Divination is the practice of discerning the future by providing it with a symbolic container through which it can communicate itself. Divination works through the Law of Attraction. The fortune teller asks a question, establishes a focal point and allows the relevant influences to be established within the medium of the scrying instrument.
Many tools have been used to scan materials, including animal entrails, bird formations in the sky, tea leaves, coins, maps, yarrow stems, runes, stones, plants, and even body parts. Patterns arise from the chosen material and are decoded by systems of symbolism or philosophy.
Each system will tell us something, because everything is alive and everything communicates something about yourself to you. But there are some oracles rooted in systems of profound philosophy whose inherent wisdom is invaluable in itself; when we consult these oracles, the information about our future is the least of what we learn.
Book of Changes
The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is a study in the law of change, or Tao. The ancient sages observed that nothing exists in a static or immovable state, but everything is in a ceaseless process of transformation. The only Universal truth we can count on in our world is change; nothing is static, nothing lasts forever and everything is changing into its opposite.
Tao, which literally means ‘the way’, is the alternation of Creative and Receptive, or steadfast and yielding. This process of mixing of opposites is responsible for all terrestrial phenomena; these two original principles – also known as yin And yang— are either in marriage or in war, or in harmony or in disharmony, and in any case change from one to the other.
Change, understood in this way, is a natural process virtually identical to life. Life is the product of the polarity between the active and the receptive. Every manifestation of change, every stage of the evolution of any process, is an adjustment of the tension between these main principles. If this state of tension were to end, life would no longer be able to express itself.
When one throws the yarrow stalks or coins of the I Ching, one transcribes accordingly, constructing a figure made up of broken lines (the yin, the receptive principle) and solid lines (the yang, the creative principle). Three of these lines form a trigram, of which there are eight.
These 8 trigrams represent spiritual actualities in images of the natural world.
They contain:
Sky mountain
Earth wind, wood
Thunder fire
More water
The Book of Changes describes the cycles of polarity in which all life finds expression, using terrestrial phenomena from nature to describe the eternal interplay of yin and yang. These images are believed to be in a state of perpetual transition, one changing into another, just as the transition from one phenomenon to another is constantly occurring in the physical world. The eight trigrams are thus not representations of things as such, but of them trends in motion. The eight trigrams represent not so much the phenomena of the natural images, but the inspiring spirit of those phenomena.
That is why they are also called qualities:
stopping the creative
the receptive, the soft
inducing clinging
the terrible, the joyful
The fortune teller asks his questions until he has received six lines or two trigrams that predict the answer to the question. There are 64 hexagrams in the I Ching that contain all possible situations in life.
The lecture is given through metaphors of nature by describing how the two trigrams interact. The basic elements of the situation are revealed, and by understanding how these principles tend to move, work and change when they meet in a certain order, we can discern what will happen next.
The unfolding of fate
By investigating the laws of nature to the deepest core, the ancient sages came to an understanding of fate. By studying the order of the outer world and observing the patterns of change that repeat and repeat themselves eternally, the sages were able to discern what would happen next.
Ironically, working with oracles in this way ultimately alleviates the need to work with oracles. At the same time as the hexagrams reveal to us the meaning and consequences of our present circumstances, our present circumstances also initiate us into the awareness of the mysterious laws that order the Cosmos. The proper use of these readings can greatly increase our awareness, not only of the deeper meaning of the events of our lives, but also of the fundamental principles by which life can be made to flourish. As we gain a more refined understanding of the fundamental processes of change running on the manifested plane, we are able to see more clearly for ourselves what is going on at the deepest level of any situation and what comes next, without the need for some esoteric information. art.
At the heart of the philosophy of the I Ching is the premise that we live in a cosmos, not chaos. We exist within a definite and immutable order, within which certain elements, relations and sequences are fixed, even if the product of these clashing fundamental elements may give the impression of infinite variety.
Within that vortex of possibilities, here we are: beings with free will.
Once a point of interest is presented to the oracle, we can witness the influences at work in a given situation, and see how the interaction of these factors will play out over time and why. This reference point allows for a coordinate system into which every detail can be fitted.
But at the end of the day, all the questions of “what to do, what to do!” does it really come down to one question: to act in harmony with Cosmic Law, or to go against it? The I Ching helps us to see in which direction the natural flow of things is already moving, so that we can understand how to fit ourselves most harmoniously into the grand scheme of things.
It is said that the laws of heaven and earth are reflected in the Book of Changes – but since man is a microcosm of the universe, these are also the laws of our nature. In this ancient book of wisdom, each of us is provided with the means to mold our character so that all innate potentialities for greatness can be fully realized.
