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The Yi talks in images: hexagram shapes, trigram pictures, sometimes the original forms of the Chinese words themselves, and - most clearly - in its vignettes and stories. When you're just getting started with readings, those are the images you can't miss. You might ask...
'How to start a conversation to ...

I've been looking lately at something so simple I almost missed it: how the ideas in the Yijing's texts develop, from one phrase to the next. It's easy to look at something like, 'Dispersing, creating success.
With the king's presence, there is a temple.
Fruitful to cross the great river,
Constancy bears fruit.' ...

The first thing you're going to notice about this episode is the change of music. The new recording is Kimiko Ishizaka's performance of the 9th of Bach's Goldberg Variations, from her wonderful Open Goldberg Variations project. I hope you enjoy it! Three readings of mine get a mention in this ...

So far, I've introduced the idea of ever-flowing constancy, and explored six places where the Yi advises it. There is just one more example: Don't! 62.4 'No mistake.
Not going past, meeting it.
Going on is dangerous, must be on guard.
Do not use ever-flowing constancy.' This is clear enough: do not use ...

In this episode, Maggie and I dive into her reading about a possible new job: Hexagram 16, Enthusiasm, changing at lines 3 and 5 to 31, Influence. changing to It's not only about being 'open to the new', I think - also about being prepared and actively engaged with the ...

Some more examples of 'ever-flowing constancy'... Renewal: 22.3 'Beautiful, as if dipped in water.
Ever-flowing constancy, good fortune.' The imagery of this line resonates well with the wateriness of 'ever-flowing constancy', too. 22.3 changes to Hexagram 27, so this is where image and beautiful presentation look for Nourishment - and find ...

(This is, aptly enough, going to be a series of posts - though not an endless one...) Introducing 'ever-flowing constancy' Zhen, 'constancy', is the fifth word of the whole Yijing: 乾元亨利貞
qian, yuan heng li zhen 'Creative force, from-the-source creating-success, harvest in constancy.' Or for those translators, like Stephen Field, who ...

In this month's episode, Slavica is asking what to do about a developing relationship. Yi responds with Hexagram 13, People in Harmony, changing at lines 1, 2 and 6 to 28, Great Exceeding: changing to I hope you enjoy listening - and if you'd like to join WikiWing, you can ...

When qian, heaven, is the inner trigram, it might be realised through...

• the fluency and commitment of water in Hexagram 5
• gradual growth and emergence, in Hexagram 9
• earth's support without limits, in Hexagram 11
• complete, radiant expression in Hexagram 14
• rock-solid safeguarding in Hexagram 26
  

Then what? ...

An exquisitely clear, simple reading for this month's podcast: advice for someone who has just moved to a new town - Hexagram 52, Stilling, and 56, Travelling: changing to There's not much to add to that, is there? (Except that if you haven't already joined WikiWing, and you'd like to, ...

Heaven, as inner trigram, always seems to be asking, can this be realised? How, or how completely, or how directly? There's an inner energy seeking expression or realisation through the outer trigram - perhaps it's the potential in the situation asked about, or the true inner nature of the questioner, ...

What is qian? I always find this the hardest trigram to describe. Mountains are big and rocky and don't move; plants grow and move in the wind. Water flows and reflects, fire illuminates and burns, thunder crashes, earth sustains. But what does heaven do? And what does it mean for ...

A Clarity member's reading, about a sphere of light and a magic tortoise. Here's her original post about her experience. And for completeness, here's a podcast from last year with the exact same reading, Hexagram 27 changing at line 1 to 23: changing to I currently have some space available ...

A shared experience This post is prompted by a conversation I had recently with someone who's relatively new to the Yi . His first reading really grabbed his attention: it spoke to him directly in a way he hadn't been expecting at all. Engaged and motivated, he set out to ...

Question: 'What do I need to focus on now so that I can be living my best life in my third age?' Answer: Hexagram 23, Stripping Away, changing at lines 1,2,3,4 and 6 to 34, Great Vigour. changing to With her very first question to the Yi, Parmjit asked for ...

As I said in my last podcast, some readings are simply gifts. That one was like seeing your reflection in a clear pool and knowing all is well. There's immediate recognition: not only recognising yourself in the answer, but feeling recognised - and affirmed, and comforted - by the oracle ...

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 ...