A Resonance Journal retrospective

Over four years ago now, we first brought out the Resonance Journal: software to keep a journal both of your Yijing readings and also of dreams, synchronicities and simple daily experience, and to reveal and explore how all these things connect and resonate together.
We’ve come quite a long way since then. The Resonance Journal now has three built-in translations (LiSe’s, Bradford Hatcher’s and my own) as well as a Yijing glossary (Language of Change); all the text (interface included) is resizable; you can review a random entry (possibly my favourite feature); you can protect your journal with a password; you can print your entries… and so on.

The first seven reasons

Now we’re up to version 2.1 (with easier updates and the ability to export your entries to Excel), I thought it was time I wrote again about the benefits of keeping a Yijing journal. And then I found I’d done so back in 2014, when I came up with ‘the first seven reasons’ why a Yijing journal is a good idea:

1. You learn more about Yi.
2. You can draw on your experience to help other people.
3. You learn from experience.
4. You learn from dreams.
5. It’s an opportunity to grow your relationship with Yi.
6. It allows everything to speak.
7. Writing your story does you good.

(Here’s the original post.)

Reason number 8: you avoid a cartload of frustration.

(Probably this should have been reason #1.)
When discussing readings with clients, I often hear things like:
‘You know, my last reading had the same hexagram… that feels as if it’s trying to tell me something. I can’t remember what the reading was about, though…’
‘Yes, I’ve asked about this before a few times. I think the answers were positive…’
‘Well, I asked about the alternative and it said… hm, can’t quite remember, just a minute…’
– and then there’s the rustling of paper, or possibly the faint keyboard-rattling of someone searching their browser history, as they rummage about in the dwindling hope of finding what Yi had to say.
I know how this feels because it used to be me, too. It’s not that I didn’t care about the readings or didn’t keep them, it’s just that I couldn’t find them. Being an economically-minded sort of diviner, at first I wrote my readings on scrap paper and stuffed it all into an envelope…

…until I graduated to nice, substantial hardback notebooks…

…in which I still couldn’t find anything much, especially since I kept forgetting to index them properly.
As you can imagine, I’ve gone through the whole, ‘I know I had a reading about that somewhere…’ and ‘I’m sure I’ve seen this hexagram somewhere recently…’ thing more often than I can count. You know your present reading’s referring back to that one, you know it has something to tell you, you know you need to hear it, you know you’re missing out, and most of all you know this is completely ridiculous because you definitely wrote it down somewhere…
So… do not be like me in the last millennium. Keep a journal where you can find the readings you need – and see all their interconnections. And if you prefer to write your readings, dreams and reflections on paper, do that and use software to index them.
In short – if you don’t already use the Resonance Journal, download the free trial and get started. In addition to the features I mentioned above, it still has the most comprehensive facilities for searching for readings – by hexagram, trigram, lines changing, tag or full text – you can imagine. Your tooth enamel will thank you .

I recently came across some of my old attempts at recording my readings in notebooks and such and these all came to the same sad end. They petered out because they just didn't work, they weren't efficient. I wasn't able to see connections between readings, look up the last few times I had that change pattern or see how prevalent that relating hexagram was. Nor could I link subjects of casts to see all the casts I'd ever had about a certain topic.

Then the software journal, now the Resonance Journal, was invented and I keep my old notebook listing casts under each hexagram number as relics of an earlier more impoverished time much as people keep potties as ornaments now they have lavatories ...hmm an unfortunate association but I think if Yi is a part of your life it's crazy to keep on struggling with manual recording of your cast just as it would be to go using a....

It has become so much a part of my work and learning with Yi I tend to take it for granted but actually it is a pretty amazing thing. It isn't just storage of readings but is invaluable in helping one understand readings. If I cast 43.6 I can go and see all the other times I cast it and I can learn so much from that especially as I tend to understand readings so much better with time and hindsight.


In a sense the Resonance Journal is like having your own private WikiWing, getting bigger all the time and a resource to draw on for times you just don't 'get' your reading but the self of 3 years ago does and made notes on it ! And of course you can copy anything over into it that will be useful.


I am very pleased that from now on the journal can be updated just at the click of a button.


There are many other reasons to get the Journal that probably vary with ones own individual needs. It's been quite a relief for me at times when I'm wracking my brains over something I half remember and I think I will never find it again but it's there in the journal.

Thanks ... this is a good idea, I think. I just started anyway ... and it makes me think more about the meaning of the answers.