Find a blog post

Well, I nearly passed first time. If it hadn't been for the car that materialised on my left at the roundabout... in the space I was steering into... so that the examiner had to grab the wheel, I would have done... After some reflection, I came around to the idea ...

Here's Yi doing something I'd never seen before: echoing and resonating with a Sanskrit mantra. Sana dreamt the Gayatri mantra; when she woke, she asked Yi for a picture of her inner landscape, and cast Hexagram 35, Advancing - - without changing lines. No decisions to be made or problems ...

I've been learning to drive! Better very-late-indeed than never, perhaps...? And since the Yi - along with a wise driving instructor and generous husband - has been instrumental in making this possible, I thought I'd write about it here. Why so late? Well... I started lessons at 17 like everyone ...

A comic aside to start with. About 95% of the way through writing this post, looking up a link I wanted to include to an old one, I happened on this one from 2007. I'd entirely forgotten its existence. Ah, well. Nourished on ancient blog posts, perhaps? Here's a more ...

Here's episode 64 of the podcast, with a reading about recovery from depression: How to be well? By Limping with Clarity... changing to This looks like a complicated reading, but it really isn't. If you'd like to share a reading of your own on the podcast, you can do that ...

The Yi has quite a bit to say about food and drink generally, and wine in particular. While food has always seemed to me to be a fairly simple image for how you participate in your world - what you internalise, how you meet your essential needs - wine is ...

A reading for a decision this time: Sha asked, "If I build another tech company, what will the experience be like?" Yi answered with Hexagram 27, Nourishing, changing at lines 2 and 3 to 26, Great Tending: changing to So that gave her an interesting couple of moving lines: ‘Unbalanced ...

Bill asked about his dating prospects, and received - of all things - the sixth line of Hexagram 24, Returning... changing to ...which is exactly no-one's favourite line. So how do you respond when Yi's answer is all doom and gloom, and really not what you hoped to hear? You ...

A listener's reading for this month's podcast: Ann asked, 'How do I integrate myself as an artist with everyday life?' And Yi answered with Hexagram 14, Great Possession, changing at lines 1 and 3 to 64, Not Yet Crossing. changing to (If you enjoy this, please share it!) ...

One of the strangest things about conversations with Yi is how immediately relatable most of its imagery is. Life is a journey; we walk our paths (Hexagram 24). We can be stressed and over-burdened to breaking point (Hexagram 28) - it's actually next-to impossible for us to talk or think ...

Chinese tigers Tigers have been prowling through Chinese thought and folklore for many thousands of years. Their meaning is interesting: not just wildness and danger, though of course they might eat you, but also courage and protection against evil - from the wild boar that would eat your crops, and ...

That's something I asked Yi recently, and it answered with Hexagram 23, Stripping Away, changing at lines 1 and 6 to 24, Returning - changing to I think this is a lovely, fascinating, satisfying reading, so I'm sharing a few thoughts on it with you for this episode of the ...

Brian asked, "Why am I compelled to leave my job and join Greenpeace?" and Yi responded with Hexagram 18, 'Work on what has been spoiled' in the Wilhelm/Baynes translation he was consulting. This was in 1982: we’re revisiting the reading and learning from it, 43 years on. Things we mention ...

Robbers show up a few times in the Yijing. In 4.6 you're advised to ward off robbers, not act like one; in 5.3 and 40.3 you're in danger of inviting them; in 53.3, once again, it's useful to ward them off. There are also three lines (3.2, 22.4, 38.6) where ...

I'm about to run a Yijing Foundations Class - we're starting on September 21st. You can't enrol for the class yet, but if you add your name to the notifications list... ...then you'll be one of the first to know as soon as the 'doors' are open. (Since this is ...

In this episode, Natalia is asking a wide-open question: where is she to go next? And Yi's answer combines focus with openness: Hexagram 7, the Army, changing at line 2 to Hexagram 2, Earth: changing to (You may notice something different at the beginning and end of this episode. The ...

I almost titled this post 'working with trigrams' - but the most useful, productive ways I know of to engage with trigrams in readings actually feel a lot more like play. And besides, who needs more work? So here's how I suggest you start playing. (This is really not a ...

A story in three parts? I've mentioned before that there's a pattern in the Zhouyi of concepts or images showing up in threes: three pots, three almost-full moons, three raids that are marital allies, not robbers, and so on. And there are also three zhang 章: in lines 2.3, 44.5 ...

(Just one reading, sorry, not a universal formula.) Paloma asked what to do about her worrying pension-less state, and cast Hexagram 5, Waiting, changing at lines 4 and 5 to 34, Great Vigour - changing to So we talked about patience, and self-care, and standing firm, and also not standing ...

Outside the boxes When I first heard about Benebell Wen's I Ching, I thought it sounded unpromising. An I Ching book by someone who had already published on tarot, who maintains a website with sections on feng shui, numerology, Western astrology and esoteric Taoism as well as tarot and the ...

Following on from a previous post… Hexagram 20, Seeing Hexagram 20 has xun, wind and wood, over earth; its Oracle text suggests earth's open, available quality: 'Seeing. Washing hands, and not making the offering.
There is truth and confidence like a presence.’ Earth will not act, but allows: the ritual provides ...

Charlie asked 'How to navigate?' and cast Hexagram 27, Nourishment - or Jaws - changing at line 1 to 23, Stripping Away: changing to What followed was a strongly resonant conversation between his inner imagery and the imagery of the Yi - and also the ancient Chinese motif of being ...

Earth inside The easiest way to get to grips with the first two hexagrams, for me, is always to think how much they're not each other. Qian, the creative force of heaven: nothing but solid lines, like the paths of sun, moon and stars across the sky. It moves without ...

I've been working on a post on the trigram kun, earth, as inner trigram. That one will come soon - this is just something I wondered about along the way. I started going through the sequence of hexagrams, looking at the Image texts for the ones with earth inside... 'Above ...

How does the Yi help in an impossibly painful situation? It's hard to describe - deep recognition, being recognised, a sense of reconnection. Dominique's reading for this episode: "What is the lesson that I must learn through the pain of losing my marriage and our future?" And Yi's answer: Dispersing ...

I have just heard that Stephen Karcher, author of Total I Ching and How to Use the I Ching, collaborator on the original Eranos edition, has died. I owe Stephen a great deal, so I'm writing this to express my gratitude. My very first encounter with the Yi came when ...

Where they are in the Yijing There are three mentions in the Zhouyi - the oldest layer of the Yijing text - of 'establishing feudal lords': in the Oracle of Hexagram 3, and its first line, and in the Oracle of Hexagram 16. (Then they're also mentioned in the Image ...

Ludimila had graduated in psychology and opened her doors as a therapist a few years previously, but wondered whether she was being prompted to hold onto her secure, old work as a teacher and translator. So she asked, 'What should I focus on professionally?' and cast Hexagram 3, Sprouting, with ...

Introducing the book Johan Hausen has kindly sent me a review copy of his book, Yijing Ethics. It's a transcription of the oral teachings of Xing De, also called Li Shifu, a Daoist renunciant who is deeply immersed and skilled in traditional Daoist arts. (He is a healer as well ...

Looking at a reading the other day, I found myself revisiting (after a gap of ten years) the idea of qian, heaven - the name of Hexagram 1 - as a central axis. It's a concept that shows up in many ways… What does qian mean? The character qian is ...

That was Nathaniel's question for this podcast episode. Here's the reading he cast - changing to - Hexagram 26, Great Tending, changing at line 1 to Hexagram 18, Corruption. As you might imagine, the moving line gave us pause for thought! Nathaniel mentioned a previous episode, the one about Family ...

I want to review Larry Schulz' The Weaving Maiden's Mystery, only I'm not at all sure where to start. There's his theory of the Sequence of Hexagrams, starting from the premise that hexagrams are diagrams of weaving patterns, and the logic of their sequence derives from the logic of weaving ...

A lovely conversation with Roslyn, about starting an online class to teach Daoist and complementary practices to women - about trepidation and confidence, pacing and patience, foxes and drunkenness, elephants and armies... Her reading was Hexagram 64, Not Yet Across, changing at lines 2 and 6 to 16, Enthusiasm: changing ...

Half an idea about the third line of Hexagram 49, Radical Change - 'Setting out to bring order means a pitfall,
Constancy means danger.
As words of radical change draw near three times,
There is truth and confidence.' Overall, this is telling us that radical change isn't something you get at once, like ...

I wrote a bit before about the dangers of AI interpretation that it might, as 26.1 says, be fruitful to stop: its inaccuracy with hexagrams and text; the peril of having an interpretation handed to you without ever engaging with the imagery yourself; and finally, its lack of emotional engagement ...

I was waiting on a station platform with 'cello when I started chatting with a young man with a guitar on his back. We talked music to start with - not that there was much overlap in our experience, but conversation flowed anyway. (He thought I might've heard of John ...

This episode features a reading for the year ahead. Kalimah's question: "Please comment on the year ahead. What I can expect? And also, how best to work with the energies within and around me?" Yi answered with Hexagram 23, Stripping Away, changing at lines 1, 4, 5 and 6 to ...

My first encounters with AI interpretation came as a surprise. I hadn't expected it to be able to work with metaphor, but it could - very well. I had expected it, given two hexagrams, to be able to work out which lines were changing, but it couldn't. And that makes ...

My inbox has been full of waffle about AI for a couple of years now. Apparently AI could be writing my podcast show notes, my blog posts and lots of courses and books for me to sell. All I need to do is spend 10 minutes entering prompts and it ...

Here's a gentle exploration of Hexagram 22, Beauty, in which we work our way round to understanding! Kim asked 'What's happening?' - looking for a picture of the greater pattern of her life. I think Yi handed her the paintbrush ...

Dealing with Corruption Hexagram 18 is gu 蠱, 'corruption': the dictionary tells us its name means snake venom, poisonous insects, bad air and dark magic. A more specific early meaning is revealed in its moving lines: 'the ancestral father's corruption,' 'the ancestral mother's corruption'. These are echoes of ancient oracle ...

This month's podcast features one of those readings where Yi really takes your breath away: 'How beneficial would it be for me to join the next course on family constellations?' Yi's response: Hexagram 18, Corruption, changing at lines 2, 3, 4 and 6 to 16, Enthusiasm. changing to Lux (as ...

This is another post about the differences between hexagrams: this time, Hexagrams 23, Stripping Away, and 41, Decreasing. Both are about loss, about ending up with less, and - given human nature - we tend not to be pleased to receive either one. But how are they different? Names and ...

As you might have guessed from the title of this episode, it's about a reading with Hexagram 22, Beauty, changing at line 1 to 52, Stilling: changing to It was all about becoming imperfectly visible - which the reading's owner has just begun to do on her Youtube channel... https://livingchange.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/episode48.mp3 ...

There's more than one story of the Yi's origins… Mythical origins The story begins in the 29th century BCE with Fuxi, China's first emperor, who may have had the body of a serpent. It was through his insight that the trigrams were discovered, and people could begin to understand their ...

An annual reading, this time: the first thing Maria does on her birthday is to sit down and ask to be shown a reading for the coming year. Here's hers for 2023-24: Hexagram 36, Brightness Hiding, with no changing lines. Since this was an unchanging reading, we had the time ...

Shock in the background I've been mulling over how Hexagram 51, Shock, feels as relating hexagram. After all, a relating hexagram is often the background to an answer - scene-setting, a personal theme, the chapter heading for this part of your life. How does something as abrupt as 'Shock' work ...

I've written before about Yi's kindness, but it's something I keep rediscovering. There's the gentleness of its responses to people in crisis - all degrees of crisis, without judgement. One of my own favourite readings comes from a moment when I suddenly felt I'd experienced the final straw, had nothing ...

In this episode, Katarina and I discuss her reading about moving to a new part of the country - Hexagram 7, the Army, changing at line 2 to 2, Earth: changing to As we talk about her plans, you can hear the qualities of the hexagrams - that meeting of ...

We love the layered profundity of the Yijing's imagery - the way it can speak direct to the soul, giving us entirely new ways of seeing our situation. We know that the Vessel of Hexagram 50 might be a university, or a mindset, or a state of health, or any ...