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hilary

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If you're using an unusual tool or method in your interpretations, one that a newcomer here wouldn't be familiar with, then we ask you to explain it - either in your post, or somewhere you can link to from the post. This is a thread for those explanations!

Please add your tool/ method here, and tell us
  • ...what this is / how you find it, with an example or two. (Something like these explanations of nuclear hexagrams and complements.)
  • and how you would use it in a reading.
If you have a lot to explain, you're welcome to start a new thread in this forum, or link to your own website - whatever works. But this thread should be a useful place to collect the shorter explanations.

(If you want to discuss a method described here in more depth, please start a new thread for that, so we can keep this one manageable.)
 

Liselle

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Trojina

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How I use Change Patterns in readings



When replying in SR I sometimes refer to the ‘change patterns’. They always strike me as similar to the veins, the skeleton, you see within a leaf, a faint underlying structure or pattern showing through the reading as they would with a leaf. They are staring right out at you, they help make sense of multi line readings but if you aren’t aware of them they can be ‘hidden in plain sight’. They might be seen as the hidden skeleton of the reading, well 'hidden' only because not noticed so much.

To find them is easy. First make all your change lines into yang lines and the rest yin. This will give you a hexagram, the yang pattern. Do the opposite to find the yin pattern, make all the change lines yin lines and the rest yang. You will always end up with hexagrams that are opposites or complements. These form a kind of seesaw balance describing the fundamental tensions that bought you to do the casting, a pivotal dynamic in the reading. It’s what the issue is really about, what larger themes are at work behind the question. I can think of these as the flavour or tenor of the conversation between the primary and relating hexagram, almost like a filter over or rather under the reading. You might see these almost as filters that the primary and relating hexagram are talking through, the kind of conversation they are having.

In terms of interpretation I think it is necessary only to hold these fairly loosely in mind as just an added dimension to the reading, there in the background, telling you something of what this is really about underneath it all. The yang pattern can be seen as that which brings you to ask the question. I like to look at it as I often find ‘ah that’s what this is really about, this is why I asked’. The yin pattern can be seen as the way to move on through the problem or situation.

An example.

A primary hexagram with lines 3 and 5 changing will always be linking to the relating hexagram, through a 39 yang pattern and 38 yin pattern. Here too they are next to each other in the sequence So whatever the query is about you’d be coming to it with a sense of struggle, almost a feeling of impossibility and the way to move on through that, 38, would be to take a wholly different perspective.

A primary hexagram with lines 2,3,4,5, 6 changing will always have 44 yang pattern and a 24 yin pattern. With so many change lines in that instance seeing the 44 and the 24 as the leaf like pattern in the reading can really help one through getting a sense of the direction or theme of things amongst the profusion of needing to consider all those change lines! You’d be asking Yi here because of what might feel like or indeed be, an intrusion into your usual way of life. The way through the resolving of that tension will be to return to your own ways, to go home to yourself in 24. However how that happens, how perhaps you can make that happen and the various factors involved, will be shown by the primary and relating hexagrams and the change lines. These will always be your main focus but even just noticing the leaf like change patterns gives another perspective, another shape to how you see the reading and so I think they are worth exploring.


Hilary has written much more about change patterns in WikiWing and has a short course with a video about them in Change Circle here. Stephen Karcher developed the concept of these and called them ‘change operators’. People may see and use them differently to my explanation above which is just my way at the moment. I think what they can signify, how we use them is still quite open to empirical observation through reading experiences.
 
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Liselle

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Sequence

Hilary's explanation, from here:
The hexagram of sequence

This is simply the hexagram that immediately precedes the one you cast in the I Ching. It reveals the roots of your situation, or perhaps something which you will have to acknowledge or work on before you can exploit the current situation’s full potential. Like the contrasting hexagram pairs, the sequence of hexagrams has a Wing to itself, the Xugua. This hexagram can’t be generated from the original one (though it will be the same as the contrasting one 50% of the time, of course) – you have to look it up.

Here’s a blog post on understanding Hexagram 46 in the light of 45, and one on Using the Sequence in readings.

Excerpt from the 45-46 blog post Hilary refers to:
...and the sense of being part of something significant translating into a desire to go somewhere significant, to offer something. The Xugua (Sequence) says,

‘Assembling and moving higher is called pushing upward, and so pushing upward follows.’

This is what is called pushing upward – the sequence follows just from naming the essence of the gathering. There’s a sense that the gathering contains the aspiration within it (‘fruitful to have a direction to go’), and 46 gives it expression. It’s the story we see unfold when a whole group of people all aiming for the same thing starts to move, or when you align your whole self – all the ‘little selves’ – towards a single purpose, and then naturally find yourself in motion. Investing and identifying creates its own momentum.

Receiving Hexagram 46, you look at Hexagram 45 both for this broader sense of story from the Sequence...

If you're a Change Circle member, there is a lot more information in Hilary's book, Exploring the Sequence, in the Change Circle library.
 
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Liselle

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Nuclear


From Hilary:
This is created from the original hexagram’s inner lines. A hexagram’s lines are numbered, from the bottom upwards, 123456, and the nuclear hexagram is formed from lines 234345. To take an example: with the original hexagram 33:
::||||

… then the nuclear hexagram would be #44:
:|||||

The nuclear hexagram is like a seed in the original hexagram: something held in potential, that might grow. It can be a hidden possibility, or a hidden issue that’s being worked out through the original hexagram.​

More on nuclear hexagrams from the blog:
 
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Liselle

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Complement (also called Opposite)

From Hilary:
Complementary hexagram

The complement of a hexagram is its mirror image: each broken line is replaced with a solid one, and vice versa. So the opposite of Hexagram 33, Retreating –
::||||

… is Hexagram 19, Nearing.
||::::

You can imagine how these two together form a yin/yang pair… like the sides of a coin. By showing exactly what your situation isn’t like, this hexagram helps you to understand more closely what it is.

More from the blog on complementary hexagrams:​

Excerpt from the "Pushing Upward, step 4" blog post:
A quite different kind of ‘not that’ comes from the complementary or opposite hexagram, the one created by changing every line.

:||:::
|::|||

Hexagram 25, Without Entanglement, has no line in common with Pushing Upward; nothing could be more different. But of course, seeing them together, that’s not the only thing you notice. You also see how they have the same pattern of lines, and how they fit together like pieces of a jigsaw.

These two are visibly both opposites and complements, and both ways of seeing them help in readings. The opposition is generally easier to observe. Hexagram 46 is wholly committed to striving upward. Hexagram 25 is disentangled. Hexagram 46 can create something good; Hexagram 25 may experience something bad, but knows this is not of its own creation. Basically, if I receive 46 I’m going to be looking for ways I can undertake more, engage more, take it to another level… – and if I receive 25 I’ll be asking myself what I need to put down, to disengage from, to straighten out my relationship with the world. I can do one or other of these things, not both. Simple.

Only… they are also complementary. Seeing them this way is harder – complementarity has something of a koan-like quality to it, I think. I find I will sometimes get a non-verbal sense of how hexagrams are complementary when I’m in the midst of experiencing one. I had that sense of 46-25 once when walking through the woods near our home, with their beautiful mature beech trees. They grow, they draw nourishment upward (standing with them, you can feel the power of that), and their living essence is joined with the creative life of the whole just as 25’s inner trigram, thunder, joins with its outer trigram, heaven. Their dao is natural growth, and that exists simultaneously as 46’s upward striving and 25’s immutable participation in the creative principle.

As I was saying – a non-verbal sense. You might do better to ask the trees directly.
 
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Liselle

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Pair

From Hilary (with slight editing to include the hexagram diagram for 33):
Contrasting Hexagrams

The Sequence of hexagrams in the I Ching is arranged in contrasting pairs. The pair is usually generated by turning the original hexagram upside down. So the contrast to Hexagram 33:
::||||

...is Hexagram 34, Great Strength:
||||::

Some hexagrams, though, are symmetrical – they are the same if turned upside down. In these cases, the complementary hexagram is also taken as the contrast. For example, the complementary and contrasting hexagram to 30, Clarity –
|:||:|

– is 29, Repeating Chasms:
:|::|:

The contrasting hexagrams are paired in the I Ching – in other words, this is a vital part of its basic structure. They provide a context that helps to define the primary hexagram, often as part of a larger unit of meaning.​

This relationship is the subject of the Zagua, one of the Ten Wings of commentary that make the I Ching a classic, which is included in complete translations.

More information in the Quick Insight: Paired Hexagrams course in the Change Circle library.
 
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Liselle

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Shadow and Ideal

The Shadow and Ideal hexagrams are ideas/inventions/discoveries of Stephen Karcher's. They are said to represent the least effective (Shadow) and most effective (Ideal) ways to conceive of your situation.

How to find them
The Shadow is easy and intuitive to find: count backwards from the end of the Sequence by the number of your cast hexagram. 1's Shadow is 64, 2's is 63, and so on. Or just subtract the hexagram number from 65. (50's Shadow is 15: 65 minus 50.)

Finding the Ideal is complicated and not intuitive at all. You must use these two trigram arrangements:


Example: find hexagram 50's Ideal, which is hexagram 10.
  1. Note hexagram 50's component trigrams: :|||:| is made of lower trigram xun, wind/wood :|| , and upper trigram li, fire |:| .​
  2. Find those in the King Wen "Later Heaven" diagram on the left. (The trigram's bottom line is closest to the center.)​
  3. Look across to the same positions in the Fuxi "Earlier Heaven" diagram on the right. Lower trigram xun becomes dui, lake; upper trigram li becomes qian, heaven.​
  4. Use those Earlier Heaven trigrams to make the Ideal hexagram. Dui below qian is ||:||| , hexagram 10.​
⚠️ The rationale for all of this - for the Earlier Heaven diagram, for constructing a hexagram using it, and for matching up the Ideal with the Shadow - is unclear. For that reason, the Ideal is experimental, more experimental even than the also-experimental Shadow. (The I Ching is 3000 years old. New methods need more than a decade or so to prove themselves.)

Using them in readings
You'll often find that the cast hexagram and its Shadow have themes in common: for instance 4 and 61 are about knowing and learning. In 4, you don't know and must learn. In 61 you have learned and do know. Possibly for that reason, Hilary has found that the Shadow often seems like the most obvious way to think about your situation - it can be quite recognizable. When you cast hexagram 4, you might feel like you know something (Shadow 61), but Yi's point in giving you 4 is to say you really don't.

Looking at the Shadow can be quite helpful on its own, but Karcher's idea is that the Shadow and Ideal work together. He says the Shadow is actually a "negative screen" that serves as a block. It will be the least effective way to think or act. Instead, focus on the Ideal as the most effective approach. The nifty thing, he says, is that if you can do that successfully, a more positive side of the Shadow can manifest spontaneously.

Quick personal experience: 40's Shadow is 25 and its Ideal is 35. Message: Don't spend my unexpected free day (40) disentangling from everything (25, a.k.a. being a couch potato). Take advantage of the opportunity: the purpose of freedom is to make progress (35). After I finished 35-ing, I could disentangle with a clear conscience.

Keep in mind that "ideal" means "effective" and not necessarily anything like "happy." That's how a hexagram like 47 can serve as an Ideal.

The Ideal is not a substitute for your cast hexagram. The cast hexagram stands alone as the answer to your question - you don't need either the Shadow or the Ideal. But they can help, especially if you're stuck. (In the example above, my cast hexagram 40 already said to choose a road that leads somewhere and go down it without delay. The Shadow and Ideal restated and re-framed that point, which helped it click with me.)

An analogy: maybe think in terms of a paragraph, a topic sentence with several supporting sentences. You might not need the other sentences, but they can be helpful.

You might have to think of two different angles on the Shadow, one that that you shouldn't do even if you're inclined to, and another, more productive aspect that could be brought out. (I think this might be a continuum: often the angles seem quite different, but sometimes not.)

I've found at times it can be interesting to play with "Shadow readings" or "Ideal readings," where you think about the Shadows or Ideals of your primary and relating hexagrams together. Example of mine from WikiWing:
Had errands; didn't want to do errands; asked Yi about oh-so-reasonable rationale for putting off doing errands. Cast reading: 7 to 29. (In other words, "Nope.") Shadows: 58 and 36. There would be no joy (58) in sitting at home, hiding (36) from errand-chaos. I knew from previous such procrastination attempts that I'd just become more and more anxious. Outcome: once I got going, things went pretty well.​
(The moving line was 7.5, the "nope": 'The fields have game. Fruitful to speak of capture: No mistake. When the elder son leads the army, And younger son carts corpses: Constancy, pitfall.' (Hilary's translation.) The game is in the fields: the errands are ripe for doing. Convince myself to "capture" them. Don't cart any corpses that might hinder the operation.)

I often look at the Shadow and Ideal with unchanging readings, because I often feel adrift with those and want more clues.

Hilary has found that when thinking about the Ideal, the Image (Wings 3 and 4) is often relevant, probably because the Image is idealized advice for a noble young one.

Example
"Guidance for making this work?" (Fixing something on my computer.)
1.1.2 to 33

The cast reading seemed like assurance I'd eventually fix it. "From the source, creating success. Constancy bears fruit" (Hilary). But I should withdraw for the time being (relating hexagram 33 and line 1.1) and "see great people" (1.2).

1's Shadow is 64: Well what do you know - exactly what I'd spent a couple of hours doing before casting the reading. Plunging off into the river before conditions were right and without proper preparation. Trial and error, soaking my tail, not making it across. (Trial and error usually works, right, so why wouldn't I do it? The "this seems obvious" trap of the Shadow.)

1's Ideal is 52: Much more effective to stop, "move in my rooms" (Oracle) and "reflect" (Image).

In practice, this meant don't just poke around cluelessly. Stop, go back up on the bank, read and Google stuff as 1.2 recommends (the "great people"). Doing that gave me needed "fox sense" about the problem - the positive aspect of the Shadow that materialized. Then I was able to fix it.

Resources
 
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Liselle

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Fan Yao

(Pronunciation: yao rhymes with "plow" and "now.")

When a line moves or changes in a hexagram, a second hexagram is formed. The line in the second hexagram that corresponds to the first hexagram's moving line is called the fan yao.

For instance, when line 2 of hexagram 8 changes, hexagram 29 is formed. (8.2 to 29.) 8.2 is the moving line and 29.2 is its fan yao. In 29.2 to 8, it's the other way around: 29.2 is the moving line and 8.2 is its fan yao.

The term fan yao was coined by Bradford Hatcher. He describes it like this:
Fan Yao (Reverse Line, or Line-Coming-Back) Pairs. These pairs will often share vocabulary elements, cross-references, subjects, or grammatical tone, voice and mood.
The resonant line in the Zhi Gua. This is not part of the Yi’s response, but it may hold clues to the Changing Line’s meaning

It's important to highlight that the fan yao is not Yi's advice, even if it strikes a chord or seems to explain or support the moving line. Recognizability (or explanation or support) is not advice. Advice by its nature might well be something you don't recognize at all.
 
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wanlihonghu

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I am an I Ching diviner from China,my English is not very good, the method I use is from a branch of the i ching, the book 《zeng shan bu yi 》is about this kind of method, this divination method mainly includes yin and yang and five elements.

Use the celestial stems and terrestrial branches of the year, month, day, and time when the hexagram occurs and the celestial stems and earthly branches corresponding to each line in the hexagram.

the stems is 甲、乙、丙、丁、戊、己、庚、辛、壬、癸;

the terrestrial branches is 子、丑、寅、卯、辰、巳、午、未、申、酉、戌、亥

These elements have different relationships and functions in the hexagram, and they interweave to form the beginning, process, and result of the question asked.

These are not all that can be explained by my current English level. I can only explain a part of them. I hope to gradually improve my English level to explain these.
 

matej1486

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Hello, this is about interpretation when 2 or more moving lines are present.

In this cases it seems to me that the 2nd Hex is not directly connected to the 1st one, but is still connected to the situation I am asking for. Like, 1st H is telling us how situation will be slightly moving in all directions of the moving lines, but then, due to SOME OTHER REASON, the situation will change to 2nd H.
 

prismatic

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Transitional Hexagrams

I’ve been using a method called "Transitional Hexagrams" for interpreting readings with multiple (i.e. at least two) changing lines, with very good results. I came across it in Bradford Hatcher’s book, The Book of Changes: Yijing, Word By Word. Hatcher describes the method on p. 44; he attributes the name to Mondo Secter, author of at least two books on the I Ching that I know of.

How it works
As an example, I recently used this method to interpret a reading with three changing lines: 4.2.3.6 > 15.

In this case, you start as you would in a traditional consultation: read the text of hexagram 4's Judgment and Image, and the text of the first changing line, 4.2.

This is where the method diverges from the traditional method. Instead of moving on to 4.3, you instead move to hexagram 23 - the hexagram that would result if only line 2 of hexagram 4 changed.

:|:::| to :::::|

You read the Judgement and the Image texts for hexagram 23 - and then you read the next changing line, which is line 3, and you continue to proceed as above. Hexagram 23 changes to hexagram 52 when line 3 changes:

:::::| to ::|::|

...so you proceed to the texts for the Judgement and Image of 52, and then read the line text for the final changing line, line 6. That brings you, at last, to the Relating Hexagram, 15:

::|::| to ::|:::

(Note that you end up with the same Relating Hexagram as in the traditional method: 4.2.3.6 becomes 15 either way.)

In practice

It should be noted that Bradford Hatcher himself commented on the Transitional Hexagrams method in a reply to this post from 2017 (where, synchronistically - is that a word? - the OP used the exact same reading, 4.3.5.6, to explain how the method works :oops:). At that time, he stated two caveats to using the method:

"[W]hen I'm working with transitional hexagrams, I do that in addition to reading it the conventional way (reading all changing lines in the Ben or original Gua). It's just a way of getting more information, and not intended as a replacement of the tradition."​

and

"It should be remembered that the transitional hexagram method is new, at least to my knowledge, even though it follows the very old structural rules of the original Zhouyi. The method was first published (as far as we know) back in 1976, by three people simultaneously and independently - Mondo Secter, Bruce Hammerslough, and myself. It should, therefore, be treated as an ongoing experiment, at least for the next thousand years or so, until it earns a place or not."​

It has been... double-checking here... less than 1,000 years since 1976, so I can only speak on the efficacy of this method from my personal experience. Using Transitional Hexagrams takes you on a journey. Interpreting a reading this way takes considerably longer than the traditional method alone, especially as the number of changing lines approaches 6. But as I said above, I’ve found it to be incredibly helpful in understanding my readings.

First things first: When I use this method, I feel that the meaning and import of the Primary and Relating hexagrams do not change. The Primary hexagram is still the landscape in which you currently find yourself; the Relating hexagram is still about the context of the reading, "[what it] has to do with you and your relationship to it all," as Hilary puts it in her book. And for that matter, the individual changing lines are still the direct answer to your question... but that's where the difference lies in this method. The changing lines are stretched out over one or more additional hexagrams, meaning that the landscape of the whole reading is considerably broader and more varied than in a traditional interpretation.

While that can be daunting, it can also be extremely informative - it's like holding a magnifying glass to each step of the answer. It also allows for a completely different set of fan yao (see Liselle's post above), which, if used mindfully, can help to elucidate the meaning of each changing line even more.

Example
My first experience of using Transitional Hexagrams came one night when I had eaten too much, as I do too often. I went to bed, but awoke just a couple of hours later with an ominous feeling: my stomach was still full, and was deciding whether to expel its contents. I got up and went to my living room, closer to the bathroom.

Before I'd even sat down, I suddenly realized that I was in the landscape of a reading I had not yet understood. Just days before, I had asked, in a moment of dismay regarding my overeating, "What can I do when I crave food?" and received the reading 43.2.3.4 > 3. At the time, I had little idea what it meant; it seemed to be telling me that I just needed to Decide not to eat, though at first that would be difficult - but the line changes were a mystery to me. But now here I was, with my stomach Deciding whether to expel its contents, and my mind, not wanting to go through with it, was "Alarmed, calling out/Evening and night, bearing arms...." I read over the other changing lines, but still did not understand them, so I started reading Hatcher to try to distract myself from the nausea. I came across the section about Transitioning Hexagrams... and when I applied them to my situation and the reading, suddenly had a profound breakthrough.

43.2 led me to hexagram 49, Radical Change. Suddenly, it felt like I was being given a more direct answer to my question of what to do when I crave food. In a time of Decision and alarmed calling out I wanted Radical Change... but (49.3) this would not happen just because I wanted it to; I needed to allow the "...words of radical change [to] draw near three times." I would need to repeat the call for change within myself, using experiences like the one I was currently having in order to help myself realize the negative impact of overeating. This repeated call would lead to

17 (Following): A greater awareness of the present moment - for example, am I really hungry, or am I just anxious? I needed to be aware of the flow of the present moment, and not (17.4) become goal-oriented - watching the scale, for instance, or checking the mirror for visible signs of weight loss, which don't appear quickly. What all of this would mean for me is

3 (Difficulty at the beginning): It would not be easy. (It hasn't been!) It would mean false starts, a feeling-out process of what works and what doesn't. But the transitioning hexagrams - 49 and 17 - walked me through ways I could think about and deal with the difficulties. The result of this reading was that I have slowly made headway against overeating by repeatedly reviewing this reading, letting the words of change recirculate, feeling my true needs within the present moment, and always taking each day as a new beginning - no matter how difficult.
 

Liselle

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Corresponding lines in the relating hexagram

(Note: this is not the same as the line theory principle of correspondence as found in books such as Alfred Huang's.)

A very simple idea: read across from the moving lines to the lines in the relating hexagram that correspond to them.

For instance, in the reading 61.1.4 to 6, the corresponding lines would be 6.1 and 6.4.

||::||...:|:|||
61......6

What exactly these "do" in readings is not understood. One tentative possibility is that at times they might seem to behave somewhat similarly to fan yao - with, of course, all the same caveats and need for caution. The relating hexagram can "mean" a lot of things, many of which are not Yi's direct advice. For instance the relating hexagram can be how the situation feels to you, or a belief you hold. Your cast hexagram and moving lines could very well challenge those.

Example
"What should I do next about xyz?" Answer: 61.1.4 to 6

Cast line 61.1: "Guided, good fortune. There is another, no peace."
Corresponding line 6.1: "Not a lasting place for work. There are small words. Ending, good fortune."

Interpretation: Before casting, I'd written down several ideas about what to do next. I think 61 and my cast line 61.1 verified I was correct, I did already know, there was no need to go looking for more.

Corresponding line 6.1 added some explanation. I already knew because the matter was pretty simple (6.1's "small words"), and also I needn't take too much time over it.

So when I was doing internet research and noticed myself getting quite deeply into things, I felt comfortable telling myself to move along. Get the information I obviously need, and no more. Also, it allayed my worries about the whole topic and confirmed I was on the right track.

Resources
 
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blewbubbles

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Yarrow Stalk Three Way Split​


This is the Yarrow stalk divination method with a slight difference. (I have posted a primitive version of this description on Clarity Community forum, but I've worked on it in the mean time and I thought I'd share my 🌟revolutionary idea🌟 again with added colourful diagrams and an analysis of the numbers (to the best of my abilities) 😉. I'm very proud of the tables. They show how the number combinations work inside the sticks when the divisions and counting are performed. It may not be of general interest, but to myself I have always been curious about it, but found it too difficult to work out. This is my first serious attempt to probe the numerology of the yarrow stalks. My study was initiated by the question: Why do we remove a stalk from the right hand bunch after the yarrow stalks have been dividided? Why not from the left hand? Why not from either? Comments and criticism are welcome. My thinking may be full of flaws, and a bit premature, or maybe just superfluous, but I think that the basic theory is sound, and has been thoroughly tested. I hope my writing is clear and easy to understand, and I apologise for mistakes and pompousness. I hope you enjoy reading it.


Yijing Yarrow stalk divination requires a bunch of fifty stalks. One stalk is removed and placed on the table as the observer, and fourty-nine are used.
The stalks are divided into two bunches, right hand and left hand, and one stalk is removed after the Division is made. The norm is to remove this stalk from the right hand bunch. The bunches are then counted in groups of four until a final number is reached. This number is obtained by the sum of the remainder of each bunch that is smaller or equal to four. Three divisions are made to obtain one line of the hexagram which consists of six lines. The first line is at the base, and lines are added to the top of each line until the hexagram is completed. The first division will yield five or nine remainder stalks. The second and third division will yield four or eight remainder stalks respectively.
After a long time of experimentation I have come to the conclusion that the conventional method of yarrow stalk division will produce a conventional result, but by changing the rules slightly in the step where a single stalk is removed from the right-hand bunch, and removing a stalk from the left hand bunch instead, will offer the possibility of producing a different line. And when the rules are changed even further, by removing a stalk from either bunch at random, it will produce a variety of results to obtain a line.
In the Xiji Chuan the Yarrow stalk divination method is explained in cryptic format:
大衍之數五十,其用四十有九,分而為二以象兩,掛一以象三,揲之以四以象四時,歸奇於扐以象閏,五歲再閏,故再扐而後掛。

The total number is 50 but only 49 are used. Divide to represent one and two and remove one to represent three. Count in four to represent the seasons. Remove the rest to represent the leap year, followed by another leap year in five years. Repeat twise.
From most Yijing books we learn a method based on this ancient text. Blofeld provides us with information regarding the ritual: Remove the book and stalks from the shelf above your head. Remove one stalk and return it to the (beautifully decorated) container. Pass the stalks in a circular motion three times through the incense smoke. Position your table facing south.. Okay fine. Most other books are more succinct and to the point. However, in most books we find descriptions of how to count the stalks in a rather laborious and cumbersome way, which no doubt over a long period of practice will become easy. The method is standard, and westerners who have learnt this method of dividing and counting the stalks have usually learnt it form a book, of from someone who has followed the instructions given in a book specifically written with a western readership in mind. Nothing wrong with that. These authors have learnt the techniques in their turn from a Chinese practitioner or scholar, and thus the method had become standardised and conventional. Master Alfred Huang gives these instructions in his book based on experience he brought with him from China. Blofeld claimed to have learnt his method from the people in China he mixed with. No doubt Richard Wilhelm is adding nothing to the established method that was used by the Chinese prognosticators of his time. There is no reason for us to doubt that this is the correct method. I have scanned through a few Chinese publications, notable Nan Huaijin and Xu Qinting’s Yijing in Contemporary language, and the method in the Xiji chuan is identical to the one we already know.
Blofeld’s ritualistic approach seems to me to be a little bit excessive, but granted, if these kind of oriental rituals will contribute to calming the mind and setting a pleasant mood and atmosphere, but I doubt if it is altogether necessary.
As the protagonist, Jean des Esseintes, in Huysmans’ Novel, À rebours, makes it plain, that a piece of rope soaked in salt water and a picture of a schooner on the wall is enough to transfixed the mind while having a bath, to a place near, or at sea.
The standard method of yarrow stalk division and counting is not completely free of ritualistic elements, though. To explain:
Divide the stalk to symbolise, One, Heaven, in the left hand, and Two, Earth, in the right hand. Remove one stalk from the right-hand pile to symbolise Three, mankind. Keep this stalk between the little and ring finger of the left hand. Take the left-hand bunch in the right hand and count in groups of four, to symbolise the four seasons. Place the remainder of one, two, three, or four between the ring and middle finger to symbolise the leap year. Now take the right-hand bunch in the left hand and count in groups of four to represent the next leap year. This will produce one change.
Okay, that is very interesting. In my opinion the symbolism can be learnt early on, and memorised so that it will serve as a reminder, like a poem or a song. Ring a ring a rosy a pocket full of posy. But ultimately it is not necessary to rehearse it to be able to produce a number representing a change. Any substitution will suffice to serve the memory.
Next, this method of counting takes a long time. We have been inculturated to accept this laborious method of counting as a form of meditation, and a time to think the question over and to clear the mind of distractions. Normally it will take around twenty to thirty minutes to count the stalks for a single hexagram. This is very fine for the reasons given. But for other factors determined by time, temperament and expediency, we don’t have to follow these exact instructions and still get to exactly the same answers, if not better. Better? How is that possible? I wil tell in a short while, but first let us analise the conventional method step by step and determine what the necessary parts are.
Divide the stalks (to represent heaven on the left and earth on the right). We have to divide the stalks. That is crucial. And it has to be divided into two bunches, left and right, of course. To assign “Heaven” to the left hand and “Earth” to the right hand, I find unnecessary, but let us say you do assign it in this manner, what does it come to?
Remove one stalk from the right-hand bunch, to represent “Man”. This appears to insist that man is a product of earth, which is true, but it is also commonly believed that our spirit or soul has a divine origin. Therefore, it should be granted that the stalk representing the third may also be taken from the left-hand bunch, but this is hardly ever the case in the instructions we read in various publications. So far I have only found one book where it is given that the stalk may be removed from either bunch (Stalk Divination. Constance Cook Zhao Lu). This comes to me as a surprise! After all, everyone who uses Yarrow Stalks in stead of coins want to get the system right, and know that the stalk method will produce consistent results, based on a well considered, trusted and authorised pattern. The conventional method of counting provides us with exactly such a system. When suddenly an innovation is introduced that allows the practitioner to remove a stalk from either right- or left-hand bunch, there is cause for concern. The question which is on everybody’s lips is, will the final result be altered by breaking away from the prescribed and institutionalised method, and if so, how? Only a very few have actually gone through the trouble to work out the mathematics behind the division and counting method, since it strikes one as fairly complicated. Books that are trying to shed light on the numerology of the Yarrow Stalks are sometimes too technical for the everyday reader, or simply just not written. But it is worth knowing how the figures are formed using this method of counting, and why a certain control had been enforced.
I would like to begin by saying that the method as explained by Cook and Yu is the most radical, and following this method, by removing the initial stalk from either left or right-hand bunch will definitely produce a different hexagram from the one obtained by following the right-hand convention. It would be good to mention now, that it is also true that another quite different result will be obtained from picking the initial stalk only from the right hand bunch in stead of the left, but in the case of picking the initial stalk randomly from either left or right will produce more random results, while choosing from left-hand bunch consistently, will produce a result different from those obtained from the right, but similar in pattern. The reason for this will become clear when I show you how the numbers work to produce a “change”. The following tables show all the possibilities available during a yarrow stalk divination, up to a critical division between X and a single stalk.

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Tables 1 and 2 show all the possible combinations of three divisions of 49 stalks. The first division only produce two variations viz. 9 removed with 40 remaining, or 5 removed with 44 remaining. The second division will produces three variations with one repeated, viz. From 44, 4 removed with 40 remaining, and 8 removed with 36 remaining , and from 40, 4 removed with 36 remaining, and 8 removed with 32 remaining. The third division produces the figures that are used to determine the line. From the 44 root to 40, 4 removed with 36 remaining, and 8 removed with 24 remaining, from 36, 4 removed with 32 remaining and 8 removed with 28 remaining. From the 40 root 36, again 4 removed with 32 remaining, and 8 removed with 28 remaining, and finally the 40 root to 32, 4 removed with 28 remaining, and 8 removed with 24 remaining. The eight possible variations are effectively reduced to four actual variations, with one possibility of 36 (9), one possibility of 24 (6), and three possibilities of 28 (7) and 32 (8) each.
The manner in which the stalks are divided and counted doesn’t alter these outcomes, but it does alter the number combinations which produce these outcomes.
Tables 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 shows how this is achieved.
Table 1, shows the number combinations of the first division and it has a slightly different character from the following tables. The column on the far right shows the results of number combinations of the left-hand bunch and right-hand bunch on first division, with one stalk removed from the right hand. Similarly, the far left column shows the results for the same number combinations when a stalk is removed from the left-hand bunch. By using this constraint of removing the initial stalk from one hand of choice only, the possibility of producing a 9 is limited to one out of four number combinations. For example when the conventional method is used and the stalk is removed from the right-hand bunch, with 24 left and 25 right, the result will be 9 (20 + 4 + 20 +4 +1). When the stalk is removed from the left-hand bunch on the number combination, the result will be 5 (20+3+1 + 24+1). When, on the other hand, a stalk is removed from the left-hand bunch with the number combination of 25 left and 24 right, the result will be 9, inversely from the first example.
A new proposition emerges at this point. If there are 25 stalks in the right hand and a stalk is removed from it and counted, the result will be 9. But when there are 25 stalks in the left hand and a stalk is removed from it (changing the convention to left-hand) then the result will also be 9. This implies that in the number combination of 25+24 there is a hidden potential for producing a 9, only if a stalk were to be removed from the left hand in stead of the right. Since it will never be done, this potential will always remain hidden, and will never be used.
A hidden dragon, do not use...
By taking a stalk from either bunch at random will radically change the outcome and open up the possibility of using this hidden dragon, that is to say, when a division of 25 + 24 is made and a stalk is removed from the left-hand bunch at random, the answer will be 9 in stead of 5, as the right-hand convention dictates.
Picking a stalk at random from either bunch adds an element of chaos into the system which I am not very comfortable with. Unless randomnity can be maintained throughout, without it becoming an obstacle to concentration it can be implimented with success. Although it does suggest that the system of procuring numbers from yarrow stalk division is trivial. The idea of the division as the qualitative moment is now compromised and can in actual fact produce the opposite of the determined unit in a flash. Perhaps this is correct. The Xici chuan only instructs to remove one to symbolise the Three (man between heaven and earth). But it becomes rather inane to divide the stalks, and then to draw lots on it afterwards, which is roughly what it adds up to when a stalk is removed from either bunch at random.
Lucky this time, unlucky next time...
The reason will only become clear in the following divisions, but for the time being I would like to propose a radically new method of dividing the stalks: Splitting into three (⛬), with the third “bunch” equalling one stalk.

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When the stalks are divided in this way, the third is immediately dropped so that the left-hand and right-hand bunches can be counted straight away. The case of 24 + 25 and 25 + 24 leaving a hidden potential is shifted to another sequenced of number combinations, viz. 23 + 25, 24 + 24, 25 + 23 etc. Al subsequent number combinations will follow the same pattern by attaching from the left, in table 1 ,diagonally to the number in the row above it to the right i.e. minus one digit. The necessity to choose from which hand the additional stalk is to be removed is now irradiated, and the “hidden dragon”, or the potential to produce a change on grounds of an added random element, is simultaneously removed and utilised.
So, to compare the combinations presented by the conventional right-hand method to the radical three way split method it looks like this:

Right-hand
25+24=5
24+25=9
23+26=5
22+27=5
21+28=5
20+29=9
19+30=5
etc.

Three-way split
25+23=5
24+24=9
23+25=5
22+26=5
21+27=5
20+28=9
19+29=5
etc.
This doesn’t add up to much, you’d think.. In the following two divisions, it can be proven that by using the radical three way split method, the possibilities of producing a line are made richer by the addition of more possibilities without compromising the technique.
In the following two divisions the chances to arrive at a four or an eight will be determined by the same number pattern, although the number combinations will differ in each instance, which is determined by the starting number of yarrow stalks. Simply put, when 44 is the starting number, the number combinations will begin at 43 + 1, and when the starting number is 32 the range will begin at 31 + 1. Using the conventional division and counting method, the chance to produce an 8 is equal to the chance to produce a 4, distributed in groups of two throughout the number range. For instance, from 44, removing from the right, and counting the left hand stalks, 23 + 21 and 24 + 20 gives 8, 25 +19 and 26 +18 gives 4, 27 + 17 and 28 + 16 gives 8, 29 +15 and 30 + 14 gives 4, etc. These paired groups will always be in place as long as a stalk is removed front the right hand only. When the stalk is removed from the left hand throughout, a similar pattern will be formed, but with a difference. 24 + 20 and 25 + 19 will give 8, 26 + 18 and 27 + 17 will give 4, etc. In both left and right patterns one combination remains constant and will always produce an eight, while the neighbouring groups will either give four on one side and eight on the other. On account of the inversion of these relationships to the central number combination, depending on the right or left convention, the number range actually presents three number combinations to produce an eight, the one possibility being hidden and not used, like in the first division.
(It goes without saying that the fourth number combination in the range will always produce a four.)

To quickly compare the results for left and right convention:
Right
23+21 ⇒ 8
24+20 ⇒ 8
25+19 ⇒ 4
26+18 ⇒ 4

Left
23 + 21 ⇒ 4
24 + 20 ⇒ 8
25 + 19 ⇒ 8
26 + 18 ⇒ 4
(24+20 is the constant.)
Removing a stalk from the right hand (standard method), the combination of 23+21 produces an eight, while removing a stalk from the left hand (switched method) the combination of 25+19 produces 8. It is important to bear this in mind when a practitioner decides to remove a stalk from either bunch at random after division, in stead of sticking to on side only, because by doing so the hidden potential to produce 8 by the opposite neighbouring number combination is unleashed. I find this possibility exciting, but my objection against random choice (drawing lots) remains unaltered.
One of the reasons for my excitement is that, if this hidden potential can be implimented and standardised, the number range will then be divided more smoothly between 8, 8/4, 4, 4/8, 8, 8/4, 4, etc. In stead of the conventional range of 8, 8, 4, 4, 8, 8, 4, 4, etc. The stagger in the conventional range is caused artificially, and if any poetic or philosophical or symbolical meaning for this can be furnished, it will nonetheless remain artificial. So, once again, I would like to introduce a new way of dividing the Yarrow Stalks, into three, with the third “bunch” consisting of a single stalk, to utilise this hide potential, without falling into random choice.

Maybe my three way split method is only a justification for the radical method of removing a stalk from either bunch after the division, but the justification is sound. Not only does it rules out the random element that creaps in when a stalk is consciously or negligently removed from either bunch, but it challenges the convention which imposes a limit on the possibilities of the numerical outcome of a division, and it instantly puts into play the hidden potential of the number groups in the range that will produce eights if a stalk were to be removed from the opposite bunch.

The dragon is in the sky.
 
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mary f

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If you're using an unusual tool or method in your interpretations, one that a newcomer here wouldn't be familiar with, then we ask you to explain it - either in your post, or somewhere you can link to from the post. This is a thread for those explanations!

Please add your tool/ method here, and tell us
  • ...what this is / how you find it, with an example or two. (Something like these explanations of nuclear hexagrams and complements.)
  • and how you would use it in a reading.
If you have a lot to explain, you're welcome to start a new thread in this forum, or link to your own website - whatever works. But this thread should be a useful place to collect the shorter explanations.

(If you want to discuss a method described here in more depth, please start a new thread for that, so we can keep this one manageable.)

1) Concentrate well before, pay attention to the question, breath complete 3 or 4 rounds, and cast. 2) Read to interpret: I do a lot of Lise and Hilary. 3) If the light does not turn on I go to Wilhelm, Bradford, Legge, whichever calls my attention at the moment, using the ones that are closest to my eye.
 
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