The Great Vessel Blog

Flying - Predicting the Future

The other day I again I heard the assertion that the Yijing cannot predict the future. This was from someone who had been studying it for a number of years and who also seemed to have a good knowledge of various Eastern philosophies. When asked, “Have you ever tried?” They replied that they hadn’t because they knew it could not.

My usual response to people who say this sort of thing is, “try it and see what happens.” It seems to me that this is a reasonable test for folk who eschew divination whilst advocating the firm ground of scientific fact. It is like someone looking at an aircraft for the first time and asking, “Does it really fly like a bird?” Well the simple answer is, “get in and try it, see what happens.” Maybe some folk are worried that one of the Ten Wings will drop off.

I don’t think the Yijing is about predicting the future as such, just like a plane does not fly like a bird. But it does do other things, perhaps more remarkable things... Based on my own experience I will assume three things in order to explore this:

• That people have some facility to understand more than is perceived by thinking about words or events. For brevity I shall call this deep intuitive understanding.
• That there is a font of information, knowledge and understanding, which is generally just beyond our perception.
• That using the Yijing is a process which links our intuitive understanding to this ‘font’.

These would seem to be the minimum three assumptions for divination to be able to work fully. In practice it does not matter that the “font of information, knowledge and understanding” might be a God for some, the spirit of the Yi for others or, for others still, merely their own knowing soul.

Without the first assumption, that we have an intuitive understanding, the act of divination becomes severely reduced. Many people use the Yijing this way and they report getting ‘good results’. It would appear that they cast the oracle, read the text and gain a cognitive understanding of their situation and their choices within it and perhaps also an intuitive sense of its aptness. I have done many readings for people who think this way and there is nothing wrong with it per se. One such person, whom I read for from time to time, told me that it was very helpful and that the Yi gave him a deeper understanding of the issues at hand, more sensitivity to other perspectives and a dose of good ‘Eastern Wisdom’ on which to reflect. This person is definitely meeting the ‘flying’ criteria. Additionally he is not looking for a fixed prediction which might curtail his thinking, but seeks choices linked to 'oracle indicated potentials' and ways of doing what is best. This seems all well and good.

What really turns the Yijing into something extraordinary; something more than a look up book with added wisdom, is the use of Xiang and of deep intuitive understanding. I have continued here in the hope that you will give your views and experiences.