Stay tuned for more news on The I Ching Record Book.

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Assuming that you are reading my review in this I Ching blog you will find it no secret that I have a long time interest in Syncronicity, the I Ching being a quintessential synchronicity tool. I also assume that any reader of this blog is an I Ching devotee and has does not have to be convinced of the existence of synchronicity. Since two of my own experiences are included in this book my challenge is how to be objective in this review and what to write to those seasoned in synchronicity to convince you to buy the book.

I discovered the MacGregor’s blogs in early 2009 when I found a site called Astro Yoga. I had just finished creating a series of designs for T-shirts on Cafe Press, called Astro Yoga Babes. I fell into a vortex of synchronicity when I discovered that while I had two blogs, one on Yoga and one on the I Ching, the MacGregors had their two with not only related subject matter but one with the same name of what I was working on.

While waiting for The 7 Secrets of Synchronicity to arrive, and before I knew that two of my experiences were in it, I dreamed about a man I had not seen in 20 years who had a major impact on my life and in my synchronicity experiences. So I was stunned to see the episode on page 35 – 36 in the MacGregor’s book. I had no idea that story was going to be included because Rob had not posted it on his blog. You can read his post HERE.

Bones

The bones of The Seven Secrets are in two sections:

The Secrets

Knowing, Heart, Theory, Creative, Clusters, Trickster, and Global

The Magic

Diving Synchronically, Animal Oracles, Journeys and Engaging the Divine.

Meat

The meat of the book introduces us to various ways we experience synchronicity. Each chapter gives examples and instructions for developing or enhancing synchronicity experience. There are many exercises for developing synchronicity. Here’s a list of some of them:

Developing Awareness
Breath work
Pay Attention to Your Feelings
a check list for, How Attuned are you?
Hints on Sensing the future
Telepathic Sending
Remote Viewing
Psychometry
How Open Are You?
Engaging Your Creativity

In the Chapter on Clusters there is a discussion about the appearance of numbers in groups. I was particularly interested in the discussion about the number 23.

I’m convinced that the I Ching is connected to the structure of our basic DNA. The MacGregors’ book discusses how the number 23 is often related to death. In the Wilhelm version of the I Ching Hexagram 23 is named Splitting Apart. This seems appropriate to point to the “split” that comes before joining with another set of 23 chromosomes to become a new embryo. I learned that it takes 23 seconds for blood to circulate through the human body and that the axis of the earth is 23.5 degrees or more amazing, that the DNA pattern shows irregular connections at every twenty-third section.

As for the question, How could the I Ching possibly work?” Carl Jung said in his forward to Wilhelm’s I Ching, “The less one thinks about the theory of the I Ching, the more soundly one sleeps.”

The Chapter on Global Synchronicites has a Healing Energy Exercise that is synchronistic for this time. It’s an exercise on healing for global disasters. I am sure that this exercise had to be written well before the recent oil spill catastrophe that has been going on for well over a month now.

The four chapters in the section on Magic, begins with, Divining Synchronicity, a discussion of the I Ching which includes another one of my experiences of synchronicity that was pretty amazing as it not only included an I Ching reading but a dream. This experience is an example of synchronicity that keeps me hooked into both the I Ching and dreams. The chapter also talks about Astrology, Tarot, Stichomancy and a way of using colors for divination synchronicities.

I was unaware that Rob had co-written a book called The Book of Color Divination which is mentioned in this chapter and something I must try. As an artist, I love color and at various times in my life have had obsessions about different colors. So now I have a new synchronicity game to look forward to.

Heart

At the heart of The 7 Secrets of synchronicity are the many amazind true stories that people have experienced and shared with us.

I know people who never experience synchronicity. Their minds are not only closed to the fact that these things happen to people, they are adamant about that with derision. Once I had a dream about a relative in which she had a specific operation. I was perplexed since the dream made no sense to me and the prevailing view in the culture of most therapists was that every thing you dream is a projection about yourself. Since I have been recording my dreams and checking up on people I dream about, I have found that about 80% of my dreams about other people are about the person in the dream. P.S. I found out later that the relative who had the operation in my dream, in fact had that operation. When I wrote and told her about it, hoping to open up the conversation about the subject of dreaming, she handled it by ignoring my letter.

I’m taking the time to elaborate on this subject of why non believers do not have synchronistic experiences because they shut themselves out from the possibility. You have to take the time to notice what is going on and then open your mind to what ever it is you find. Drop logic!

Just in this process of reading the MacGregor’s book on synchronicity I have had a rash of them, some relating to what was written in the book. I am here to testify, that the more one focuses on the fact of synchronicites as a part of life, the more you will experience them. Reading MacGregor’s book is a way of opening up to more experiences of synchronicity.

Skin

Since I’m using the human body as a metaphor for an overview of The 7 Secrets of Synchronicity, I can’t resist talking about the the physical look of the book. So I add to this review that the skin – what we see on the outside – the choice of type, the subtle printing on the paper to make the edges look patterned, the highlighting and setting apart of the exercises and general design all add to my enjoyment of reading The 7 Secrets of Synchronicity.

Sight / Insight

I have had many experiences of synchroncity, the most powerful of which have been through dreams where I have dreamed a future event. I would not have been aware of this at the time but keeping a record of dreams, along with a daily journal, helped me to discover that. I end here with a question. The MacGregors refer to dream knowing as sychronicity. The definition of synchronicty in Secret 1:

Synchronicty: the coming together of inner and outer events in a way that can’t be explained by cause and effect and that is meaningful to the observer.

When I dream of an event ahead of time, even if I have no clue that this is what the dream is until later, this does not feel or look the same as an I Ching reading that hits the mark. It feels like my psyche has traveled out of time. That looks different to me than any other kind of synchronistic event. These dreams, while certainly not daily events, have been numerous enough so that I cannot dismiss them no matter how much disbelief I get from telling these dream experiences to people who do not have these experiences and do not believe that I do even though I have proof. The capacity for denial seems to be even larger than the capacity for belief.

While dreaming about an event before it happens that it not something I could possibly know or influence at the time feels to me like something more than, or other than the other synchronicity experiences. Does any one out there want to talk about that?

As I post this I note on the MacGregor’s Synchronicity blog that it is Trish’s birthday today.

A Happy HAPPY Birthday Trish!

The MacGregor writing duo has a list of many books and various literary awards including Rob’s well known Indiana Jones series of novels. Besides being prolific writers, Rob is a Yoga instructor and Trish an Astrologer.

From the book:

Trish MacGregor and Rob MacGregor have been professional writers for twenty-five years. One synchronicity after another led to their many nonfiction books on dreams, psychic development, astrology, yoga, the tarot, divination, and animal symbolism. In 2003, they took over the writing of the popular Sydney Omarr astrology series. This acclaimed, award-winning author team has appeared on the Learning Channel, the History Channel, and the Sci-Fi Channel; in April 2009, Rob was filmed for the History Channel’s UFO series.
Rob also wrote Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and six other original Indiana Jones novels, which have sold millions of copies. He won the coveted Edgar Award for Prophecy Rock, a YA mystery, and its sequel, Hawk Moon, was an Edgar finalist.

Trish, writing as T.J. MacGregor, won the Edgar in 2003 for best original paperback for Out of Sight. Her books have been translated into thirteen languages. They live in Wellington, Florida.

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2. Carl Jung, Synchronicity and I Ching
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Suggestions for How to Use Your I Ching Record Book

• You don’t always need to ask a question. You might let the I Ching tell you what you need to know right now.
• Start by noting your inquiry by writing down the response to your  hexagram. You might use one of the suggested questions in this  book.
• Don’t be vague. Be as specific as you can with your question.
• Katya Walter, author of “Tao of Chaos” says: “Don’t ask a yes or no binary question. Instead ask an analog question – one that can give you a 360 degree range of possible answers. Think of it like going into Baskin Robins with a world of possible tastes.”
• Don’t ask a question when you already know the answer.
• Remember that I Ching is best thought of as advice coming from an ancient and very wise source. Some people say to think of the I Ching as a person one might consult. I think of I Ching as calling on my DNA to guide me. I believe that the key to how the I Ching works is found in and controlled by DNA. We are all connected to each other.
• Write down your answer on the corresponding hexagram page where you can keep a record of when you received this response and your related comments.
• An advantage of having I Ching records in an e-book format is when you do an I Ching reading for another person you can print and give them notes on the appropriate page.

I find that keeping a record of my I Ching questions helpful. Sometimes the answers I get are very obvious as to their meaning but at other times I think, “What is that about?” Or, “I don’t think so.” Or, “I don’t like that answer.”

I experience the I Ching like I do dreams. They are both symbolic and often mysterious in meaning. In both instances, if I keep track and look back after some time, the meaning becomes clear. A simple example of this is when I ask my New Year question, “What will most characterize this coming year for me?” At the beginning of the year it is impossible to tell what will unfold during the entire year. I like getting a hint of what may be ahead. Sometimes I am surprised by what seemed like a weird hexagram to receive for the year but by the end of the year the response fits. I also keep a record for personal research of the I Ching, always testing to see if and how it works.

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3. More on Carl Jung’s “The Red Book”

The I Ching Record Book Includes:

• A page for each of the 64 hexagrams to record your I Ching responses from the questions asked. By being able to print out pages as you need them you can easily add as many for the same hexagram as is necessary.
• Work Sheet for I Ching Questions.
• Interactive color chart for identifying hexagrams.
• Black and white chart for identifying hexagrams – not interactive.
• I Ching circular chart that can also be ordered as a large poster.
• Chart listing all hexagrams to check off the name and date of an I Ching response.
• Black and white chart with Chinese characters.
• Two I Ching font charts.
• Suggestions for how to ask the I Ching a question.
• Suggestions for questions you might ask.
• Instructions for the coin method of asking a question.
• Included, by permission, the appendix from Dr. Katya Walter’s e-book, Double Bubble Universe. This chapter shows an example of her experience asking the I Ching a question as well as another method of asking a question as an alternative to using either the coins or yarrow sticks.

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Review: Divination: Sacred Tools for Reading the Mind of God
by Paul O’Brien, Visionary Networks Press

I first came across the name of Paul O’Brian years ago when I was living in Sausalito, California and discovered his first software for the I Ching called, Synchronicity. I bought his later illustrated version, Oracle of Changes, on CD which no longer works on my MAC operating system. I have always wondered why Paul didn’t update that version, but while reading this book, Divination: Sacred Tools for Reading the Mind of God, I cruised around his website, Tarot.com and saw a big section on using the I Ching there which perhaps replaces the need for a CD edition.

I begin my review by saying that the title of the book hooked me before I had it in my hand. I had not thought of Divination as being a sacred tool for reading the mind of God. Once said, how logical! In the past when doing I Ching readings for people, I more than once encountered people of various religious beliefs that had a prejudice about the I Ching, assuming it was something that went against their religion and what ever their “God” is. The Introduction chapter for the O’Brien’s book begins with, “Divination is controversial. . . ” and continues with a history of divination and how it was used and viewed by ancient religions. Since my I Ching work and this Blog is called, I Ching Meditations, I resonated with his sentence, “Authentic divination is more like a form of meditation and prayer than predicting the future. . . and . . . Divination is a two-way conversation whereby we get feed back on the divine order behind appearances.”

I had a difficult time completing this review of Paul O’Brien’s book, not just for the reasons I wrote about in my last post – the usual of being so busy – but because I kept taking side trips to Paul’s web page, Tarot.com, and the links there. I thought of Paul O’Brien as an I Ching person. I’ve been out of touch focusing on my own I Ching work here so I enjoyed seeing all that he has been doing in the scope of divination systems.

Paul O’Brien started the web site, Tarot.com. This name is misleading for me because the site has pages about Astrology, Numerology, I Ching, Feng Shui, Love and a link for Psychics. Note that the category links included “Love” along with the other subjects, implying that Love is also a tool of divination. Come to think about it, I think it is and should be another book.

Paul O’Brien’s book, Divination is a good balance and adjunct to the website that contains pages on the systems that he writes about in the book. The book is an advertisement for the website and the website an advertisement for O’Brien’s book. At the end of this review I include a video of Paul O’Brien talking about why he wrote this book and he says that for himself better than I can.

The Tarot.com website is a commercial one with advertisements, links to buy various readings as well as divination tools to use. The book give us information, explanation and history of these divination systems. While I was familiar with more or less degrees of these various systems, I Ching being my long time devotion, I learned more about the history of these other divination systems. I also learned about Paul O’Brien which I found of interest as well.

Since any one reading my comments here is doing so by means of a computer, you probably will find the chapter, “The Evolving Technology of Divination” of interest. The I Ching has been described as the first computer with its binary system. Since I Ching was the first book perhaps it was the first interactive tool as well. So it was fascinating to me that Paul was introduced to the I Ching as a young student at the same time he was introduced to computers which was in those early days of computing. How lucky for him! How lucky for us to have the perfect combination of skills and talent combined with a journey of the study of Buddhism and meditation including training in monasteries.

I also learned how Paul O’Brien developed that first I Ching program, Synchronicity, that I used with my MAC in the early days of personal computers. If I recall correctly, his  program went viral and was copied a lot by the other Macintosh users. In those early days of the Macintosh and developing software, the fact that I could find a program on the I Ching confirmed that this new found technology for me was awesome magic. I have Paul O’Brien to thank for his contribution to the magic.

The book, Divination, has 9 Chapters and  8 Appendices. The Introduction has a lot of information about the history of divination in general, and reminds us that the word divination derives from the Latin, divinare, meaning to “to inspire by the divine.”

Chapter 1: Your Heart’s Desire is Your Destiny – This chapter title is another hook into the book for me. Being a Leo I have been run by my heart’s desires. Paul tells us about his experience with Buddhism and takes this subject into a deeper level than what one usually thinks of in terms of desire. This chapter explains desire from the Buddhist perspective and is an example of what I mean by the book being a balance to the Tarot.com web page, giving history and depth of understanding to the subject.

Chapter 2: Troubled Times Calls for Wisdom - A discussion of decision-making; developing wisdom; belief systems based on various religions; and a discussion on which religions supported cultivating wisdom based on the intuitive process of an inquiring mind rather than blindly following a doctrine.

Chapter 3: How Divination Systems Work – Discussion about quantum physics, Jung, Freud, Archetypes of I Ching, Tarot, the Synchronicity principle and Jung’s contribution to it. O’Brien shares with us here his first inquiry to the I Ching, the results being here for us all to enjoy in his work.

Chapter 4: Origins of Divination – Brief history of Astrology, I Ching, Numerology, Runes and Tarot.  I can’t resist including a quote from the section about Numerology: “Pythagoras was the founder of Numerology and practiced it to divine the fates of individuals, predict the events of certain locations and use name changing as a means to alter destiny.” Wow! I had no idea!

Chapter 5: Enemies of Divination

Chapter 6: The Gift of Prophecy—Divination in the Bible

Chapter 7: Divination Practice Today – Advice on when and how to use divination; How to choose a Divination reader; Do-It-Yourself Divination discussion of using on-line readings or buying the I Ching book. How to Frame a Question is addressed. This is most important when consulting the I Ching and true for any method of divination. This section also talks about creating your own ritual.

Chapter 8: The Evolving Technology of Divination - Begins with a picture of the Tarot card of the High Priestess, holding a laptop in her lap as she sits on her thrown (shown above.) I Love it! O’Brien tells us about developing his divination software as he was using divination. This chapter contains interesting history about the software industry as well as Paul’s involvement with it.

Chapter 9: Destiny, Fate and Creativity – Encompasses 3 subjects of particular interest to me. I have been studying and keeping a record of my dreams for the past 40 years, as long as I have been consulting the I Ching. Some of my dreams have been precognitive and the only way I know that is because I write them down. Having such dreams has caused a lot of speculation in my mind about the subject of fate. I think I’m running the show, and then I have cause to wonder a lot about how can I know something before it happens even when I don’t know I know. This is a subject for a book in itself. O’Brien discusses the difference between the terms fate and destiny and incorporates that with the use of divination.

The Appendices are an important part of the book.

A: Archetypes of Divination – Outlines of the systems of Numerology, I Ching, Tarot, Astrology and Runes.

B: How to Give Yourself a Reading - Gives a brief description of “how to” for all the 5 Divination systems listed above with references of where to go for more in-depth information. This includes instructions for doing an I Ching reading by using the yarrow stalks as well as using the coins.

C: Divination in the Bible -  Lists Verses Condemning Divination and Verses Supporting Divination.

D: Tarot: The Shrink-in-the-Box – An article re-printed from a column in the Trends Journal, a financial investor newsletter.

E: The Use of I-Ching, Tarot and Other Divination Tools for Everyday Life - An article by Deepak Chopra

F: Tarot and I-Ching for Relationships - An article by John Gray

Bottom line:

Divination: Sacred Tools for Reading the Mind of God has many illustrations and quotes from other sources. Each chapter is compact yet full of information and history. There are useful “cheat sheets” of the different divination systems. You will find the book of interest, whether you are new to the I Ching or any of the other divination practices described, or if, like myself, have been working with the I Ching for a long time.

You can get a free I Ching reading by going to Tarot.com and click on the I Ching tab. There are so many subjects to investigate on Tarot.com that while I didn’t look at everything, there was enough there to pleasantly distract me again from writing this review. I found there the following video of Paul O’Brien telling us his own views of why he wrote his book.

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Related posts:

1. Carl Jung’s Secret Red Book to be Published
2. I Ching Meditations News Notes
3. I Ching Record Book

•  “I Ching Record Book” free eBook

This is a free printable PDF book for recording your I Ching Questions. I will post a longer description as soon as I post it for downloading.

•   Podcasts

I’m in the process of learning how to make a Podcast with plans to begin with a series of discussions with Dr. Katya Walter, author of “The Tao of Chaos.” We will have conversations about I Ching and DNA.

I previously posted a link to a video conversation between Dr. Walter and Paul O’Brian that was made for O’Brian’s I Ching program which can be viewed on Dr. Katya Walter’s blog.

I also wrote here about Katya Walter’s free eBooks in this earlier post.

•  Review “Divination – Sacred Tools for Reading the Mind of God”

I’m reading Paul O’Brian’s book, “Divination – Sacred Tools for Reading the Mind of God” and will post a review soon. Meanwhile, you can check out the book on Amazon before my review.

•  I Ching Meditations, Hexagram 13

Hexagram 13 image

I’m working on this one.

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Yesterday I received in the mail a gift from a friend in Berkeley California of what looks like a Chinese Kama Sutra coin. He originally had three coins and recently found two, sending me one. He calls it the sex I Ching coin. My friend got these coins from his wife who bought them years ago and has no knowledge of the coin or where it came from.

I scanned some images of this Chinese Kama Sutra coin – one in the condition I received it, heads and tails, and the other after I cleaned it up with some vinegar and salt.

Does any one have any knowledge about this coin? I would love to know. It would also be nice to have three of them.

The images here are the actual size of the coin, about an inch an a half in diameter.

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Then when Luis said that he would love to see what I would create for a circular graphic I took his comment as a challenge and created such a diagram of the Hexagrams. Looking at them that way makes a lot of sense to my visual mind.

I remember seeing such a diagram somewhere on the Internet and thought I would find it. But I didn’t. So I’m posting the one I created.  I turned in into a poster that can be bought at Zazzle in various sizes.  If you click on the image here it will take you to the page where you see it more closely.

Thanks Luis.

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I’m flattered that Kim thinks enough of me to ask. All I can do is respond with how I see this. Other I Ching devotees may have other perspectives.

Part of the answer to Kim’s question has to do with the structure of the lines and the order they are placed in which according to I Ching scholars, changed over time. Mathematicians are interested in the structure of I Ching as a binary system. I am not qualified to enter a discussion about the mathematical structure of I Ching. I will comment on what I find interesting in the structure of Hexagrams 63 and 64 and how they interrelate to each other.

Hexagram 63, Water over Fire  After Completion.

Hexagram 64, Fire over Water Before Completion.

Hexagram 63, Water over Fire, changes into Hexagram 64, Fire over Water, if all the lines change. Hexagram 63, also become Hexagram 64 if you turn the set upside down. This also happens with Hexagram 11, Peace, turning into 12, Standstill, in the same way, and again in Hexagrams 17 and 18.

However, even the nuclear hexagrams in 63 and 64 create the other. We can’t have one of these two hexagrams without the other contained within it in several ways. Perhaps these two hexagrams exemplify the basis for yin yang activity at its purest level. I’m sure mathematicians could have a lot to say about this structure from that perspective.  I invite them to comment here for us on that subject.

One of the meanings for Hexagram 64, After completion, is that all the lines; yang, yin, yang, yin, yang and then yin again at top are in the order the I Ching deems correct for perfect completion. Yang is the beginning, “creative” followed by yin, “receptive.” In the hexagram of After Completion this order occurs in a perfect way. Wilhelm writes regarding Hexagram 63, “This hexagram is the only one in which all the lines stand in their proper places.”

Of course After Completion is full of warnings just because everything is in such perfect order. According to I Ching philosophy, everything is always in change and that if things are perfect we have to expect they will not stay that way. I always like getting Hexagram 64, because then I know a whole new order or event is about to happen. The new event is contained within me already, when the order of things rearranges, all will fall into place. But not yet.

Wilhelm says in his note at the end of Hexagram 64: “The hexagram After Completion represents a gradual transition from a time of ascent past a peak of culture to a time of standstill. The hexagram Before Completion represents a transition from chaos to order. This hexagram comes at the end of the Book of Changes. It points to the fact that every end contains a new beginning. Thus it gives hope to men. The Book for Changes is a book of the future.”

Does this answer Kim’s question? I don’t know. I answered it for myself so thank her for asking – made me think.

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Here is a review on YouTube.

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