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How has Yi changed your life?

hilary

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Clarity is 21! Which means it's been around for all of 0.7% of the Yi's 3,000-odd years. In all that time, people have never stopped doing readings - probably because Yi has never stopped helping.

So... here's a thread to reflect on that. How has Yi changed your life? Maybe there's a specific reading that comes to mind, or maybe it's something more gradual and harder to pin down. (I dithered about which forum to put this in, but plunked it over here as what we have to share might not be individual readings.) Let's collect and compare our experiences...
 

my_key

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The readings that stick in my mind are from maybe 10 years or more ago. I was looking at taking a college course and undecided about which of 2 courses at two different colleges to take. This would be a big commitment for me both financially and in terms of commitment of time. I did a couple of readings with questions something like "What if I took course A?" and "What if I took course B?" .

Cast within a few minutes of each other I was amazed when both consultations produce a reading of 32 Unchanging. At the time I was pretty much using Karcher's text as my only source of reference and felt that Fixing the Omen / Persevering was telling me that all roads lead to Rome and to take either of the courses. There is an element in Hex 32 of change being the theme that is most enduring and that whichever course I took there would be a resulting change that would have a long-lasting influence on my life.

The nuclear of 32 is 43 Deciding and Parting and I saw in this that the deep pull of the reading was coming as a call for breaking up of obstacles that had accumulated in my life at the time.

As I studied, over a period of 5 or 6 years, my day job became increasingly stressful and less enjoyable and in 2014, having fully qualified (fixed the omen), I had an opportunity to move from my full time salaried employment to set up a private practice. I grabbed it with both hands and have not looked back since.

.....and it was exactly like that.
 
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IrfanK

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How has Yi changed your life?
Hmmm. An interesting question. Has it changed my life? I think it's a bit like reading literature, it makes life richer. Once or twice ... no, more often than that ... I've consulted about really difficult topics and got some challenging responses. Instead of just focusing on the pain of the situation, I feel myself being interested in the response, trying to work it out. So, I'm curious about it, rather than hurt by it. Or curious as well as being hurt by it. It doesn't really make life better, but it gives me a tool to understand it.

And it's just a fun hobby that you never get to the end of. I did turn to the Yi in about April 2020, when I was obsessed with reading the news, none of which was very happy or encouraging. I thought the Yi would help. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. I think perhaps one of the biggest advantages wasn't so much the wisdom that I found in it, but that it meant I was reading the news far less. Here's a quote from Tom Waits:

The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering​


The Yi helps to improve the quality of our suffering.
 

hilary

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The first readings on a thread about life-changing readings: Lasting, unchanging. I like it ;) .

Yi as a reason to read the news less - also good. And the practice of reading as engendering curiosity. I suppose after just a year, and one in which we have mostly sat within our four walls waiting for something to change, it might be hard to say what change it's made.

I have something like the opposite problem: after a quarter of a century or so, which changes would have happened anyway? Who would I have been at this age, minus Yi? Impossible to say, of course. I think readings have helped most with relationships of all kinds - understanding people better, seeing what they want and need, and getting a great deal calmer about it all.

I can think of a couple of individual readings that qualify as life-changing in different ways. I'll look them up to get the details right and then post.
 

my_key

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I think readings have helped most with relationships of all kinds - understanding people better, seeing what they want and need, and getting a great deal calmer about it all.
Yi is crucial for insights into relationship. For me Yi has encouraged me to develop and mature; to gain a better understanding of myself and, therefore, most importantly have a better relationship with myself. As someone once said in order to reduce the suffering we all experience (to heal, if you like) an important step along the way is to 'Know Thyself'.

So in that respect I'd agree wholeheartedly with IrfanK when he says "The Yi helps to improve the quality of our suffering."
 

IrfanK

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As someone once said in order to reduce the suffering we all experience (to heal, if you like) an important step along the way is to 'Know Thyself'.
Maybe it's a bit like meditation practice. People focus a lot on the "reduce the suffering" part and hope to get something out of it. But it's really more about just being aware of what you experience. And somehow that does seem to lead to some kind of change in your life. I can't think of that many times when I think I've really done something differently because of a reading ... but I just have a tool to understand the situation.
I can't think of that many times when I think I've really done something differently because of a reading ...
Oh, that's not true! Just a month ago, I was dithering about whether it was worth lining up at the vaccination center when it wasn't certain that I'd be eligible. It pretty much told me to give it a shot, and I went and got it. I find I deliberately don't ask questions about the advisability of doing something that I've already decided to do, but that one I hadn't decided.
 

hilary

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an important step along the way is to 'Know Thyself'
Yes - come to think of it - many important readings for me have included a moment of recognising myself. 'Oh yes, that's me,' often followed by varying degrees of cringe.

~~~

Life-changing readings - stories I'm sure I've told before, but never mind...

Here's the formative I Ching Community reading...

I set up a 'Friends Scheme' here in 2001, not long after I set up the forums. The idea was to give people readings, and ask them to donate in response - money, or help with other people's readings, whichever. And I got lots of sign-ups, lots of readings to do... and next to no donations of either help or money. I was giving, 'they' were taking, and I was starting to feel thoroughly sorry for myself.

I thought of sending a complaining email. I thought of setting up a 'points' system that meant people had to earn their next free reading by giving something back. And happily, I thought of asking Yi first.

'Where next with Friends?'
42.5 to 27

'True and confident, with a benevolent heart,
No question: good fortune from the source.
Truth, confidence and benevolence are my own strength.'

And this is why the I Ching Community is a forum full of people helping one another with readings, and not another dried-out husk on the internet's pile of failed experiments.

~~~

This one's more personal and not so easy to pin down. It's from 2006, when my Mum was ill in hospital, and kept needing us to visit. So we would drop everything and come over, and I would mostly just feel irritated. She and I basically got on OK, but I didn’t exactly like her - so while I did my best to be kind and helpful and so on, it all felt awkward, blocked, and tangled up in a whole assortment of petty resentments.

So here I was in June, trying to wrap my head round Mum's needs and find some sort of flow. Journal entry:

"Thought of asking for a prognosis. Thought again: in the first place, it's the same as anyone else's. And I know her life expectancy is limited to a few years or so.
(She had an untreatable liver condition that would start causing problems eventually.)

Thought of asking for a prognosis for the next weeks and months. Then thought - why do I want that?
Answer: so I can prepare.

So I asked:

How can I best prepare for the coming weeks and months with Mum?

Answer: 45.1 to 17

Gather yourself, focus...
put the king in the temple, make decisions centred and in touch with the divine.
Ready your best and biggest animals to offer.

Moving line tells me a lot.

There is fu
- yes, here I am, feeling the quality of the moment - Seeing, as best I can
- but no completion.
- yes - not knowing how this might end, unable to 'tie it off', and also maybe the fu has its limits.

Hence disarray
- tell me about it! I feel very, very scattered.
Hence gathering
- or rather, hence the need for gathering. I know I need to get myself together. How?

Like calling out, one clasp of the hand brings laughter.

This came on a day when Mum had suddenly taken to holding my hand. That was 'like calling out'.

No cares. Going on, no mistake.

This tells me that my 'preparation' and the basis for all and any 'getting myself together' is just a simple, spontaneous and natural relationship with Mum."

I had a long conversation the next day with the 'great person' - my husband David - who could see how my lingering resentments from childhood were getting in the way.

Journal entry the following day:

"Today Mum called this morning and asked for me to come over and give her a shower. I did. And compassion and caring flowed naturally, just as Yi promised.

If I just give to her, as much as she needs - how very, very simple that could be."

And, from there on, it pretty much was. I was able to do what Mum asked and be there when she needed - not because we'd resolved all the stuff from my childhood, but because 'one clasp of the hands' had simply short-circuited it all. I could just Follow my simple impulses to care and help, without taking 18-ish detours through Issues. Those could wait.

Nothing very spectacular happened... I gave her her shower, I ran a lot of errands, spent time with her, did a lot of negotiating with nurses, and I seem to remember doing a whole heap of ironing for some reason.

Mum died a few weeks later. Something about the shift created by that reading meant I could be there for her and give her all she needed from me. I think this one was my most life-changing single reading, because if I hadn't found that natural compassion while Mum was alive, I would have been really undone by guilt after her death.
 

my_key

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Yes - come to think of it - many important readings for me have included a moment of recognising myself. 'Oh yes, that's me,' often followed by varying degrees of cringe.
Yes that cringe is a vital part of the process. :)
 

marybluesky

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I have been interested in divination since early youth. I used different methods, and like most people, the majority of my readings were about love matters at first.

I signed in Clarity for I wanted to share readings and get comments in a time my mind & heart were really foggy. I had used I Ching before, but in a very simplistic way, like a "loves me, loves not" sort of thing. It took time to learn how to combine the text & hexagram with my intuition in order to see what's beyond the instant situation & the frustrating need for an answer.

This broader view affected my life. Plus, the I Ching was a way to confirm my intuitive insights I rarely shared with anyone: it was in times so "in line" with my take of situations; and sharing it with Clarity members was exhilarating. My thoughts have been particularly in tune with @Trojina's. 🍀

I thank all members who helped me to understand the I Ching & to broaden my view.

All in all, I'd say the I Ching has made it easier for me to surf through the life.
 
B

becalm

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It's helped me evolve albeit slowly. Coupled with the generosity of other members helping me learn about myself and situations I've come to understand so much more than I would have, had the IChing and this website not existed,
It's so fortunate that I can come across my own personal threads and just see how much I have grown although sometimes I feel a little embarrassed about how I've dealt with things. I remind myself you can only deal with things with the knowledge you have....
 
L

legume

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few things that come to mind as to how Yi has changed my life.

someone once told me they could learn from me how to be alone, just with oneself. i realised lately, that it wasn't always as easy for me as it may seem to the outside observer and a lot of it i learned from I Ching. i guess in some ways it taught me i'm never actually alone. since I've started using Yi it's a bit like having a friend who always listens intently and always responds and has incomparable patience...

another thing is getting insights, sometimes even somewhat into the future. example. i don't remember exact reading but once i noticed a colleague i worked with closely started to act differently. i asked Yi about it and immediately got hit with a thought "oh, he's gonna leave his job". about a week later we got official email about his plans to leave. nobody saw it coming, he's been very loyal to the company, where i was pretty new. during friday drinks some girls approached me in shock asking if i knew about it and i automatically said "yes", to which they started inquiring how and so on. i said i had a hunch but it was a lesson to keep my mouth shut... now when i do get a hunch like that i also try not to see it as the only possible scenario and keep in mind the potentiality of any given situation.

then there's also this one reading that really pulled me out of a dark place. i was at a really low point in my life, feeling very emotional, staying in a block of flats on the 11th floor with a window that opens to the roof... for some it would mean a great view, for me it was a scary possibility. i was walking "home", that is back to that place, didn't take public transport even though it was freezing cold as needed to just cool down. while walking i reached for my phone and asked Yi something along the lines "what if i just end it". now i'm not sure anymore if it was 44>24 or 24>44 (though i think the first one, basically all lines changing) which i immediately took as - it's a stupid idea and that i'll have to do this (that is - life, on earth ;)) all over again to which i thought F no! as soon as i got back to that place i sat down to meditate, didn't have suicidal thoughts since. somehow been also respecting life more in general as well. i even dare to say i kinda enjoy it every now and then.

apologies if this emo-content was triggering for some. overall Yi is a great teacher, one that, with my codependency issues, i might cling to a bit too much at times, but also one that hasn't failed me. i believe Philip K. Dick said this "If you use the I Ching long enough and continually enough, it will begin to change and shape you as a person. It will make you into a Taoist, whether or not you have ever heard the word, whether or not you want to be."

and another thing is that i used to get songs playing in my head, that when i actually listened to their lyrics turned out to speak about whatever i was going through at that time. well, now i also sometimes get lines from I Ching buzzing in my head, without ever throwing a cast, just appearing in my mind, like an earworm would. sometimes it happens when speaking to friends, when they tell me about something they're going through. and again, there's a lesson in keeping my mouth shut, as blatantly quoting Wilhelm to them really isn't the best option :lol:
 

Lana73123

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How has the Yi changed my life?

My first introduction was in 1999. I don’t recall much except I remembered the name - the I Ching. I remember tossing the pennies and the lady pulled out a book and read some things to me. Fast forward to about 6 years ago - 2015. I was at a friend’s house and she asked me if I’d ever heard of the I Ching. I said yes but knew absolutely nothing about it. She had just gotten the R L Wing Workbook (at a thrift store), she pulled it out, we gathered some pennies and threw the coins. I don’t remember the hexagram but i do remember I was like - wow!
Several months later, I couldn’t get it (the accuracy of Yi’s response to my inquiry) out of my mind. I started looking stuff up on the internet, got instructions on how to throw and read the coins. And that started my journey of a million little pieces and jibs of paper with lines and numbers written on them!
At first, like many, the main theme of my inquiries was love relationships. It took about 2 years before what the Yi was telling me sank in and for my behavior, thoughts and intent to truly change. I finally understood why it’s called the Book of Changes.
During that two year, very painful, transition - many, many times I received Hexagram 52 - Be Still. That was really hard for me to do!!! For so long, my trajectory had been fast paced, quick actions - just go, go, go. So, to stop and be still - it was exhausting. I *was* exhausted. Tired. Confused. Broken. But, I listened to Yi and did the best I could. I preservered. I kept consulting Yi - focusing more on asking the *right* questions, in the correct way. The advice was sinking into my brain. I was starting to put the pieces together and could remember, intuitively, some of what the hexagrams meant.
During that time I would also get Hexagram 36 - Brightness Hiding, Hexagram 44 - Coming to Meet, and Hexagram 54 - The Marrying Maiden. Boy, lemme tell ya - I was ready to transition out of that pattern!!
Now, 4 years later, I see the world around me differently. My actions, thoughts and words try to come from a place of correct action. My intuition into people’s reactions to me is refining and the hard lessons, frustrations and impatience occur less and less. I haven’t yet figured out what pattern I’m in now. Maybe that’s my next inquiry!!!

So... how has the Yi changed my life? The Yi saved my life and showed me it was worth living.
For that, I am forever grateful and honored. I don’t want to sound like a complete nut but if I had not stuck with it and had not listened to Yi, it’s very possible I would not be here to write this.

AND THIS WEBSITE - ONLINECLARITY - had a major roll in this transformation.
Thank you to everyone who answered my questions in Shared Readings.
Thank you, Hilary, for creating this space.
 

hilary

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i also sometimes get lines from I Ching buzzing in my head, without ever throwing a cast, just appearing in my mind, like an earworm would. sometimes it happens when speaking to friends, when they tell me about something they're going through. and again, there's a lesson in keeping my mouth shut, as blatantly quoting Wilhelm to them really isn't the best option :lol:
52.5? ;)

I'm very glad of your 44-24 reading.
 

Lana73123

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I watched “A Glitch in the Matrix.” the other night and one of the main threads of the movie was snippets of a talk by Philip K Dick given in 1977.

over the past 14-15 months - I have been thinking that the I Ching is a link to the “matrix” interface. In quantum, the base/fundemental particle is a tetrahedron - which has 4 sides ... it’s a nuclear hexagram. ...

https://watch.amazon.com/detail?asin=B08VLMJZVS&territory=US&ref_=share_ios_movie&r=web

i believe Philip K. Dick said this "If you use the I Ching long enough and continually enough, it will begin to change and shape you as a person. It will make you into a Taoist, whether or not you have ever heard the word, whether or not you want to be."
 

post-snow

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Clarity is 21! Which means it's been around for all of 0.7% of the Yi's 3,000-odd years. In all that time, people have never stopped doing readings - probably because Yi has never stopped helping.

So... here's a thread to reflect on that. How has Yi changed your life? Maybe there's a specific reading that comes to mind, or maybe it's something more gradual and harder to pin down. (I dithered about which forum to put this in, but plunked it over here as what we have to share might not be individual readings.) Let's collect and compare our experiences...
for me it helped me grow up.
it gives me calm, a feelng that what i am experiencing is an universal experience. helps me gĺook at a thing from a distance, like tlaking with some person who is very experienced.
 

surnevs

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A note in a book about Leibnitz binary system and its link to the 64 hexagrams around the start eighties just made me curious. What I did not know at the time was that it showed up to be a slow but still growing passion. Very seldom do I use it for divination - I do, yes but when urgent - but I use it almost daily though trying to understand its language, You could say that I'm experimenting more or less in a nearly hopeless attempt to break the code; I shall be aware here not to make it sound for more than what it is, again: a passion which has helped me in its own mysterious way.
 

Hatand

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few things that come to mind as to how Yi has changed my life.

someone once told me they could learn from me how to be alone, just with oneself. i realised lately, that it wasn't always as easy for me as it may seem to the outside observer and a lot of it i learned from I Ching. i guess in some ways it taught me i'm never actually alone. since I've started using Yi it's a bit like having a friend who always listens intently and always responds and has incomparable patience...

another thing is getting insights, sometimes even somewhat into the future. example. i don't remember exact reading but once i noticed a colleague i worked with closely started to act differently. i asked Yi about it and immediately got hit with a thought "oh, he's gonna leave his job". about a week later we got official email about his plans to leave. nobody saw it coming, he's been very loyal to the company, where i was pretty new. during friday drinks some girls approached me in shock asking if i knew about it and i automatically said "yes", to which they started inquiring how and so on. i said i had a hunch but it was a lesson to keep my mouth shut... now when i do get a hunch like that i also try not to see it as the only possible scenario and keep in mind the potentiality of any given situation.

then there's also this one reading that really pulled me out of a dark place. i was at a really low point in my life, feeling very emotional, staying in a block of flats on the 11th floor with a window that opens to the roof... for some it would mean a great view, for me it was a scary possibility. i was walking "home", that is back to that place, didn't take public transport even though it was freezing cold as needed to just cool down. while walking i reached for my phone and asked Yi something along the lines "what if i just end it". now i'm not sure anymore if it was 44>24 or 24>44 (though i think the first one, basically all lines changing) which i immediately took as - it's a stupid idea and that i'll have to do this (that is - life, on earth ;)) all over again to which i thought F no! as soon as i got back to that place i sat down to meditate, didn't have suicidal thoughts since. somehow been also respecting life more in general as well. i even dare to say i kinda enjoy it every now and then.

apologies if this emo-content was triggering for some. overall Yi is a great teacher, one that, with my codependency issues, i might cling to a bit too much at times, but also one that hasn't failed me. i believe Philip K. Dick said this "If you use the I Ching long enough and continually enough, it will begin to change and shape you as a person. It will make you into a Taoist, whether or not you have ever heard the word, whether or not you want to be."

and another thing is that i used to get songs playing in my head, that when i actually listened to their lyrics turned out to speak about whatever i was going through at that time. well, now i also sometimes get lines from I Ching buzzing in my head, without ever throwing a cast, just appearing in my mind, like an earworm would. sometimes it happens when speaking to friends, when they tell me about something they're going through. and again, there's a lesson in keeping my mouth shut, as blatantly quoting Wilhelm to them really isn't the best option :lol:
I feel that Yi-jiu and I are both better people today than we were before we met each other. Her influence has helped me become stronger and wiser. seeing 444
 

kestrelw1ngs

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beautiful thread.

I only began using Yi in 2020 though it has been around proximally in various forms before....a novelty Chinese divination kit for kids in childhood, an old translation cropping up in my book collection. Having developed an reliance on tarot cards in the wake of a turbulent era led me somehow to the Yi.

since beginning the actual casting relationship....well I turn to divination less to hear what the ego wants to hear and developing some kind of trust again with the universe and its various energies. I've got quite a bit of codependency and mental/emotional unwellness in me and tend towards insecurity in my own decisions. So maybe I overrely on the oracle a bit to give answers....more and more it has changed into a conversational relationship and enabled me to calm down significantly. Hexagrams 20 and 5 almost feel like a rhythm to return to in this uncertain period of life. Just look, wait, listen.

Yi does feel like a reliable and honest friend. It only took a few times of disregarding its description of circumstances and plunging ahead with acting as if the situation was what I wanted it to be, to learn that its accuracy can usuallt be trusted.
And the feedback offered in this community has been invaluable in many ways teaching more about the human condition than therapy. Embarrassing to see old threads but ah well.

Yi will often reveal truths I don't want to hear ...recently 42.6 which was pretty hard to swallow but snapped me out of the self-pity powerlessness cycle I've been in for awhile.

The Yi has felt most impactful in healing from spiritual abuse and reforming my concept of how the world works, and what life is about. That Phillip K Dick quote strikes a chord, the Yi slowly eroding the shoreline and carving one into a Taoist.

Like you legume, I also have song lyrics and sometimes Yi lines that pop up and carry meaning. 61.2 in particular floats to the surface often.
Its a bit like poetry or literature in that way, parts stick to you and with you, weaving bits of meaning or comfort through life.

Really returns me to a sense of being a child with much to learn.
 

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