When I asked people their biggest challenge in working with the I Ching, so many said, in one form of words or another, that it had to do with confidence. Forming a question, casting a hexagram, even coming up with intelligent interpretations of the answer – these things might take… Read more »Asking the wrong question about confidence
I stumbled over this article by Brian Clark, ‘Something about the I Ching‘. I think it’s unusually good – not just your usual introductory rewritten Wikipedia, but a blend of personal experience, fresh ways to think about patterns of questioning (‘arc’ or ‘arrow’?) and use, and contentious opinions about translations… Read more »About the I Ching
I first read this story in Women Who Run with the Wolves, and it was one of those ‘scribbling hexagrams in the margins’ moments for me. You can read a longer version of the tale here, but this is the core of it: Vassilissa was a beautiful young girl who… Read more »Fire inside and outside
The Vessel, ding, is the name of hexagram 50. It refers to a particularly beautiful and sacred bronze vessel, fit for food to be shared with the ancestors, strong enough to inaugurate a dynasty. You move your ding by inserting a carrying handle through its ‘ears’, loops on its rim.… Read more »The vessel with a jade handle
In my latest members’ survey, I asked: “There are times for everyone when talking with the I Ching doesn’t feel as spontaneous and easy as it could be. The natural flow through asking, receiving an answer and integrating it into life gets blocked somehow. I’m interested in how you experience… Read more »I Ching Challenges
Hexagram 30, Clarity, has a lot to say about understanding transience. The fourth line is especially emphatic: ‘Sudden, Comes, Burns, Dies, Thrown out.’ Here is something that flares up brightly, but dies away for lack of fuel. Wilhelm sees someone who ‘rises quickly to prominence but produces no lasting effects.’… Read more »A note on hexagram 30, line 4
Update! What follows is an ancient post, from the days when I still had an unmet wishlist for my I Ching journal software. Then Justin Farrell made us the amazing Resonance Journal, and the rest is history. Do download a trial and give it a go! If you’re interested in… Read more »Yijing software news
