Iching related websites

[Sarvenaz]

Hellow

I was wondering if we can discuss this topic here BUT i take my chances and here we go!

Which iching related websites are legitimate? Ifate? Divination? Cafeausoul? Taoscopy? Etc...

I'd love to read about your opinions

 

[dfreed]

My initial 'two cents': I find that many of the I Ching websites offer much more than translations, and are often more focused on 'interpretation' - telling us what they think the I Ching is saying. Many books do this as well.

I've seen instances when the actual words / characters /images of the Yi are not even shown or offered, and all we have are 'interpretations' or commentaries (other people's words).

I suppose that interpretations, commentaries, comments ... can be useful if we use them as 'interpretive tools', that help us explore the actual words and imagery of the Yi. But when we mostly - or even completely - replace the Yi's words and images with what others say and think, then and we stop using our own sense(s) of seeing and imagination ... and that's not such a good thing.

I also find that some sites and books offer what I consider New Age, or more 'spiritual' interpretations of the Yi. Again, these are not usually based on the Yi's actual images and words, so they are another form of 'interpretation' - and possibly someone else telling us what the Yi is saying or what we should be thinking or feeling.

I could imagine that these sites seem to give really good advice if I ask: "is this the correct approach for me to be one with the universe" or "how can I best 'ascend' from the 3rd Dimension to the 5th (3D to 5D)?; but if I ask "what should I cook for dinner" or, "do you have any advice on cleaning up my home?" - I like to rely on the actual words (even with different translations) of the Yi.

D.

 

[Trojina]

Hellow

I was wondering if we can discuss this topic here BUT i take my chances and here we go!

Which iching related websites are legitimate? Ifate? Divination? Cafeausoul? Taoscopy? Etc...

I'd love to read about your opinions

Why not share your opinions first, you must have some ?


You can tell for yourself surely that Taoscopy is the Oracle of Taoscopy not the I Ching because there's nothing/very little of the I Ching present in his writing.

I don't know what 'Ifate' is.

Cafesoul I think includes all sorts of divination not just I Ching and is fairly new ageish. Whenever I've glanced at it there was nothing that would make me want to spend more time there.


But Cafesoul is a whole other category of website than for example Taoscopy since his is based on hos individual work and Cafesoul is a whole collection of stuff.

 

[hilary]

I was wondering if we can discuss this topic here BUT i take my chances and here we go!

Why ever not?

Here's the links page, for starters:

More I Ching sites

Links to I Ching sites - and only I Ching sites - are listed here. (If you know one I should add, please let me know!)The links are roughly sorted into...articles, research and discussion online readings complete translations and commentaries link collections I Ching art pro

www.onlineclarity.co.uk

(I expect it needs updating - it usually does. Let me know!)

 

[tacrab]

In early days of internet, there used to be a huge Zhouyi/Yijing link site, can't remember the name. It ended up being full thousands of outdated links and computer-crashing material.

Questions that run through my mind when trying to gauge a website's quality:
What content does it have? Texts? Automatic I Ching readings, resources, instruction, forums, items for sale?
Is it reliable in content? Are its materials unique or is it posting or reposting things of dubious quality?
Does it keep up-to-date about the field?
Friendly, open to ideas, or axe to grind?
Stable in longevity/tech?
Copyright compliant, i.e. not using someone else's work without permission?
Design user-friendly?
Overladen with typos, auto-translate.?
And so on.

My own compilation of, to my knowledge, reliable websites:

LINKS

Study Contemplating I Ching Barbara Davis Center for Zhouyi & Ancient Chinese Philosophy—Jinan, China Chinese Institute of Zhou-yi—Taiwan I Ching Insitute—Hanna Moog Living Tao—Chungliang Al Hu…

contemplatingiching.wordpress.com

 

[surnevs]

Greg Whincup's page:

http://www.whincup.ca/yijing/

 

[tacrab]

Joel Biroco has a lot of maerial, particularly for deeper reading on history. https://www.biroco.com/yijing/index.htm
Russell Cottrell has tons of material, too. His short book reviews are especially helpful. http://www.russellcottrell.com/VirtualYarrowStalks/index.asp

 

[surnevs]

tacrab, those pages being outdated (#5) You mentioned, You normally can find here:
https://web.archive.org/

 

[Sarvenaz]

My initial 'two cents': I find that many of the I Ching websites offer much more than translations, and are often more focused on 'interpretation' - telling us what they think the I Ching is saying. Many books do this as well.

I've seen instances when the actual words / characters /images of the Yi are not even shown or offered, and all we have are 'interpretations' or commentaries (other people's words).

I suppose that interpretations, commentaries, comments ... can be useful if we use them as 'interpretive tools', that help us explore the actual words and imagery of the Yi. But when we mostly - or even completely - replace the Yi's words and images with what others say and think, then and we stop using our own sense(s) of seeing and imagination ... and that's not such a good thing.

I also find that some sites and books offer what I consider New Age, or more 'spiritual' interpretations of the Yi. Again, these are not usually based on the Yi's actual images and words, so they are another form of 'interpretation' - and possibly someone else telling us what the Yi is saying or what we should be thinking or feeling.

I could imagine that these sites seem to give really good advice if I ask: "is this the correct approach for me to be one with the universe" or "how can I best 'ascend' from the 3rd Dimension to the 5th (3D to 5D)?; but if I ask "what should I cook for dinner" or, "do you have any advice on cleaning up my home?" - I like to rely on the actual words (even with different translations) of the Yi.

D.

Wow! Thank you for your comprehensive reply!

I sometime think that most of these websites are sharing something more than even interpretation because of the copy right rules and regulations... That's why i asked the question in the first place.

 

[Sarvenaz]

Why not share your opinions first, you must have some ?


You can tell for yourself surely that Taoscopy is the Oracle of Taoscopy not the I Ching because there's nothing/very little of the I Ching present in his writing.

I don't know what 'Ifate' is.

Cafesoul I think includes all sorts of divination not just I Ching and is fairly new ageish. Whenever I've glanced at it there was nothing that would make me want to spend more time there.


But Cafesoul is a whole other category of website than for example Taoscopy since his is based on hos individual work and Cafesoul is a whole collection of stuff.

Thank you for replying. Your comments are always insightful.

The reason i didn't give my opinion in the first place was to avoid inciting any biases in others replies.

I think such websites try their best to avoid copyright problems by building their own narrative sometimes based on thin air. That's why they're not accurate in every situation and may not make sense to some people.

 

[Sarvenaz]

Why ever not?

Here's the links page, for starters:

More I Ching sites

Links to I Ching sites - and only I Ching sites - are listed here. (If you know one I should add, please let me know!)The links are roughly sorted into...articles, research and discussion online readings complete translations and commentaries link collections I Ching art pro

www.onlineclarity.co.uk

(I expect it needs updating - it usually does. Let me know!)

Yay! I haven't stumbled across this web page. I'll definitely check it out

 

[Sarvenaz]

In early days of internet, there used to be a huge Zhouyi/Yijing link site, can't remember the name. It ended up being full thousands of outdated links and computer-crashing material.

Questions that run through my mind when trying to gauge a website's quality:
What content does it have? Texts? Automatic I Ching readings, resources, instruction, forums, items for sale?
Is it reliable in content? Are its materials unique or is it posting or reposting things of dubious quality?
Does it keep up-to-date about the field?
Friendly, open to ideas, or axe to grind?
Stable in longevity/tech?
Copyright compliant, i.e. not using someone else's work without permission?
Design user-friendly?
Overladen with typos, auto-translate.?
And so on.

My own compilation of, to my knowledge, reliable websites:

LINKS

Study Contemplating I Ching Barbara Davis Center for Zhouyi & Ancient Chinese Philosophy—Jinan, China Chinese Institute of Zhou-yi—Taiwan I Ching Insitute—Hanna Moog Living Tao—Chungliang Al Hu…

contemplatingiching.wordpress.com

Thank you for taking the time to type a reply for me. I really appreciate the sharp questions that you left. They're thought provoking and I learnt how to analyze and validate those websites contents by what you conveyed.

Cheers

 

[Sarvenaz]

Greg Whincup's page:

http://www.whincup.ca/yijing/

I bookmarked it so I'll be able to check it out later.

Thanks!

 

[dfreed]

A few of the websites that I make use of:

Harmen Mesker - you'll find Harmen's name and discussions about his methods quite a bit on this website.

​

* Harmen's Website is a fount of information - you can sign up for workshop notices, and he has many Yi-related articles. He started a translation of the Zhouyi (see Translation Notes) but it is not complete.​

​

* Harmen's YiTube (YouTube) page - very informative. A good place to start is towards the bottom of the list of videos, and look at Videos 1, 2, 3, .... Number 3 - 'How (not) to consult the Yijing' has been quoted and discussed quite often in these threads - I quite like what he says.​

Bradford Hatcher (whom passed away last year) has a lot of useful and interesting stuff on his website, of particular interest:

​

* Free (downloadable) PDF versions of his 2- volume I Ching and Laotzu's Tao Te Ching (my favorite version of this Daoist classic).​

​

* Yijing Hexagram Names and Core Meanings - has about seven dozen names/titles for each hexagram, all with what he felt were Key Words for each hexagram; a glossy of terms/meanings for each (most of them based on modern glosses I believe), and a short Note for each where he gives his take on the meaning of each hexagram. If you make use of the Hexagrams' names in your interpretations, this will likely be of interest to you.​

​

* Tarot as a Counseling Language: Core Meanings of the Cards - along with good stuff about the Tarot (as far as I can tell, not being familiar with that particular oracle), he also provides 'Correspondences' between each tarot card and different aspects (or parts of) the Yijing, including the hexagrams, trigrams, and line types (broken/solid, yin/yang).​

​

For example, for the Four of Pentacles, he provides information and explanations about the card itself, and also provides a 'correspondence' (connection) between the card and Hex. 15. I have sometimes found these very informative. (He also has correspondences with astrology and the Qabalah.)​

​

And he has a slew of other stuff: about the US Constitution, carrying capacity, Buddhism, addiction recovery, intentional communities .... but as he notes at the beginning of the page: Please forgive the lack of updates and any dead links on account of my having proved mortal. ​

​

Web version of Richard Wilhelm's I Ching (Book 1)

​

As far as I can tell, this is a complete version of Wilhelm's Yi - book 1. I will use it on my cell phone, if I have no other versions available to me. It starts with a hexagram 'look up' table - based on the trigrams - so you can easily find the hexagrams (and lines) you're working with.​

​

The caution I offer is that it does not make clear which text is from the Zhouyi and which is Wilhelm's commentary. For example for Hex. 2, line 1, it reads:​

​

"Six at the beginning (line 1) means:​

When there is hoarfrost underfoot, ​

Solid ice is not far off.​

(this is the line 1 text, whereas ...)​

​

Just as the light-giving power represents life ....​

(this is the commentary, not the line text)."​

Many people find the commentary useful, but it's important to know that's what you are reading - to know which is the hexagram and line texts, and which are the commentaries about these.​

Best, D