The I Ching is one of the oldest divination systems and, as one friend put it, much chattier than the tarot or astrology. The premise is simple – even if the results are not! Six coins, tossed six times. You get one or two hexagrams, depending on whether you have changing or moving lines. When Carl Jung wrote the introduction to the Richard Wilhelm translation of the I Ching in 1949, it was the first time he had publicly discussed synchronicity.
“…whoever invented the I Ching was convinced that the hexagram worked out in a certain moment coincided with the latter in quality no less than time…the hexagram was the exponent of the moment in which it was cast. This assumption involves a certain curious principle that I have termed synchronicity, a concept that formulates a point of view diametrically opposed to that of causality…synchronicity takes the coincidence of events in space and time as meaning something more than mere chance…”
I’ve been using the I Ching for decades, but am nowhere nearly as accomplished at interpreting it as writer Nancy Pickard and Adele Aldridge. But even the adepts can be tripped up. Adele recently emailed me an experience she had with the Ching.
From Adele:
I share with you an I Ching reading I did on March 14 this year. On a scrap of paper I wrote in the middle, ELECTION.
I made 3 columns: Clinton – Sanders – Trump. I threw the coins under each name.
For Clinton I got hexagram 46 Pushing Upward. No moving lines.
For Sanders I got hexagram 41 Decrease changing to 18 Decay/working on what has been spoiled
For Trump I got hexagram 8 Union.
At the time I thought the Clinton and Sanders reading seemed appropriate. I thought that Trump’s Union, a joining with the masses, had to be wrong. There is many a time when I get an I Ching reading that I either don’t like or don’t understand. Just like a dream, you can’t always tell the meaning of an I Ching response right away. I stuck the paper in my journal to wait and see. I forgot about it and the fact that it was way back in March surprises me. That seems so long ago now.
Well, the I Ching was right. It seems to be that it always is right even if I don’t like the response or understand it. Carl Jung said in his Forward to the I Ching, “One sleeps better at night if one does not try to understand how the I Ching works.”
This is interesting. I read several explanations for Hexagram 8 and what jumped out at me is that it is about a leader who is a unifying figure. Now, please keep in mind that I am devastated that HRC didn’t win, and am still putting most of my energy into wishing and mourning for that. I have nothing positive to say about this man.
However, with that in mind, this is not the first divination or guidance I have read of in the last three weeks that implied that he is destined to be a sort of paradoxical leader for good — perhaps in the sense of galvanizing Liberals and Moderates like never before — and I see lots of that happening remarkably fast.
And, perhaps in some other way that I can’t quite envision yet. The psychic / healer Echo Bodine said that what she saw occurring is a masterful, divine plan that turns out better than *anyone* thinks, including Dems, Repubs, and Third Party. I know, I know, hard to imagine.
One online translation of Hexagram 8 says “…a man of strong will in the leading position, a man who is their center of union. Moreover, this strong and guiding personality in turn holds together with the others, finding in them the complement of his own nature….What is required is that we unite with others, in order that all may complement and aid one another through holding together. But such holding together calls for a central figure around whom other persons may unite.”
This is not at all a man whom we would think these words apply to, but whether as a focal point for organized opposition or by some other more subtle chemistry that leads to unprecedented unity, this is what the Tao has given us at this time.
Organized opposition sounds like the only feasible thing to me!
Hey kids, thanks for posting. The I Ching is so amazing on so many levels – we could go on and on and on. 🙂
For many years I used the I Ching (that version) in my life, using 16 smooth rocks to cast a hexagram. It was uncanny how often it told me what to do next. I lost one of the little rocks and stopped using it, but now you’ve made me consider starting again. Yes, the I Ching was right about the election. It doesn’t make me very happy, but there it is. I have always believed in its accuracy.
I couldn’t refrain from commenting. Well written!