I-Ching Oracle and Hexagram

How to know what the future has in store? This question has been asked for millennia all around the World. The Greatest Sages have looked into this mystery. Through the ancestral Chinese system called I Ching, the Asian culture gave birth to an extremely complex divination means. Veritable tool used in clairvoyance, the I Ching oracle comes in the form of a draw and enables people to obtain predictions about the future.

The Yi-King Oracle is a book

The I Ching, or Yi-Jing, is a really ancient Chinese book that contains a veritable treasure of wisdom. The I-Ching, which could be translated as "Book of Changes" or "Book of Mutation" is considered as one of the most remarkable and most durable Oracles of all times. Its primary goal is to help everyone go through a given situation.

It probably dates from the Shang dynasty, although its origin is shrouded in mystery. It is estimated that the most distant remnants of the I Ching are 5000 years old. According to Chinese legend, an emperor created the I Ching in 2800 BC.
This book is a powerful oracle used to foretell the future, but also a compendium of Asian wisdom that gives us essential keys to our destiny.

I-Ching draw

It is a set of 64 images, called "hexagrams" ("hexa" = six, "gram" = letter, writing), each of which represents a situation and a response to a question.

During an I-Ching draw, each hexagram contains a message and a meaning. They have names that are mostly related to daily action verbs such as: go, wait, expand, go back, etc.

But the basics of the I Ching language are 8 basic trigrams, each consisting of three horizontal, continuous or discontinuous lines. These trigrams symbolize the duality that has always existed in the universe:

• strength and weakness,
• flexibility and firmness,
• light and dark,
• the complementary energies Yin and Yang

Each trigram is associated with an element of nature and corresponds to an overriding principle of the universe.

But it is only the combination of a trigram with another that forms a hexagram: the latter will be the true answer to our question.
Eight trigrams, this means 64 possible combinations (8 x 8). That’s why the I Ching has 64 hexagrams.

When you wish to ask a question to the I Ching during a complete draw, the hexagram you’ll get in response will consist of 2 trigrams:

• The upper trigram (the top part of your hexagram)
• The lower trigram (the lower part)

The arrangement of these trigrams and the relationships established between them determine the meaning of the hexagram.

The 8 trigrams of the I Ching draw and their meaning

LI: the fire, the clinging

Li represents lucidity, the ability to examine a situation, discernment.
Symbolic animal: the pheasant 

K'UN: the earth, the receptive

K’un represents fertility, projects, preparation before action. It is also receptivity, hospitality, listening.
Symbolic animal: the cow

CH'IEN: the sky, the creator

Ch’ien represents primordial energy, the seed that gives birth to the energy required for action. It is also strength and the spirit of initiative.
Symbolic animal: the horse

K'AN: water, the unfathomable, the abyss

K’an represents danger, fear, but also the necessary awareness of danger.
Symbolic animal: the pig

KEN: the mountain, keeping still 

Ken represents keeping still but also the stabilization of a situation. It is solidity, consistency, calmness.
Symbolic animal: the dog

CHEN: the thunder, the arousing

Chen represents movement, the pulse that triggers action. It is dynamism, determination, initiative.
Symbolic animal: the dragon

SUN: the wind

Sun represents flexibility, the ability to bend rather than break. It is also patience and gentleness.
Symbolic animal: the rooster

TUI: the lake

Tuir represents communication, exchange, dialogue. It is also mutual understanding, serenity.
Symbolic animal: the sheep

I Ching, between clairvoyance and magic