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Whereas a mystic might use a ritual to draw down the ‘Spirits’, Stephen [Karcher] might do a ritual to stimulate the archetypal ‘Spirits within us’.
The Book of Changes seems to offer relevant answers because of the way that the human mind interacts with three features of the book: its oracular language, its question-and-answer format, and its narrative structure. Any system of divination with these three features would also appear to give relevant answers. Nevertheless, not all such systems would be equally useful or insightful.
Now, Balkin is very smart and insightful, but I don’t really find his explanation satisfying and convincing. To the contrary, I would note that Balkin, who is a distinguished constitutional law professor at Yale, belongs to a very specific ‘tribe’, that of secular academicians. As such – and I don’t pretend to know his mind – he either has internalized the worldview of his tribe, or requires suitable ‘cover’ that he can present to his tribe to justify his odd side interest in what would be considered so much superstition and nonsense.
The most promising ‘model’ of a parapsychological study that would be able to sort out between explanations a) and b) above would likely be analogous to the various multiple-blind studies carried out on experienced mediums by Dr. Julie Bieschel and her colleagues at the Windbridge Research Center.
However, I don’t think it is only that. Take Hexagram 4, ‘Youthful Folly’ – this is one of those rare instances in which Yi speaks as ‘me’,
I think it eminently possible that whatever Yi is may be ‘singular’ in personality, but nevertheless express this differently to different individuals.
Chuckles - So they are saying nothing much here. It appears they have looked at what Yijing is and, possibly, just made up an explanation how it might work.
This is why I favour first-hand experiential research.
A traditional Chinese ‘fortune teller’ will use a number of methods when consulted. I had the pleasure of consulting one once. …
In terms of Yijing it is perhaps comforting to think of it as an external ‘guide’. I suspect it is merely a device for us to access some ability within us. This would perhaps explain how there could be such a plethora of different divination systems which all yield practical and applicable results. However, my experiences tell me nothing about what processes are actually taking place.
Post-enlightenment Causal Science later became the dominant ideology. God help those who broach the rules. For they will be burned at the stake in the Journals.
My thoughts are that it will be physicists who will eventually explain the processes of divination, the relationships between mind, matter and time. Until then we have a dominant culture of distrust and disbelief in such things. Adding that it is only quite recently that businesses and bureaucracies have embraced evidence-based governance. There is a large cultural lag.
This sort of research can only prove that divination works. It might have purpose insofar that it might help others to accept the idea.
Are you sure? It’s certainly the only place where the appended text refers to Yijing in that manner. Could that one line be a reference to a once famous story or quote? We don’t know.
I will end with this one thought. For me Yijing has not only been a divination method, but a training and development tool for that facility within me to see the time. This outcome explicitly stated in the Dazhuan.
Be well, I wish you a great Yijing journey!
That is very intriguing and encouraging to hear. Again, 49.5: “The great man changes like a tiger...” Perhaps you are, or are becoming, the ‘great man’ (da ren).
I think you are probably correct.I think Hx.56 is a mandatory course for many if not most of us. 56.4 is one that’s been turning up recently.
When you look back on your life, it looks as though it were a plot, but when you are into it, it’s a mess: just one surprise after another. Then, later, you see it was perfect.
Thank you very much for these continued reflections! I hadn’t thought about Hx.56 in terms of questing and the quest, but of course that makes perfect sense. Two things about the quest: a) I’ve been on it for a very long time, since before I was out of short pants (not that I make any great claims, mind you), b) most people aren’t called to it and have little to no interest in or understanding of it. This reminds me of my most recent casting, said late last evening in a state of considerable frustration (for reasons I won’t go into right now): “For the last time, what do you want of me?” 10.2>25, with changing line (tr. Hilary):
‘Treading the path, smooth and easy.
A hermit’s constancy brings good fortune.’
Is that not the call to the quest in a nutshell (apart from the ‘smooth and easy’ bit)? It is interesting that ‘path’ here is dao, and ‘constancy’ is zhen, which originally meant the act of divination (from Hilary’s Language of Change).
First, the question of technique. My own present technique is very basic, deliberately so, and essentially follows that given in the introduction to Hilary’s I Ching: Walking Your Path, Creating Your Future, which is very close to Stephen Karcher’s ‘basic’ method as given in his I Ching: Plain & Simple. Notably: look to the primary hexagram for the general situation, to the changing lines for the specific and most relevant message, and to the relating hexagram for general background as it relates to the querent. This is summarizing a bit from those sources and doesn’t capture all the nuance. I also give primary attention to the translated Zhouyi oracular text, rather than the attending commentary.
What I don’t do is bring in additional techniques such as nuclear hexagrams, relating hexagrams from separate changing lines, steps of change, opposing hexagram, shadow hexagram, etc…, which, for instance, Karcher introduces in the latter part of his introduction to I Ching: Plain & Simple. I also don’t do – although I would like to – the kind of trigram-focused interpretation that Harmen Mesker specializes in, mainly for the reason that, outside of his few videos or his Dutch language I Ching book (which I can’t read), no instruction is on offer, apart from occasional workshops (which I haven’t been able to attend).
48.5 <> 46 Looking at trigrams: Wood within the earth (Kun manifesting / making material) A sapling pushing upward through the earth. Drinking at the Well water enables others to grow.
This line alone changing gives Hx.33 Retreat, the Quester has retreated from the world and the attractions of line 4. He/she is un-entangled. See the trigrams of Qian above Kan in Hx. 33. The lower trigram of Kan is falling and the trigram of Qian rises. They retreat from each other."
Now, my hesitation in folding in additional techniques is: a) the suspicion that reaching for another technique can be like reaching for another translation or commentary to consult, a way of getting out of the essential uncertainty and confusion that an answer from Yi can impose, and b) the concern that by ‘over determining’ the information that can be extracted from a consultation, it makes it too easy to ‘read into’ an oracular response rather than taking it as it is given. For instance, the changing lines may be dubious, but ah, the nuclear hexagrams! That sort of thing. What is your view of this general matter?
My second point: By way of example, and in regard to your interpretation of 48.4.5>32, I would be delighted with an “offer of a Well contract”, but – while it is all very encouraging – in concrete terms, I don’t know what to do with it. What is Yi telling me? Write a book? Take up teaching? Become a professional diviner? (This last meant in jest.) I have no ready way of knowing. This is the general problem with consultations of the oracle: too often, there is a lack of what one might call ‘actionable intelligence’.
In the interest of full disclosure, I looked back in my records, and having not quite known what to do with Yi’s reply of 48.4.5>32, I queried shortly thereafter, “I honor and draw great encouragement from your reply, but do not entirely understand its significance. Will you help me to understand it better?” 56.4>52. And there is 56.4 again, which I’d forgotten I had received in reply until I looked it up just now. I didn’t find it particularly helpful then by way of direction, but perhaps you will see something in it, given your prior insights into Hx.56.
Hx.25 - Stay disentangled from the world, desires and purpose. Stay in the shadow and be a hermit until the Way opens of itself. Is [10.2>25] not an amplification of 56.4? Not a time to go out into the world and act?
I dreamed of the Yijing in 1973 and finally met it in 1976. I could finally turn the headlights on properly. Sort of, after a while and they still flicker and go out sometimes. You laugh at the idea of you becoming a diviner. Well apart from the fact you already are (sorry did you miss that?) I am constantly amazed how even basic divination can help people back onto their path.
That sounds absolutely spot on to me. And, if you are already working like that you are already free flying.
I’m not sure quite which text Hillary is working from, but I find her work to be good to work with.
Having said that I recently read that modern Chinese scholars and serious students of Yijing have a definite preference to the Ritsema-Karcher translation when working in English. It’s good at giving glosses of most of the English words for each Chinese glyph. However, I prefer the Karcher 2002 version published by Vega as he ironed out a number of things which he felt forced to put in the R&K version whilst effectively being in Ritsema’s employment. SK did most of the heavy lifting on it anyway. Both are good and they are very similar.
Chuckles, I am writing a book on using trigram images and first started trying to popularise the method some twenty years ago. I was a little too creative back then though, a little more disciplined now. I wrote about it on this forum back in its early days. I say this, not to make any claims of my own greatness, because the basic method is already laid out in the Third and Fourth Wings, the Xiang Zhuan, Han Dynasty and which is styled as the “Image” in Wilhelm/Baynes. It is one of the oldest ways of working with Yijing and there is evidence that it was in use in the time of the original Zhou dynasty. It fell into disuse during the long Confucian development. Popping it’s head up from time to time.
The method put forward in Wilhelm Baynes, Hillary and Stephen Karcher is based on a latter-day (In Chinese history terms) accepted method. During the Yijing history so many different methods were debated, accepted and rejected only to be accepted again. Nuclear trigrams were in use in the Han Dynasty, yet later they were eschewed and re- accepted a number of times by different scholars. Even changing lines and extended hexagrams (Changing lines +) were rejected during some parts of Yijing’s history. Essentially my mantra is ‘do what works for you’.
I have given a number of worked examples of working with trigrams in this thread that if you know your Shuo Gua you will be able to work them out for yourself….
If you want a brief trigram work up/explication just message me and post the reading on Clarity. I would be glad to help.
Yes, valid concerns. My experience is that once one feels confident in using the ‘basic’ methods then other methods open up a development of the reading. The rule of thumb is, for me, “does this fit?” As a diviner, “does it ‘light up’ with that feeling of correctness?” If not, I don’t use it for that reading.
I see it as being like a language. Additional methods give an opportunity of extending the readings complexity and hence the information and insights available. Just like knowing a couple of hundred words and the basic of a language will work on a foreign holiday. However, a little more study will allow more nuance and the ability to hear more complex meanings.
“peters: This is the general problem with consultations of the oracle: too often, there is a lack of what one might call ‘actionable intelligence’.”
Yes! Tell me about it! I have (allegorically) traveled all the way to ‘Los Getilost’ on the other side of the world and Yijing was trying to remind me to go to the corner shop for milk!
Here, if only using Yijing, one could sit and reflect on what ways I have been a Well for others. Also to look at the trajectory of my life and ask where could that take me were I to be a more of a Well. Then to ask the Yijing on each idea. Gradually narrowing it down. My own experience of my life and Yijing is that Yijing does not ask me to be a great Well for others. Or, a great anything really. Sometimes I received ‘Well’ because Yijing was trying to tell me that I was generally not being pleasant with someone and why should they spend time drinking from my well? The message? Fix myself.
I will do 48.4.5 <> 32 tomorrow... For now, my cat is of the belief that if I sit in my room in the evening then I will not have hunted down her tea in time for when she descends to feed. She so doesn’t get the idea of a tin and harasses me until I go downstairs... Whilst she gets some extra Z’s.
Questions which might give you more sense of what is being indicated:
Where is this change leading?
What can I do to help the change develop?
Where is the change going to eventually apply in the outer world? (Think of your life vs acting on the world whilst casting).
So Yijing is commenting on 48.4.5 <> 32 with 56.4 <> 52. ‘Don’t seek a place in the world with this change. Stay still and reflect. Continue your Quest.”
I do hope this helps a little.
Now, I don’t know if the story has been embroidered with the telling, but this sort of thing does happen. Another account that I know of is David Godman, one of the foremost writers and editors on Ramana Maharshi and his spiritual legacy, who has lived at the Ramana ashram in Tiruvannamalai for decades and has published something like a dozen books. [If you are interested in the topic, he has a delightful set of YouTube videos that I can wholeheartedly recommend: www.youtube.com/channel/UCBcqQGNwcSEwlv6gJXP-U9A] As I recall the tale, as a young man attending uni in the UK, he was perusing the shelves in a local bookstore when Arthur Osborne’s classic, Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self-Knowledge, spontaneously plopped off a shelf to land at his feet. He took the hint and the rest, as they say, is history.
So it did a Hx.32 on you... It warned you... LOL - 'I am persevering'. You must have been a tough nut. Yes, mail trucks and phones indeed. Laughing here.For myself, my encounter with the I Ching is far more recent and less interesting, but perhaps worth telling nevertheless. I had known of the I Ching for decades, but had never engaged with it as a topic of interest. Having found myself in an increasingly difficult professional situation, I felt the need to, as it were, ‘pragmatize’ aspects of my spiritual quest. Around this time, I purchased a new smartphone and had a very specific idea as to what kind of case I wanted for it. Having scoured the internet, I finally found and ordered a case that fit all requirements, received it, and snapped my new phone into it. All was well. A short while later, I found myself wondering about the small, subtly embossed company logo on the case front. It reminded me of something. That ‘something’, I figured out, was Hx.32. I took that as an interesting potential ‘sign’, but took no action.
Yes, as above... I'm glad you got the link. A great dream example.There is an additional symbolic point here worth mentioning: that Hx.32 should be embossed on a smartphone case is of particular symbolic significance. Many years ago, my wife, as a young woman, was planning to do a long road trip by car with a friend, who had volunteered her car and offered to drive. A couple of days before the scheduled departure, my wife had a vivid dream in which she got into a car accident with a mail truck. She was connected to a community of spiritually-minded friends and, on encouragement from its leading figure, put the dream to the group for help in understanding its possible significance with respect to her impending trip. Among them was someone who did astrology, another who did Tarot and another who consulted the I Ching. Each in turn volunteered to divine and each in turn advised her against taking the trip. She called her friend and cancelled. Her friend went on the trip alone and got into a severe auto accident on the way, the front passenger side of the vehicle being crushed in by the colliding car. The driver survived, but the passenger, had there been one, most likely would not have. When hearing of this outcome, she asked the group’s leader why he had been convinced the dream was significant and worth further inquiry through divination. “Simple.” he said. “In your dream, you were hit by a mail truck!” Mail truck, smartphone – maybe something’s trying to send you a symbolic message?
The Karcher version is better. Ritsema was a Jungian analyst and academic, not a Yijing scholar. He had collected his Yijing ideas in a card system and insisted that many be included. SK had studied Yijing professionally and he was employed to produce the Eranos Yijing. The idea of the Eranos Yijing was to be a more up to date version including modern scholarship to replace the Wilhelm Baynes that most 'Jungian's relied upon. In the Vega addition SK sorted it out a little and he dumped some of the unsopund material.I have the Ritsema/Sabbadini Eranos I Ching, but not the earlier Ritsema/Karcher. As for the Karcher 2002 Vega edition, this is in softcover. Do you happen do know if this is the same as the Karcher 1995 Barnes & Noble hardcover edition? Given its thickness, hardcover would be preferred. I’ll be happy to acquire, given your recommendation.
I expect Nigel Richmond’s two books – The I Ching Oracle and Language of the Lines – which come highly endorsed by Bradford, may also be of relevance here.
Harmen notes that there have been many attempts in Chinese history to harmonize the Zhouyi oracular text with the trigrams and lines, but as a general judgment, these have not succeeded well. The former is not simply a commentary on the latter, but the two must somehow be taken as independent. How one harmonizes trigrams and oracular text in interpretation is not at all clear to me at present.
Yes, and that is problematic. As you say elsewhere there are also issues with the quality of the diviner giving examples. Sometimes they have a poor grasp of the material at other times they make errors which someone with a formal foundation from a good source of training would not make. Though I use Yijing slightly differently from Hillary B and though I would choose some single words different from her for some characters and more, her training is well founded, it’s based on years of being a diviner and many years of reading. I think it’s very sound indeed. There is no single way of using Yijing. Her approach is well rooted and sound in its conception. From that foundation one can safely extend and develop different emphases.Allow me here a digression prompted by your reference to ‘worked examples’. This is something that is a) key to learning any body of applied knowledge such as I Ching interpretation, and b) is sorely lacking in the literature of I Ching studies.
Diana ffarington Hook’s The I Ching and Its Associations, which includes twenty-five case histories and is considerably more sophisticated in interpretation than the Sorrels.
Ah, dear Diana F! She get’s very creative at times. I suspect she was a superb diviner. Certainly there is no evidence for danger in 44.2 <> 15 though.
Yes, a great resource. Chuckles, did you check the about?is Stephen Karcher’s collection of reading examples taken from the now defunct www.greatvessel.com.
Midaughter and Clarity sites mentioned above is that the quality of the interpretations on offer is, shall we charitably say, highly variable.
I think so. The Confucians adopted and then adapted Yijing to their own political and social needs. They were trying to re-establish social stability after a few hundred years of civil war. Confucian academics over an extended period used it as a means to further their doctrine and to teach moral conduct, some revered ones even eschewing divination. They had eased up a little by the time of the last great redaction in the 18th Century. I try to stay with the Han Dynasty material. You will find the Ritsema Karcher, or Karcher, most refreshing.with the proviso that a lot of line placement interpretation, as offered in Wilhelm for example, suffers from a heavy Confucian overlay.
Very good – that had me laughing!You have a tea-drinking – or possibly tea-eating – cat? How interesting!
No, I believe it wasn’t embroidered. His synchronicity was often at the point of: If he stepped into a road without looking the hard-braking car would be someone living nearby his next destination and they would take him there.
Thanks for the lead, but I am already at the Water Hole of choice... and being overworked by it too!
So it did a Hx.32 on you... It warned you... LOL - ‘I am persevering’. You must have been a tough nut. Yes, mail trucks and phones indeed. Laughing here.
The Karcher version is better. Ritsema was a Jungian analyst and academic, not a Yijing scholar. He had collected his Yijing ideas in a card system and insisted that many be included. SK had studied Yijing professionally and he was employed to produce the Eranos Yijing. The idea of the Eranos Yijing was to be a more up to date version including modern scholarship to replace the Wilhelm/Baynes that most ‘Jungian’s relied upon. In the Vega addition SK sorted it out a little and he dumped some of the unsound material.
Risema then got Sabadini involved to try to do better. Sabadini was not a Yijing scholar either... The Sabadini book is a confused mess, regularly taking flights of fancy.
The Ritsema Karcher is OK though, my preference was to switch to the Vega edition and I had it hard bound. Most University towns have a book binder or three for the Students Dissertations.
I think Nigel Richmond’s work is deeply flawed. …
I would strongly suggest that you read the Dazhuan and the Shuo Gua before reading Richmond.
You raise an important point. Yijing existed before there was any text. It was merely Trigrams and Hexagrams, perhaps with some diviners notes which would likely vary between the different diviners. King Wen is then believed to have added the Hexagram names and his ‘Judgment and later his son added the line images (words). Stephen Field (Duke of Zhou Changes) was of the opinion that the Duke Zhou’s texts were added as a prompt for diviners and readers. I can’t see that they could be anything else really. They were added later. I agree with Harmen. Both produce their own images and the words, being more limited, cannot allow for the same depth and breadth of the Hexagram and Trigram images. This was well recognised by many key Chinese Scholars throughout time.
…
In a divination state the diviner can easily move around the sometimes disjointed images and allow them to coalesce into a coherent whole. “The cracks are where the light gets in.” (Leonard Cohen)
And, so it is we have two horses to ride, but it helps not to try to ride them both at the same time.
Yes, and that is problematic. As you say elsewhere there are also issues with the quality of the diviner giving examples. Sometimes they have a poor grasp of the material, at other times they make errors which someone with a formal foundation from a good source of training would not make. Though I use Yijing slightly differently from Hilary B and though I would choose some single words different from her for some characters and more, her training is well founded, it’s based on years of being a diviner and many years of reading. I think it’s very sound indeed. There is no single way of using Yijing. Her approach is well rooted and sound in its conception. From that foundation one can safely extend and develop different emphases.
All of the papers are now at https://ichinglivingchange.org/ Not the readings though.
Yes and, best be charitable. But, it is not only the forums. So many books have been written by folk who have little study, or flawed ideas and which are utter trash. I suppose the answer would be to have a standardised accepted course. God, forbid! The Sorrel’s book seems to have passed muster with Stephen Marshall, no mean feat. Hillary’s I Ching and Stephen Karcher’s I Ching Plain and Simple are about the best available and both are grounded in good research and experience. (I have never seen the Sorrel’s work).
I try to stay with the Han Dynasty material. You will find the Ritsema Karcher, or Karcher, most refreshing.
Very good – that had me laughing!
Thank you, as always, for a thought provoking and enjoyable post.
Shuo Gua - There is one in Wilhelm Baynes Book II and a Dazuan too.Noted. Can you recommend a translation?I would strongly suggest that you read the Dazhuan and the Shuo Gua before reading Richmond.
It is interesting that Harmen, with his trigram focus, claims to rarely look at the oracular text, just as many diviners (including myself presently) look at the oracular text but rarely look at trigrams or line placements. I have seen both done in a single reading – Hook does so, for instance – but I need to see more worked examples to become secure in the method.
I emailed Stephen Karcher a month ago, but never received a reply and the links are still dead. Do you happen to have any of these?
A REAL-LIFE ADVENTURE
Loyalty and Authority
This is a story about being appointed to a position of authority by the person in control, without being voted in by the other members of the group. This happened in a university, but it could just as easily have happened in any group situation. Susanne felt she was capable of taking on the responsibility, but she wanted the agreement of her peers. Her purpose was to study and learn, not to play power politics.
Q Is it correct for me to accept this position?
A Susanne received Hexagram 7, with line 3 moving.
Hexagram 7 deals with personal integrity. Who you are with yourself, and how that relates to the common good. Line 3 indicates conflict, and whether to handle it or have nothing to do with it. There were many potential conflicts, as in any group. The basic one here was the individual versus the authority, the eternal conflict between the I and the We. If Susanne accepted the position, would she be violating her integrity? Perpetual food for discord. But could she pass up the opportunity for some of that great personal power? She chose to continue to be a student, and not become embroiled in the internal politics of the group. She refused the appointment. This was her way of maintaining integrity and avoiding conflict.
And my very best to your cat. Do you know the poem “Pangur Bán”
Also, there is a good, but reduced chapter on Trigrams in the Vega edition. The other thing to do, in order to gain insight to the trigrams, is to study those hexagrams which are doubled trigrams... In a good translation.
Wise. This is a way to do it. Take a hexagram. Read the Judgement and imagine the trigrams interacting. Those that rise and those that fall is crucial here. Let’s take Hx.45 Gathering Together. Dui above Kun. …
Yes, Stephen has retired and gone off grid. He is literally doing the ‘Chop wood, carry water’ Thing.
You haven’t given me their text, only how they have applied it in an example. The #1 error made when folk produce a simplified Yijing is that of giving the Hexagrams a very specific focus. Stephen and Hillary did not make this error. You can judge for yourself whether they did. The Yijing needs to allow doubt about what is meant... It is that which makes the reader activate their heart-mind and penetrate the Change at hand.
Thank you, I adored the whole page - What a delight!
As Harmen notes:
There is a great difference in reach and depth between Yijing interpretations and translations. In the former there is often a lack of it because all the symbols of the Yi are removed. The symbols are the true voice of the Yi: they are the notes that make the melody. Without the symbols there is no melody. An interpretation describes the melody but will never enable you to hear it.
The Sorrels do, however, have useful comments regarding the trigram energies and their relations. When I worked through the Sorrels’ book examples, I deliberately looked to Hilary’s translation and ignored theirs. For each example, I attempted to interpret based on the casting prior to reading their interpretation. The overwhelming majority of the time, I found myself in broad agreement with their conclusion.
In closing I wanted to bring up a matter for comment sparked by something you said some time ago regarding, in your long experience, the fundamental honesty of Yi, whatever its nature. The problem is that one never – or rarely – encounters the voice of Yi directly, but typically, given the inherently metaphoric and imagistic quality both of the Zhouyi text and trigram interpretation, through the ‘dark glass’ of one’s interpretive capabilities. For the relative apprentice to the ‘craft’ of divination, there is a two-fold issue of trust: learning to trust the oracle but also learning to trust one’s interpretive capacity – a capacity that will have to be matured and honed – as being adequate for divination. Further, these two types of trust are typically entangled in the context of a given reading. For confidence, both trusts need to be present in the understanding of what a given casting is saying with respect to the associated query.
Again, this is part of the importance of having a body of high-level worked examples as well, ultimately, of apprenticeship and practice. One needs to be secure in one’s technique. It is ‘worse’ in a sense, in that I Ching interpretive technique is not like algebra or some other highly rational discipline.
There is an intuitive element that is absorbed through ‘hands-on’ practice much more than through strict ‘rule-applying’ and formal study.
Finally, let me reiterate my request from my last post regarding your earlier statement: “I am constantly amazed how even basic divination can help people back onto their path.” Can you enlarge on that, with examples if possible?
I would add that it is also the gaps between the notes and notes missing which demand the diviner to reach onto the dark glass (as you refer to it lower down) and find their own meaning.
However, remember the Symbols are not just the Image from the name, the hexagrams and trigrams, but also the symbolism conjured up by the text. This was the view of a number of lauded ancient Chinese scholars.
You seem to have found a way of working with Sorrels’ work in a way which works for you. As long as it’s working for you, that is all that matters. If you are like many of us over time you will refine and change.
It is as you say. One cannot use a rational method to develop, not trust, but its close ally, confidence. The only way to develop this is practice, practice and practice again. There is no other way.
They are good to develop method. However, a third-party reader is necessarily outside of the mantic space in which the reading took place. For that reason, they are condemned to seeing it as if through a keyhole. So much of the complete picture is not available to them.
That’s simple. Cast Hexagram, any changing lines and a Resulting Hexagram if there is one. Use text or just the hexagram, trigrams and line dynamics. I would recommend a good route would be to do just the first until you feel fluent and then add the second method as an add on after doing the first. The established practice of the first, more common method will act as a guide star whilst practising the second.
Otherwise, stick to the ‘common practice’ and start adding additional methods, nuclear hexagrams, hexagram pathways (a very powerful tool) or whatever as you build your repertoire.
I have enjoyed your insights and approach.
Crossline Omens
Each Pair or set of two interconnected hexagrams in Change generates a set of other paired figures across its Internal Matrix. These sets of Generated Pairs do many things. They describe the overall interchange between the themes of the two hexagrams involved; they connect the Pair in question to other sites in the overall Matrix or Sequence and produce the Karmic Nodes; and, perhaps most important for those of us who need specific help in negotiating a tricky situation, they generate the Crossline Omens. While the Transforming Lines of Change show particular points where it is at work, the Crossline Omens open the hidden pathways through which the possibilities of transformation can be realized.
How the Crossline Omens are Made
Crossline Omens trace the inner pathways of Change across the Internal Matrix of a Pair. They begin in a given Transforming Line in one hexagram, move through the lines generated in the Relating Figures associated with the change as a whole, and emerge in the connected Transforming Line of the second hexagram.
Each Transforming Line in the texts we present is made up of a translated text and a commentary that offers direct divinatory advice. Beneath it is the Crossline Omen. It begins with a description of the Line Position, the place or voice from which Change is “speaking” or “calling” and a Decimal Notation of the Omen then offers images from the lines in the Generated Pairs that describe the hidden pathway between the interconnected Transforming Lines. (The phrase Go back and accept the challenge is a reminder that a particular Crossline reads backwards in the King Wen Sequence). The final phrases of the Crossline Omen relate you to one of the Four Gates of Change (1, 2, 63, and 64) and, when relevant, include a description of the hidden zone of transformation that is exerting an influence on the process.
What the Crosslines Do
A Crossline Omen represents a dialogue between the Primal Powers, the Dragon and the Dark Animal Goddess, in a very specific situation. It offers a profound and precise portrait of change in a given moment, a little epiphany of spirit and enlightenment that emerges from the interconnection of the opposites.
The Transforming Lines and the Crossline Omens in Change seem to exist in a sort of compensatory or complementary relationship related to the old myth of the King and his Dark Brother or Sage, or the Sun Tree and the Moon Tree with the flow of the underworld Ghost River connecting them. The Transforming Line shows the overt situation while the Crossline Omen shows a hidden pathway or dark teaching (nei yeh) that compensates, modulates or reinforces the overt situation, opening the hidden transformative potential and offering suggestions about how to realize it.
In practice, I have found these deep pathways can truly contribute to an understanding of the precise ways Change is moving, linking us to the magical transformative power of the mythological mind. They are where we encounter the real transformative power of the oracle, what I call the Voices of Change.
Using the Crosslines
I tend to use the Crossline Omens as Voices at the culmination of a Reading, setting up a context of intellectual and feeling associations first by circulating through all the positions of the Reading Matrix. The only way I can really illustrate this (rather than analyzing it) is to take you through an example of building the contexts, asking you to enter the spirit of the reading so you might experience what the Voice of the Crossline can do when it is dropped into the web of connections. Here is the example. We asked a question to Change about how we can best read the answers it gives us.
Question: What would you (Change) like to say to us about reading your answers to our questions?
The Answer was Hexagram 3 Sprouting as Primary Figure, with a Transforming Line in the first position, producing the Relating Figure 8 Grouping. The Answer is notated like this:
Answer: 3, 9/1 > 8 Grouping.
As we worked through the Reading, we built up a rich context for the Crossline. We learned through the Relating Figure that we are related to the overall situation of “Reading an Answer” through a radical change in the way we group our thoughts and the people with whom we feel spiritual kinship (8). As Winter, this means finding the seed of the new by grinding away old forms of thought, which was reinforced by Grouping’s Core Theme (23), the need to “strip the corpse” of an old identity and its old ways of thought. We had a clue to how we can enter the extended realm of the reading in the Trigrams: inner devotion to this process can give us the ability to manage the flow and flux of life, the endless images and ideas life is constantly generating. We must not impose an a priori idea or plan on this flux, but empower the images and ideas that arise to help connect us to the great change of awareness.
The Pair told us that we are in an Inspiring phase when we encounter the images of Change, seeking inspiring inner images, and that we are also in early childhood here, seeking a way to find an identity within its great world. We must establish the deep foundations of Change within, enveloping and nurturing the “birth of the new,” for there is great hidden potency here, a possibility to “renew the time.” The disordering of our previous ways of thinking would be a conspicuous sign that the process is really beginning.
The primary Figure (3) talked about the difficulties, the confusion and the profusion we face when we first encounter the richness of the images of the Change. This encounter can sprout a new world of meaning, an approach to real centers of power. It can inspire us, rousing new growth. We might see ourselves as seeking a bride, a “sprout,” a new imaginative or anima possibility, massing our strength to find it and looking for clear signs to differentiate and relate the various kinds of imagery. The push behind this search is a release from whatever in the past holds our creative energy in check.
The Response gave us our first reading strategies: Do not impose ideas, accept the myriad intuitions. Follow the yielding path and empower helpers – the related figures of the Matrix that can open the various perspectives. We must gather this energy to surmount the obstacles to understanding, to break through the conceptual crust, the hard pounded earth of old ideas and monotonous, deadening language. This is an exciting time, full of possibilities, the opening of a new world of insight and imagination that can reveal the sacred cosmos.
The Shaman Speaks said there is a rousing force at work deep in the River of Ghosts now that will reward us for our hermeneutic labor if we accept the shock of its enlightening force. The old world is dissolving all around us as we encounter the images of the Change, while a fertile new cycle sprouts within to open in our imagination. If we want to realize this we must give each kind of image its place in the new world that is emerging.
The Core Theme of the Primary Figure (23) is the same as the Relating Figure, reinforcing its meanings. So we must focus on the necessity to strip away all our cognitive pre-conceptions, our need to assimilate the images of Change to moral patterns or philosophical ideas. We must “give freely to what is below”, activating the hidden force of the complexes, to use psychological terms, letting the bright light of our ego-certainties flow back into the fertile darkness. This connects us to one of the Hidden Winds that flow through Change, here the Earth, the Goddesses (2) and their great power of realizing things, making the symbols real in our lives and imagination.
The Inner Operator (24) spoke a great return in the inner world that re-establishes our relation to something that as been lost or repressed in the development of our identity and our culture. We should see whatever emerges as we strip away our cognitive patterns, all the little intuitions and insights carried by the psycho-active images, as truly significant and nurture them carefully. Bar the passages, it says. Leave the complicated and return to the simple. As our inner inspiration, this can bring a great faith in the realm of the feminine and the overall processes of life. It will let us respond fully, joyously and spontaneously when the real meaning emerges rather than engaging in more logic-chopping and premature analysis.
The Outer Operator (44) told us about the connection between the inner images and the events of a reading, a connection the old diviners called dang or “matching.” Here the “matching” will come through “strange encounters,” synchronicities that occur as the new feminine power works its way into our relation with outer events (44) from below. Things will “grip” us with a power outside of logic. Then, in the words of Dazhuan, “spontaneously the Way will arise.”
The Ideal Form (36) told us this is the time to accept the difficult journey and spread the mandate (Ming) to the “hidden lands,” the shadowy parts of the soul. This can change the way we perceive ourselves and our world and let us be of real help to others. It is what brings deliverance from the past, inculcating a deep faith in the feminine processes of life. The Shadow Site (62) said we must not proceed through being very Small, adapting to what already exists, but through a Great new image or purpose. We are not preparing a legacy for future generations here, but concentrating the work at hand - our own birth into the tradition and the help we might give to others in the present moment.
The Time Cycle showed the Hidden Wind of 2 Field and the feminine power of Earth acting through the Core Theme of 23 Stripping. It enters the cycle at the Fall position, described by 20 Viewing and the Ancestor’s Eyes. This is the place where we “harvest the crop and gather the insights.” This Figure is about divination and the effect of a new ancestor spirit that is released from the world of death and mourning. So we begin our reading of the answers from Change here, in the Tower where initiation begins, looking out at the world to see the effects of this spirit, of the cleansing of our ancestral or parental images. We watch the hidden signs from a distance and think of the common good. We begin to set up teachings for all and ascend to a higher level of awareness.
The energy and insights gathered here are then pushed on into Winter, represented by the Relating Figure 8 in our basic reading, a new grouping of thoughts. Here the personal grinding occurs, stripping away the chaff to find the seeds of new growth. It is where the new world represented by the symbols of Change and their way of connecting to ancestral energies truly grips us. We are challenged to find a new base of mutual support and spiritual kinship, to become part of the new group of lords and helping spirits that emerges.
The Hidden Wind then pushes us on into Spring and our Primary Figure 3, the Sprouting of a new world that springs up through our experience of the giving the symbols a place in our heart-mind. As we establish the new world, confront the difficulties, seek the bride and watch the World Tree emerge, a new kind of significance dawns that can give us the ability to use the clear signs that relate the groups of kindred spirits and kindred meanings to deliver us from the suffering of the past.
As Summer ripens the fruits of our reading process, we experience the Blessing that comes from the sacrifice of our intellectual presuppositions (42) and can extend them to others. This is a fertile and expansive time, a time of creative transformation in which we can help the energies of Change extend themselves. We acquire a place where we can influence the world we live in, where we visualize improvement, shift our position and give the omens an enduring form.
I would ask you to hold all this in mind, envision your self as one who is first entering the great mysteries of “reading Change,” and feel how the Crossline resonates. This Voice speaks to the very Beginnings of the profound change that a reading can work in our awareness and give us directions on how to root or sprout it in our heart and in our world.
Initial Nine
A stone pillar.
The riders wheel and turn.
Trial: Advantageous for a residence. Harvesting.
Advantageous to install lords as helpers.
Your purpose is moving correctly. Value what is below. The Great acquires support of the common people. This is the standing stone in front of an ancestral temple, sprouted from the earth. Stop and establish your foundations. Connect this experience to your own deep roots. Connect with and empower others to help you. You are on the right track. This is not a time to act on impulse.
Inspiration Beginning (3.1 [8.1 : 7.6] 4.6): You have is a connection to the spirit that will carry you through, filling the vessels to overflowing. You receive a mandate to lay out a new city and receive the dwellers. Go back and accept the challenge. Do not act like an outlaw, violent and impulsive, for you would be smiting the very envelopment that will bring things to maturity. Find supportive friends. Be open and provide what is needed. You are being influenced by a transformation at the inner centers of life, when the Ghost River (29) emerges from Earth (2) to change the face of the world.
If we have done our work well in the overall Reading, this Voice will act like a stone thrown into a still pool, the pool of meanings our reading has created, and its effects will ripple out into our awareness in an ever-increasing circle. This spreading circle of awareness is what we can take away with us. It then becomes our job to give it an enduring form, so that it can influence our life and the lives of those around us.
Do a search on Clarity under Crossline Omens. Stephen K did a live thread on them...
[https://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/friends/index.php?threads/my-yijing-bookshelf.253/]On choosing a Stephen Karcher Yijing and what a concordance is:
Stephen’s thinking is constantly developing as he researches reads and well umm? thinks.
So, to a great degree his books, in date order, reflect his development.
Here is the ‘Barefoot Sages Guide’:
How to Use the I Ching, Element Books (1997)
This was written while he was working at the Eranos Institute. The translated text is good and the commentary is clear, authoritative, but simple. To my mind this is one of the best entry level books around.
I Ching Plain and Simple, Element Books (2004)
Is the same book as the ‘How to Use the I Ching’. However, it has two printer/layout errors in the introductory chapters.
I Ching by Ritsema/Karcher, Element Books (1994)
This was the culmination of Ritsema and Karcher?s 8 Years of collaboration at the Eranos institute. With its associated contexts (alternative word meanings for the Chinese characters) and its Concordance (look a word up and it gives the references to the other places it appears), this is for me a new standard of Yijing.
I Ching, Vega (2003)
This is the improved version of Ritsema/Karcher above. There were a number of changes to hexagram names, commentary added, and Nuclear hexagrams, which were marked as ‘Counter Indications’, became more correctly marked as ‘Hidden Possibility’. I regard this as the essential authoritative tool for exploring the Yijing because of the associated contexts which are founded on very wide reading and therefore attempt only to give those meanings which were likely. Also, because the word for word translation is pretty authoritative, given the limitations of translating one Chinese character with one English word.
Symbols of Love I Ching for Lovers Friends and Relationships, Time Warner (2003)
Do not be put off by the title that Warner Books put on it! This Yijing has a commentary which focuses on relating and relationships. The translated text benefits from later research. The commentary is very clear and has the benefit of some 30 years of study and practice. It is more complex than ‘Plain and Simple’ or ‘How to Use’ but retains a good clarity in the commentary. I think this is a good book to have around. It would also serve as a good entry level book.
Total I Ching, Time Warner (2003)
In this book Stephen brings out the symbolism of the text and figures. He explains more complex methodology such as the use of nuclear hexagrams, change operators and crossline omens. Word of warning – he does not use this crossline omen method for crossline omens now – later work led to some modifications.
The other interesting thing he did in it was to gather up the more authoritative wings, and in the light of recent research, put them together with the original layers. This means it is not useful for someone who wants to explore the word for word meanings of the text. However, it does give a text which is faithful to the I Ching and which is perhaps more evocative than having the layers completely separated out. It also has short pieces exploring the mythology behind each hexagram.
Hope this is useful
--Kevin
Clarity,
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