Carl C. Jung began experimenting with the I-Ching around 1920. He relates how one summer he, "resolved to make an all out attack on the riddle of this book… I would sit for hours on the ground beneath the hundred-year old pear tree, the I-Ching beside me, practicing the technique… All sorts of undeniably remarkable results emerged-meaningful connections with my own thought processes which I could not explain to myself. …Time and again I encountered amazing coincidences which seemed to suggest the idea of an acausal parallelism (a synchronicity as I later called it)."
(Main, Roderick, Jung on Synchronicity and the Paranormal, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. 1997, p. 12)
The I-Ching, like the Sabian symbols with their complementary symbols, is an expression of Yang/Yin, which Rudhyar refers to as the seasonal phases and Day Force and Night Force. Used in this way, the I-Ching also can be used as a daily cycle of divination. However, unlike the symbols which are based on the degree of the sun, the I-Ching can be found in many different cyclic representations. If you enjoy this type of divination, you may want to experiment to find 'your' cycle of resonation.
As with the Tarot or the Sabian symbol, when used oracularly, the Querent poses a question or situation in which advice, wisdom and guidance is wanted. The thought, held in the mind's eye, as would be a prayer or affirmation, is then responded to when the coins are tossed. The main difference between the I-Ching and the Tarot is that the I-Ching is an oracle of philosophical insight; whereas in the Tarot we find the archetypal personages and object presenting themselves with the wisdom. Tarot-clothed in personages. The I-Ching in ideas or powers of Yang and Yin. In comparing them to the Sabian symbols, of course, we also find both similarities and dissimilarities-the Sabian symbols allow one to envision the archetype without pictures and also not yet refined into literal presentation of ideas. The Sabain symbols suggest both the archetypal personages and ideas however. The I-Ching, unlike the symbols and personages, allows one to capture an idea and clothe it in whatever form is most advantageous for the querent.
If for example let me toss the coins with the query of how best to present myself at an upcoming job interview. I receive the twenty-second I-Ching hexagram, Adornment, which is described as a situation characterized by caring for the beauty of outer presentation, enhancing intrinsic value by esthetic sensitivity to details. I may want to focus on such things as my dress or my speech if I were a very casual person. However, if I was already very professional by nature, I may want to bring out a more light-hearted demeanor. The I-Ching hexagram has let me know that my experience is one in which the trait of adornment will be held in high regard. I do not need a symbol or picture to understand this meaning.
Whether used to divine as an oracle as in tossing the coins or in its daily cyclic phases, the I-Ching is a marvelous ancient divinatory system which has great wisdom to share with us.
Mystic Mind Works, tarot, spirituality, divination, i-ching, sabian symbols, birth chart, astrology, horoscope
Mystic Mind Works, tarot, spirituality, divination, i-ching, sabian symbols, birth chart, astrology, horoscope