A 64 cards I Ching deck

[breakmov]

I think that any artistic creation has a lot of personal taste involved and it's also the case with your deck of cards... it's your "baby"!

I can only leave the option that would make me buy a deck of cards again... I would like to see, before all the artistic part, a solution for using the I Ching (line consultation, judgment and image and the respective casting method ) incorporated into the deck of cards.

It would be like having Zhou Yi in the form of a deck of cards....the casting method is already solved, but how to incorporate all the intended text in such a limited space?

the solution I imagine....



- simply use the solution presented inTwelve square cards,#3, the casting method, the square card and that visual aspect...simply with that you would have a deck of cards that would stand out from all the other decks for sale .

solution to embed judgment, image and lines:



- each card would be an "envelope card" made with a resistant and extra-thin material (like a kind of acetate sheet?) where there would be an internal and accessible space to incorporate four sheets inside the "envelope card", using the front and back of each to place the text of the 6 lines and the judgment and image .

..for me this "deck of cards" would be 99% made of something essential...a portable Zhou Yi, which fits in the palm of the hand, with a casting method built into it, a tool for meditation in the act of shuffle the cards

...1% the artistic part...which could very well be a very tenuous image, a kind of "water image", textured or not, as a background for the cards so as not to distract attention from the essential


...I can imagine myself walking past a bookstore and simply being surprised and drawn to a deck of cards with that exact graphic image you left in Twelve square cards,#3...imagine if, in addition to that, there was the surprise of find the Zhou Yi elegantly embedded in the deck?



...why not contact typography companies, and study with them the possibility of something of this kind?


breakmov

 

[remod]

Hi @breakmov.
I'm trying to envisage what you're suggesting and I agree it would be extremely cool!

Having cards with "multiple pages" is surely a must to accommodate the text for the sentence, the image, and the moving lines (the bare minimum),

A possible solution could be to make each card a sort of "booklet" closed by a tiny magnet that will keep the card closed while shuffling.

Regardless of the material/design, I have some worries about such a product:

• Durability: how make them strong enough to withstand the test of time? The magnets (if used) could lose their magnetism, the internal pages could be teared, ...
• Cost: The manufacturing process seems very costly, to me. Imagine assembling the cards one by one. Also, to make something both thin and durable some very good material should be used, which is not cheap.
• Thickness. Each "card" would surely be thicker than a regular card. Stack 64 of them and we might end up with something not so portable and maybe difficult to handle.
• Text: which translation should be used? I dared to add the sentence at the end of the card as a reminder but each of us has their preferred translation (and I'm not a native English speaker, I often use the Italian translations I'm more accustomed to). People might be put off by the very short text that one could add.

I went further and imagined a credit card sized device with an e-paper display that you can rotate at will and, when stopped, will present the hexagram, the sentence, the changing lines, etc. It would be cool, but then why not just make it an app for the smartphone? We all have one ...

But I digress ...

Recreating an I Ching book as a set of cards is a really intriguing idea.
Just writing some very tiny text on each card could be a solution but not very appealing, I think.
Making "multipage cards" would be cool but out of my league in terms of complexity and time and money I can invest in this project.

Thanks a lot for your ideas!

P.S. did you try to print the 12 square cards? I should receive the ones I ordered in a week or so, I'll post a picture in that thread when I'll get them. (but they are the version with numbers to obtain lines with yarrow stalks probabilities, I understood you like the design with three coins probability better)

 

[remod]

To try to focus a little bit more (and get more feedback), I've created a dedicate site for this project: http://64.castingiching.com .
Please feel free to visit and comment.
Of course, I'll also keep this thread updated (from time to time).

 

[remod]

Maybe I'm getting closer to the right style.
Below two versions of the card for hexagram 2.
I'm moving to a subdued, abstract style. I believe cards like these are meant to inspire, not to describe.

In the two images below, the theme is similar but I believe the second one is preferable. What do you think?



The earth’s capacity is acceptance
The noble young one, with tolerance of character,
Upholds the outer world
(Hatcher)

 

[breakmov]

hi Remod

I also liked the second one better... less color contrast made me associate the idea of less extremes and therefore more adaptability, more flexibility and hence more hex2.
I really liked your new site... I wondered if it would be possible to take statistical data from the images that receive the first click, when someone visits the site?

breakmov

 

[remod]

I really liked your new site... I wondered if it would be possible to take statistical data from the images that receive the first click, when someone visits the site?

I've enabled only the basic stats. I'll add the Google Analytics token later.
Consider that this is the data for the visit so far and most of those visits is me (but I've now disabled the tracking for my next visits)


I do not expect much traffic

 

[breakmov]

I was imagining that if it were possible to make a cumulative record of the "initial instinct" of each visitor, for a given hexagram/image through its first click, and if the overwhelming majority of visitors were part of the "iching community", perhaps it would indirectly help to understand the fit between the displayed image and its respective hexagram.

breakmov

 

[remod]

I was imagining that if it were possible to make a cumulative record of the "initial instinct" of each visitor, for a given hexagram/image through its first click, and if the overwhelming majority of visitors were part of the "iching community", perhaps it would indirectly help to understand the fit between the displayed image and its respective hexagram.

Maybe with Google Analytics it would be possible to make such an analysis. I'm not that knowledgeable about that.

In the meantime, I added a like/dislike button to make it easy to provide feedback.
It's very simple and may be prone to multiple voting but I hope people won't abuse it.

 

[remod]

A candidate for the back of the cards:

​

 

[dobro p]

You just keep coming up with one beautiful image after another.

Maybe I missed this before, but I was wondering how a deck of 64 I Ching cards could be used for a consultation. How about this:

Shuffle the cards in the deck.

Center yourself.

Focus on the question.

Keeping the question in mind, draw a card from the deck.

If the card is upright, the hexagram is unchanging. If the card is reversed, it means there's a relating hexagram, and you have to draw another card to find out what it is.

FWIW, when I draw a single card from a deck, I lay the whole deck out face down, one card at a time, keeping the question in mind. Then, keeping the question in mind, I let my eyes, and sometimes my hand, roam over the cards until I find the one that feels right. Using your deck would be pleasant, because the backs of the cards are so attractive.

 

[remod]

Hi @dobro_p

Picking a card for the response and one for the relating hexagram is always an option.
I fully share the sentiment of "being called" by one of the cards laid in front of me.

For this deck, I introduced a method that produces changing lines with probabilites very similar to the three coins method-s for those who (like me) are confused by having the too many moving line that picking two cards would generate.

I gave an example in one of the previous posts:

• To cast an hexagram:
  • Shuffle the deck
  • Pick seven cards
  • turn one face up, that will be the received hexagram
  • line up the other six cards by aligning their dots in the upper left corner to determine which lines are moving (the ones with red dots).

Example showing the layout for 6.1.3:

Now that I think about it. If one do not intend to use this method, having the black/red dots could be an inconvenience ... SHould I prepare to sets of cards? One with the dots and one without?

 

[dobro p]

What I like about the simple two-card draw is that... it's simple! Only two cards. By looking at the two cards and comparing the hexagrams, you see immediately which are the changing lines. Only one deck, and no dots required.

 

[remod]

What I like about the simple two-card draw is that... it's simple! Only two cards. By looking at the two cards and comparing the hexagrams, you see immediately which are the changing lines. Only one deck, and no dots required.

Got it. I'll provide two options for the back, then. One with the dots and one without the dots so that people can choose which one to use.

Since picking two cards will always generate a moving line, I was thinking about adding the possibility to identify which line changes (imagine there will be 0 to 6 dots at the center of the card to tell which line changes. 0 means no change).

Would that be something that you would consider useful?

 

[dobro p]

Since picking two cards will always generate a moving line...

Picking two cards will generate at least one moving line, and possibly more (maximum six).

Example 1

Card 1: Hexagram 2

Card 2: Hexagram 24

In this case, you have only one changing line - the first line.


Example 2

Card 1: Hexagram 2

Card 2: Hexagram 1

Six changing lines.


No need for dots.