Recently I saw on this subreddit a question with the same title as this post. This reddit post inspired me to write a longer answer, because I think that the question itself carries a lot of assumptions about what the I Ching is or is not. Understanding those assumptions can make our dialogue with the oracle much more productive. I wrote about this on my blog- if you care to read and comment here, I'd be much obliged.

https://elichingon.com/en/articles/what-kind-of-questions-can-we-ask-the-i-ching/

Came across this serendipitously while visiting an exhibition. This is one of the books titled《蒙求》Méng Qiú found in the Mogao Cave 17 of Dunhuang, China.

Five Dynasties (907-979). 五代，李翰自注**《蒙求》**.

Written by 李翰) Lǐ Hàn in the Tang dynasty, Méng Qiú was a children's primer used for elementary education. Its title is derived from the 蒙 (Childhood/Youthful Folly) hexagram in the Book of Changes (易經)。 Historical and legendary anecdotes are presented in four-character rhyming verses for easy memorisation. Stories include Nuwa repairing the sky, Du Kang inventing alcohol, and Cai Lun creating paper. The text became so popular that it inspired many similar textbooks; this fragment is one of the earliest surviving copies.

Hi everyone,

Like many of you, I was fascinated by the I Ching, but as a beginner, I found it really overwhelming. Most resources throw 64 hexagrams and ancient translations at you immediately, and a lot of apps just treat it as a fortune-telling machine.

I wanted to build something different: an interactive lesson that teaches you how to "see the situation" before asking "what does it mean?"

So, I made a 5-minute interactive web lesson. It doesn't predict the future. Instead, it teaches the foundational logic step-by-step:

• How to read the difference between Qian (initiating) and Kun (receiving) in daily life.
• How to physically "build" a trigram by toggling lines.
• What actually happens when one line "changes" (变爻) — you can click and watch the hexagram shift visually.

It’s completely free for the first lesson, no sign-up required to try it. I'm a product designer, not a fortune teller, so I'd love to get your honest feedback on whether this approach makes the philosophy easier to grasp for beginners.

You can try it here: [https://iching-lesson.netlify.app]

Let me know what you think! (Also, let me know if the mobile layout is working well for you, I just fixed it!)

Does anyone use Paul O’Brien’s I Ching cards and book? Someone got it for me as my first foray into the iching, but I’m wondering if it’s time to find a better source. It seems like a much simpler, watered down version of engaging with the iching. But I have been finding relevance in the readings and they prompt a lot of guided self reflection when I pull the present and future hexagram cards and read the change lines. But what could I be using instead? Would something be richer? More robust? More authentic?

Thanks!

The post about hexagram casting methods got me thinking: do you combine the i ching with any other methods in your personal practice?

For example, every winter solstice I do a year reading for myself based on the later heaven bagua arrangement using the Richard Gill/Anthony Clark i ching deck in conjunction with Nicole Pivirotto's color oracle deck. First I lay out the i ching cards in the later heaven numerical order, then I lay out the color cards clockwise from the 1 position and ending in the center. If anyone's interested I can go into it/why.

Have you guys hybridized the i ching with any other different types of consultation methods?

I took an edible and had this sudden revelation that everything within me, everything around me, and even the cosmos and the universe itself is made up of 0s and 1s, and that everything comes down to how they’re arranged.

Don’t ask me to explain my thought process because I genuinely have no idea how I arrived at that conclusion, but somehow I did, and it feels so right.

Out of curiosity, I Googled whether any religion, philosophy, or book explores this idea, and that’s how I stumbled upon the I Ching.

I ended up on this subreddit, and I see everyone discussing things like Hexagram 63, 54, and so on. I have absolutely no idea what any of it means yet, but something about finding this feels strangely significant to me. I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence, but I’d really like to explore it further.
So, where should a complete beginner start? Are there any books, resources, or concepts I should familiarize myself with first?

Is there a system where the eight base trigrams align with your eight fingers. If not what fingers do yall think they would align with. Asking because i wanna use a sort of finger mnemonic(idk if thats the right word for this situation but i hope you get me) to review the hexagrams when i’m just wandering around and i need something to ponder.

I mean how do you do it? What is your method?

I am running a few random coin toss generators and compiling the data. Sending the data to google sheets and then compiling it all to a tableau data visualization. It's been running since late August so you can use the timestamps to hone in on specific dates. You can view it all at
https://ichingportal.com/coin-toss-analytics

Hello all, I'm about to go on a big intercontinental trip that's scaring me very much. Just did a reading using coins. It came up "Shì Kè" (噬嗑, Biting Through), hexagram 21 (䷔, Fire over Thunder, 766767 bottom to top), changing to hexagram 1 (777777), Qián (Heaven, The Creative). Please help me interpret.

I just came back from a party, I asked If my behavior was correct overall.

I saw a girl I like (I know she’s not into me but I just say hi because it would be more awkward to avoid) also met someone else and asked for her IG.

Im very puzzled because line 4 usually means someone won’t change her/his mind about something: for example one time asked about if a friend would be interested in hiring me to do his social media ads I knew he was hesitant so line 4 make sense but here…

…. What in the world…

I'm a developer working on Chinese metaphysics tools. I extracted and structured all 64 I Ching hexagrams from the Zhou Yi, including:

- Classical Judgment (卦辞) in English and Chinese

- Modern interpretation and core meaning

- Trigram structure (upper/lower), five elements, yin-yang classification

- Full HTML readings (career, love, wealth, health, advice)

- Three languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese

The dataset is free and open-source under CC0 license (public domain), so you can use it for anything — apps, research, NLP training, data visualization, etc.

GitHub: Search "iching-64-hexagrams-dataset" or check my profile

Most I Ching datasets online are either incomplete, paywalled, or lack English translations. I wanted a free, high-quality resource for developers and researchers.

**Questions for the community:**​

1. What other fields would be useful? Should I add the moving lines (爻辞)?

2. Would a NPM package or Python library be helpful?

3. Any errors or suggestions?

Feedback welcome!

I understand it's not the typical I Ching question but I just tried asking.

My car was seriously scratched, it was in the parking at my home, basically a safe place, it's not a bad neighborhood. It's obvious that it's done on purpose. A respray would cost more than the value of the 2009 car.

Two years ago a neighbor was the victim. Curiously in the week before I thought about that, and how nasty it would be to find your car like that. As if I sensed something but there is nothing that I am conscious of preceding the incident.

From 50 line 2 I understand envy or jealousy could be involved.

With line 1 so far I have no clue.

What I asked was give me a clue about who did this.

I’m a 23 year old girl and trying to make it in Oakland California. I live at a place that’s cheap and I like who I rent from and it’s a house with a lot of character. I love Oakland, but someone keeps messing with my car, ie breaking in, breaking my door handle, stealing my license plate. This all has happened in the last two weeks since I returned after four months away and I’m not sure why. My landlord suggests I’m being targeted and it’s just made me uneasy. I also have weird roommates and the house itself is a bit chaotic and unclean.

I asked what to do and got 54 unchanging. I seem to get unchanging hexagrams when I’m particulartly distressed or otherwise have “pointed/strong emotions about something. I’ve used the I Ching since I was a kid and this is a hexagram I rarely get and find hard to interpret. Thoughts on this one?

See title.

The question was "should I go back to my old occupation because new job is very stressful?" and it's been really hard, I feel like I can't get anything done properly because the place is very chaotic. Absolutely feeling like a fraud. It's only been few months and I'm counting days, I can't imagine spending years here.

My older occupation ended with a lot of tears and burning out, but at least I knew more about what I did...when I left I was dead sure I'd never do it again. I can't believe the new one makes me question whether I should return to the old one.

I'm so sad I can't find a job that makes me happy, or at least not whine about it all the time.

How would you comment on Hexagram 47.5 -> Hexagram 40 in this context.

Thank you

So I used the three coins method for a reading with the Alfred Huang version of the I Ching. The way I did it, following a YouTube tutorial, was:

3 heads = -o- (changing yang)

3 tails = -x- (changing yin)

2 heads, 1 tail = - - (unchanging yin)

2 tails, I head = --- (unchanging yang)

HOWEVER, Alfred Huang in his book says:

3 heads = -x- (changing yin)

3 tails = -o- (changing yang)

2 heads, 1 tail = --- (unchanging yang)

2 tails, 1 head = - - (unchanging yin)

I used the first method I learned from YouTube and got a reading that felt very synchronous with my current situation. But, now I worry I may have used the "wrong" method and my reading is invalid. Though, I am skeptical of that. So, what now? Should I just accept my reading? Should I use the same method for every reading or should I follow Huang's method? Would there be consequences for switching?

Also, I personally feel that it should be:

3 heads = -o- (changing yang)

2 heads, 1 tail = --- (unchanging yang)

2 tails, 1 head = - - (unchanging yin)

3 tails = -x- (changing yin)

What do you all think?

We have found a kitten under car hood , we tried to take him out , no success yet , now its night time

I asked how to act about the kitten under the car hood ? got hex 63 unchanging (inner hex 64)

I also was thinking when asking how to act : if we should put effort to take him out now , or to wait and maybe he gets out alone , or maybe his mother takes him out , or wait untill morning and if his still there than put effort taking him out

and also thinking while asking that the answer can be not just how to act , but maybe info that can help determine how to act (like if his mother would return to take him , or if he will leave by himself and can handle himself etc)

Future edit : morning still not sure if kitten is out or not , trying to figure out if hex 63 is saying to act or not to act....

update : again went to look now cant see or hear it (put tuna , and played mom calling kitten noises as well) , hopefully his mother came to take him or he left by himself , or he died , i lean towards he left

still would love to understand what 63 tried to tell me cause i have no clue

everything is in place could say that the kitten was left there by mom on purpose and she went back to take it with time .... BUT it does talk about small action to maintain what is in place .... and also talks about things getting worse so not sure

Thank you!!! 🙏

Typing mistake in title : the first hexgram is 53 (not 54) so 53 -> 13 with changing lines 1 and 4 ... inner hex 64

So i am doing this thing of doing some wholsome thing for 50 minutes than doing this meditation breaks ... in past i used to do long meditations but at least for now i am keeping it on only 1 minute , and despite the short time it is still very bothersome sometimes to stop what im doing and to go sit somewhere and meditate

So i asked "should i do this rounds ?" (and by rounds i basically asked what i already exaplined , if i should do this breaks) and got Hexagram 53 with changing lines 1 and 4 , changing to 13 ... with inner hexagram 64

.
.
.
.
.

(now not long ago i asked the same question but not only it was a different date from now , but also i had some event in a few days that had some hardship that would probably have stopped my practice .... so when i asked that question back than i had that in mind too .... that is why i asked now again (and this time i dont have an event coming , so the answer should have been more clear now than back than)

and i got back than 60 changing lines 1 and 5 , change to 7 , with inner hexagram 27 ....... and while hex 60 seems much more fitting response to this question , it seems that at least one of this lines talked about the event i had and not if i should do this meditation breaks )

I've never come across a book before where the structural choices by the author made me dislike a book so much as to stop reading. The choice by Sam Reifler's iChing in "making liberal and inexact use of the names of three Hindu principles" is such a bizarre, poorly explained choice it ruined my enjoyment of anything else that was written. The bastardization of the Purusharthas and total omission of Dharma feels like an elementary category error made by a westerner conflating "Eastern" principles because they're all roughly as foreign as each other to western audiences. I find it annoying how often new age writing will treat foreign cultures as a monolithic mystical blob because they don't fit the mold of Abrahamic religion which so many are conditioned into.

Leaving out Dharma could have been a fantastic rhetorical flourish by empowering the reader by saying that it's up to the reader to figure that out for themselves. However, it is left out entirely and still raises the question- why on earth bring the Purusharthas up at all? Surely amongst the entirety of Taoist, Confucian, Legalism there are 3 things you can use to describe career, relationships, and spirituality. If we don't care about honoring history, why not just drop 2 of the 5 Wuxing and call it a day?

Since I already have the book, if there are fans of it I encourage you to share your perspectives. I'd rather have my views changed on the topic and be able to read it and get something out of it than just donate it immediately.

My girlfriend left me two weeks ago, she wanted to remain in contact, I tried but couldn't because I was too angry at her and could not bear to see her behave as if nothing happened between us, erasing me fromnjer life (she posted pictures of an art show I helped her do and she completely erased my presence from the pictures evennthough I helped her). Her behaviour felt like she didn't want to be responsible for how she neglected me and the relationship (she's quite avoidant) and kinda sweep everything under the rug. Like she still wanted to go to a show with me even though it was technically a date I had planned before the break up. But at the same time she said it's best if we don't talk to each other more thqn small talk when we see each other at school ? Knowing her, she tends to bury her emotions and doesn't communicate, so I believe she ran away from the relationship (she said she never felt as good, loved me, wanted to stay with me but couldn't because no desire etc. (I've already made a post about it in case the story feels familiar)). But I also know her emotions come out months later in surprising way, so I think the grief of the relationship will probably reveal itself later.

Anyways, a week ago I asked her to go no contact. Seeing her happy and ready to party (there was a party at school) made me feel too bad. I asked her to not come to the show. I asked her to avoid coming to the atelier if I'm there and that I'd avoid going to where she is. I still have a plushie I bought for her and I want to give it to her still (I'll ask a friend to give her when I recieve it). In any case, I'll be going to China in 4 months for half a year so then she won't have to think about it that much. We'll probably see eachother one last time at the diploma ceremony in September of next year, because we have mutual friends there.

I've spent the last two weeks going between hope she comes back, sadness and anger against her and processing it along the way. A part of me tried to convince myself that she made a bad choice and will regret it and come back, another part wants to move on and accept that maybe she didn't make such a bad decision even though there are clear signs she ran away from the emotional vulnerability. Like she took a good decision for bad reasons kind of thing. A part of me told me that I made a bad decision for going no contact and that I ruined our chances of getting back together. I've been managing the hope pretty well but it stills finds way to seep into my thinking.

Now I'm a bit tired and confused with all of those thoughts and emotions and needed more clarity. So I asked "what do I do now concerning this matter ?". I got 23 unchanging. I have trouble interpreting unchanging hexagrams, so I would very much like to see your take on this one ! Thank you !

Hi everyone, I got into the I-Ching a few weeks ago and wanted to try it out on a question that’s been messing with my head lately: "Will I get back together with my ex?". We broke up on pretty good terms, though we're not exactly friends either. He’s the one who initiated it. I still love him and want to know if we’re going to get back together. Got symbol 31. Looks promising ! I still wanted to get your opinion though, because I know that no matter the topic, there are always people on Reddit who know more about it than you do.