...life can be translucent

Menu

Overuse of I Ching

Flax90s

visitor
Joined
Apr 13, 2016
Messages
39
Reaction score
2
Hi everyone,

I notice that when I get anxious about a situation in my life, I will cast many many times with slightly modified questions. I do this even if I get an auspicious answer the first time around. I think I do this because I am constantly seeking comfort regarding whatever situation I am going through. Eventually I find myself not knowing the answer to my question because I have gotten so many different answers. Also, I become uncertain which answer is true to my question. Sometimes I would consider casting another question but that just adds on to my huge list of the same question I casted 20 times.

Ideally, the solution is NOT to do this. However, if this had already been done, how can I go about amending this issue? I was hoping someone more knowledgable about I Ching could advise me.

Thank you,
Flaxs
 

kttuan

visitor
Joined
Aug 23, 2016
Messages
110
Reaction score
2
Hi everyone,

I notice that when I get anxious about a situation in my life, I will cast many many times with slightly modified questions. I do this even if I get an auspicious answer the first time around. I think I do this because I am constantly seeking comfort regarding whatever situation I am going through. Eventually I find myself not knowing the answer to my question because I have gotten so many different answers. Also, I become uncertain which answer is true to my question. Sometimes I would consider casting another question but that just adds on to my huge list of the same question I casted 20 times.

Ideally, the solution is NOT to do this. However, if this had already been done, how can I go about amending this issue? I was hoping someone more knowledgable about I Ching could advise me.

Thank you,
Flaxs
yes. This issue have been met by many people. When having a problem, they cast many many times. Actually the right way is: you cast only once; when waiting for the results, if there is a big change, you cast one time more( if not, don't do it). The first casting is always the best, in thousands cases I have read for people.
 
B

butterfly spider

Guest
A teacher I once knew did a casting for her class - she was new to teaching and had been given an examination group. She cast for each child - individually. She kept a record of each reading and then looked at the result. The readings were so wildly different, that it looked as if only 6 pupils would actually pass.

In the end all of them passed, mostly with good grades, but she did say that the beginning castings were so much more auspicious than the 23rd one.

An interesting thought...on multiple castings
 

Liselle

Supporter
Clarity Supporter
Joined
Sep 20, 1970
Messages
12,852
Reaction score
2,388
Ideally, the solution is NOT to do this. However, if this had already been done, how can I go about amending this issue?

If you're asking how to straighten out that particular series of readings, I've seen Hilary suggest to go back to the very first reading and look at it again. If you want help here on the forum, that's the one to post. You might let us know it's the first of a series, but we'd start out looking at just that one.

If you're asking how to stop yourself from doing this in the first place, I'm not a good person to answer, since I do the same thing, usually when I'm in a tizzy as you said. Trojina (a long-time, very active member here who you may have met already) has made the sensible suggestion to cast one reading, and then get up from where you're sitting and at least walk around the room. That little bit of a pause might be enough to let you register what Yi told you and stop you from casting another one right away.

I can't claim I can do that reliably - as simple as it is, when I'm upset any kind of sense pretty much leaves me - but maybe it will work well for you.
 

yarrowfield

visitor
Joined
Jan 13, 2017
Messages
14
Reaction score
2
Such an excellent question -- and you described it so well. I do this too, so the consensus answer here to go with the first reading is really helpful to know.

When the question I'm asking is really important to me (or there's an especially high level of anxiety around it for me), even though I know getting a site-generated reading is just as reliable, it helps me slow down to cast the I Ching using coins. The act of tossing them and then writing out the hexagrams makes me take the results more seriously since it's more involved and time-consuming than just clicking my trackpad/mouse button a few times. Sometimes I'll still go crazy with multiple subsequent follow-up questions using a site-generated interface, but something about casting with coins the first time bookmarks that reading as the one I need to be especially attentive to. If I'm in the right frame of mind, I'll also take notes on each aspect of the hexagrams as I read the different interpretations available for it, and that helps me really interface with those hexagrams as "THE ANSWER" rather than blowing right past them.
 

yarrowfield

visitor
Joined
Jan 13, 2017
Messages
14
Reaction score
2
Such an excellent question -- and you described it so well. I do this too, so the consensus answer here to go with the first reading is really helpful to know. There's some internal fidelity to that first reading that happens for me, but I still try to ignore it (cringing all the while), if I'm in a certain... super-desperate... headspace, and I'm not getting the oracle to, uh, comply with my wishes. I try to sort of wink at myself/give myself a sidelong glance when I'm doing this, because it's so clear this process is a coping mechanism -- and when coping, it's kindness you want/need, right?

If I have the presence of mind to, before all the repeat readings, I try to do one purposely momentous reading. When the question I'm asking is really important to me (or there's an especially high level of anxiety around it at the time), even though I know doing a website-generated reading is just as reliable, it helps me slow down if I choose to cast the I Ching with my own hands using coins (I have three pennies set aside for this). The act of tossing them and then writing out the hexagrams makes me take the results more seriously, especially since the process is more involved and time-consuming than just clicking my trackpad/mouse button a few times.

Sometimes I'll still go crazy with multiple subsequent follow-up questions using site-generated interfaces, but something about casting with coins for the initial reading helps bookmark that reading as the one I need to be especially attentive to. If I'm in the right frame of mind, I'll also take notes on each aspect of the hexagrams as I read the different interpretations available for them, and that helps me really interface with those hexagrams as "THE ANSWER," rather than blowing right past them. It's not always fun to do, given how convenient this site is for readings, but for those high-stress questions, it works for me.
 

yarrowfield

visitor
Joined
Jan 13, 2017
Messages
14
Reaction score
2
(Sorry for the two answers -- didn't realize I posted the first reply when I was still working on it, and I can't seem to Edit/Delete either of them using the buttons in-thread. Please let me know if I'm missing something.) Anyway, thanks again for asking a good question. Hope your first reading's result is not too hard to work with.
 
B

butterfly spider

Guest
Hello - this is a slight issue on the site at the moment.
I too, think that using coins is by its very nature, slower, and more reflective, although it is the intention that is important. For a really important question, I still use coins though - getting them out of their silk purse, laying out the silk cloth, throwing the coins, looking the result up in my old book - not really necessary but it helps focus on the question I find.
 
S

svenrus

Guest
A book named Solving all practical Problems, but in a language foreign, not understood... One can turn to that book again and again - without the practical problem been solved. That's the issue with I Ching reading: consulting it but not understanding it's advice, one has to learn this foreign language before being able to understand. Shortly taken.
 
N

nAstWr

Guest
Flax you are not the only one. I use to do the same thing when I am anxious about sth I cast many many times with slightly modified questions. I have noticed what butterfly spider mentioned about the teacher. I think when you ask for the same matter yi reflects your mind state and the answers are irrelevant. I used to ask about a relationship matter in the past the answers was a mix of positive and negative. Finally, I was relieved as it happened what I would like.
Anyone who would like to share experience on the matter?
 
V

veavea

Guest
I don't know if this is helpful, but I find that when I'm asking and asking a question, it's because there's something wrong with my mindset or the attachment I have to a certain outcome. That's usually an error at the basis of the question that is skewing the reading. It means I'm asking my question from a very fixed perspective, and perhaps the wrong perspective, which means I can't understand the answer I'm being given because it's not what I'm expecting or able to understand. For instance, when I've wanted a certain job or a certain relationship, and have been asking and aksing about it - not realising at the time that if I only lifted my head and looked in a different direction, or even just waited a day or two, the situation would shift, or new information would arrive, and I would see that my question was not only erroneous but was now redundant. But the new information or shift in perspective was blocked while I was fixed on that particular question. Does that make sense?

So now I think, when I really can't understand the answer, and I'm asking and asking, it's because I've been asking the wrong question - and I need to shift my headspace a little and just wait for a realignment to take place.

Not always easy to see that when you're in the middle of a brainspin, but ultimately I usually get to that place of (relative) equanimity and am able to step back from it...
 
D

deflatormouse

Guest
If you're asking how to stop yourself from doing this in the first place, I'm not a good person to answer, since I do the same thing, usually when I'm in a tizzy as you said. Trojina (a long-time, very active member here who you may have met already) has made the sensible suggestion to cast one reading, and then get up from where you're sitting and at least walk around the room. That little bit of a pause might be enough to let you register what Yi told you and stop you from casting another one right away.

I've found that any kind of creative, analytical problem-solving or puzzle-solving tends to require falling into a mental groove where I'm not really paying attention to what I'm doing, and the puzzle is no longer at the forefront of my mind, but I'm still working on it in the background. There are ways to encourage this mindframe, but I don't think it can't be summoned on demand. The problem that I encounter with rapid-fire readings, especially when I'm under duress, is that I'm not giving myself enough time between readings to become distracted. It's that much harder for my mind to wander when I'm desperate and I've got my nose pressed against the glass.

I've had plenty of situations where doing a lot of readings in quick succession made me frustrated and dizzy, but then given a momentary distraction the cartoon lightbulb went off above my head - an insight into one reading with which all the others are effortlessly made to topple over like dominoes.

Without dropping the interpretation you're working on entirely and checking out to lunch, try daydreaming for a few minutes, or thinking about something else. A head in the clouds trumps a nose to the grindstone almost every time with this in my experience.

The idea that the Yijing oracle will rebuke you for being impertinent if you do too many readings (e.g. "DON'T keep asking the same question over and over again. If you do you will be quite likely to receive hexagram number 4, which is the Yijing's way of rapping you over the knuckes!" -Sarah Denning) is something I have a hard time taking seriously.

I'm also not of the first reading = best reading mentality, but I think it can be an effective measure is when you've inundated yourself with an unmanageable hexagram soup of readings simply because it serves to clean the slate and focus your attention on one reading at a time. But I don't find that it makes any difference whether the one I choose to focus on is the first, the second, or the 99th.
 
Last edited:

Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom

Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).

Top