After a reading was completed recently, the extremely intelligent recipient, smiling, asked “What part of the universe are we speaking to?” The I Ching messages had been particularly meaningful throughout the reading.

Click to see Timeline of Events in Classical China

Though I have been studying I Ching and practicing the I Ching Oracle for over 4 decades, and search out every book written in regard to it — books deciphering the I Ching were written as far back as the Ch’ing Dynasty and new books on the subject consistently emerge. Having compared all available and current published translations, (the best in terms of depth, “poetry” and fullness is the Wilhelm/Baynes, imo) I would have to say the true origins are still a mystery, and perhaps no one knows. The beginnings of the I Ching go back several thousand years, and there are variances in interpretations through processes of translation and historic/cultural adaptations. The answer to the question for now would have to be “All and any whole or part.” The I Ching, and the hexagrams contained therein, constitute a paradigm of ancient Chinese philosophy that echoes through time. Both Taoism and Confucianism helped form the foundation of its teachings, while in practice any belief system can be enhanced by its practical advice. It continues to reflect the shape of the world today — western science, philosophy, theology, art, and culture have all benefited from the I Ching. The social, political, and spiritual ideas have a wealth of meaning for the world we live in now.  I Ching is said to have inspired the mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz in 1670 to create and document the binary numeral system (base 2) that eventually made it possible for our computers to exist, while scientists and scholars have also noted correlations between the I Ching and the genetic code.  I Ching has also been a vital source of information in philosophy, psychology and eastern religion, in understanding the nature of time and existence, and in finding answers regarding any of life’s fundamental as well as particular questions through the Oracle, and thereby inspiring an exemplary life. Some of the secrets regarding how the Oracle messages are derived can be found in the annals of the book, such as “The Great Treatise” section, the middle section in the Wilhelm translation. There, various ideations and comments are noted, with historical references and empirical concepts documented. There appears to be a profound numerical design to both the book itself, and in the methods of obtaining a divination. Carl Jung, in his forward to the Wilhelm translation, has named it “synchronicity” which might be the best way to explain how converging coordinates of time, space, matter, energy* create a point. I Ching is mathematically precise, while flexible and non-linear — it shows any and every given moment can be a learning experience and and an opening to a fundamental truth through the Oracle, using the “formulas” of the hexagrams that become “crystallized” — and any resulting gem has many facets. It is called the “Book of Changes” aptly — in that it shows a capacity to illuminate relationships between experience/events/feelings as they are in motion, without hampering the movement, while delivering an essential insight into dynamics and causes/effects. CH-CH-CH-CH-Changes! Then, in a way which seems magical to me, the words divined reach out and connect with the seeker, as if from a vast wellspring of consciousness, and become animate.  During the moments the coins are tossed, or the yarrow stalks counted, the phenomenon begins to occur, and a resulting combination of possibilities outline what the seeker needs, and answer what the seeker asks. It may be the essences of all four of *the above-mentioned coordinates and more, combined, or just plain luck, or synchronicity, as Jung would say. I like to think of it as a collective that emerges and connects, from a pansophy of Taoist sages, scholars, kings, emperors and philosophers whose breadth of experience and understanding pushed civilization forward in the times and discoveries of their day, and today inspires the hearts and minds of the current populace, who can join with ancient wisdom and renew lessons that never get old, with ideas that can be understood in any language with crystal clarity.

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