My new book, I Ching Prescriptions, is now available on Amazon.
An excerpt from the Introduction in the book:
What are I Ching Prescriptions?
The I Ching Prescriptions are a different way of working with the I Ching. Many people wonder how could anyone take seriously an answer to a question arrived at by tossing coins. For this reason they decide that the I Ching is not for them. You don’t have to believe in synchronicity. You don’t have to take the time to understand the poetic symbolic language of the I Ching. When people dismiss the I Ching because it relies on random chance they miss out on the philosophy embedded within it. A philosophy, based on nature that has survived for thousands of years has a message worth pondering.
I wrote this book for people who are not drawn to the more complex translations that often require one to read the responses like one would a dream. Not everyone responds to symbolic language. I wanted to make the Prescriptions direct and easy to use, just like taking a pill might be. I don’t know how an aspirin works. I just know that it does. This does not mean I do not appreciate all the other I Ching interpretations. I get benefit from them. I love symbols, poetry and symbolic language. If I didn’t I would not have been consulting the I Ching for so many years.
Choose Your Changes
When consulting the I Ching as a prescription, instead of asking a question in the traditional coin throwing approach, decide what issue in your life that you either want to deal with or are now involved in.
- Pick your prescription. Decide what prescription you need. Look up the prescription distillation in this book, read it and see how the advice applies to your life.
- Each I Ching prescription has seven parts to it; the general meaning at the top and the six phases written from the bottom up. These lines are written on top of the image of a tinted color of the trigrams that create the hexagram.
- There are seven paragraphs of counsel for each hexagram prescription that can be used — one for each day of the week. Focus on or meditate on the prescription you have chosen. Keep a record over the next seven days as you follow each step. Write down what happens for you in the process.
Tags: Art, Books, changes, I Ching, Inspiration, Synchronicity
I appreciate how a prescription should be guided by objective features rather than chance. If one has a headache (the symptom), one might need a headache prescription. But if one has a broken heart how does one find the best I Ching prescription for it?
That’s an interesting question. I have long noted that the I Ching rarely talks about emotions although both love and envy are mentioned. Basically the I Ching is about situations and two people can experience very different emotions in the same situation. Perhaps your situation is how to deal with “splitting Apart.” Synchronistically, yesterday I was thinking about posting a sample page and use hexagram 23, Splitting Apart. I then thought, why that one? I’ll see what I can do.
Hello Thomas,
Yes, I think that is a good way to put it. I hadn’t thought to use that logical word, sympton but it sure fits.
Thank you for commenting.
Adele
Please, how is the issue connected to the prescription? Do symptoms of the issue guide one to a prescription?