Methods: I Ching

[Joan Marie]

Made me some I Ching tiles and dice.

I made these from a clay that dries hard, no need to fire it in a kiln. I made 2 sets of the 8 trigrams. Each has a little dot to indicate which way is up.
I had a little leftover clay so I made a pair of dice. The little bag I made a long time ago and never used until now.

I just did it for fun, never really used them thinking that it was necessary to draw each line one-by-one. (I'm just learning.) But this morning I read something that encouraged me.

The Taoist master Alfred Huang writes in his book “The Complete I Ching” that there are many alternative methods to the traditional Yarrow Stalks or 3 Coins methods.

He notes that some people may feel that the less traditional ways are not meditative enough or are less authentic. But there is a Chinese saying that “The type of vehicle does not matter, so long as it gets you to your destination.

There are people who feel even coin throwing is not authentic enough. And then there are many who use the online I Ching apps.

I'm kind of happy now to be using these things I made.

The way it works is I pull two cubes, one at a time, to create the hexagram. Then I roll a die to determine which is the moving line.

In his book, Master Huang describes a method he uses sometimes of putting eight stones or crystals in a bag and assigning a trigram to each and pulling one, noting it, tossing it back in the bag and drawing again.
My "system" has 2 sets of the 8 trigrams so I don't have to put the first one back.

[Pen]

It's a lovely idea. There's something about making your own (almost anything) that makes it special, meaningful and significant ever after, which is probably why the creation of a personal deck was a step for initiates in societies like the Golden Dawn. I rather like the thought of trigrams either cut or burnt into slices of a dried branch, or maybe painted onto small flattish pebbles.

[Papageno]

Made me some I Ching tiles and dice.


I made these from a clay that dries hard, no need to fire it in a kiln. I made 2 sets of the 8 trigrams. Each has a little dot to indicate which way is up.
I had a little leftover clay so I made a pair of dice. The little bag I made a long time ago and never used until now.

That's ingenious!

It's said that whatever is made by your own hand retains your own special energy and resonance, much like any other artifact or work of art. I don't usually go in for this sort of thinking, but I wouldn't let anybody else use them, just keep them for yourself.

Have fun with them, they're really unique and special.

[Rachelcat]

Wow, your clay trigrams are truly beautiful. And yes, I’m sure an item you made yourself helps carry important meaning to your readings!

I have two more methods to share, marbles and cards.

I got the marble method from Stephen Karcher’s Total I Ching.

If you use changing lines, there are basically four kinds of lines, yin, yang, changing yin, and changing yang. In coin readings, the four kinds of lines are totals of heads = 2, tails = 3, giving you 6, 7, 8, or 9. And in most books, the line texts are named either 6 or 9, changing yin or changing yang. The odds of getting which of the four lines is different with yarrow and coins. The marble method is an easy way to get lines with the same odds as the yarrow method.

So you get marbles of four different colors to represent the four kinds of lines. You use 16 marbles because the odds are out of 16 for each line. (Yang is white; yin is black. The other colors here are my idea: changing yang is fading from white to black so it’s yellow; changing yin is fading from black to white so it’s blue.)

9 Changing yang Yellow 3 marbles
8 Yin Black 7 marbles
7 Yang White 5 marbles
6 Changing yin Blue 1 marble

To get your hexagram, simply draw a marble and note the line it represents (starting at the bottom), return the marble to the bag or your hand and draw again, a total of six times, one for each line.

Obviously, any small, regularly shaped item would work, like poker chips, painted coins, or those glass flower arranging pebbles. But I like my iridescent marbles!

[Rose Lalonde]

I love those tiles. There's nothing like something you made yourself. It makes a big difference. And beautifully done. Nice!

Not the same, but I have a little, decorated box that was my mother's with 16 beads in it. The box was always on her dresser and still smells a little of perfume after all these years. I enjoy drawing the beads from it (same method as the marble method described above.) I like the process and the skewed odds.

Like you said, as long as the car gets you where you're going.

[sharmaakshay]

ohh thats so nice