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We’re continuing from a previous video, “Yarrow Stalk Divination,” in which we walked through a step by step guided divination ritual. The first part of this video is lecture, for a high-level overview of I Ching scholarship and schools of thought on hexagram interpretation. Then we’ll get into
The practicum component to workshop your yarrow stalk reading result. Study of the I Ching has its own name: Yì Xué, meaning I Ching scholarship. And with almost 3,000 years of I Ching scholarship, influenced by contributions from scholars of so many different ethnic, national, and philosophical backgrounds, it’s very diverse in terms of opinions.
I would say the biggest misconception about the I Ching is that there is only one authoritative method to casting and interpreting, and historically, that’s just not true. One way scholars organize different interpretative approaches is the Image and Number Tradition, xiàng shù pài, and the Meaning and Principle Tradition, yì lǐ pài.
The Image and Number Tradition focuses heavily on metaphysical correspondences. Here’s where you integrate numerology, astrology, and also, imagery—the imagery the hexagram itself evokes, as a diagram. The image of the diagram is your foundation for interpreting the meaning. The other side of the coin is its number,
And numbers in general. Mathematics. Calculations. Heavy integration of the Lo Shu magic square. If you have a really specific question, and you want to divine on dates and times, locations, personalities, characters, then you would interpret your reading through an Image and Number lens. Intuitive scrying, channeling,
Vision work is also generally covered under the Image and Number Tradition. Another approach to interpretation is the Meaning and Principle Tradition, which tends to be more philosophy-based, where cultural context matters, or where authoritative scholarship from trusted perspectives will help shape your interpretation. The Meaning and Principle Tradition is like engaging
In the Socratic Method with the Book of Changes. If and when you want to experience knowledge and conversation with higher powers, especially from a Taoist perspective, then you’ll adopt a Meaning and Principle approach. Yili tends to be a rationalist and humanist approach, a philosophical
Interrogation to get at the nature of reality, truths, and ethics. We attribute the Meaning and Principle Tradition to Wang Bi, during the Three Kingdoms era, and which was later inherited by philosophers such as Cheng Yi. In terms of the esoteric or mystery traditions of the Yi,
There are six schools, or Six Temples, six zōng. The divination method is being able to foretell what is to come, whereas the invocation method has more of an operation of prayer and petitioning for answers. Spell-crafting with the I Ching is to take a very proactive role in transmuting qi energy
In the universe. It implies alchemy. The Ancient Ways is, to put it crudely, efforts at reconstructionism. Whereas the Humanist-Rationalist Approach, Ru, is Confucian. This is academic inquiry with the Book of Changes. This is integrating the Socratic Method. And finally, the Historical Method
Is like The Ancient Ways perhaps, but less mystical, more fact-based, research-oriented, archaeological even, and seeks to base its interpretive methods on material evidence. The philosophical and cosmological premise of the I Ching is really important to understand, because it’s what informs how you approach an I Ching reading.
The Book of Changes is premised on the theory that there is an order to the natural chaos of this universe, and it goes round and round in cycles. It’s a series of syllogisms, immutable rules of logical flow, tautologies. If A,
Then absolutely B will follow. If no A, then C, D, or E are the possible outcomes. You then need to input more data to determine whether it’ll be the path of C, D, or E. There’s also this quantum aspect of your situation and personal events
Existing on a multidimensional state, meaning quite simply and intuitively, that something you think is related to, say, love and relationships, is actually related to finances, or something related to career is actually related to geopolitics, and so on. And, also, something happening in your mind, among your thoughts, even though
No action is taken, is influencing events in your orbit that you might not be aware of. Physical actions you’re taking today are paving the consequences for spiritual implications that will come up far, far down the line. Extenuating circumstances happening to you right now might be the butterfly effect,
Where the causal connection is from, who knows, lifetimes ago. So when you approach the Book of Changes for divination, asking to pinpoint a specific location on the space-time continuum, as it were, what you’re actually getting in response from the
Divination process is a circle drawn around that center point you want to know more about. The reading yields a 360-degree view of the situation. The divination ritual itself establishes the given radius of the circle for the Oracle to draw. Once you get that triangulated view of your situation,
The Book doesn’t tell you an answer, it doesn’t tell you what to do. It won’t feel like a direct answer to your specific question, even though it is. You’re getting that triangulated panoramic view, and then you need to take the initiative to decide,
Which pinpoints within this circle the divinatory result has drawn you that you want to focus on. So over the centuries of I Ching practitioners, certain agreed upon principles arise. Like if you really want to pinpoint, then the lines of text associated with your changing lines is a good place to start.
The oracle message or key themes of the hexagrams give you the thesis. And maybe all you really want is the short answer thesis. Maybe you don’t want to read the entire dissertation. With the yarrow stalk divination method, your result is either something like this,
Which you see on screen, with two hexagrams because you got changing lines. Or it’s going to look something like this, a single hexagram, due to no changing lines, which we’ll call a locked hexagram. That’s your triangulated view of your situation.
So that’s the extent of my lecture today, because I do want you to read my book. And now we get into the workshop portion. Go get your I Ching reading result from the yarrow stalk divination you did, per the previous video. But first, a quick relevant review of Taoist cosmology.
The Taiji numinous void gives rise to the binary yin and yang. There are four permutations of this binary yin and yang, which we call, left to right, Elder Yin, Younger Yang, Younger Yin, and Elder Yang. These are the four affinities, the Four Faces of the Tao. They combine in trinities to
Produce Eight Trigrams, the Ba Gua. The four affinities, Four Faces, denote how the primary hexagram of your I Ching reading result changes into the transformed or secondary hexagram you’ll be casting. To demonstrate, I’ll review my own I Ching reading result carried over from the Yarrow
Stalk Divination video. My result yielded only two changing lines, marked by the red Xs on screen at the Line 4 and Line 6 positions. That means the unchanging or immutable lines, Lines 1, 2, 3, and 5, are Elder Yang where you see the yang line, and
Elder Yin where you see the yin line. From the Four Faces, the four affinities of yin and yang. The bottom line of the affinities (the Four Faces) correspond with the yin or yang line cast in the first hexagram. The upper line of the Four Faces will correspond with the yin or yang
Line you cast for the secondary hexagram. And so you essentially carry over or draw the same yin or yang line as the primary. Lines 4 and 6, marked by the Xs, are the changing lines, Younger Yang and Younger Yin respectively. The bottom line of the affinities corresponds with
Your primary hexagram lines to the left. The top line of the affinities, these Mutable, changing faces of yin and yang, correspond with what you’ll cast for your secondary hexagram on the right. The top line of Younger Yang affinity in the Line 4 position is yang, so the line you
Draw for the secondary hexagram is yang. The top line of Younger Yin affinity in the Line 6 position is yin, so the line you draw on the right is yin. Identify the upper trigram result of your primary hexagram. As an example, mine is Wind. I also like
To note the driving force behind the trigram, which for Wind is the changing phase Wood. Do the same for the lower trigram of your primary hexagram result. In my example, the lower trigram remains the same, Thunder, which is driven by the changing phase of Wood, corresponding with Jupiter, the chrysalis stage of alchemy,
And the Language functions of the brain. My upper trigram transforms to Lake, driven by the changing phase Metal. Metal corresponds with the planet Venus, the division and dissolution stage of alchemy, and the Memory function of the brain. Here is where correspondence tables are useful. There are a bunch of
Correspondence tables for you to reference in I Ching, The Oracle, and you’re going to want to brainstorm correspondence notes for your trigrams and changing phase results. Wind over Thunder yields Hexagram 42, Burgeoning for my primary hexagram. Lake over Thunder, where the lower trigram doesn’t change,
Yields Hexagram 17, Inspiring Followers, for my transformed or secondary hexagram. Recall how my Lines 4 and 6 are changing lines. That means when I go to interpret Hexagram 42, I’m going to focus or place more emphasis on the text for Lines 4 and 6.
They forge direct causal links to Lines 4 and 6 of the second hexagram. The divinatory text corresponding with the Lines marked by the Xs on screen are the volatile, changing forces at play. Whereas the unchanging, immutable lines are what cannot be changed.
These are past forces long put into motion that has brought you to where you are now. At this time, pause the video and take a moment to take notes on your own I Ching reading result. Turn to the page entry in the book for your primary hexagram. Read The
Oracle section to help orient you on the key themes of counsel the Oracle is endeavoring to convey to you about your situation. Read the translations of the relevant Ten Wings passages and annotations for this hexagram. The text corresponding with the Fourth Line of my first hexagram is going to give me important
Information I need to change my situation in ways that will be most advantageous for me, in terms of the outcome I’m seeking. The fourth line position itself, in any and every hexagram, has certain correspondences that will also help guide your interpretation of the hexagram text message. Each of the six lines exhibit
Innate qi qualities that then interact with the actual yin or yang line of your hexagram result, so these innate attributes are the lens you filter your reading through. Same goes for the Sixth Line of my primary hexagram. The Oracle is giving
Me important information I need to know so that I can create certain Change that is going to better align me with the outcome that I’m seeking to achieve. The Wu Xing are the five fundamental phases of change, or categories of phase changes.
A more literal direct translation of Wu Xing might be the “Five Movements.” Note the changing phase correspondence for the trigrams in your I Ching reading result. There’s a lot you’ll be able to discern about your situation, really specific details, based on this.
Pause the video here and consult the information on screen to determine the driving movements behind what’s going on in the subject matter you’ve inquired about. We look to the metaphysical correspondences for the underlying phase of change, the underlying movement of qi driving the trigrams.
Pause on any of the slides in this video for a closer look, or you can find these tables in my book, I Ching, The Oracle, Chapter 6. In theory, these correspondences will reveal very precise details in its assessment and predictions of your situation.
Cycle through this correspondence table once more, pausing on each slide and write down everything that makes an impression on you relating to your changing phase attributions. Create a mind map of the dominant changing phases driving the forces of Change for you. Conceptualize each one of these relevant keywords as another symbol,
Or omen, another image to ponder upon. These keywords are signaling a much bigger download, a packet of insights that are coming through by way of the keywords. Pause the video and free-write what’s coming to mind. Let’s return to that theoretical principle of each hexagram line containing innate qi,
An inherent essence or attributes. The odd ordinals, Lines 1, 3, and 5, are innately yang, assertive, light, creative, and express waxing qi, or life force. The even numbers, Lines 2, 4, and 6, are innately yin, recessive, dark, destructive, and express waning qi. You know how you have a certain nature, inherent attributes.
But then depending on the circumstances you’re put in, you might act in accordance with your innate character or you might act against it. Likewise, we say that each of the six line positions possess inherent attributes based on innate qi. But of course, when presented with certain conditions,
It may act in alignment with its inherent attributes or it might have a chemical reaction with the conditions in a way that goes against its inherent attributes. Let’s take a look at my primary hexagram result and compare the yin and yang outcomes with
Their innate qi. Just as a reminder, we’ll note that my Lines 4 and 6 were changing. Note how the lines marked with the blue circle and cross show alignment. My yin and yang outcome in Hexagram 42 align with the innate qi of the hexagram lines. This
Lines signal areas of harmony and balance. Note how Lines 3 and 6, marked with the brown circle and Xs, show that the yin and yang outcome in Hexagram 42 negate or are in opposition with the hexagram line’s innate qi. To use Western occult terminology,
These lines are ill-dignified, whereas the lines marked with the blue cross are dignified. Because Lines 4 and 6 are my changing lines, marked by the red X, those are the ones I want to pay closer attention to.
I see that my Line 4 is dignified, and so this is probably going to be good news. But my Line 6 is ill-dignified, so this is probably going to be a red flag. At the risk of totally confusing you, you really didn’t need to know any of
That. But I wanted to make sure you saw the rationale for where the divinatory text comes from. Reconciling the innate affinity of the hexagram line with its actual yin and yang affinity reveals dignified vs. ill-dignified qi. While I think it’s reductive to say that Confucianism is classist
And all about class rank and hierarchies, it also kind of is about rank and hierarchy, and you’re going to see that, historically, in how we approach I Ching interpretation. Chéng Yí, a 11th century Confucian scholar and philosopher, underscored the importance of understanding Lèi (類), translated as “kind,
Class, genus, category, or order,” which implies the meaning “to know.” Chéng Yí’s philosophy is premised on Taoist cosmology, though he’s considered a Confucian. In Taoist cosmology, there was this unit whole, the Tao, that had to keep subdividing itself and with each subdivision, created different classes, categories, and types of creations.
Likewise, one must divide, subdivide, and categorize to know the holistic meaning and principle at hand. So, to be a good I Ching reader, under the Chéng Yi school of philosophy, you have to divide, subdivide, and deconstruct the whole hexagram into its parts,
And study the parts before you put it back together again to try and understand the whole. And then in this process of subdividing and categorizing, Line 5 is considered the hexagram ruler. Above it, Line 6, is the spiritual influence, what rests in the hands of the gods.
So one approach is read the divinatory message for each line of a single hexagram from your reading result, and filter the line’s text message through its innate subject matter attributes. This is particularly fruitful in the instance of a locked hexagram or when reading the
Divinatory result of a single hexagram. For example, the innate attributes of Line 3, reconciled from various traditions, schools of thought, and authoritative I Ching scholars, will inform how you interpret the prophetic text you see on screen for the Third Line, as it applies to your question presented. The downloadable worksheet that goes along
With this video lecture will help you navigate interpretation of each line of your hexagram. As previously noted, Line 5 is every hexagram’s ruler. If Line 5 is one of your changing lines, this is a big deal. Pay attention. Big shifts happening to the matter at hand, and willpower
And decisions will make all the difference. Listen to the counsel of the ruling line. If your reading resulted in changing lines, then you can choose to read only the changing lines, through the subject matter attributes of those lines. The subject matter attributes of your changing lines denote what key areas to focus on,
And the divinatory message itself reveals who, where, when, why, and/or how. Pause the video here to complete the prompts of your worksheet. The next section will address locked hexagrams only. Recall the four yin and yang affinities, which we call the Four Faces.
A locked hexagram result from the yarrow stalk method means you yielded no changing lines, no Younger Yin or Younger Yang. The lower line of the Four Affinities corresponds with the (quote) primary hexagram (unquote) and the upper line corresponds with the (quote) secondary hexagram (unquote), which is the same as the first, right?
So that’s why you only read the single locked hexagram, and read the line text for each of the six lines of your locked hexagram for more detailed insight into specific sub-topics or sub-plots and themes within your inquiry, bearing in mind that Line 5 is your hexagram ruler,
And is thus tantamount to a changing line in terms of emphasis of importance to you. Now, if your yarrow stalk divination resulted in changing lines, then proceed. In my reading, my transformed hexagram was Hexagram 17. Sui. Inspiring Followers. I’ll start by reading the Oracle section to receive the general divinatory message
Expressed by this hexagram. You’ll do the same. The next step is to focus your attention on the changing lines. The changing lines in your second hexagram connect to the changing lines in your primary hexagram. So remember that these are the points of causal connection.
I’ll then look to the Fourth and Sixth Lines of Hexagram 17, which provide important information I need to know about what actions to take to ensure the success I seek. Likewise, take a look now at the corresponding changing lines from your second hexagram.
Compiling your I Ching reading result in a table will help you stay oriented. In one column, top row, note your primary hexagram, and some general sights about it. In the second column, note your transformed hexagram. Then create a row to compare,
Side by side, each Line of the two hexagrams. In my example, I’ve only got two changing lines, Lines 4 and 6. I also like to note the general indications for those lines. Then populate your table with notes on the corresponding line text. On screen you’re
Only seeing the translations from the Zhouyi, and not the annotations. It may help to look at the annotations, as they’ll explain what otherwise may feel too sparse in the direct translations. If you’re workshopping your I Ching reading result, and I hope you are, then pause the video here to generate your own table.
The primary hexagram of your I Ching reading signifies yang forces, the natural order, that which is supporting and continue to generate the momentum of your current Path. Whereas the secondary or transformed hexagram signifies yin forces, and is the force of ongoing
Change on its path toward its ending. This is how the Path is going to develop and mature. Are you reminded of the He Tu and Lo Shu Book of the River Maps diagrams? The two hexagram results, in essence, mark the beginning and the end,
Forces that supplement and how to defeat, subdue, or more to the point, change. So in my own I Ching reading result, Hexagram 42, my primary, shows what forces and factors are pushing me further along on the Path
While Hexagram 17 is giving me insight into how I can change the course of that Path, how I can cultivate its development and maturation to achieve the end result I seek. You can dive as deep into every nook and cranny of your I Ching reading as you’d like.
Generally, the focus remains on the changing lines of a reading because it’s theoretically “time sensitive” in terms of enacting change to shift the course of the Path and ensure success. Those with a locked hexagram or single hexagram reading, Line 5, the ruling line, is typically considered the key point.
Whereas insights that the other lines yield are just considered “good to know.” But let’s get into the “good to know” parts. Let’s take Line 1 of Hexagram 17 for example. The innate implications of Line 1 of every hexagram, if we’re following Zheng Yi’s school of thought, correspond with the interests of the commoner,
What it is the local barons want, and foundations. In a practical modern-day reading, I’m going to interpret Line 1 as insight for seeking a new direction in life. I’m moving through a lot of historical and academic content really fast,
And just skating across, basically, the table of contents of my I Ching book. So if you want to pause and go down a rabbit hole behind any point I’ve raised here, go check out the 800+ page book. One more example before we move along. Line 3, though it wasn’t a changing line,
You’ll recall was ill-dignified when alchemizing with its innate qi, which should be yang. But in Hexagram 17, Line 3 is yin. So we’re going to read Line 3 to see what’s up with this ill-dignified energy in our lives. Read
The Oracle entry for the Third Line through the filter of Line 3’s general implications. When you come across divinatory lines that reference husbands, wives, sons and daughters, concubines, kings, lords, and ladies, in the 21st century, we interpret them figuratively. They’re symbols of something. So a husband, for instance, might be symbolic of reciprocal
Benefits, a representative of the outer sanctum. Wives, then, are symbolic of the inner sanctum. Sons are symbolic of future potential, but also of one-way dependency. The son is dependent on the parent. Daughters might be symbolic of opportunities, diplomacy, alliances. With your secondary hexagram, the innate attributes and sub-topic or
Thematic correspondences for each line reveals forecasts, projections. These are possibilities, and glimpses into the “what if.” So yes, it’s totally valid to cherry-pick one of these lines, based on the general thematic correspondences of that line, for the Yi’s sound bite on that specific sub-topic.
To recap, your primary hexagram triangulates information and insight related to the Path of Nature. Destiny, you might call it. What is predestined, but really, is just the laws of cause and effect. Your transformed or secondary hexagram triangulates knowledge and calculated information and the myriad methods that
Destiny can be diverted, that Nature can be Nurtured into something else. This is the quantum state, a map of probability distributions for the outcomes of each measurement in the system that is your question presented. Since I’m better known as a tarot reader, a European divination tool,
And many of you watching are probably tarot reader as well, it’s worth the time to talk about how I compare the two, in terms of divination systems. Historically, in so far as we understand the systems today, tarot’s origins are as playing cards, games, that centuries after its popularity was
Repurposed by occultists for divination and to wax poetic on occult philosophy. In contrast, the I Ching was designed, at its inception, as a divination tool, one premised on a whole lot of math…mathematics that seems to add up. The perfection of the system appealed to scholars of many different schools of Eastern philosophy,
Be that Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, which yes, just to get through this surface-level conversation I’m going to call a philosophy, Legalism, and so on. And these scholars wrote tome after tome about how philosophically sound the I Ching is. So it became part of philosophy.
I’m releasing this video in advance of I Ching, The Oracle’s launch date, so I hope that once you do have the book in hand, with my translations and annotations, you’ll revisit the yarrow stalk divination video and this one. Until then, if you’re working through the two video workshops with a different translation,
Share in the comments section which translation you’re using.
#Interpretation #Ching #Hexagrams