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Book of Changes
The topic is the I Ching also known as the Book of Changes. The I Ching is the world’s oldest divinatory text, if not the oldest divinatory practice. It’s speculated it may have been around for more than three millennia before the birth of Christ, and it’s confirmed at the two millennia mark. It has…
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Interplay of Changes
Though there are 64 hexagrams in the I Ching, there are only 8 trigrams, and understanding the trigrams makes reading the hexagrams potentially rather easy. But first let’s explore a simple element of the symbolism. How would you explain warmth in the yin/yang symbolism? Yang is hot, yin is cold. Remember the hexagrams and even…
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Rotation of Yin and Yang States
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Effect Change by Changing Yourself
In the structure and wisdom of the Book of Changes, no state is seen as impossible for anyone to experience. Peasants can become kings, rich men become beggars, mountains be leveled, etc. So in using the I Ching to explore your life, it doesn’t lock you into any specific course. You can effect change in…
Category: I Ching
The I Ching is the world’s oldest divinatory text. The “code” behind it is really rather simple. It ultimately works with two values, yang and yin. Yang states in time become yin, and yin states become yang.
The Book of Changes has a cosmology built into it, a sense of order. It’s very concerned with the balance between heaven and earth, and they see everything in the world as an interplay of changes not only on the earth but in the universe as well. In a hexagram, the bottom three lines are the trigram symbolizing the state of earth, and the upper three are symbolic of the state of heaven. A picture of any complete state is composed of a thumbnail of the state of both earth and heaven at that place and time. Just like human relationships, you determine at which stage you are in harmony with the desired state, and in which stage you are out of synch.
“One should act in consonance with the way of heaven and earth, which is enduring and eternal. The superior man perseveres long in his course, adapts to the times, but remains firm in his direction and correct in his goals.” I Ching
“A person in danger should not try to escape at one stroke. He should first calmly hold his own, then be satisfied with small gains, which will come by creative adaptations.” I Ching