The Sage will teach you by means of the book. That is the learning that matters. You will need at least one copy of the book itself. I recommend the translation by Dr. Alfred Huang, though any translation will do in a pinch.
There is very little to learn about how to approach The Sage via the Yi Jing and ask for lessons:
- Choose your question carefully. It must be specific. Don’t ask either/or questions. Don’t ask The Sage to make your decisions for you. Don’t ask about the future as if it were fixed; but rather, ask what you need to know in order to create a given future. Don’t try to engineer an outcome; rather, be sincere and heartfelt. Try to cut through the busy thoughts to the pith of your heartfelt concern, and form your question around that pith. Until it kicks you in the gut (at least a little), it is probably not the question you really mean to ask. Arriving at the right question is half the battle. You’re on your own in formulating the question. You have to ask in order to receive an answer.
- Check your frame of mind. Become centered. Meditate beforehand if you are distracted or anxious. You don’t have to “believe”, but you do have to be respectful and suspend doubt for the moment. Hold open the door of possibility that you can connect and get a meaningful answer. Doubt would dampen the flow. Your thought has power. Become able to yawn before you begin.
- Shield yourself using the power of visualization. Imagine a golden bubble of energy as a barrier surrounding your body. Allow inside that bubble only the higher self, angel, guide, god, etc. (collectively “The Sage”) who resonates with your highest values (such as love, truth, justice, freedom—whatever they are—and name them) to pass through the bubble and enter into your space. All others are respectfully declined admittance. Say so, and it is so. Your intention has power.
- Hold your three coins of the same kind together in the cupped palms of your hands. Sit erect with your elbows raised slightly, visualizing a beam of white light connecting your crown chakhra with The Sage, wherever he may be located in your worldview. He welcomes your connection with love and a desire to help. He is ready to answer supportively like a kind and wise grandparent.
- Empty your mind except for the question you chose carefully. Think only of the question, take your time, wait for the right moment, yawn if you can, shake the coins so they rattle between your cupped palms, and drop them all at once. Read them wherever they happen to fall. Count how many heads are showing. Draw a line of your hexagram(s) based on the number of heads showing.
- Draw from the bottom upward until there are six layers, as if you are laying bricks in a house (never from the top downward). How many visible heads determines what you draw: 0=yang changing to yin, 1=unchanging yang, 2=unchanging yin, 3=yin changing to yang. A yang line is a solid one. A yin line is a broken one. If there are no changing lines, you will draw only a single hexagram. If there are any changing lines, you will draw a before and after pair of hexagrams side by side. “Yang changing to yin” means the before hexagram has a yang line, and the after hexagram has a yin line on the same layer of “bricks”.
- Repeat step 5 five more times, until there are six layers total, producing a complete hexagram or a pair of them.
- The hexagrams tell you which portion of the book to read in answer to your question. Consider that portion of the book slowly, meditatively, and with due respect. It’s not supposed to make sense intellectually right away. Rather, it is supposed to be food for thought, meant to stimulate an inspiration within you. Take at least 24 hours of careful consideration before you move on, draw firm conclusions, or decide on a next step. It is during that meditative day that the magic potentially happens, that you may receive many “aha” moments. You’ll get out of it only as much as you put into it. Pay special attention to the changing lines between a pair of hexagrams, or ruling lines of a single hexagram. A single hexagram indicates a stable or stagnant situation. A pair of them indicates a changing situation. As life is change, there are usually a pair of hexagrams. In order to gain insight about the changing lines, read the portion pertaining to the before hexagram (not the after). The before hexagram is usually more important than the after. The after hexagram is probably only relevant if your question (or the before hexagram) implies a before and after condition.
- If the answer suggested by your reading only seems to reflect back the situation or question without offering an answer, then reconsider the premises behind your question. There may be false premises contained within it. The Sage will not answer a question containing false premises, but will reflect back your situation or question in that case, just to let you know he understands.
The first three of the nine steps above are the most important ones. Let The Sage (your higher self, angel, guide, god, etc.) be your teacher by asking many questions over time and carefully considering the answers received.
You don’t necessarily have to think in terms of a new angel, guide, god, or higher power. Consider the possibility that whatever star you already love and follow can speak to you through the Yi Jing.
As in any connection, let your trust in The Sage grow or not based upon the helpful and wise answers you receive. If you are sincere, he will show you that he understands you and cares about you. If you treat the Yi Jing with disrespect, then The Sage will ignore you, and you will get random data.
Remember that you decide the course of your life’s journey. The Sage will not tell you what to do. This is a universal law. He will only help you make more fully informed decisions potentially leading to an optimal outcome as you choose each step, because he wants your highest and best good for you.
Enjoy the journey. Be successful. Choose love. Blessings of infinite light.
I can only recount my own experience. The Yi is a supremely personal entity.
I started by tossing it in the closet. I found it at the corner bookstore and in all the wisdom of my twelve years I thought it was crap and tossed it in the back of my closet.
Some months later I was reading the Analects and the Master said: If I had fifty years added to my life I would devote them to the Yi and thus avoid falling into error.
I thought this was a book that was revered by Confucius, who was I to toss it in a closet?
I put it in its proper place of honor and it has been the core of my thinking, on and off for the more than forty years since then.
I carried it around with me, that Clae Waltham paperbook edition of Legge’s stodgy but accurate translation, and learned the figures, tried to find everything I could on it (which in the 70s, away from the academy, wasn’t much)
These day I am an Yi Dao Impartial Observer, a rank in the meditation practice of Zhou Yi Dao, also known as I Ching Tao or Easy Way.
The meditation in Yi Dao is based on the figures of the Yi.
We live our lives in terms of Yin and Yang, altering our clothing with the days, marking the Sabbath and Four Feasts and Four Solemn Ritual days., etc.
In short I have made a humanist religion out of the Yi that I am getting ready to share with others.
To begin.*
Consulting it is very easy but to understand it is the challenge. I began over 40 years ago and have various copies of the I Ching. I use the Wilhelm/Baynes first then I read another version or more and finally I compare them. This is very helpful to understand what the hexagram and moving lines are saying regarding your question.
It takes time to study and learn. Never consult it for something trivial, if you do it will either chastise you or purposely mislead you.
I have also studied “A Course in Miracles”, “The Cloud of Unknowing”, “Love is Letting Go of Fear” and the “Hebrew Bible” along with other versions of the Bible and many other spiritual, philosophical and mystical texts. Each have led me along my ongoing spiritual journey. I am working on my third and final book of philosophical proverbs. Since I was called to write it, its title will be “The Calling“, it will be given to everyone free. All they must do is ask for it.
There are many paths to God. *this was my initial answer, while true, I knew I needed to share more….
Hi Amy,
My advice would be to start with a good translation. The Willhelm/Baynes edition is one of the best you can get. Keep in mind that the I Ching comes from a different place and different time. What was understood back then is less obvious now. There's quite a learning curve involved so do not give in to frustration if it takes a while to get the basic ideas behind it. Try not to get too wrapped up in it's words. The I Ching uses symbols, words are just traps for ideas.
Do read Dr. Carl Jung's foreword to the W/B edition. Read it more than once as it contains some excellent examples of how the I Ching's symbols reveal themselves.
I also recommend watching Harmen Metzger's videos (there are two in English ??? cannot find them). You can learn a lot in under an hour. They're also fun rather than stuffy as many “expert" presentations seem to be (there are no real experts anymore, just people who try to be).
Finally when you do your first reading remember that the answers you get are yours and yours alone.
Be patient, stay curious. The I Ching and I have had a long relationship and I'm still learning thirty years later!
I can tell you how I did it, which is maybe not the best, but is certainly the easiest.
I picked up a copy of Brian Browne Walker’s The I Ching or Book of Changes; A Guide to Life’s Turning Points while browsing idly at a bookstore. I had flirted with the Yi in college in the 70s (didn’t everybody?) in the Richard Wilhelm translation, but at 700+pages, more than a little daunting.
Take the online course provided by Taopage.org.
You’ll learn about the best English translation of I Ching, and mostly about the phrasing the question and interpreting the answers. These three are the must-know in order to consult the oracle on a daily basis.
Find the course at https://www.taopage.org/leveltwo.html
