The I Ching or Book of Changes, originated in China at least 1,000 years before the birth of Christ and is one of the oldest books in the world. Confucius and the Taoist sages thought very highly of it, treating it reverently as a scared book and prizing its powers of divination.
With the upsurge of intrest in prediction and prophecy as part of the revival of esoteric wisdom, it is not surprising that the I Ching has come to be included among popular pastimes. At the superficial level this is a great injustice to the I Ching since it was intended to provide a serious and penetrating guide to life. It was not meant to be used merely to satisfy idle curiousity or to tell fourtunes.
The I Ching is structured on the philosophy of the alternating polarities of yin and yang in the universe. Yin represents Earth and is regarded as passive, feminine, yielding, weak and dark. Overall, it is said to be negative. Yang represents Heaven and is active, masculine, firm, strong, and light. Thus it is said to be clearly positive. Other basic concepts of the I Ching philosopy are t' ai chi', meaning the center of things-a type of absolute and divine stillness-and Tao, meaning, "the way". The I Ching offers us the way for the right action. Commentators skilled in its use say that the question asked-and the spirit in which it is asked-brings to light an intuitive response, which in turn responds to the tides of change, of ebb and flow, in the world. Thus the future is not something static, but constantly in flux, affected by the here and now. the I Ching does not predict , in the usual sense of the word, so mudh as it offers the seeker an appropriate course of action for the future based on the cosmic tides of positive and negative influences that shape our destinies.
To consult the I Ching, a method of dividing small heaps of sticks, or of throwing coins is used. In the firt instance, fifty short and long yarrow stalks are divided systematically in heaps until a resulting collection of stalks provides a combination that can be identified as one of the lines in the "hexagram". The hexagram is a combination of six lines, some of which represent yin and the others yang. The completed hexagram spells the answer to the question asked at the time of the division of stalks. In the latter case, three coins are thrown, and the side of the coin representing its value is taken to be the positive side. The coins are dropped spontaneously from cupped hands, and their fall produces varying combinations of positive and negative forces, from which the hexagram is drawn.
In each method, the procedure must be carried out six times, and the lines must be built from the bottom to the top (from Earth to Heaven, as it were). After the throws have been made, the specific meanings are found in the I Ching itself. There are sixty-four hexagrams in all, but the variety of intuitive meanings far exceeds this number.
As means of divination in the occult, perhaps Aleister Crowley more than any other Western magician made the most use of the I Ching. Crowley was noted for his keensess to adapt the EAstren methods of posture and breathing to modern techniques of the occult, and, according to his book, The Magical Record of the Beast 666, he also consulted the oracle regularly. However, when one looks through his accounts of his day to day activities, it is clear that much of his intuition was self-oriented rather than emanating from the I Ching itself.
In the 1960's and 1970's the I Ching, along with transcendental meditation, Yoga, and other forms of Eastern tradition and mystical philosophy, were popular with members of the rock-music culture. Whilte she was Mick Jagger's girlfriend, singer and actress Marianne Faithfull frequently used the I Ching for divination. At one stage she was particularly worried about the future of Brian Jones, a member of the Rolling Stones. He had become alienated from his friends, and was heavily dependent upon drugs. Whenever she threw the coins with him in mind, the I Ching would suggest water and evil. "Where the water is. A pit, a perilous cavity. There will be evil; it says". She told Jagger. Jones, a Piscean by birth, drowned in a swimming pool.
New Age thought helped bring about a revival of interest in the I Ching in the west in the 1990's. And in Japan, were many businessmen have claimed that the I Ching helped them to achieve commerical success, an I Ching software program has even been marketed, thus adapting this ancient divination system to the computer age. |
