »What are weekly readings good for?
Oh dear, oh dear. Another one – someone explaining how the Yijing is not just an oracle, but ‘so much more than that’. I do wish people would not say this without pausing for a moment to contemplate what an oracle is. A variation on this ‘just an oracle’ idea… Read more »Just an oracle
