I Ching

The I Ching — literally "Classic of Changes" — is one of the oldest oracular texts in human history. Born in China over three thousand years ago, it rests on 64 figures called hexagrams, each made of six lines that can be solid (yang) or broken (yin). It is the art of reading the movement of any situation through these 64 configurations.

Unlike other oracles that answer through a layout of cards, the I Ching offers a reading of the present plus a glimpse of what is becoming. Each draw often produces two hexagrams: the situation as it is, and what it is in the process of turning into if certain lines — called "moving" — flip. This dialogue between the present and what comes is its unique signature among divinatory arts.

It is traditionally consulted with three coins or fifty yarrow stalks. The inner question, the concentration, the quality of attention given to the draw — all are as much part of the consultation as the result itself. The I Ching invites less prediction than recognition of the quality of the present moment.