For the purposes of the divination, each different hexagram (and every line in a hexagram) has its own particular oracular meaning. The various combinations give rise to 64 different hexagrams.
Each line in a hexagram can be either Yang or Yin. Hexagrams are always constructed and read from the bottom to the top.
When using the I Ching oracle, these lines are used to create Hexagrams (figures made up of six lines). Yang and Yin are represented in the I Ching by unbroken and broken lines. This is T'ai Chi or Taiji (The Absolute), beautifully represented by the Taijitu (Diagram of the Absolute), more commonly known in the West as the Yin-Yang symbol. There is also a reality beyond Yin and Yang. When we follow a harmonious and connected path through life, then we are said to live in accordance with the Tao. Yin corresponds to receptive, mutable, contracting form.Īll change can be understood in terms of the relationship between Yang and Yin.When Yin and Yang are in balanced relationship, then life is harmonious. Yang corresponds to active, creative, expansive force. The two most basic opposites are the principles of Yang and Yin. Change also involves relationships between opposites. By studying these changes, we can recognize significant patterns of change (e.g., night and day, the phases of the moon, the seasons of the year, the stages of human life). All things, including human affairs, are understood to change through time - they are born, develop, decay, die and are reborn in some new form. The central idea behind the I Ching is that of flux or change. Jung, the physicist Wolfgang Pauli, and the writer Hermann Hesse. Its intelligent, profound, sophisticated and often uncannily accurate readings have recommended this system of divination to many westerners, including the psychologist C.G. The I Ching has been in continuous use up to the present day. At the same time, various commentaries were added to the basic text. The book was used for divinatory purposes for hundreds of years before it was finally codified during the Han dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE). It is based on an even older shamanistic oral tradition. The book is certainly one of the oldest in the world, dating back to about 1000 BCE. From a modern psychological perspective, divination represents a subtle means of tapping the wisdom of the unconscious mind.Īn ancient Chinese system of divination, the origins of the Book of Changes ( I Ching) are steeped in myth and legend. These methods were understood as ways of communicating with the world of spirits and unseen powers. Many different methods of divination were used in the ancient and medieval worlds, including the observation of animal behaviour, the movements of stars and planets, the casting of lots, and inspired oracular utterances. Divination is the reading of signs or symbols in order to obtain guidance about current situations and future events.
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