The Basics

 

These are single topic focused articles explaining the basics of the way we work with the Yijing (I Ching). We hope to cover a wide variety of topics to aid users. If you want to suggest a topic or comment on an article, click here and select the ‘feedback’ topic.

Tools for Change (Brief Guide)

 

The Tools for Change are a set of interpretive strategies, some are traditional and some are new, all are  based on extensive research and recent archeology.

 

They shift the focus of analysis from internal yin-yang line relations to relations between hexagrams. You can imagine these Tools as positions or perspectives. Any hexagram can occupy any one of these positions in a reading, all depending on the Primary Figure or Cast hexagram.

 

Line Positions within the Six-line Diagrams or Hexagrams

Each of the hexagrams or six-line diagrams can be thought of as an archetypal moment (shi). Each has a Name and displays a set of divinatory phrases, with “six empty places” numbered from the bottom up. Energy flows through these places, leaving a trace or track represented by the lines. Each position has a particular voice:

• Line 6: Culmination (and Crossover or Exchange)
• Line 5: Outer Center
• Line 4: Arrival/After the Crossing (of the Threshold of Manifestation)
• Line 3: Approaching the Threshold (of Manifestation)
• Line 2: Inner Center
• Line 1: Beginnings (of Inspiration or Realization)

The Primary Figure

The hexagram (gua) generated directly from the divinatory process is the Primary Figure or Symbol (xiang), from which all other figures in a Reading are generated.  In this position, a hexagram embodies the archetypal situation or moment (shi) that is the basic energy form or flow behind the question you inquired about. It is at once a description and a basic strategy.

 

The Relating Figure

When the Transforming Lines in the Primary Figure change form, they produce a second figure, called the jigua or Relating Figure.
The Relating Figure shows how the inquirer is related to the matter presented by the Primary Figure. It is anything that relates us to the basic situation, the sea or ground feeling in which the whole reading swims. It can represent future potential, overriding concerns, a warning, a goal, a desired outcome or a past situation that brought you to the present situation. Finding the function of the Relating Figure in a specific situation is one of the diviner’s first concerns. It involves an intuitive exploration of the feelings around the matter at hand.

 

The Core Theme or Nuclear Figure

The Core Theme or Nuclear Figure represents the motivating energy situated at the heart of the Primary Figure, connecting the hidden cause of the situation with its goal. It tells you where hidden action is taking place. 

 
The Nuclear Figure is a hexagram hidden within the Primary Figure, constructed by seeing the four inner lines of a hexagram (lines 2, 3, 4 and 5) as two overlapping trigrams and then unpacking them. The lower trigram of the Nuclear Figure is made from lines 2, 3 and 4 of the Primary Figure; the outer trigram of is made from lines 3, 4 and 5 of the Primary Figure.

 

The Families or Cycles of Nuclear Figures

The Core Themes or Nuclear Figures of the 64 hexagrams group into 16 families of four hexagrams that share a common core and theme. There are only 16 possible first generation Nuclear Figures. If these in turn are reduced to their Nuclear Figures, we find four second-generation figures: the first two and the last two figures of the book, 1 Force and 2 Field and 63 Already Crossing and 64 Not Yet Crossing. These four are unique. The first two are their own Nuclear Figures; the last two are each other’s Nuclear Figures.
These provide overall orientation. They can be used to trace any situation back to one of four basic landmarks or Gates and a connection with the four Hidden Winds which drive the Change.

• 1 Force: You are connected to a creative force
• 2 Field: Be open and provide what is needed.
• 63 Already Crossing: Co-operate with the ongoing process of change.
• 64 Not Yet Crossing: Gather energy for a decisive new move.

The Change Operators

The Change Operators are a powerful modern technique for determining and differentiating the specific transformative action of the Two Powers in a given situation. They give us a sense of effective inner and outer strategies and a much clearer understanding of the dynamic of Change. The Change Operators work from the positions of the Transforming Lines in the Primary Figure, no matter whether they are yin or yang.

The Inner Yang or Inspiration Operator describes the inner transformative aspects of a situation. It offers an effective stance or strategy towards the Inner World and the sources of inspiration it offers.

The Outer Yin or Realization Operator describes the places where change occurs and its possibilities of realization. It offers an effective stance or strategy towards the Outer World.

 

Ideal Form and Shadow Site

The Ideal Form and the Shadow Site is a pair of figures that let you grasp both the ideal potential of the situation and the attitude or place that is counter-indicated, the specific thing that is not in harmony with the time. This focuses you on the sort of motivations and activities that the Primary Figure seeks to inspire and those it asks you to let go of.  These are incorporated into the Header of each figure.

 

The Time Cycle

The Time Cycle links four hexagrams through the images of the Four Seasons to place your situation in the oldest description of divinatory time. Use the Time Cycle to relate your situation to one of these seasons and look backwards and forwards to see where it came from and how it can be developed. 

A Time Cycle is made up of four hexagrams that share the same four inner lines, lines that represent a Core Theme of Change. The different top and bottom lines attached to this Nuclear or Core represent the Four Seasons and their themes.

• Spring (yang below, yin above): rousing new growth.
• Summer (yang below, yang above): ripening the fruits.
• Fall (yin below, yang above): harvesting the crop and gathering the insights.
• Winter (yin below, yin above): finding the seed of the new by grinding away the old.

Matrix for a Reading

All of the tools explored here are incorporated into the Reading Matrix of the program. Together they construct an interpretive web around a basic reading that can extend and clarify the oracle’s response, showing the subtle relations in an answer. They are perspectives that will become more and more familiar as you become acquainted with the figures of Change.