Stephen Karcher - Great Vessel Blog Posts

THE GREAT VESSEL BLOG
PERSPECTIVES, NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE

WORLD OF THE YIJING (I CHING) AND DIVINATION
AN INDEX OF ARTICLES WITH SUMMARIES
We have now added Articles Index so that people can more easily gain an overview the site. It’s
a sort of homespun sitemap! The main difference being the inclusion of a brief note next to each
entry summarising what it is about. In addition we have put a link on the Home Page in the Start
Here section. I hope it helps.
Kevin
posted Sunday, October 12, 2008 6:56 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments
HEXAGRAM 10
Here is something which really worked for me. Hilary Barrett found something in Hexagram 10
which brings it alive in a most interesting way. Please do take a look .
Kevin
posted Tuesday, September 02, 2008 8:56 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments
PERSPECTIVES ON CHANGE II
This is the second of four articles looking at Change from different perspectives. Yes, four,
another has been written since last week.
In Perspectives of Change II Stephen looks at the crisis of the modern world through the lens
of Archetypal Psychology.
The article suggests that we have only cast out the old gods in name and not in spirit. That the
archetypes are still deep within us and, being unrecognized, now play out on the world stage in
an unchecked manner. He explains how the Unconscious, full of archetypes and complexes and
the Conscious mind can only be mediated by ‘Soul’.
This is very much C.G. Jung’s cry to the modern world on the immediate need to heal its culture
or be damned by the demons which, if left unrecognised, are free to wreak havoc both personally
and culturally.
Lastly, he explains how a re-connection to our unconscious world enables four particular
processes to inform our understanding and thus our actions in the world.
Kevin
posted Sunday, August 31, 2008 7:47 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments

PERSPECTIVES ON CHANGE I
I have just posted a new article by Stephen. It is the first of a series of three looking at Change
from different perspectives.
1 Perspectives of Change takes Chaos Theory and applies it to our experience of Change. It
shows how change can be smooth and how at times we enter into periods of Transformative
Change, the catastrophic breakdown and reforming of our perception and circumstances.
The other two in this series are: “Soulmaking” and “Intertextuality” They will follow soon.
Kevin
posted Monday, August 25, 2008 7:48 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments
I CHING - WORKING WITH TRIGRAMS
Looking over the wall I see that there are some interesting developments at
www.onlineclarity.com.
There is now a paid for member’s area there where some quite exciting work is taking place. The
first task they have set for themselves is to explore the Shuogua. In particular looking at trigram
imagery. and the way trigrams combine to form dynamic images within hexagrams. Quite
different perspectives are being brought together.
There is also a Wiki I Ching Commentary which is already well developed and which, it is
intended, will build and take shape as work progresses.
The membership contains both very experienced folk as well as beginners. It is a very co-
operative space and Membership is also really quite affordable.
I think what excites me about this group is that there are wide ranging views and skill levels, yet
they seem to have started a collaborative fertile place to share and learn.
Definitely worth checking out.
Kevin
posted Monday, August 25, 2008 7:32 PM by Webmaster with 2 Comments
TOTAL YIJING V2.3 – I CHING EXPLORER AND CASTING PROGRAM
After months of recoding, bending, sawing and hammering Pete has finally made the Total
Yijing application Vista compliant.
Anyone upgrading to it will be able to import their old readings from previous versions.
As before it will run on Mac OS with a suitable Microsoft compatibility application such as
Bootcamp or others (Get good Mac advice for your machine here please).
This version has an updated text with a few extras – Stephen Karcher is always working over the
text in the light of developments and from his experience of teaching the I Ching.
I find the text to be more friendly and accessible. It has come a long way since ‘Total I Ching’
was published.
We get emails from people who say they don’t like using a computer programs for the I Ching.
We looked at making it into an eBook and quickly realised that it was easier to read and explore
the I Ching using the program. This is better!
Additionally, each hexagram has a ‘Notes’ page where folk can add as many observations and
notes as they wish.
For amphibians only: Yes, you can use your preferred casting method and then add the result
into the program for interpretation and safe keeping.
And of course, there is a free 15-day trial.
Look, this application has only had one careful elderly driver.
– OK?
Just take it for a drive while I go and get some tea. I do hate promotions – but if I didn’t tell
you?....
Chuckling and very happy about this development.
Kevin
2 THE DIVINER AND THE DIVINATORY PROCESS – SO WHY DO WE

NEED DIVINATION?
There are many models which try to explain the place of divination in our lives. This is just one,
but I think it’s a good one.
To understand the importance of divination in human experience we need to look at human

awareness or consciousness. I am going to use the model developed by the Maya as explained by
Ian Lungold in his film ‘Secrets of the Mayan Calendar’.
He first defines awareness as that knowing we have when we are aware that we are aware. This
is the moment when we as a doer, watcher, or thinker, become aware of ourselves doing,
watching or thinking.
He goes on to say that we naturally locate ourselves in time and space: I am at my desk and I am
typing. There is only one moment and that is the present now and the place where I am. All of
the knowledge and experience from the past only exists for each of us in the here and now. When
we draw on experience, we project ourselves backwards in our minds, we remember it, but we
are still here and now.
When we think about what we are going to do we project our minds forward, but we are still
only in our present place and in the time called now.
Modern societies work very hard to predict the future. We need to be sure that in the future we
will have enough food, enough power, enough schools and hospitals. We have become very
skilled at this. However sooner or later there will be an unexpected event which makes these
predictions null and void. Though it would be foolish not to attend to this we can never think of
every possible future scenario. At a personal level we spend a lot of time trying to do this too.
These attempts to gain certainty by projecting ourselves into the future have the effect that we
become un-centred. We try to push ourselves outside of the awareness bubble of here and now
which is the only place we can exist.
So, let’s consider this:
Peace of mind requires centeredness

Centeredness requires certainty
Certainty comes from the recognition of the patterns in our lives and our world.
The I Ching identifies these patterns and through practice with it we can develop our ability to be
aware of them as they develop. We learn to see the trends and potentials of the time and events
taking place. We can then better orientate ourselves to the flow of time moving through our
window of awareness. (See diagram). Of course, Ian suggests the use of the Mayan Calendar for
this purpose and there are other tools as well such as the Tarot.
[image not available]
He points to two more dynamics and he says that ignoring them leads to an impoverished
experience of our fuller selves and that our thoughts and actions would necessarily be out of step
with ourselves and events.
First, he says we have ‘Personal Intent’. This is not located in our conscious mind. It isn’t our
will. It is not our intending to do this or that. The Jungian view locates this personal intent deep
in our persona. These are our potentials and shortcomings, the promise of what we might become
as we try to fulfil the potential of our being. This might, for some, include the persons karma, or
from the early I Ching philosophy, Ming, a mix of personal fate and destiny.
So, in order to extend our awareness to its full potential we also need to recognise the patterns of
who we are as individuals. We need to seat our being and actions at the point where our inner
intent matches the outer patterns. Again, the I Ching helps us to reflect on where we are and how
we might proceed in accordance with the time.
So, what of the future in this light? Is it simply made up of events waiting to flow into our ‘now
bubble’? We know from the sciences that phenomena are patterned and that they most often
approximate to universal laws. However, Daoism, like the Mayans, holds that that there is a flow
of ‘Creative Energy’ which patterns both ourselves and outer world events.
If we accept this model then an intuitive awareness of the flow of Dao is essential if we are to
locate ourselves and our actions within this centred yet expanded reality.
Lastly Ian proposes that, “What we pay attention to we become aware of.” This is important.
Modern society tends to encourage us to shun intuition and of awareness anything outside of
time, place and causality. We are encouraged to use our thinking mind and to ignore our inner
world and intuitive abilities. (This is a little odd as many great scientific developments have been
founded on intuitive leaps.) Using the I Ching goes a long way in training us to be aware of
patterns and to pay attention to our intuitive selves. Divination also lays the patterns out before
us.
So, what does the use of the I Ching do to the diviner? Their intuition and their ability to
recognise the patterns of events around them are both increased. Interestingly those of a more
thinking approach to the world also gain. They learn to spot the patterns around them and within
themselves and by relating them to the I Ching pattern book, they can behave accordingly.
In my next piece I will look at a view of our intuitive self and its relationship to our thinking
mind. I will look at ways of entering our deeper intuitive reality, what can happen there and,
mischievously, compare that to psychic experience.
Kevin
Post Script - I notice that the Diagram of the Mayan model of ‘all-encompassing reality’ has
eight segments - Now where have we seen a fundamental categorisation of eight essential
principles before? Maybe a coincidence.
1 THE DIVINER AND THE DIVINATORY PROCESS – INTRODUCTION
Some time ago I wrote about two perspectives of approaching the I Ching as a divinatory tool. I
promised to write about the divinatory space and what happens there.
This is an introduction to a series which will explore the divinatory process.
When we divine with the I Ching we can enter what is often called a divinatory space. I think of
this as being in a bubble where the diviner’s awareness engages with new and shifting ideas and
perspectives. The diviner’s awareness shifts around until there is a sense that they can perceive
the situation being enquired about in terms of the nature of the time and the changes taking place
within it. The result is a better sense of the pattern of change being asked about and the
questioner’s part within it.
Ideally the questioner, for whom the divination carried out, will then gain a clearer understanding
of the forces of change acting on and around them together with the choices they can effectively
make. They are better able to orientate themselves to what is happening both in their world and
inside themselves.
There is perhaps also a knowing or intuited awareness which flows into this bubble to inform the
diviner. In addition, the diviner also brings the nature of who they are into the process. This is
their persona, their values, beliefs and disbeliefs. So, to understand the divinatory moment we
need to look at the diviner as well.
In exploring this space and the processes which take place within it we will visit some interesting
places such as the nature of wisdom and why the regular use of the I Ching brings a heightened
awareness of our surroundings. Also, how it can help us stay centred and experience a greater
peace within ourselves.
Finally, I will explore ways of creating the divinatory space so that the process results in more
clarity and less divinatory confusion.
These ideas can only outline this process which I think goes far and beyond the human ability to
comprehend. For this reason, I would say, “Don’t believe in any of it. Understand it then try it.
That is the litmus test.”
This work is the fruit of a long journey which has involved me in a ruthless cutting away of
fanciful ideas and a painful dumping of ideas which I have wanted to be true in order to get at a
simple workable truth about divination and ways of increasing its effectiveness.
My starting point in the next piece is, “Why do we need divination?” and “What does practice of
divination do to the diviner?”
Kevin
G.V. I CHING LINKS PAGE HAS BEEN UPDATED
I have just updated the I Ching links page on our site. It has been expanded with ‘new to here’
links as well as updates to some of the sites which were already listed.
I have tried to select only those sites which I think speak with some deeper sense of the I Ching
from their perspective. There must be many omissions so if you feel there is a site which would
merit inclusion please let me know.
Academic and mathematicians’ sites are deliberately left under represented. This is because we
are primarily interested in divination and the field of I Ching studies is massive. Hopefully the I
Ching web links sites and directories will make up this shortfall.
At last I have got around to looking properly at the maths behind Terence McKenna’s Time
Wave Zero theory. I have always felt uncomfortable about the subjectivity of the historical
events he fits into it. They seem a little too Western-centric. Additionally, there is little
allowance for the Butterfly Principle of Chaos theory fame, where something seemingly
insignificant changes the world. Now I find that there is a considerable body of mathematicians
who believe the maths underpinning it is flawed too.
OK, OK, I know I shouldn’t get so uptight about it, but I can’t bear to read yet another glib blog
listing a dozen proofs that 2012 is upon us and the I Ching is one of the models which
substantiates this. Check the link.
Hmm... Where was I? Oh yes, I hope you find some new and interesting stuff in the new links
page!
Kevin
NEWS FROM STEPHEN
The last few months have been a fairly chaotic time here at Great Vessel. I’ve been teaching in
the US for the past two months and Kevin, the webmaster, has been through a major computer
meltdown. Two computers melted down in fact! We seem to have sorted things out, so you can
look forward to a lot of new material over the next month or two.
If you would like to see what I’ve been up to, take a look at the postings on Events Calendar that
describe some of the things that happened on the US Tour. In addition to the teaching described
there, I re-recorded and upgraded lectures for the Master’s Course on Yijing: Models of
Transformation I teach at the University of Philosophical Research in Los Angeles and laid plans
for a major conference next spring in the Santa Barbara area.
The new Reading on Creating Ancestors, which came out of the Vallecitos Yijing Retreat last
year, focuses on a central concern of all the new ritual work I’ve been doing with the Change
over the past year and will continue this fall. To me, it is a crucial theme for all of us and for our
culture, which completely lacks any sense of the crucial importance of connecting with the
Ancestors. It also introduces the Paper Horses (mazhang), the spirit-papers I’ve been working on
the past year or so that key directly to the hexagrams, and gives you a taste of the new
Guideways book we are preparing.
You can expect more on the Paper Horses soon, as well as a new series of Audios on important
Yijing themes. I hope you’ll visit us to see this new work.
Stephen
posted Saturday, July 19, 2008 8:55 PM by Administrator with 0 Comments
NEWS AND AN ARTICLE
I was talking with someone the other day about methods of ‘Casting the Yi’ and they mentioned
that they did not like using computer programs. In part I had to agree that sitting quietly with my
casting stones ( 16 Token Method ) gives a great resonance with the Yi. Having said that the
results I get from a program are just as effective. After all the divination takes place in us and not
in the stones or the computer.
One advantage our Yijing program has over paper is that it calculates all of the different
dimensions of the Reading Matrix and brings all of the relevant texts together for ease of
reading. So, if you are one who prefers not to use a program for casting you might consider
trying the free trial and manually enter your readings after divining in your preferred manner, or
just use it as a lookup tool.
Currently Stephen’s latest work is only available electronically on this site, with the exception of
a Yijing in Danish. We are looking at ways of getting his work available on paper too. Until
then, Foundations for Change is a much expanded and easier to understand development of the
introductory chapters in the Total I Ching Book. It is now a ‘book’ in itself and it is the
companion to the Total Yijing Program.
Well that’s the marketing done!
I have posted a short article by Stephen “Using Crossline Omens” here.
In it he says a little more about how he approaches and uses Crossline Omens in his readings.
This is particularly useful as it can be a little overwhelming for the newcomer approaching his
depth reading techniques for the first time. The important thing to remember is that the first step
to using his methodology, in practice, is to look briefly at what each approach has to say for a
given reading and then to focus on those parts that seem to speak to the situation with the most
‘charge’.
A little news
Stephen is just back from teaching in the US. He had a great time and is looking forward to his
next trip later this year. I will post details shortly. However if you can get a group and venue
together he can often extend his tours to accommodate - please let him know through the
Contact Us area.
More News
As those who have attended Stephen’s courses will know his latest development is coming to
fruition. We will post more about this over the next few weeks. He has been working to relocate
the Yi back into its deep ritual and imaginative context. He brings the images alive through very
beautiful artwork. These can then form a focus for readings and ritual. No, we are not asked to
dress up in funny robes and chant, but rather to use additional ritual and art to open up the
imaginal world where the Xiang (symbols) can circulate and allow their meanings to precipitate.
Wishing folk a good year of the Male Earth Rat:
15 Humbling/The Great Grey Rat QIAN

Balance, adjust yourself, cut through pride and complication, stay close to fundamentals; think
and act in a modest way, yielding and reverent; the Great Grey Rat, an Animal Ancestor showing
that liminal unconscious processes are constellated in your favor.
This is an Inspiring Figure. Part of the Sacred Sickness Pathway, it contains a Zone of Radical
Transformation that acts as the experience of the Centers of power in the stage or Decade of life
when we struggle with identity and its relation to society.
Core theme: 40 Deliverance from suffering.
Season: Winter, finding the seed of the new through hardship. North, midnight, Water, black;
ordeal, divination and the judgement of the spirits; elders and ancestors.
Trigrams: Mountain below the Earth. Inner self-constraint now brings you a deep faith in the
overall processes of life. Reduce the many to augment the few. Evaluate and even things out.
This is not the time to step out to meet a new destiny.
Stimulus: 23 Strip away the past.
Ideal and Shadow: Think of this as a time of blessing and pour in more energy and involvement
(42). Do not think of it as the founding of a noble house or a new paradigm (50), for there is
much personal work to be done.
Kevin
posted Sunday, March 02, 2008 9:00 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
52 MOUNTAIN OR BOUND
52 Mountain or Bound is a very powerful image or symbol (a xiang or imaginal operation) of

Stopping or bringing things to a still place. It the strongest possible injunction against “acting
anything out.” Rather, it is a crucial time when we have to “act it in” or become the victim of
our own negative emotions. Jesus said “when someone strikes you, turn the other cheek” and
“love your enemies” not to make us into doormats or robots, but to break us out of the endless
cycle of wounding and retribution.
52 Bound shows not just a mountain full of peace and calm, but a mountain where a bloody
sacrifice is being enacted - and we are the “victim” in that sacrifice, the “body of our past”. All
our literal attachments to the past, our compulsive identifications and our pain-and-desire circuits
are “cut into” one by one. The mettas, enacted in stillness, are a great challenge here. What does
it mean to wish George Bush, Osama bin Laden and our own oppressive parents “happiness,
health, safety and security, and freedom”? The basic lesson is that anyone who possess these
things will not and cannot act in a compulsive or negative way. The secondary lesson is that any
of these terrible encounters with fate actually might be a gift, releasing us from our compulsive
identifications and freeing us to walk the “axis of the universe - Love”. For the sacrifice of the
literal in 52 Bound “opens the subtle body.” It makes our response to any situation a matter of
imagination and ritual rather than literal activity and affirms that this imaginal or ritual activity is
the most efficacious thing we can possibly do in the situation we are confronted with.
Stephen
posted Sunday, July 29, 2007 3:23 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
June 2007 - Posts
IDEAL AND SHADOW

I have re-worked the ‘Basics’ article on Ideal and Shadow so that it reflects a new perspective
that emerged from the divinatory work at the Vallecitos Retreat. We found this quite valuable
and hope that you do too. The Article has been re-worked and contains an example of how this
can function in a Reading (link).
The Ideal Form and the Shadow Site form a pair of figures that let you grasp the ideal potential
of the situation and a necessary transformative potential that is, for the moment, shadowed and
unavailable but will manifest spontaneously if you do not seek it out. 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.
The Ideal Form gives you a hexagram that represents the most effective way to think about your
entire situation, the ideal way to visualize it and act on it. It will further the emergence of the
bright spirit and idealizing energies that the situation contains.
This is a quite effective perspective that was developed over the last few years after I came
through contact with the students of an old Chinese master in South Africa. It works by
reflecting the positions of the trigrams of a Figure in the King Wen or Later Heaven Sequence of
Trigrams back into the Fuxi or Early Heaven Sequence. It is a brilliant move that has a solid
foundation in Daoist thinking about the relation of these two primal trigram sequences.
The Shadow Site gives you a hexagram that represents what is, at the moment, counter-indicated
in your situation, covered by a sort of negative screen that can contain often painful memories.
This screen or shadow is blocking transformative energy. If you completely release your
awareness from these configurations by focusing on the Ideal, the necessary energy the Shadow
Site contains will manifest itself spontaneously.
I had been pondering the possible meanings of what I call the Shadow Site, the reflection of a
given hexagram in the Reverse Sequence of the 64 hexagrams, for quite a while. One of its
functions made immediate sense to me when it was paired with the Ideal Form as a sort of
negative mirror. This is the way Change seems to work, tactically pairing opposites with a
situational rather than an abstract moral judgment on their innate qualities. Another realization
came as I was working in depth with the Reverse Sequence in deep divinations as representing a
kind of mystical re-birth, a union that can only be achieved through indirection or not-acting
(wu-wei). From this came the awareness that whatever is shadowed is necessary for the
completion of the transformative possibilities of the moment but cannot be reached through
conscious action. It can and will manifest synchronistically, however, when there is no conscious
effort directed towards it. This sort of indirection frees the quality in question from the linear
flow of time and the karmic chain of cause and effect.
I have tried these out in quite a few divinations and, to my mind, they add a special and quite
effective way to see what we should and should not be doing, practically rather than morally, at a
given moment along with what we might achieve directly and what we can achieve only by
renouncing our desires for it.
Stephen
posted Monday, June 25, 2007 1:39 AM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
RUNNING THE TOTAL YIJING PROGRAM ON MAC COMPUTERS
The Total Yijing program has been written to run under Windows. However, a number of our
users have informed us that they are happily running the Total Yijing program on Mac
computers. Specifically, they are running the Total Yijing program under OS X 10.4.9 operating
system with Virtual PC 6 or 7, using a Windows XT Pro system.
We are unable to offer support for this type of installation, however there is a two-week free trial
so you might want to try it.
Kevin
posted Sunday, June 24, 2007 9:26 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
GREAT VESSEL NEWS
This has been a very busy period for all of us here at Great Vessel and it shows little sign of
letting up.
Stephen has been touring the United States Teaching and leading the Vallecitos group in New
Mexico. He returned to do the various things he does for a number of University Courses he is
involved with as well as popping over to do more courses in – was it Germany? It is very hard to
keep up with him!
The Vallecitos Group: This wonderful group beavers away all year around. I hope they won’t
mind me saying that they are a strong independent minded bunch who bring together incredible
and diverse skills and learnings. So, it is no surprise that the retreat has yet again provided a deep
source of inspiration, practice and development which has led to a new series of papers and
articles which we will start posting online shortly.
Pete our IT man and the guiding hand that keeps Great Vessel running has gone to Malaysia with
Theresa visiting the Chinese wing of the family. I should add that we seldom mention Theresa,
but she is a professional programmer who quietly solves a lot of our programming problems…
(Waiving deep thanks).
I have been pursuing a slightly different route. For a number of years, I have been exploring the
process of what happens when we divine. Not in a particularly formal way, but experientially
with an anchor firmly set in Analytical Psychology (Jungian Approach). By using the Jungian
perspective as a touchstone, I have pushed out into the mystical end of the process. In February I
started working with Eileen Murray, a Canadian Psychic. Our experiments have been intense and
sometimes disturbing as they often challenged my accepted ideas. So next week I am flying to
Canada to spend a couple of weeks doing more direct work.
So, what have we got coming up?
First a whole series of articles which fit into the Imaginal Menagerie and Ritual side of the
Yijing.
Second, we have some more e-books which will fill out the spectrum of Yixue (Yijing studies
and practice).
There is more which will come online in time.
I hope you find something you like in these new developments.
Kevin
ANSWERS FROM YIJING AND THE DE OF THE INQUIRER
Somewhere in the Mawangdui (commentary) texts, “Confucius” is quoted as saying something

like: “If you use the Yi for ‘fortune-telling’ it is right about half of the time. If you use it to find
the De (actualizing-dao or “power and virtue”) of a situation, it is right all of the time.”
If we take this to heart, it turns our questions about whether the Yi’s answers are “right” or
“wrong”, whether they satisfy us or not, back on themselves. It points not at the “accuracy” of
the Change in predicting the future but at the quality of our De, our motivation in asking the
questions, the integrity of our desire for a particular outcome and our willingness to submit to the
“judgment of the Others”.
Now, according to my friend Scott Davis (whose work I am paraphrasing in the following) the
development of both writing and high divination in old China was conceived as a foray into the
future, a “narrated risk”. The vocation of the diviner was as at least as much to create the future
as it was simply to foresee it. The mission was to confront the future, to capture its emerging
signs and to manifest the “royal intelligence” (for the King was the first diviner) in permanent
form. This involved configuring the projects of present activities in such a way that they risk the
encounter with significant events in the future, creating “meaningful coincidences” or
synchronistic fields by casting the outlook on the future in terms that are amenable to
confirmation (or not) by turns of events in the outcome. It narrates the outcome (success or
failure) in terms of what was agreed to be risked. And one of its main concerns seems to center
on the “license to become an ancestor.”
Technically, this effort might be called the cognitive analysis of metaphor, metaphorical
coherence, and complex coherences across metaphors. Unlike simile or equation, metaphor
doesn’t operate on the basis of similarity – it creates similarities, takes the risk, and this risk
involves locating the De or “actualizing-dao” in the metaphorical field. It selects for experiences
that involve both risk and the feedback the world and the ancestors offer.
This kind of metaphorical “gambling” sets our intelligence out in a temporal field of not-yet-
existent events as conveyed by no-longer-living ancestors. Its specialized symbols (xiang) are
like transducers of the intelligence of these ancestors. It moves backwards and forwards in time,
involves previous divinations, observed ritual attitude, moral character, dreams, visits from
ghosts and other coincidental events that accompanied past episodes as omens and turned out to
be correct – the risk is whether or not they will here and if so, in what manner.
The “risk” in this kind of narrative is directly connected to the stance, integrity and De of the
Inquirer; it documents the operation (or not) of what was called bao - return or reciprocal action.
If the narrative features of the outcome match (dang) the narrative features of the omens, the
coincidence counts as a divinatory achievement. If they do not, it points at a failure of the
perception of the De of the situation.
In its origins, this kind of divination was a gesture of wagering the present to the future based on
the De of the Inquirer (the King). It exposed all action to the risk of divinatory narrative and
awaited the future to adjudicate the outcome. The xiang involved in the reading were not “mere
symbols”, but real things in the world – “operators”. “No coincidence, no make book,” an old
literary maxim says. Without coincidence between the desire and the outcome through the xiang,
there is no divinatory narrative. The Inquirer’s wager has failed through insufficient De. We need
to look somewhere else for the “meaning.”
This “looking elsewhere” sets the action in terms of the moral/ritual imperfections of the “losers”
and the subtle insights and moral/ritual integrity of the “heroes”. The narration dissolves human
events into a multiplicity of signifying features in which the actors risk producing the structural
features that “correspond to” unfavorable outcomes through lack of ritual integrity or risk not
being capable of matching (dang) the structural features correctly to produce a satisfactory
narrative, again in terms of a lack of De or actualizing power, the power to perceive the “real”
connections. This re-forms the divinatory narrative in terms of the working (or not working) of
bao.
The purpose of the symbolic narrative was to sensitize people to the manifold points of
significance that crackle around human action like an electric field, with the potential to connect
somewhere with future structure and become a story. Once an action is performed it has a life of
its own, takes on its own volitions much in the way the notes on a scale want to return to the
tonic note in a musical system. Called bao, these dynamic moments of behavior constitute its
risks. They await the coincidences that will reveal the pattern of the character (De) of the agents
who initiated them.
The main element of risk here is how the “world tells our story back to us” (or not). Configured
in a progressive-regressive time frame, it is concerned with the “justice” of the closure of the
structural openings the question and the reading have opened. Ritually reflected, this “justice”
involves us directly in the realm of the Tiger and our own Gu or inner corruption. It foregrounds
a quality of “blame” that is not attached to a random scapegoat, a broken taboo or a
dysfunctional system, but to the De of the Inquirer.
Now, the most characteristic feature of this divinatory world view is ritualism, the priority of
formality over finality, of De over fortune-telling. This would ask us to reflect our dissatisfaction
with the Yi’s answers back onto our stance and integrity as Inquirer. It has been my experience
that the Yi seldom gives a “wrong answer”, though the answer might not be what we would like
it to be. If the answer is “inaccurate”, it is probably pointing at a disconnection between the
pattern of our desire and the actual situation. It is time to look at what we were asking for and
why. It is time to see the distance between the De of the King as Inquirer and our own inner
motivations. If the answer is “confusing”, perhaps it is a very accurate reflection of our own
inner confusion. It may be a reflection of a lack of bao or reciprocal action between our “inner
base” and the “judgment of the Others”, a cloud of confusion that surrounds us and cuts us off.
This kind of De or ritual integrity was seen as the studied form upon which one should model all
types of action, the real base of divination. It is called Li, reason or pattern, cognate with Li rites
and rituals and Li, footwear and to step (as in 24.1). When we embark on a divination we are
potentially stepping in the ancestor’s footsteps. The whole purpose is to step in their Way, not to
try to make them wear our shoes.
Stephen
posted Thursday, May 03, 2007 8:51 AM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
YIJING COMPANION - ‘FOUNDATIONS OF CHANGE’ BY STEPHEN

KARCHER
Stephen Karcher’s new eBook Foundations of Change is now available. It opens the deep
foundations of the Way or Dao of the Classic of Change. It is a companion volume which can be
used with any translation of Yijing (I Ching).
Foundations of Change begins by orienting the modern reader to areas that are essential to a
deeper comprehension of the meaning and wisdom of Yijing. These include:
• The development of Yijing in its original historical and cultural context.
• An in-depth discussion of key rituals and beliefs which echo throughout the Yijing and
which add a profound texture and meaning to the text which otherwise might simply
appear to be descriptive poetic metaphor.
• A clear explanation of the psychological and spiritual stance of the early Chinese which
is assumed throughout the Yijing. By adopting this stance, the modern reader is able to
move beyond Yijing as a system of thought to embrace the realm of dynamic imagery
which we enter as we put a question put to the Yi, re-creating the meanings and
understandings which comprise our entrance to its Way or Dao.
• Part II of the book is a step by step explanation of the Tools or techniques that Stephen
uses in his work with the Yijing. It includes descriptions of the different components of a
reading and the way they can be used, offering explanations of the hexagram as Pairs, the
different types of Pairs and the different sorts of change they represent, the use of
Transforming Lines and Crosslines, and much more.
Part III looks at the process of consulting Change. It explores key words used throughout the
text, explaining their deeper meanings and the way they describe the core processes of Change.
It discusses the processes we enter into when using Yijing and the ways in which they inform us.
Finally, it describes the mechanics of casting the oracle and drawing up the matrix of hexagrams
that compose a reading.
Part IV details casting techniques – getting an answer.

Part V is a step by step walkthrough of a reading. Each part of the reading is systematically
approached using the Tools from the previous section.
This book is the product of over 35 years professional study and use of the Yi. It draws on wide
reading about old Chinese culture from many sources both ancient and modern. By moving
beyond the usual description of historical fact and modern methods for using Yijing it offers a
depth, perspective and a stance which a diviner can use to enter into their own authentic dialogue
with Change.
Kevin
posted Sunday, April 29, 2007 6:05 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
OPENING THE INNER THESAURUS OR SOUNDS AS EGGS
Amongst other things, the mythic images and sounds that make up an old divinatory tradition are
called ji. They are hidden triggers or seed-syllables for the performative linguistic act of
divination that exist at the liminal borderline between the oral and the written. Each of these ji
triggers a return to, transformation within and emergence from the fertile chaos or linguistic
whirlpool that exists in what chaos theory calls the water of the synapses.
This is the diviner’s place and moment and its force lies beyond the reach of our usual discourse
on language. Reading and voicing the Ji is not a hermeneutical task; they are a knock on the
door, a sign of presence belonging to something “other”, a context or field with its own identity
and its own things to say. Its purpose is “not just to learn something, but to experience something
and be set right.”
In traditional Chinese thought the perception of Ji brings an intuitive sense of differences (trace
and deferral) based on Lei “natural category”, correlations of pattern that occur not by willful
analogy but because their elements are “of the same kind.” These categories are presided over by
an omen animal called the Small Fox, a sort of dream-animal both male and female. The “traces”
of the ji (actually related to the “klang” or phonetic associations characteristic of “primitive
languages,” primary process and the working of dreams) act in the Xin or Heart-Mind to awaken
patterns of a world of analogies linking cosmic, human, moral and supernatural that simply “rise
up”.
The diviner was the medium for this living world’s coming-to-be. Stirred by the seed-syllables,
“wind-tossed and fluttering,” the diviner’s heart-mind is moved through endless associations,
forgetting itself in the wanderings. He or she sings out what they see and hear, sketching the
animate spirit as they are rolled round and round with the courses of things. From this
“wandering” the Bright Omens arise, the “hole that reveals the (w)hole)”.
In modern terms the context for all this is what we call an intertext that “already-always”
contains the energy through which we learn to see the past not as a linear progression of fixed
moments but as an endless series of re-creative fiction-making opportunities. In the continuing
evolution of the Chinese language I would suggest that the system of seed syllables and
“radicals” collected in the Han potentially represents such a system. Though sinologically and
academically scandalous in the extreme, I would further suggest that if we “wander” through this
system rather than attempting to analyze it historically or intellectually, it can open the on-going
Inner Thesaurus of Change “as an endless series of re-creative fiction-making opportunities” at
the boundary of the oral and the written.
Seen in this way, the system becomes a network of reciprocal intelligibility in which the content
of each myth comes to consist more and more of other myths. Its resists total enclosure by any
external constraint, guaranteeing the continuity of culture while at the same time inviting and
triggering (ji) its transformation. As a continuing dialogue linking the mythical and the mimetic,
it opens a shifting and ambiguous landscape where “the Real becomes Not-real when the
Unreal’s Real” - the instantaneous movement that characterizes intertextual communication.
See:
Stephen Owen, Traditional Chinese Poetry and Poetics: Omen of the World, Madison,
Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985.
Jing Wang, The Story of Stone: Intertexuality, Ancient Chinese Stone Lore and the Stone
Symbolism in Dream of the Red Chamber, Water Margin, and the Journey to the West, Durham
and London: Duke University Press, 1992.
Stephen
posted Sunday, April 15, 2007 11:05 AM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
ANCESTOR WORSHIP IN THE MODERN WORLD
Ancestors and the Personal Altar is a new article on our site.
Some years ago, I began to read about early Chinese culture in order to better understand the
values, beliefs and imagery found in the Yijing. In those days I learned a little factual material
about Ancestor Worship with the thought that the knowledge would help, but that of course it is
a bit of “What they did then” and that I would have to work with it as a metaphor.
In my day job, in mental health, I work with a lot of displaced or estranged people. Some are
displaced in that they may have come to the UK as refugees from very different cultures or who
are parted from the culture and people who make up their feeling of home. Those who are
estranged have lost the roots of their identity. An example of estranged people might be some of
those British people who made the long ancestral journey by way of slavery, freedom and later a
second migration. Some groups of these peoples are now doing a lot of work to reclaim their
roots. This is an act of reclaiming identity, of rebuilding a foundation of the self with which to
withstand the tugging winds of high-speed western culture where every marketing campaign tries
to redefine us by the image of the car we drive, the clothes we wear or some other fashionable
commodity. Of course, it’s more than just about marketing, there are many such winds blowing
at us. Stephen Karcher wrote about the need for roots in The Furies and the Water Spirit
Disorder . The part of this article which addresses the Water Spirit Disorder explores the act of
reclaiming our place in the community in which we live and the community of ancestors from
whence we came.
Ancestors and the Personal Altar takes a look at Ancestor Worship in ancient China. It may be
read as spiritual fact, or as an expression of working with those Jungian archetypes which we
hold within us, and its centrality to our use of the Yijing. This doesn’t necessarily mean that we
all need to build an Ancestor Altar on which to make offerings, though that act does fix (heng)
the process in our hearts. For many of us it might mean recognising the hardships and struggles
that our earlier relatives and their community made to continue the line. Perhaps to feel deep
sadness at the trials they underwent, gratitude that they struggled through or wonder at some of
the things they created, discovered or thought. Seeing ourselves in this light is to see ourselves as
part of a long succession, or as the current holder of the torch in a long line of creative thrust.
Seeing ourselves like this is to reclaim the anchor of who we really are and from whence we
came. It is to be, ‘not alone’, it is also to feel the gravity of our responsibility to those who come
after.
Hilary Barrett wrote a beautiful piece about her own experiences of losing her mother. She
entered into a dialogue with herself and the image of her mother at the ‘altar’ of her mother’s old
home. The process enabled her to re-form part of her identity, claiming the strength and abilities
she needed. This, for me, is one very good example of how the idea of Ancestor Worship might
be expressed in our modern world.
Kevin
Dedicated to Hilary and her mother.
posted Monday, April 09, 2007 2:21 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments
THE FURIES AND THE WATER SPIRIT DISORDER
In his new article ‘The Furies and the Water Spirit Disorder’ Stephen Karcher takes us on two
journeys, each represents cultural and personal stances which are deeply flawed and which are
the cause of much suffering in our world.
First, he brings together modern Western imagery with that of the ancient Mediterranean world,
Buddhism and the Yijing to take the reader to the heart of darkness which pervades our culture in
modern times. He explains how we willfully found this path and then followed it. With equal
care and detail, he uses text and imagery from the Yijing to show a possible route back to a
wholeness.
He then takes us out on to the plain of the ‘wandering rootless’ and shows how this too is a path
all too easily found by the way we have structured our culture. Again, he uses text from the
Yijing and other sources to offer us a personal and cultural path back to our heart’s sanity.
The article ends with an excursus into both the psychology involved in relating to the Yijing as a
divinatory system and those processes necessary to make our readings effective in our lives. In
part he uses a reading where the Yi itself is brought in as a guide to this process. As always, the
Yijing has some very interesting things to say.
I found this article rich with a knowing and very informative.

Kevin
posted Saturday, April 07, 2007 1:47 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments
SOURCES FOR THE DECADES
Sources for the Decades is a new article just posted on our site.
In this article Stephen Karcher lays out the case that the King Wen sequence of hexagrams,
which is the standard order found in the I Ching, is not a random sequence, but that it is highly
organised. He shows that it is a rational sequence which reflects the stages of life we all pass
through from birth to our death. This is in addition to the usual imagery found in the text for each
hexagram.
Stephen has been working on this idea for many years and we already have a short introductory
article here as well as a brief article about applying them in readings here.
He says of this article:
“The Decades model the ideal shape of the Symbolic Life. Each tells of a birth, death and re-
birth process that enables us to Accumulate De, the actualizing power that lets an individual
connect his or her own identity to the Ancestral foundation of life. Each recreates the shape and
dynamic of the sacred or ritual cosmos at a different Stage of Life. The movement through a
Decade or sequence of ten hexagrams can be simultaneously imagined as a personal experience;
as a progressive reorganization of the intelligence and the nervous system; as a step in the
evolution of culture; and as an experience of the creatio continua, the continuous creation of life
and spirit.”
In addition to this he begins his article by describing the I Ching’s symbolic landscape as well as
the core ritual moments which are acted out within it. This part of the article is gold dust in itself.
I have used this decade model in readings for both myself and for others. It is particularly useful
when the questioner is undertaking a major remodelling of their life or is struggling with a deep
inner world crisis. Additionally, it has great value as a framework to understanding the dynamic
relations within the I Ching. It provides much food for thought for those trying to fathom the
King Wen sequence.
Kevin
posted Friday, April 06, 2007 9:10 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
PAINTING THE CANVAS – THE ACT OF DIVINATION II
In my previous post I sketched out two perspectives of the performative act of divination, the
spiritual perspective and the Jungian perspective, two rivers flowing in one riverbed.
I suggested that if we as diviners move beyond using the text and images in the Yijing as simply
prescriptive, or as narrowly descriptive, then the imagery is able to circulate within us informing
our deeper selves of the dynamics within us and of the time or moment around us. It can then
conjoin our inner world with that of our outer world, or for some our inner world is brought into
tune with the Dao or our divine purpose (Ming).
I would like to offer a metaphor for what occurs when we divine. The specific reading we obtain
might be seen as a dynamic template which matches the ‘moment’. That ‘moment’ encompasses
both our inner potentials and the outer world in which we live. When we contemplate this
template, we enter into a dynamic process of shifting around our potentials, and perceptions, to
get a match with the template. We use the template to make a congruence between ourselves and
the moment in which we find ourselves. We do this to the best of our ability and to our own
satisfaction using whatever we, as individuals, have at our disposal in terms of potentials,
perceptions and opportunities.
Seen like this divination is an act of creation, or recreation, of both ourselves and the world in
which we live. It provides the canvas on which we paint.
In my next piece I will look at the way in which images need to circulate and the pathways
which we can offer to them.
Kevin
posted Thursday, April 05, 2007 5:22 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
WEAVING THE CANVAS - THE ACT OF DIVINATION I
As diviners we generally develop a deep personal resonance with the Yijing. Our methods and
perspectives become complex and closely intertwined with our psychological, or spiritual,
beliefs and values. It is as if we settle into our own spot on the hillsides surrounding the
ecologically rich valley called Yi. We all see the same things, but from the perspective of our
different positions. So, for me the sheep is in front of the tree and perhaps to you on the other
side, it is behind it and of course you may be much more concerned with some other valley
feature which for me is less interesting. What follows are the broad brushstrokes of two of the
slopes where diviners might be found.
One perspective is that when we perform the act of divination, we are making an opening across
our liminal threshold into our fertile unconscious. Here we can experience the images moving
around, resolving their dynamics until we perceive an understanding of the moment. This is often
referred to as the ‘Jungian’ perspective of how the Yijing works. We enter that inner landscape
rich with dynamic archetypal images which the moment of divination has illuminated through
our imaginal apprehension of the images generated by the Yijing.
Another broad perspective is that of the spiritual or psychic belief set. Here the act of divination
makes an opening through to the Yi spirit, the spirit of the ancestors, or to whatever other
cosmological perspective works for us as individual diviners. For this group the ‘hand that writes
on the wall’ gives us text references in the Yijing and through reading those texts we come to
understand its message.
There is a group of diviners on both of these hillsides which are worth a brief mention here. For
many of us the Yijing is a text rooted in a foreign culture with images and stories which relate to
other places far away in distance and time. Understanding as much of that culture as we can
gives us a better depth and appreciation of the words and their possible meanings. However,
pushing this to the point where we reduce a piece of text to a single meaning is as pointless as
trying to reduce an image rich line of poetry to a single descriptive point. Such a reduction makes
the Yijing oracle prescriptive with overly fixed sets of values and meanings, cognitive sets of
‘this is’ and ‘this is not’. I have to accept that this approach might suit those of us who prefer the
security of setting ourselves into prescriptive projections which define our choices and paths
more tightly. Freedom of choice and imagination can be unsettling and letting images circulate
within our minds can leave us confused about what really is and what really is not.
It appears to me that the two broad approaches of the spiritual and the Jungian, are so closely
parallel that the difference in appreciation and outcome is of little matter. One locates the
knowing in the Spirit of the Yi flowing through the informative text into our spirit mind and then
finally into our perceiving mind. This person might be seeking to keep their actions within the
flow of the Dao, or be seeking to find the best paths through the potentials of the time. The other
sites the knowing in our unconscious which is illuminated by the text and images of the Yijing.
These are then appreciated by our imaginal mind before being grasped by our perceiving mind.
This person might be seeking to work with their own potentials within the time or to find the
path back to them through divination as an act of healing.
This is perhaps a case of two rivers with different sources flowing in the same river bed.
For me this is the canvas of divination. In my next piece I will sketch out a perspective of
divination as a creative act.
Kevin
posted Thursday, April 05, 2007 3:08 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
NESTING OF IMAGES BY GLENROY WOLFSON
This post from the Midaughter forum caught my heart and eye and Glen has been kind enough
to give me permission to post it here.
He is an experienced diviner who has worked with the Yijing for many years. For me he has
caught some of the essence of the sort of relationship that can be developed with the Yi and the
way it comes alive and informs our perceptions. A thoughtful and evocative piece. I hope you
enjoy it as much as I have.
Kevin
“When consulting with the I-Ching the echo comes to us off of the I-Ching; coming back to us
from us. It is our stance, our mind-frame, our emotional environment, our optical time-span, our
“wanting to know” that colors the response, because the I-Ching is the echo - allowing us to see
from where we have asked the question and in the answer we are reflected back to ourselves. But
it is not though an obscure echo, for without that echo coming back from its encounter with the I-
Ching, it might as well be our echo from the city buildings or the Swiss Alps, or the mirror on
the wall.
The I-Ching is not a neutral tool with no consciousness - for the minute it encounters our voice it
comes alive. Its life is a responsive life - its coming to life is in its encounter - it is a relational
tool. Its wisdom catches ours and reframes it from its Empathy with the Tao. In so doing it finds
the interference patterns of our mis-stepping from the Tao - our opposition to “what is.” The
Way of the Tao as the I-Ching is generating images of our correspondences or lack of
correspondences with that very Way which is the echo, but the echo reflects both the Way as it
is, and our mis-stepping from the Way - and it is this mixture (hologram) that is the Hexagram
Images and the lines and their energy dynamic. This complex makes new eyes for us to see
ourselves. It asks that our intuition open its doors to sense in its feeling/knowledge where we
stand and where we are and where we may choose to go or not go, to act or not act, to continue
or not continue.
More than this, because it is this visual echo (Hexagrams) with the added verbal texts and
commentary texts - our lives become a commentary text that is being written as we continue to
encounter and act on, or not act on, this echo. With our own kept records of our encounter with
this echo, and our own internalization of this echo in the lives we live, we become a new
commentary text, and those who observe and are affected by our lives see a visual echo of the I-
Ching as a living entity in us. We then are not in one sense just scripts from the conditions of
life, but become scriptures of life marking the values or errors of those very conditions.
When our sensitivity becomes refined through the impact of the echo, we begin to see nested
images. There are questions that give an echo from close by - our myopia bringing myopic
responses; but always a little beyond that horizon of our limitation. Other times we ask from a
broader landscape and are returned an encompassing image. To become aware of the scope of
our questioning and the echo, and noting those image that reflect the narrow mind, and those that
reflect the broad mind, then allows us to nest images in a hierarchy of meaning. To take the
“local” echoes from the narrow and emotionally constricted questions and set them inside of the
open and objective meditative and peaceful questions with their echoes, can give us a nested
picture of the way we have allowed our own attachments to the inferior man to overshadow an
answer awaiting our expansion. This expansion is always hinted at in the wisdom of the sage-
entity informing the echo to lead us beyond ourselves.
In our growing relationship with the I-Ching we will become an expansion of ourselves and less
a caricature or ourselves. We will see and hear an echo of who we were before we were born into
the conditioned.
Nested images of our own limitations and parodies reveal the multilayered masks we wear as
faces to the world and even to ourselves. Pointed images of the armor we wear against the flow
of the Tao allows us to see into the melting of the ice and the deliverance out of the nests we
have made and into the source of the echoes which we see and hear.
The I-Ching springs instantly to life from its dormant state the moment we ask for an encounter.
With it we become a new image and a new text. Each day there is a new life and a new image
and a new text. The more consistent we become as followers of the Way, the more consistent
will become our image and our text. To become re-made in the image of the Tao we become
perfectly consistent with the time of each moment and perfectly spontaneous with the demands
of each action. Within the change there is no change at all. Then the echo always has the same
voice.
Nested images then become the points from which we learn to fly.”
Glenroy Wolfson
New Jersey USA
(First posted on Midaughter - A Yijing Forum)
posted Friday, March 30, 2007 8:50 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
THE I CHING’S TEN YEAR CYCLES – A STRUCTURE WITHIN THE KING

WEN SEQUENCE
We are all used to a number of models which explain the shape our lives.
There is the, Birth, Childhood, Adolescent Struggle, Young Adulthood, Mature Adulthood,
Middle Age and Old age and Death, model.
On top of this we might have a career plan which executive career mentors now promote. Each
go ahead executive should now have a ten-year plan it seems.
The King Wen sequence is structured around Decades. These repeating units of ten sequential
hexagrams represent an archaic shaping principle used to sculpt the deepest layers of the Classic
of Change. Each Decade represents a birth, death and re-birth ordeal that is simultaneously a
personal narrative, a reorganization of the central nervous system, an evolution of culture and an
experience of the continuous act of creation.
Given the complexity of each hexagram it is quite a profound model.
Stephen Karcher explores the basics of this in his article, “The Decades and the ritual World
of Change”
I have found it very worthwhile to reflect on my past in terms of this model. I have also found it
useful to consider what I am doing with my life in the present, considering it against the images
of the hexagrams for my current time of life.
I suspect there might be great value in using this when counselling others. On a number of
occasions, I have helped people who were quite unhappy and for whom it transpired that they
were trying to find fulfilment in ways no longer appropriate to their time of life.
However, I imagine that sometimes our lives run behind and at others they may well run ahead
of the model.
Kevin
posted Monday, March 12, 2007 11:24 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
CALLING TO THE ANCESTORS IN ANCIENT CHINA
The main religious difference between us and the Chinese is that whereas our word “God” has no
connotation of “Ancestor” the Chinese word Ti, which is roughly equivalent, was applied
directly to the Dead. To sacrifice to the dead is Ti, no matter how recent or historical the departed
person is. The whole of Chinese religion centered around the feeding of ancestors with offerings,
whereas we have excluded this dimension that was prevalent in pagan ritual. However, our
religious terminology still teems with sacrificial metaphors, words like sacrifice, blood, offering
and lamb and though few of us have ever performed a sacrifice, the conceptions which center
round sacrifice and offering are very familiar to us.
Chinese ancestor ritual and sacrifice revolves around the Shi, the Dead One, literally the
“Corpse.” The word shih/shi means to “lay out” and is applied to laying out the dead, laying out
the sacred meal and laying out the results of a sacrificial divination. Here it refers to the one who
“dies” to become a vehicle for something else. At these sacrifices this was a young man,
prepared by meditation, fasting and drinking the “clear wine”, who impersonated or embodied
the ancestor to whom the sacrifice was being made. For the time of the ritual, the spirit of the
ancestor entered into him. This was no frenzied possession like that of the Siberian shaman; on
the contrary the demeanor of the Dead One was extremely quiet, restrained and radiant. The
spirits of the dead in these hymns are “very bright and clear”; a dazzling radiance surrounds
them, the nimbi and haloes of their divinity.
All the Spirits are drunk.
Surely they will come now,

The Spirits and Protectors,
Requite us with great blessings.
We have brought them clear wine,
The meats well seasoned,
Well prepared, well-mixed.
Because we came in silence,
Setting all quarrels aside,
They will come too, will accept,
And send down their blessings numberless.
We shall have no cares in time to come.
There has been an answer from the heavens.

Swiftly they flit through the temple
Very bright, very glorious.
Ah the glorious Ancestors!
The happy omens, the rich and endless blessings come down.
To you, too, they must reach.
Here, then, I come.

I take myself to the Bright Ancestors and make my prayer:
“You that roam up and down in the Sacred Place

You that ascend and descend in the Sacred House.
Grant me a boon, August Elders!
Protect this my humble person, save it with your light.
I, a little child
am not wise or reverent.
But as the days pass, as the months go by
May I learn from those that the Bright Presence surrounds.
O Radiance, doubling and re-doubling!
Help these my strivings
Show me how to make real
the power and the virtue (De) of the Way.”
So here’s long life to you!

May their Shining Light beam on you, beam mildly on you!
May they help and be with us all, the Glorious Elders
May they help and be with us all, the Mighty Mothers.
(adapted from Waley, Book of Songs, 209, 226, 341)
Stephen Karcher
posted Thursday, March 08, 2007 8:06 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
DING AS THE SYMBOL OF CHANGE
There are two vessels in the Yijing: 50:Jing (The Well) and the 48:Ding (The Bronze Sacrificial
Vessel).
The Well is the symbol of the Dao itself and the energy we draw on as well as a barometer for
the ‘Who we are being’ in relation to it.
The Ding or Bronze Sacrificial Vessel is the image the Yijing uses to describe itself, as well as
the barometer of our relationship to Change. How we are managing ourselves through the
changes.
Both ask us to consider how we are being and what we are doing at a deep level.
Here is a brief article by Stephen Karcher which explores some of the subtleties of the Yijing’s
view of Change itself. Some of the key ways we are destined to relate to Change merely by being
alive. Ding as a Symbol of Change
Kevin
posted Tuesday, March 06, 2007 12:53 AM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
THE SHUOGUA: A NEW TRANSLATION BY STEPHEN KARCHER
Announcing the first of our eBook series: The Shuogua. This previously unpublished translation
by Stephen Karcher is a powerful tool for those who want to deepen their understanding of the
hexagrams in the Yijing.
The Shuogua, or Eighth Wing of the I Ching, describes the meanings of the trigrams which make
up the hexagrams. It is often left out of English language versions of the Yijing because its
structure, trigram by trigram, prevents the text from being divided up under the hexagram
headings like some of the other Wings. However, it is crucial to understanding the dynamic
images of the trigrams.
When two trigrams come together, to form a hexagram, they resonate to form a new cluster of
charged images. Understanding these enables the reader to enter into a deep understanding of the
dynamic energies represented by the hexagrams themselves. Stephen refers to each Trigram as a
‘Spirit Helper’ - He says of this work:
“Like an incantation, each section includes natural powers and emblems, dream or totem
animals, parts of the human body, colors and seasons through which the Eight Spirit Helpers can
be invoked. These invocations hark back to the ceremonies of the Wu, the Intermediaries who
call down the spirits to take their bodies and spread blessings to the human community. In
making this translation, I have personified the gua to emphasize this aspect of the Bagua
tradition, deliberately using archaic word meanings to emphasize their character as spirits and
guides - semi-autonomous powers of the imagination that drive and open the Matrix of Change.”
His translation starts with an introduction which explains the Shuogua’s origins and the different
arrangements of the trigrams. Alongside the Bagua is a sparkling commentary which brings it
together with the traditional meanings from the Yijing.
In addition, he gives a beautiful translation of the Tuanzhuan (First and Second Wings) for those
hexagrams which are made up of the doubled trigrams. This is often known as the Image of the
hexagram.
Finally, he returns to the Shuogua with a nicely rendered translation which maintains the
evocative poetry of the original Chinese.
By bringing these parts together in one book Stephen has allowed the texts to amplify each other
in a powerfully evocative manner. The work draws the reader in to these ancient Chinese images
which really come alive in his translation.
We have taken a lot of care in choosing the software for our eBooks. It is friendly and renders
the texts and images in a manner which is comfortable for on screen reading.
You can find out more here.
Kevin
posted Sunday, March 04, 2007 9:10 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
WEARING TINTED SPECTACLES
The “screen memory” is a term stolen from psychology that describes a fictional construction of
memory traces (usually traumatic) that compulsively or automatically intervenes to color and
shape our experience of “what is there.” It seeks to re-construct experience in its terms (a
“fictional goal”) and is another way to describe the Gu or corruption that fixates us on the past as
a kind of hell perpetually repeated (like the characters in Dante’s Inferno who have no sense of
time passing, locked in a frozen moment with no end and no beginning.
I came across this idea as I tried to understand just how the “transformative” (bian) energy in a
Line works and just what it works on. The Lines are the “place” of transformation and it seemed
to me each has a Voice, a sort of agenda and an obstacle to be transformed within the individual.
The screen memory is the psychic enactment of the obstacle to transformation.
Stephen Karcher
posted Tuesday, February 20, 2007 11:09 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
STEPHEN KARCHER - AVAILABLE FOR YIJING (I CHING)

CONSULTATIONS
Stephen is making more time available to do Yijing consultations for others. I have had a number
of these done for myself and have also seen him divine over a wide variety of things such as
world issues, or those faced by organisations I have been involved with.
He is really quite startling in his clarity and the way he leads the questioner through the issues
and forces in which they are situated. If you want to know more then go to ‘Community’ and
select ‘Consultations’
Kevin
posted Sunday, February 18, 2007 11:10 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
WORKING WITH CHANGE: REFLECTIONS IN THE MIRROR OF THE

HEART
Vallecitos Workshop Retreat

June 2007
The annual week-long Retreat at Vallecitos Mountain Refuge has become the center of Stephen
Karcher’s calendar: “In over 30 years of teaching, I have never found a place or group more truly
magical and transformative than this one”.
The Retreat aims at creating a deep dialogue with the Classic of Change through intensive study,
ritual and meditative work grounded in an on-going group process. Participants are provided
with the latest translations and study material, individual attention from a world-famous teacher
and scholar and the support of a compassionate and caring community.
“In the many long hours and intensity of Stephen’s teachings at Vallecitos, I discovered that
indeed the Yi is a “living” oracle that reveals itself with greater depth and power than I thought
possible. I left the retreat with tools to unfold the deepest layers of the oracular response, giving
me greater confidence to benefit myself and others. Incredible.”
“This truly transformative experience in the idyllic setting of an ‘enchanted forest’ opened the
world of the Great Symbols to me. I immersed myself in the beauty that is Vallecitos, became a
member of a cherished community of friends and scholars and enriched my dialogue with the
shen ming, the ‘clear and loving spirit’ that is the heart and soul of Yijing’s ancient tradition.”
This is a unique and popular course in beautiful surroundings, so if you are interested you need
to get your name down soon. More details here.
If you are interested in staging your own Stephen event please click here for more details.
--
Kevin
WHERE DOES THE YI COME FROM?
We have just posted Stephen’s 11th Reading.
Soshin Dreschler sent us the results to his question “Where do you come from?”, which he
addressed to the Yijing. His question was prompted by his reading about the Mawangdui Silk
Texts The cast oracle is both subtle and eloquent and Stephen deals with it in depth.
He begins with a brilliant excursis on the ‘Trickster’, who appears in every major divinatory
system. In it explores some of the ways in which we can approach ‘Depth Divination’ and some
of the pitfalls which can mislead us. He describes the metic approach and explains why it is so
important in this type of reading.
He then gives the Yijing a voice, summarising its reply in a chillingly beautiful paragraph which
reaches across time and space. This message is one to put on the wall, it contains both hopes and
warnings.
Before going on to deal with the reading in more detail he gives us another excursis. This time
on myths and the difference between Western and ancient Chinese myths. The two approaches
work in different ways and this brief piece opens a door of understanding the processes involved
for those working with the imagery of the Yijing.
When dealing with the transforming lines Stephen uses his Voices of the Lines approach. This
dissolves those issues of how to deal with multiple moving lines which can often seem to
contradict one another.
Like myself many Yijing diviners have pondered the different rules for dealing with multiple
moving lines. This is much like a scientist trying to work out if the oboe or the cello should be
listened to in an orchestral work! Obviously, all of the instruments are contributing to the whole
and it is only by listening to the sound they make together and the way they move one to the
other, that the piece can be appreciated. This is what the ‘Voices of the Lines’ approach achieves
for the reader. Stephen has written another article which goes into this in more depth. See the
new article Voices of the Lines II.
He has also introduced short semantic explanations of some of the key words used in the text of
the changing lines. These show how these words ‘key in’ to the meanings the text promotes
giving resonance to the lines.
Before closing Stephen adds one final excursis on the term Junzi more often known as the
‘Noble One’. This small semantic piece clears up some of the confusion about the term and its
use in the Yijing in different periods.
Kevin
SEEING THROUGH TIME
One of the great lessons the Yijing teaches is that of how to manage events through time. It
encourages a thoughtful stance, patience and an eye for the distant effects of our actions.
Knowing how the current situation came about is every bit as important to our life’s lessons as
knowing where we are headed.
Consider this example: I have a problem and want to solve it. The Yijing tells me to go and see
the ‘Great Sage’ and he will tell me what I need to know and thus I will be able to solve the
problem and take one more step along my path.
There is a technique which puts this into a greater perspective. Now my reading tells me that this
problem grew out of a particular situation. It’s the same reading so I still need to go and see the
‘Great Sage’ and that this will give me the missing key to solve the problem and that all of this is
so that I can go on and address another task which is…
This greater perspective adds substantial depth and insight into our path, purpose and actions.
I have just posted a new article on this called Time Cycles. It explains the use of Seasonal
Hexagrams. This is the oldest process model of divinatory time. Its alluded to in the magic
formula Yuan Heng Li Zhen.
This model was developed by Stephen Karcher out discussions with Mary Powell who did
considerable work in this area.
Essentially all hexagrams may be arranged in groups of 4 around a common Core Theme
(nuclear hexagram). By considering the cast hexagram (primary hexagram) in this cyclical
context a new time dynamic is revealed.
Instead of a reading merely describing the time and a potential direction of change it now gives a
deeper history and the steps required to fulfill a longer-term development of which the primary
and relating hexagrams might only be a part.
This technique is simple to work out, but like all perspectives its importance in a given reading
may vary.
Next week Stephen will post another of his readings series where this approach yields some very
interesting insights.
Kevin
posted Sunday, January 28, 2007 8:55 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
ANNOUNCING CHANGES
We have been rather quiescent online for the last six months. However, there has been a great
deal of discussion and work going on in the background.
We shall announce quite a number of additions, publications and changes over the next few
weeks.
Key changes, which are now in place:
New forums
Great Vessel has a large membership from all around the world. Countries include many from
East, South and Northern Europe; United States of A, Mexico and Central America. There are
many people in Australasia, Oceania (a few) and Southern Africa. Also, a lot of members in
Japan; China and Taiwan; South East Asia and India. (Counting Turkey as Europe – Hi guys!)
Thank you to everyone for taking the trouble to visit.
Now, unless we have a small team of international travelling salespeople, using a lot of log-ins,
things look very healthy indeed. However, few of you seem interested in writing in the forums
which is a shame. So much experience and so many different cultures! So, we have sat and
thought about what types of forum might be of interest. And we have come up with two (Ideas
and Feedback Welcome):
1 Stephen Karcher will answer questions about his work online. Any questions about his ideas
and work posted to Karcher on Karcher will be answered by him.
2 An open forum Yijing Matters which is just that – Completely open. Ideas, experiences,
drifting thoughts, work underway, requests for information references or assistance are just some
of the things which you might consider. You may be a busy Sinologist, a City Worker, a
beginner or a Sage in a Cave, who believes that the Yi is a personal relationship and each has to
find their own way. Fine, but why not let others know you are there? You might be surprised at
the depth and breadth of people around… We know this from our post bag. I shall stop here for
fear of bursting into song, “I want to buy the world a Coke!”
The only requests are that posts are centred on the Yijing and or Divination and that people
respect others differences and opinions.
Readings Panel
Done by Stephen Karcher these have proved to be very popular. They provide worked examples
of the use of Stephen’s methodology and thinking. They also offer a discourse on those issues we
all confront in both the material world and the way we relate to it psychologically and spiritually.
Stephen is now going to add excurses into surrounding ideas which are in themselves very
informative. So, for example the Current Reading has a brief piece on psychological
‘complexes’ from a Jungian perspective. This illustrates how the dynamic imagery of the Yijing
reflects the dynamic imagery of our inner world.
If you have an interesting reading, of this kind, that you would like Stephen to ask the Yijing and
you think would interest others, please post it to the Readings Panel. We will post the resulting
exploration and you can ask Stephen questions about it on the forum.
Blog
Stephen is going to start adding some blogs of his ideas and thoughts. As before you might want
to write and let us know about your work, developments or projects. If we feel that what you are
doing is of interest to our members, we will blog it. Those who have been mentioned here in the
past have reported increased interest in their work and in a couple of instances have gone on to
develop good collaborative links with others. It’s here, use it!
Links Page
Newly updated. It was put together with a great deal of care and thought and its widely read. We
have tried to list all of the quality sites even where the approach is different to our own. So, if
you have a site or know of one which deserves a mention please let us know. See Yijing Links.
Wishing everyone a good 2007
Kevin
posted Saturday, January 20, 2007 2:14 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
WANG BI - A FOUNDER OF THE MODERN I CHING
Apologies - The earlier post on this went out in error.
The I Ching does not end with any statement about its perfection or the cursing of anyone who
adds or removes from it. It has a long tradition of changing to meet the ideas and times in which
it is used. Originally it was probably a divinatory system which existed within shamanistic
practices. The central ideas were of influencing the ancestors and spirits who were thought to
affect the world in which people lived.
By the 9th Century BCE the Zhouyi had been written down. It was now an instrument to
penetrate the nature of the time and to divine what actions would or would not be in accord with
it. By this time, it was believed that those actions which were in accord with the time would be
advantageous and those which were not would not go well. Essentially Daoist in nature this
earliest layer consisted of the Hexagram glyph or name; the hexagram or gua; the hexagram
statements (Judgement in Wilhelm) and the line statements.
Around about the 5th or 6th century BCE the first and second wings (the Tuan Zuan) were
added. These were the Commentary on the Judgements and Line Statements, also called the
Images. They were largely Confucian in character. Sometime in the Han Dynasty the 6th and 7th
wings, the Dazhuan or Great Commentary was added. This is a profound work, perhaps Daoist in
nature, and which is still regarded as a keystone to Chinese Spiritual thought.
Still in the Han dynasty the last of the Ten Wings were added. Together these Wings were the
only texts to be included in the Zhouyi to form the I Ching. However, by this time it would have
been possible to fill a library with scholarly works, essays and commentaries.
The heritage of the commonly used I Ching and its slide across to Confucian values was not an
even path. Taking the 2nd layer of developments, the Tuanzhuan (1st and 2nd Wings) and the
Xiangzhuan (3rd and 4th Wings): Originally these focussed on divination. Whether those who
wrote them down were ignorant of their meaning, or whether they chose to change it, is not
known. Whichever way there was a radical change of both syntax and of the meaning of some
words to make them conform with Confucian values. Later older texts were added as wings and
some of these were nearer to Daoism in their values.
This was the world into which Wang Bi was born. It was also a world of political instability
which ensued at the end of the Han Dynasty, one of the key formative periods for the I Ching.
Born in 226 Wang Bi died in 249 at 23 years of age. He served in Cao Shuang’s court as a
tailing, a Court Gentleman. These were turbulent times and when Cao Shuang was deposed in
249 Wang Bi was dismissed from court service. He died of a pestilence shortly afterwards.
In his short life he wrote a commentary on the Daodejing; the Zhouyi lueli (General Remarks on
the Changes of Zhou) and commentaries on the Judgements, Line Statements, Commentary on
the Judgements and Commentaries of the Line Statements. “A Confucian rather than a sectarian
Daoist, Wang Bi wanted to create an understanding of Daoism that was consistent with
Confucianism but which did not fall into what he considered to be the errors of the Celestial
Masters and their popular religious practices.” Much of his work was retained by the great neo
Confucian reformers, Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi, who did much to establish the I Ching as a
Confucian classic.
In the 18th Century there was a great redaction of the I Ching. It resulted in the publishing of the
Chou-i-che-chung, or Kang Hsi, or Palace Edition of the I Ching. This edition drew heavily on
the work of Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi and so too included much of Wang Bi’s work.
It is this Palace Edition that is so often used as the basis of modern translations. Wilhelm’s
translation is from this edition. Richard John Lynn has published a wonderful translation of
Wang Bi’s I Ching which includes his essay and some of the principles which he believed
underpinned it. (Columbia University Press 1994).
Wang Bi reported that when a new palace was being constructed the workmen found copies of
texts pertaining to the Zhouyi. These were written in an older, unknown, script. It is thought that
he had access to a number of older texts which are now lost. This is another reason why his work
is so valuable. Ronnie Littlejohn has a web page about Wang Bi and his work which I enjoyed
immensely.
posted Saturday, September 16, 2006 6:19 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
RICHARD SMITH’S I CHING BIBLIOGRAPHY
Professor Smith of Rice University appears to have updated his I Ching pages and more recent
works are now included.
He has a good list of western language I Ching works which are organised by topic. It is not
exhaustive, but it is a useful list nevertheless.
There is also a pdf file of the 64 hexagram names as used by 12 well known translators.
posted Saturday, September 16, 2006 11:22 AM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
CROSSLINE OMENS - NEW ARTICLE
When we put a question to the I Ching the response is, to a large degree, like shining a flashlight
on the landscape of Change in which we are situated. The primary, or cast, hexagram represents
our situation just as a map shows us the landscape around us. It is the changing line(s) which
actually contain the advice, omen, or prognostication.
A changing line, if there is one, is like a pathway through the landscape described by the primary
hexagram. It most often has an oracular charge such as, “the way is open” or “this is not a
mistake”. The text of the changing lines advises on particular courses of action and their likely
outcomes.
Some years ago, Stephen Karcher noticed that if the transforming lines were combined with the
tradition of fan yao then a circle of changes would be described that went beyond the relating
hexagram. It effectively extended the oracular message.
Seeing that these paths were textually coherent he applied them to old readings where the
changes and outcomes were known. He found that they gave astonishingly accurate detail, not
just about where the changes were leading, but that they accurately mapped the steps through
which the changes proceeded.
I have been using this method for some years now and it has consistently given accurate and
detailed descriptions which far surpass the simple ‘changing line to relating hexagram’
technique.
For a fuller explanation of Crossline Omens click here.
posted Saturday, September 09, 2006 11:29 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
DOES THE WORLD’S FUTURE HANG ON A CARDIGAN?
Do we imbue objects and perhaps people and events with more meaning than we should? Or is
there more meaning than we rationally perceive? Professor Hood developed a number of
experiments which he believes demonstrates that even the most rational of us gives greater
credibility to ‘superstition’ and intuition than we realise.
I am not too convinced of his cardigan experiment. ‘Disgust’ has long been known to play a
deeply functional role in humans. Disgust of a person covered in suppurating sores is thought to
be functional insofar as people naturally avoid situations which might expose them to infectious
diseases. Similarly, bovines avoid the rich sweet grass which grows up from around their
fertilizing faeces. Thereby they avoid one opportunity to be infected by parasites.
Disgust, is deeply innate within us. It is thought to have generalised in humans to become
socially functional. By being disgusted by those who do things which are socially dysfunctional
we both exclude them and reinforce socially acceptable (and functional) bounds. Whether or not
the cardigan experiment is confusing the disgust response with some idea that people imbue
objects with added meaning is uncertain from this report, but it does raise an important question.
Are we humans naturally disposed to imbue things with meanings which they do not possess? Is
that cardigan somehow symbolically powerful as an emblem of an unacceptable behaviour?
Does wearing it ‘signify’, at some primitive social level, support for the previous owner’s
actions? Or even worse does it carry some psychic taint? I don’t know.
This is one of the difficulties we face. Is our tendency to see meaning and patterns in things some
faulty carry over from primitive functionality? Or is it a natural deeper perception of the way
energies circulate and persist between people and people and objects? The former position is safe
and comfortable. We can all read a psychologist’s report about some hang over functionality
with a slight blush and the comfortable knowledge that our minds have penetrated this self-
deception and so we still feel in control.
Professor Hood invites us to consider whether we might have outmoded wiring or whether there
is something more… Whether it is actually real. People who use divination are already sitting
fairly comfortably on one side of this question. To a large degree we have decided our position.
It seems to me that we could divide the human race as being on one side or other of this question.
My experience of synchronicity and the effectiveness of the Yijing make me more than a little
biased. But when I look at history and at some of the rational decisions we have made in this
world, with their obvious deep flaws, I can’t help wondering whether we should give the benefit
of the doubt to an extended world complexity view… one where meaning not outcome counts
and where the way we perceive and do things is more important than the goal we think is
desirable.
posted Tuesday, September 05, 2006 11:04 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
PARADISE...
“In paradise man is born dead.” Werner Herzog
Why?
Werner says, from old Arab lore, “A man has no shadow in paradise, he has no enemies or
friends, for being perfect he needs neither. In his completeness he has nothing to achieve and
cannot lose anything. He is bereft of both joy and pain... To all intents and purposes... He is
already dead.
I think I’ll pass on paradise... I’ll take the pain and the joy.
posted Friday, August 18, 2006 11:11 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
YELLOW RIVER MAP KEY DISCOVERED
I never cease to be surprised at the number of ‘quiet scholars’ who spend whole lifetimes
studying the Yi and who produce wonderful results. Paul Martyn McGowan is just one of
these.
He lives in beautiful County Mayo in Eire (Ireland) and has studied the Yi for over 45 years and
has discovered a link between the He Tu and Luo Shu diagrams (The Yellow River Map and
the Luo Map) which have befuddled students for centuries. It is a mathematical relationship, but
that was to be expected of two clearly mathematical designs.
There are some surprising and interesting observations in his conclusion and on his own site.
This is definitely worth reading.
Paul is in the process of publishing a book on the Yijing, “The Sum of Things” which I hope to
review here when it is available.
I would also like to offer my heartfelt condolences for the recent loss of his partner Karen.
posted Saturday, July 29, 2006 10:59 AM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
MYTH AND THEATRE LECTURES
We have now posted all of the currently available Myth and Theatre Lectures. They are
arranged with a coherent structure. I hope folk enjoy them.
Folk who have been following the previous blog and thread, on Xiang and the processes we
might use to understand readings, may be particularly interested in The East is at our Gates.
posted Sunday, July 02, 2006 10:14 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
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.
posted Friday, June 30, 2006 6:33 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
THE ROOTS OF WESTERN MYSTICISM
Some months ago, I was talking to a specialist bookseller. She was quite unusual in that she
seemed to have read nearly all of the books she was selling. The conversation turned to
Mysticism and Peter Kingsley. It would be easy to describe him as a scholar of ancient Greek
works, but this would be to miss the depth and spiritual knowing which he brings to his work.
His books begin by exploring the writings of Parmenides who is credited as being the father of
logic and the foundation on which Plato claims to have built. These are the roots of our modern
world. In this extraordinary work Peter Kingsley re-translates Parmenides showing how and
where he has been misunderstood in the past. He successfully re-claims this great work from the
logicians and replaces it where it belongs as a major work of mystic wisdom.
Parmenides’ world was one of using dreams and divination to heal and to govern. It was a world
where wisdom was master and where the ‘real’ was something larger than the concrete world we
measure today. So, what has this to do with the Yijing and divination? The Yijing is itself a
wisdom divinatory system, so what need of more wisdom? Parmenides poem is a report of a
conversation he had with the Goddess. She explains much about the nature of the world and our
lives within it. All the way through I found myself nodding and ah-ing. It forms an outer layer of
a universal understanding in which the Yijing fits very comfortably. What’s more it is of the
ancient root of western culture which had gathered knowledge from Mongolia, Nepal, Tibet,
India and Persia before eventually being murdered by the Platonist logical world view. It
survived by slipping across to Alexandria to be preserved by the Hermetic orders in Egypt.
Peter Kingsley writes exceptionally well. He manages to evidence his work whilst preserving the
imaginal nature of the piece. Reading it is a curious experience. One moment he takes the reader
through the evidence of how he came to this view or that and the next he lifts us into an imaginal
realm where the ideas can be felt and appreciated. At times his sharp wit had me roaring with
laughter.
The first book, “In the Dark Places of Wisdom” lays out some of the ideas, arguments and
background. To some degree I found it a little repetitive and frustrating though it does lay a good
foundation to his second book, “Reality”, which is extraordinary. He sums up what he is doing in
his work here.
This work is an uplifting journey of soul discovery.
posted Wednesday, June 28, 2006 4:17 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
WHO IS KUAN YIN? - AND DRINKING TEA IN WALES
I will be away on holiday, up in the Welsh mountains, for a week. Meanwhile I have posted two
articles. The first is Entering the Ghost River – The World of Change. Amongst other things
the article explores the way pairs of hexagrams interconnect. The other article is Behind the Red
Door. It explores some of the nature and background of the Goddess Kuan Yin and the Chinese
oracle associated with her. I enjoyed this article a lot! All I have to do now is pack a week’s
supply of my favourite tea and then to try and not get lost.
posted Friday, June 09, 2006 10:58 AM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
WHICH YIJING? THOUGHTS OVER COFFEE CONTINUED
With my last cup of coffee, I turned to thinking about those Yijings that are essential for the
serious student, or for those who want to reflect on spiritual matters, or work with their deeper
psychological processes.
For the serious student an ‘essential’ is Ritsema & Karcher’s Vega edition, 2003, the Eranos
Foundation text of that time. It has three major qualities. Firstly, it is possibly the best English
translation which grew out of 8 years of focussed full time work by Stephen Karcher drawing on
a lifetime of notes provided by Ritsema. Only the Hexagram figure and the changing lines have
any commentary. However, after each block of translated text are the ‘Associated Contexts’.
These are short list of other possible meanings for each Chinese character. It is not a dictionary,
each of the English words has been chosen as a possible likely alternative. This is very useful;
when the Yijing is read in Chinese the reader will have ‘fields of meaning’ for each character,
not just one English word. These lists are as close as we can get in English. Then there is the
concordance. It is used by looking up a word in English and it gives all of the places where that
word appears throughout the Yijing. When the meaning of a word is unclear it is very helpful to
go to a different part of the text and see how it was used there. If you think you might like a copy
of this then grab one now! I understand it is not going to be re-printed, so when it is gone it is
gone. Hilary Barrett’s review and a purchasing link is here.
Lastly there are two Yijings that are rather different: First is Wu Jing Nuan’s ‘Yi Jing’. He
studied the earliest characters found on the Oracle bones in an attempt to get back to a simple
Pre-Confucian text. A text devoid of the noisy Confucian moral imperatives. Each Chinese
character is given along with its phonetic and the nearest English word. His commentary is a
delight. Its concise, but evocative. Like a few words spoken quietly by a sage. It is a joy to read.
Then there is Stephen Karcher’s ‘Total I Ching’: Stephen tried a radical experiment. He
realised that people were getting hung up on words and somehow the dialogue with their inner
world was getting lost. So first he brought together disparate parts of the Yijing to inform the
‘translation’ of its parts. Then he added a section, for each hexagram giving the myths, stories
and songs which that hexagram evoked and which any Chinese scholar would have in their mind
when trying to understand its meaning. Lastly, he focussed on symbolic imagery which spoke
directly to a deeper level of the psyche just in the way that dreams do.
The first time I picked up a copy of the Total I Ching (TIC) I quickly became angry. It took me a
little while to realise why. I was used to reading the text, thinking about it and then imagining it.
With this book I was challenged to enter into the hexagram itself, to make it come alive in my
imagination and to feel the many different tones and themes which it held in its field. At first this
felt like drowning in images, but in reality, the only thing that was drowning was my rational
mind which had been taught that it should govern everything, a Western mind! It took me a
while to get used to the TIC, but for in-depth experiential understanding nothing comes close to
it. One of its side effects was to start a process of the liberation of my intuitive nature. More and
more these days I sense the time and its nature seeing the images in my mind’s eye. I
instinctively adjust my actions or position to accommodate the time. I think this is the real gift
the Yijing bestows, not a book of answers but a path or process.
Just a note here: The Total I Ching was completely re-edited and expanded and it is the new text
which we use in our program Total Yijing. We are in the middle of re-publishing the
introductory chapters on this website. They have been rewritten and expanded for the sake of
clarity.
And after all of that fine musing over coffee in the sunshine, I had to go home via Persephone’s
Highway, the London Underground (Railway), a grim journey in the underworld if ever there
was one.
Technorati
posted Monday, June 05, 2006 8:39 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
CONTINUING MY LEICESTER SQUARE PONDERINGS ON ‘WHICH

YIJING?’
I was sipping coffee at a street table having successfully bought sufficient clothes to avoid
having to do it again for at least a year when some fifteen or so young men came shouting and
laughing down the road. The one at the front was waving a large, naked, inflatable, female doll.
Hmm, I thought, that will be Pan abducting maidens again. Five minutes later came a similar
number of young women, making just as much noise. They were wearing tennis gear and
carrying rackets. Oh, thought I, those will be the protesting nymphs. Yup, I need to get out more
and perhaps read a good deal less! My world, outside of work is becoming far too dominated
with myth and the Yijing.
I then went back to the problem of which Yijing translation and commentary to recommend to
someone wanting to go beyond the basics. I am self-raised on Wilhelm and Cary Baynes. Most
of my generation were. It is a beautifully written book. It’s a translation of the 18th Century
Palace edition which was the result of a very successful redaction of the versions and essays on
the Yijing which had grown up over the centuries in China. Modern research has made many
advances since then and it is now a little dated. However, its strong Confucian tone laid out
‘good and proper behaviour’ which was a good guide in my younger days as a somewhat
confused young man trying to find my way in a world which I did not understand at all. The
Wilhelm version is not at all easy, it needs work.
It was then that I remembered Jack Balkin, ‘The Laws of Change‘. Jack Balkin is Knight
Professor of Yale Law School. He has a brilliantly clear mind which enables him to write
concisely and with clarity. I am not keen on his translation, but it serves. However, his
commentary is excellent for anyone who wants to ponder things a little more and see more
clearly how they might proceed in a matter. By dint of his clarity and self-evident world
experience he has managed to bring a clear and practical exposition of the Neo Confucian text to
the West. It speaks good practical sense to the modern western mind and I think it a ‘good guide’
to life in the mundane world. Hilary Barrett has given it one of her excellent close inspections
which can be read here. She says, “Karcher expects you to absorb the imagery and ‘roll the
words in your heart’ so that an answer takes form within you. Balkin expects you to read the
words like an instruction book, and go and act accordingly. This is the antidote to Stephen
Karcher.” I wholeheartedly agree... But I will come back to this in my next blog.
At this point a guy asked if he might take one of the café chairs which I was not using. I smiled
and nodded yes. I must admit to being slightly surprised as I watched him turn the corner further
up the street… still carrying the chair. One day I might get used to London! Meanwhile my next
coffee arrived and still no-one had stolen my shopping bags. I will continue these ‘Leicester
Square’ thoughts here early in the week.
posted Sunday, June 04, 2006 11:18 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments
GETTING STARTED - WHICH YIJING?

From time to time I help people get started with the Yijing. This usually follows on from me
doing a reading for them and their surprise at its precision and meaning. I know from talking to
other Yijing users that this is a fairly common experience when doing a reading for someone for
the first time. The problem then is which Yijing to recommend. These days I usually recommend
“How to Use the I Ching” which was re-published as I Ching Plain and Simple . The
translation is accurate and the commentary is clear, accessible and, unlike many entry level
Yijings, it was written by someone who has dedicated their life to its study.
Yesterday I finally forced myself to go clothes shopping as I was getting dangerously close to
being abducted to play as a beggar in Oliver Twist or something. I rewarded myself with a coffee
at a street table near Leicester Square in London. Yes, I dislike shopping that much! This
question of which Yijing was still on my mind as I watched what seemed like half the world and
every language walk by in the sunshine. I began to think that Symbols of Love might be a better
starting book for many people. Despite its awful title it is a superb book. Get someone to buy it
for you or wear a false beard to go into the bookshop. The translation benefits from Stephen
Karcher’s years of work re-translating the Yijing for the Eranos Institute. The commentary is
clear and informed. Though it is written with relationships in mind, it is not difficult to transpose
the commentary to deal with wider matters.
I had other thoughts about Yijing translations which I will cover in the next blog.
A BEAUTIFUL YIJING PLACE.
Following on from the previous blog on Candid’s Cave…
Allied to this site is the wonderful work of Coyote. Coyote (aka LiSe Heyboer has studied and
written on the Yijing for many years. I think she has an extraordinary depth of perception and
sensitivity. This site is an imaginative experiment. It’s a place to reflect on word images and
pictures relating to the Yijing.
I am not sure where the work by Bruce ends or where Coyote begins… maybe they just happen
to howling at the same moon. It’s good to find a place where beauty matters and where images
and meanings drift about so carelessly and with such ease. Wandering here stilled my mind and
fed my spirit... I shall be returning.
posted Tuesday, May 30, 2006 8:36 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
THE YIJING ARIZONA STYLE
Here’s a site which is a little different. Candid’s Cave
Bruce Grilli is a little different too. He teaches the Yijing as well as doing readings for folk. I
have read his work online for a few years now. He has an ability to make short pithy statements
which go straight to the heart of a matter. Though he can growl a bit he actually has
extraordinary sensitivity. I put it down to all of that Arizona desert sand which must get into his
coffee.
I am really pleased to see that he has at last started his Pithy Yijing (my term). Obviously, it runs
into some trouble as brief statements cannot hold the complexity of images which the Yijing
evokes. Having said that, Bruce is thought provoking. He makes no attempt to hold back, please
folk, or get it just right… You get your beans on a tin plate and the coffee is strong and black. Sit
back and enjoy some unadorned, hard earned, wisdom. You might not like what you hear, but his
takes are his and he doesn’t really mind.
posted Monday, May 29, 2006 10:53 AM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
TAKING A BREAK WITH SOME CHINESE MYTHS AND STORIES
The weather in London is dull and cool this weekend. Good reading weather. I came across this
wonderful British Chinese website which has a couple of dozen renditions of traditional
Chinese myths or stories. They are simply told, but enjoyable. Just the thing to sit down to for a
break between chores with a pot of tea.
These are a good opening to the stories and myths which would have been circulating in the
minds of the early Chinese when they read the Yijing. In this way they would have had a strong
influence on how they perceived the brief lines of the Yi. I will give an example of this in the
next blog.
posted Saturday, May 27, 2006 2:01 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
HEXAGRAMS IN PAIRS - A NEW ARTICLE
We have just posted another article, ‘Working with Pairs’.
For many years I viewed each hexagram as if it was a vessel for dynamic movements which took
place within it as indicated by the lines. I delved a little further and found that there was a
dynamism between the two trigrams interplaying as images. Both of these added to my
understanding of what the hexagram represented. However, I was still stuck with what now feels
like 64 fairly static images. These only became dynamic in a reading when set along with the
other hexagrams it brought forth.
All this changed when someone informed me that there was a structure to the Yijing with every
hexagram sitting in dynamic tension as a pair. There are in fact thirty-two pairs of hexagrams.
Contemplating them as pairs was like letting the brake off a car for the first time. Suddenly
everything was moving around. Each hexagram lent insight to its partner and the proverbial sun
rose above the horizon. I still find it an extraordinary exercise to work at holding the two
hexagrams, of a pair, in my mind at once. The ‘Pairs’ page in the Total Yijing program, available
on this site, is a good start to understanding how they represent the movement of energy.
However, by contemplating them a sort of understanding begins to emerge about the nature of
the world’s fundamental dispositions and the way they exist in cycles. I don’t know why I ever
imagined that a book about change might have been made up of 64 static components.
posted Thursday, May 25, 2006 1:07 AM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
A MESSAGE TO EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS

Oh dear, none of the last three blogs was emailed out to subscribers. The server remains
staunchly unapologetic. If you rely on the emailed version you have missed:
A Short History of the Yijing - An introduction and links to a new article on the history of the
Yijing.
“The Unpublishable Reading” – This was the reading about Osama bin Laden which we felt
we could not publish some weeks ago. At first glance it is quite shocking. With a second glance
it still surprised me! Much food for thought here. The Yi does have that way of turning my world
upside down. Usually when I understand what is being said it looks better that way up.
“The Love of Fate – Amor Fati” - Is an astonishing article by Michael Ortiz Hill. He is quite
simply an extraordinary man who writes quite beautifully. In this article he tells an evocative
story about his struggle toward wisdom. They can all be found here.
Unless your reading this online… (Sheepish grin again)
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE YIJING
A Short History of Change is now online. We will be posting quite a few pieces this week so
you might want to keep an eye on What’s New as we will not be covering them all here.
Throughout history famous people have said some version of, “History is written by the
Victors.” My favourite example of this is the modern mythical image of the historical English
feudal lord who supposedly oppressed his serfs with his castle troops. It was a French historian
who asked the question, “Where did he get the troops from?” He went on to show that these
lords raised their armies from their estates and that the same people farmed his lands, shod his
horses and milled his grain. Indeed, there was little overt oppression as these communities,
including the Feudal Lord, existed in a complex set of mutual obligations. He went on to explore
the institution of the Vestry. This was the fore-runner of the Parish Council. Any man who had
property or a trade was automatically a member. They would meet to decide how the commonly
owned land should be farmed and to decide who would do what work on it and when. The
produce from this land was shared throughout the community. The Vestry also relieved hardship
in the community with alms and services. This was an old Saxon tradition which was essentially
socialist in nature. Then came the Industrial Revolution and history was rewritten. The new
industrialists fighting for control in Parliament (See the Corn Laws as an example) and for the
hearts and minds of the people, developed the myth of the callous and cruel Feudal Lord. Such a
myth served to maintain the people’s belief that no matter how grim those ‘Dark Satanic Mills’
of the new towns became, they had to be better than what went before.
More recently I was watching an episode of the X-Files. A Navaho Indian Shaman said, “Each
new government rewrites history to support its cause… they write with the blood of murdered
truth.” In this context it is not surprising that we have a number of views on the history of the
Yijing. It is quite possible that the myth that its early authors included the great culture heroes
Yu the Great, King Wen, Duke Zhou and Confucius, was a culturally acceptable way of giving it
the authority it deserved at the time. However, what we find is that the Yijing has grown and
metamorphosed as it was transmitted through each epoch. From time to time it underwent
redactions such as the one which produced the Palace Edition from where we get our Wilhelm
Baynes edition.
The history of the Yijing reflects it as a cultural artefact which has had to continually find new
garb and a new voice in order to reach across to each period and culture. To attempt to freeze it
in any particular shape or form is perhaps to write it in the blood of murdered truth.
THE ‘UNPUBLISHABLE’ READING ON OSAMA BIN LADEN
The idea of publishing a series of readings by Stephen Karcher was to use them as a vehicle to
illustrate his approach. Those who have been following this blog will be aware that we got a
reading about Osama bin Laden which we felt was unpublishable. Following a number of
requests we changed our minds and it can be found here.
I was quite shocked when the Yijing gave us this result. It has caused me to reflect on the way I
perceived him and the dynamics which are now playing out in the world.
This reading also has a good illustration of the use of Karmic nodes. Also of interest is the fact
that Stephen identifies the predictive element as being sited in the Time cycle part of the reading
in this instance.
“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.”
I would be interested to hear folks views on the Readings Forum
THE LOVE OF FATE - AMOR FATI
Michael Ortiz Hill, Writer African Shaman, Nurse, Husband and more has led an extraordinary
life. He has kindly allowed us to post his article Amor Fati – The love of fate. In it he weaves
moments from his life together in a beautiful and evocative manner. Moving times in Africa are
brought together with childhood struggles in a family farming the Mexican desert after being
ambushed from California. This collage of his struggle toward understanding is compassionate
and beautifully written. It speaks of a path toward compassion and wisdom. The jewel buried
within it is Amor Fati.
posted Monday, May 22, 2006 10:00 AM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
DIVINATION – THE ACT OF A CULTURAL WARRIOR?
We have just posted another Myth and Theatre piece entitled Victims of Apollo:
“[Divination is] also [a] cultural or hermeneutic battleground where competing systems of
interpretation contest the nature of spirit. A divinatory system carries and re-creates the great
images through which people interact with the larger than personal forces that surround them. It
is the first line of culture, where these myths or archetypal images connect with individuals and
where they are in turn shaped and changed by the individuals they encounter. The images are
both carried and continually modified through the opening of “sacred space” the act of divination
provides. Major changes in a culture are often a direct reflection of the way in which people
divine themselves, the ways they use to connect their daily life with the spirit or spirits.”
This article explores some of the ancient Greek events which still echo in our culture today. It
sheds some light on the nature of divination as a ‘dramatic’ cultural practice which gives us a
dynamic language with which to understand the social world around us and the world of our
psyche within.
By choosing one myth or set of beliefs over another, in any situation, we are engaging in the act
of culture creation. We live in this battleground of competing images and beliefs. The act of
divination is at the forefront of those acts which seek to find both meaning and a consonance
between the worlds of soul and the mundane, both of which we inhabit.
posted Sunday, May 21, 2006 1:02 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
MYTH AND THEATRE – MEETING OUR ANCESTORS
We have just opened up a new area called Myth and Theatre. What on earth has this got to do
with the Yijing?
I recently attended a conference on divination at Kent University (UK). There were some
presentations which examined the western world’s Greek divination heritage. I was quite
surprised at the extraordinary relevance of Greek Myth and the great Greek teachers, along with
their machinations, to our current world. I had always assumed that folk like Socrates, who drank
hemlock to make his point, and his student Plato, gave birth to the rational world. Also, that this
was eventually achieved with a little help from others like Pythagoras (who probably pillaged his
maths from further east) and that they left us with the foundations of science, a charming
mythology and a tradition of theatre of which Tragedy is pretty impressive. Not a bit of it!
Mythic battles took place between these apocalyptic philosopher heroes and some of those
struggles continue to this day. One of these is between the rational and the gnostic parts of our
selves. Parmenides, a great thinker and mystic, was metaphorically murdered by Plato and Neo
Platonists like Iamblichus later led a revolution to try to reclaim the mystical world which Plato
banished. Iamblichus examined divination and the processes it involved in an effort to ‘clean up’
fraudulent and unfounded methods and practices. I am grateful to him in that he was one of those
who moved us away from peering at the entrails of animals. Thankfully I do not need to go to the
butcher to ask for a ‘diviner’s pack of Ox entrails and a bottle of libation blood’. Hail
Iamblichus!
Part of this heritage was Greek theatre. It was rich with archetypal characters and Gods. They
birthed our deepest hopes and fears into the daylight and played them out in front of their
audiences. Their gods and myths represent deep and enduring structures in our psyche. So, what
is the relevance of this to the Yijing? It too uses a profound symbolic language drawing on myths
of heroes, gods and situations of mythical proportions. It too was tempered in the struggles
which took place in the same magnificent epoch as that of the Greeks. It too demands we listen
with a poet’s ear.
By belatedly working to reclaim these culture spirit ancestors, the Greeks, I have found new
inroads into understanding the Yijing, not so much logically with my mind as by drawing on a
psyche full of innate images which give meaning rather than rational understanding. In
divination we are challenged to bring together both our rational world understanding and the
symbolic feeling world of our deeper gnosis. When we do this, we are in fact re-entering that
ancient Greek struggle. This is the struggle to synthesise these two core aspects of our human
experience, our struggle toward wholeness.
These ‘Myth and Theatre’ pieces explore this realm whilst seeking echoes and linkages to the
Yijing. A word of warning, some of these pieces are graphic and even disturbing. They have
taken me to those darker thoughts and feelings which are uncomfortable, but which are
nevertheless part of who we are as humans, more synthesis. I hope you enjoy them as much as I
have.
posted Sunday, May 07, 2006 9:37 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
DIVINATION – WHAT IT IS AND WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN WE DIVINE.
Re-Enchanting the Mind is a major new article by Stephen Karcher. In it he explores

divination, what it is and the processes which take place when we enter into that practice. He
explains how it came to be marginalised in Western culture and the reasons why we are now
having to repossess it and the other world to which it links us.
He approaches the act of divination from a number of angles. A Jungian explanation is put
forward as well as those of the shaman and the ancient mystic.
It is entirely possible to get meaningful answers through divination without plumbing the depths
outlined here. However, these descriptions point to the road which empowers the diviner to enter
into a deeper discourse and a more profound relationship with their (fill in the blank).
Here are the powerful arguments which led Stephen to write the Total Yijing in a symbol rich
language and why he promotes symbols and language to jump the reader out of the cognitive
mode and into heart mind understanding. There is much here which those who work with
divination, dreams and the Total Yijing will find useful.
It is a primer for those who would travel further.
TECHNIQUES TO ENHANCE ONES PERCEPTION OF DIVINATORY

RESULTS
It seems to have become an open secret that the US army, amongst others, uses a technique
called Remote Viewing. This appears to be a technique where the viewer is able to enter a state
where they can ‘see’ something which happened in a different place, or time, and where they are
able to make accurate notes on those people and events involved. I was watching a documentary
recently where a man who was said to be an ex-army ‘Remote Viewer Trainer’ said that his task
was to develop the technique to the point where an ‘infantry grunt’ could use it. He went on to
say that such people were selected at random and trained successfully.
This documentary showed (ex- US army) Remote Viewers purportedly plying their craft to great
effect. This got me thinking. Perhaps there are techniques here which might increase the diviners
understanding when using the Yijing.
Many folks who use the Yijing have rituals, some of which involve focussing techniques. I have
my own which I have developed over the last thirty years. On a few occasions I reached a point
where I forgot to draw the stones (16 stone technique) in order to do the Yijing reading and
simply gave a response. In one case this was about a missing person who turned out to be where
I said he was. Indeed, to find him I had actually followed him in my mind and reported a number
of places he had been and to whom he had talked. I should add that I did not know the person
asking the question or the person they were looking for. The case is worth mentioning because
its outcome was clear proof of efficacy.
This documentary has motivated me to try a number of new techniques which I hope will help
me ‘see’ the Yi’s answer more clearly. One of these is self-hypnosis.
I would be very interested to hear about other people’s techniques on the forum.
READING NO. 5 – POWERFULLY ILLUSTRATIVE
Reading No.5 in our series has been posted here.
In this reading Stephen shows how a personal reading can say so much more than merely
explaining a situation and the possible ways through it. He shows how the person’s issue can be
opened up into its different parts, or dimensions, using different methods. He demonstrates how
we can find that beautiful simplicity which so often emerges in counselling. Not a complicated
maze but that, ‘Oh it’s that simple?!’ moment which is the hallmark of real insight. I would like
to thank the person for whom this was originally done for giving their permission to share it.
This reading demonstrates a number of interesting things. Firstly, the way that a reading really
only comes alive in that kairos or moment where it is created with that person. It is as if it is born
out of the moment that exists between the diviner and the seeker. This is not to say that long
distance advice can never be given about the meaning of a reading, but without entering into the
kairos from whence it emerged its deeper meanings and subtleties will be unclear and choices of
meaning will become ambiguities.
It is a great demonstration of the way different techniques each uncover different dimensions of
the situation being examined. For those unfamiliar with the language used here, ‘Core Theme’ is
the same as ‘Nuclear Hexagram’. This and other terms and methods, are explained here.
The Karmic Nodes show those aspects which the seeker carries within themselves and which
point to themes we carry within ourselves. Sometimes, as in this case, these are problems which
block up our energies until we resolve them. Just as with dreams and their interpretation only the
seeker or recipient of the reading can really sense the degree to which these are important. I have
posted a short paper explaining Karmic Nodes for those who want to explore them further.
The reading goes on to explore the use of Time Cycles which often yield a different time
dimension to that of the immediate oracle often represented in the changing line. This reading is
centred on hexagram 21, Biting through. It is all too easy to draw on the familiar imagery of
‘biting through an obstacle’. However here we are given the components that make up the
Chinese glyph as well as some of the rituals to which this hexagram refers. On this level it takes
on a deeper, more subtle, cluster on meanings and actions.
Particularly interesting is where the emphasis has been placed in the reading. In this case the
seeker was stuck because of their issues and history which they carried within themselves. So, it
is little wonder that the Karmic Nodes became one of the main dimensions to the resolution.
Were the problem to be caused more by an external force then we might expect another
dimension to be more central. For me this is the art of divination. Like the psychotherapist the
diviner must peer deeply into the kairos and draw out the most relevant parts, those which most
clearly reveal the issue and which point to the way forward. If you are interested in discussing
any of these views or have any questions someone has already started a thread here.
Quite clearly, I am a little slow with the blog!
posted Monday, April 17, 2006 9:54 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
WINE - SPIRITS OF THE CLASSIC OF CHANGES
A great guest article, Wine by Scott Davis - is now posted on our site.
Scott Davis is a unique voice, one of the most interesting and imaginatively fertile scholars in the
Yijing field. He has a PHD in Anthropology from Harvard, a lot of experience with eastern
shamanism and a truly vast knowledge of old Chinese myth, culture and writing. He opens up the
deep structure of Yijing in a way no one else does, demonstrating the limits of simplistic
“historical” analysis. A lot of Scott’s work is not generally available and he has very kindly
allowed us to post his paper ‘Wine’ on this site.
This article shows that there is a deep structural design which guides the placing of words in the
Yijing. He takes the word Wine (jiu) and examines the hexagrams, trigrams and contexts in
which it appears. He shows that it appears appropriately both in terms of its line position and in
particular trigrams in such a way as to reflect and emphasise both its own meaning and that of
the trigram. Additionally, he shows how there are correspondences between its appearances in
two different hexagrams much in the way that one might expect to find correspondence between
the meaning of lines 2 and 5 within a hexagram in traditional Yijing practice.
He not only shows that words may appear in the Yijing in a highly structured fashion, but also
points at an approach which could open up additional levels of meaning in the text.
We hope to be hosting more of Scott’s work in the near future. Meanwhile there are some
wonderful pieces on his website
posted Monday, April 17, 2006 2:56 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
AN EASTER BLOG - ‘THE HIDDEN SAYINGS OF JESUS’
I recently watched a documentary on the lost Gospel of Judas. Though it was interesting the
thing that struck me was the discussion of the Gnostics and the other 16 or so gospels which
were excluded from the ‘Bible’ in the early centuries AD. One of the people being interviewed
pointed out that some of these were the ‘advanced teachings’ which were not suitable for the
everyday promulgation of the faith. She made particular mention of St Thomas’ Gospel. Its full
title is ‘The Gospel of St Thomas - ‘The Hidden Sayings of Jesus’.
Though I am not a Christian I was intrigued. I went off and read this gospel and was amazed. All
the way through it I saw echoes of Mysticism.
(2) Jesus said: He who seeks, let him not cease seeking until he finds; and when he finds he will
be troubled, and when he is troubled, he will be amazed, and he will reign over the All.
(11) Jesus said, “This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away. And the dead
(elements) are not alive, and the living (elements) will not die. In the days when you (plur.) used
to ingest dead (elements), you made them alive. When you are in the light, what will you do? On
the day that you were one, you made two. And when you are two, what will you do?”
(18) The disciples said to Jesus: Tell us how our end will be. Jesus said: Since you have
discovered the beginning, why do you seek the end? For where the beginning is, there will the
end be. Blessed is he who shall stand at the beginning (in the beginning), and he shall know the
end, and shall not taste death.
I can see how a Church which was beginning to seek order and control over its members would
find the Gnostics and their focus on personal spiritual experience a bit of a problem. Eventually
of course they were crushed by the Church.
For me the Yijing is a direct connection back to this personal experience and knowing.
Gnosticism is perhaps a deep part of our being.
posted Friday, April 14, 2006 11:08 AM by Wandering Sages with 2 Comments
FREE TOTAL YIJING UPGRADE
Users of both the Pro and Standard Total Yijing programs can get free upgrades here.
Thanks to all of the people who posted on the forum or emailed us with their wish lists. We have
incorporated as many improvements as we could. Additionally, there are some text corrections
and a couple of bugs which were cleansed.
A full list of the changes will be announced in the forum. However Pro users will find they can
now email reports and copy and paste readings to other applications. There are some substantial
improvements in the journal functions too.
Standard users have the text corrections and all known bugs fixed.
Instructions on how to upgrade without losing your database of readings can be found on the
upgrades page, please read them carefully. Uninstalling the program will not remove your
license.
There were some very good suggestions which we were unable to incorporate this time. They
have not been forgotten and work to improve the program continues. So please do continue to
send us your wish lists.
Finally, I would like to thank folk for trying and buying the program. We had no idea that it
would be so popular. We are continuing to develop it so you can look forward to some major
shifts in functionality, look and feel this year.
THE EIGHT HOUSES METHOD OF CONSULTING YI.
Harmen Mesker has generously allowed us to host this article. It can be downloaded from here.
He takes us on an investigative journey, first exploring who Jing Fang was and what happened to
him before going on to explain the techniques which he developed.
He offers us a glimpse into the Han dynasty court which appears to have been treacherous for the
unwary or for those who made mistakes. Equally interesting are his comments on the Chinese
concepts of Po and Shen, the earth-bound soul and the heaven-oriented spirit which together
were seen as making up our spiritual identity.
I was particularly taken by the idea of the ‘Self Line’ (Shi Yao) and the ‘Other Line’ (Ying Yao)
and shall be looking at my readings to see what light these shed upon them.
Harmen carefully assembles the shards of this approach with diagrams and tables to enable the
reader to explore further. This is great research and it is definitely worth a read.
Harmen’s website can be found here.
A GREAT READ - SOME OF THE YIJING’S FOUNDATION IDEAS

EXPLAINED
We have posted a new article and it’s a stunning read! Skip the title - When I read the title to a
friend over the phone they started making ‘mnnnyng’ type noises and began hitting their head on
the wall. Such a shame it is brilliant read!
Such immortal lines as, “Now, Daoists tend to see the great importance we ascribe to death
as a rather silly misunderstanding…”
It is based on “The Great Treatise” the 5th and 6th Wings of the Yijing. Because this treatise is
not structured by hexagram it is often left out of English translations as it cannot be apportioned
under each hexagram like many of the other wings. However, in China this work is traditionally
seen one of the deep fonts of spiritual wisdom and learning. It sits alongside the Dao De Jing in
importance.
The Great Treatise is a guide on how to work with the Yijing. It includes instruction about the
nature of life and change. Quite simply, it is a soul touching work. In this article Stephen
unpacks some of the central ideas in a vivid and highly readable manner.
By the Way – Stephen Karcher’s “Ta Chuan – The Great Treatise” is still available in the shops
– It is a full translation with commentary. I cannot say it enough – We all carry a deep knowing
and The Great Treatise gives that voice. It also explains some of the key terrain on which the
Yijing is founded.
posted Monday, March 27, 2006 10:53 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
THE YIJING SPEAKS QUIET WISDOM AMIDST THE FURORE OF

LOOMING WAR
These days I watch the news with increasing consternation. The melting ice caps seem to be
enjoying peek time entertainment viewing whilst the UK parliament seems more concerned with
throwing metaphorical tomatoes across the House at each other. The US, with UK support,
appear intent on cleaning up terrorism even if it does end up with the Middle East unifying in a
great Jihad. Time and again I ask myself, ‘What can, and should, I do about this?” So Stephen’s
4th Great Vessel Reading came as a timely surprise.
Shortly after 911 he was leading a group of therapists and activists in a workshop at the Jungian
Centre in Los Angeles (USA). They were discussing 911 and what they should do. It became
heated with calls for patriotism and counter demands for activism. Amidst this charged
polarisation it was agreed that Stephen would ask the Yijing. The result is our current reading.
For me this is a thought-provoking response, Yijing wisdom at its best. I have started a thread
here (Readings Panel Reading 4) and would encourage folk to respond. Why? Well, we did
another more up to date reading. At the time we were all sitting together in a small flat in London
(UK). Stephen had completed the casting to shocked silence. Eventually someone said, “We
can’t publish that… we just can’t.” So please read this one first, give us your thoughts and tell us
whether you want to hear more.
posted Monday, March 27, 2006 12:00 AM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
LAST CHANCE TO BOOK FOR THE VALLECITOS COURSE!
The Vallecitos Mountain Refuge is hosting a training course by Stephen Karcher.
It is situated high in the beautiful New Mexico Mountains (U.S.A.). The course will include
teaching, individual readings and ritual work, providing instruction for the immediate use of the I
Ching in all life situations.
A central idea in the course is that of working with the Yijing as a turbulent mirror into which we
peer and which reflects both the time and our inner world. This is the course for those who want
to develop their Yijing divination abilities in a supportive group, in a beautiful place and with an
extraordinary teacher. More Details can be found here.
If you want to attend you will need to book before April! I think they have a lot of fun too
(Grinning).
posted Tuesday, March 21, 2006 8:45 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
THE TRUTH OF DIVINATION IS IN OUR HEARTS NOT THE BOOK
There is a tendency for us Yijing users to be a little traditional in how we use the oracle. For
those of us who were teethed on Wilhelm and Baynes: This is sometimes referred to the
scholar’s method. There are other ways to use the Yijing. There is the Mei Hua Xin Yi method
otherwise known as the Plum Blossom method, the Imperial Yijing and many others. The early
Chinese prodded and poked at the Yi to try and explore its depths. They developed many
approaches. Here in the West we have a tendency to look for truth by analysis. We tend to ask
exactly what King Wen meant by this or Duke Zhou by that. Well first of all the text was written
in glyphs each with poly meanings, secondly it was written in a mythical and cultural context
where the reader might be expected to know a lot of associated mythology, history and folk tales
to which the text might allude and lastly it got altered quite a lot through history. So, unless you
are an academic exploring a very defined area we might as well bottle the wind when it comes to
precision and meaning.
I notice those who use the Tarot tend to be quite exploratory. Their cards are lexicons of
symbolic meanings and they develop different layouts and add and remove symbols in different
packs, prodding and exploring in order to develop different symbol sets to reveal the truths of
their divination. The different areas of the Yijing’s text are just such symbol sets laid out in
words. More than once I have found that I have been using what I later found to be a ‘poor
translation’ of a part of the Yi only to decide to stay with it because it was so evocative, and
because it worked for me.
Divining with the Yi is not divining from a book. It is divination oriented toward that set of
images which will stir in our heart’s mind after we have looked up the meaning in a particular
book or books. In other words, I believe that when we divine the Yi ‘sees us coming’.
posted Tuesday, March 14, 2006 9:34 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
CAROLINE CASEY TALKS WITH SALLIE ANN GLASSMAN AND STEPHEN

KARCHER
Appearing on Thursday 2nd March on the Visionary Activist Radio Show on radio stations on
the west coast of America, see the above link for times and frequencies. The link to listen to
this show online will be posted here on Friday.
Caroline is a leading American astrologer. Her radio show is an experiment in broadcasting

which seeks to look at topical events in terms of divination, myth and symbols. Sallie has trained
in Voodoo in both the Haiti and the New Orleans traditions. Voodoo is not the evil art that
Hollywood portrays, but is the religion, divination and medicine which grew out of the pain of
slavery and the meeting of ancient West African religions and Christianity. Sally is the author of
‘Voodoo Traditions’ and the co- author of “Voodoo Tarot’.
This should be an interesting discussion. One of the themes of this show is ‘syncretisation’, the
combining of different teachings and beliefs. So, we can look forward to a rich discussion by
proxy between Astrology, Tarot, Voodoo and the Yijing.
Stephen has already worked with Rachel Pollack a leading Tarot practitioner. They each used
their connections to enable the Yijing and the Tarot to talk to each other with very interesting
results. During this work both the Tarot and the Yijing said that they want to talk together in
order to find voices that meet the needs of our time, more syncretisation.
Sally appeared on last week’s Visionary Activist show. She lives in New Orleans and talks about
Voodoo and the trials and hopes of New Orleans from a Voodoo perspective you can listen to it
here.
Later in the show she discusses Voodoo and power, there is much about healing and love as well
as who their spirits are.
posted Wednesday, March 01, 2006 10:23 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
PAIRS AND CROSSLINE OMENS
I have just posted Pairs and Crossline Omens the fourth of our Yijing ‘Basics in Brief’ articles.
This article describes the way the King Wen sequence is based on pairs of hexagrams. These
pairs are made up of an ‘Inspirational’ hexagram and a ‘Realization’ hexagram. Thus hexagrams
3,5,7,9 etc. have an inspirational aspect similar to hexagram 1 and their pairs 4,6,8,10 etc. have a
quality of ‘realization’ similar in quality to hexagram 2.
The article explores the way in which the hexagrams of each pair exist in a tension which
enables the energy of their lines to change back and forth between them, from Inspiration to
Realization or manifestation and back again. It goes on to show how the three different types of
pairs, and their different relationships, influences the quality of the exchange which takes place
through the hexagrams’ line positions.
Understanding the dynamics and exchanges which take place between a given pair sheds a lot of
light on the meaning of each hexagram as a dynamic force.
The lines relate across two pairs, or four hexagrams. The fifth step returning to the first line
where we started. This is the Crossline Omen as presented in the Total Yijing Program. They are
the routes of the dynamic exchanges between the hexagrams. This article introduces Crossline
Omens, which will be explored in another article to be posted in coming weeks.
The article can be found here.
WHICH WAY I FLY IS HELL - A NEW ARTICLE ON GREAT VESSEL
Stephen explores the way our forebears used to experience epiphany, the direct experience of the
spirit. He recounts the historical events that lead to its exclusion from the modern western world
and how we came to eschew divination and the spirit world. “It was just this animating
connection between the world and the individual that the Christian Church sought to destroy.
Christians wanted the “obedience” of Pagans (Romans 15, 18-19). Apart from the torture of
prophets at major shrines (Fox 673- 681), the triumphant Church of the 4th century did not
persecute Pagans as such. Rather they destroyed the shrines and images, cut down the groves,
despoiled the landscape and prohibited on pain of death the magical and oracular practices that
gave the Gods a voice in the human world. As Eusebius recounted, they sent an iconoclastic
emissary to “every pagan temple’s recess and every gloomy cave.”
He goes on to examine the false splitting of our imagery into ‘Holy Spirit Imagery’ and ‘Psychic
Imagery’.
Having explored this history, and the nature of the psychological crisis it has brought us, Stephen
looks at the role of divination in the ‘old world’ and its relevance to us now. Particularly he
examines Jung’s perceptions of the Yijing as a tool to explore the psyche. A solution to the moral
opacity that the exclusion of symbolic thinking and the images of our deeper psyche has wrought
upon us.
This article lays out the issues facing us and provides a context for the struggle many of us face
in our attempts to orientate the Yijing in our culture.
The article is here.
HEXAGRAMS AS DYNAMIC IMAGES

Recently I seem only to approach the Yijing when I want to consult it, or when I am studying
this or that. I do not spend half enough time sitting and soaking up the imagery and their
meanings. I do not take enough time to ‘feel’ what the hexagrams might mean in terms of
different things like work, family, relationships, or spiritual matters. I believe this is important
practice because the more I can internalise the imagery of the hexagrams, that is make them part
of my inner world, the better I am able to recognise them in the outer world as events unfold.
Each hexagram is a cluster of meanings and symbols. One can work with these much as one
might work with a dream. The ideas, images and the feelings they induce can be contemplated,
turned in the heart and mind until understanding begins to surface. In addition, it is possible to
play with the images by picturing the hexagram. It might already have a ready image such as a
ding which one might imagine being used in a ritual to converse with the ancestors. Another way
is to picture the trigrams as dynamic entities interacting, a tree growing on a mountain (53), or
Li, the Bright Clinging in or under Dui, the Mist or Lake. Sometimes, as in the second example
the image doesn’t work all that easily at first. However, I find that a little reading about the
trigrams and the hexagram in question enables all sorts of possibilities to emerge.
It’s helpful to remember that each trigram has both a symbol and an action, so these images can
be very dynamic.
One day I would like to sit down and complete a ‘dream diary’ hexagram by hexagram.
Now all I have to do is to make the time.
posted Sunday, February 19, 2006 4:43 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments
STEPHEN KARCHER IN DISCUSSION WITH CAROLINE CASEY
Stephen appeared on Caroline Casey’s Visionary Network radio show to discuss the state of the
world and our role within it.
Caroline did a Yijing reading for this show and received 64.3 > 50. This forms a thematic
foundation for their discussion, generating ideas and images which they explore and apply to the
current world situation.
The discussion ranges over large areas such as the Han and Song dynasty commentators and the
way they moved some of the Yijing text around to accommodate the idea of Yang - male,
inspirational good and Yin - female, passive and evil and the way this was echoed in the first few
centuries of the Christian Church with the outlawing of divination on pain of death. Both these
movements were involved with the excommunication of our own inner underworld and its
communication with us through symbolic imagery.
Thus, the Confucian movement, by moralising the text, cut the user off from the animate images
which were there before and, in their place, developed correlative categories of meaning and
moral principles.
The theme which runs through this topical discussion is the way these symbolic images can be
re-animated and how they can then be used to guide and inform. The way we can live the
symbol, inviting it in, rather than cognating it from above and beforehand.
I enjoyed listening to these two as they moved the symbols around and found the messages thus
conveyed. They are both adepts at myth and imagery.
You can hear the show here.
The visionary Network website is here.
posted Friday, February 17, 2006 9:45 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments
CAROLINE CASEY - VISIONARY ACTIVIST RADIO SHOW
Recently I have been feeling a little low about our world and the madness that seems to be
unleashed on every quarter in these turbulent times. Hearing that our own Stephen Karcher was
about to appear on Caroline’s show I decided to go to her website to see what she does. Her
Candlemas broadcast on February 2nd had me captivated. In it she talked of the nature of the
troubled times in which we live and pointed to the causes and their attendant solutions.
Her delivery is fast, animated and is clearly the product of considerable learning and wisdom.
Caroline has a biography which leaves me a little breathless. She has appeared on many of the
leading TV stations in the U.S. along with being featured in People Magazine, the Washington
Post and the Sunday Times in the U.K. She is the author of Making the Gods Work for You - the
astrological language of the psyche (Harmony Books/Random House or Random Harmony).
In her Candlemas show she talked about how we are bound and circumscribed, or expanded, by
the images we hold in our minds and the way in which our ‘literal’ style of thinking has
systematically excluded those ways of understanding our world, which we need, in order to deal
with the problems we face as individuals and as cultures.
We are caught up in a compelling illusion of realism which excludes mythical images whose role
has traditionally been to make plain to us those parts of ourselves which they represent. We have
excluded our shadow world, the place in ourselves where we need to confront those difficult,
disturbing and uncomfortable things which are a part of us. If we fail to recognise these things
we are doomed to project them on to others. Thus, on the world stage it is some other regime
which becomes the demon. This polarized world we create is bereft of true dialogue and is one
which is prone to wars and other ills. By recognizing the difficult shadows within ourselves we
can find a position from which to dialogue rather than to polarize.
She illustrates this with the myth of Demeter searching for Persephone who has been abducted to
the underworld. In the myth Persephone begins her ascent to the outer, real world, bringing with
her the magic from the underworld thus making the outer world whole. This magic is the non-
literal, the non-logical, it is creativity and intuition, it is the knowledge of our darker potentials
which, if not recognized will burst forth in a dreadful manner. When Ishtar (Persephone in
another cultures myth) wanted to return to the outer world she told the gatekeeper that should
they not open the gate then she would smash it down and the outer world would be consumed by
the dead. If we don’t have a regular process to go down into difficult places inside us, to be
unfertile, to be depressed and face uncomfortable things then this part of the psyche will smash
down doors and the dead will eat the living.
So it is that Caroline makes the case for the need to de-animate the images which set the current
trail in motion and the task of bridging the two worlds of our psyche. Only then will we be able
to find the dream or a vision we need to live up to.
She tells us that one of the ways we can begin this healing journey is by the use of oracles which
are one medium for dialogue between these parts of ourselves. Hey, I have heard this before. It is
one of the central tenets of Great Vessel. And it just so happens that the Total Yijing program is
written in and dedicated to reviving the language of the mythos.
Stephen walks us through some of the features and stages of this healing journey in his article,
The Shaman of the Shadows. In it he shows how Hexagram 38 is an instruction set for this
passage.
Caroline’s website is here. I hope you will try one of her broadcasts, I expect to be blogging her
again so please leave feedback.
Somehow, I don’t feel as confused and helpless after listening to her and reading Stephen’s
paper. But the journey is not easy and it has to be ongoing.
posted Thursday, February 16, 2006 12:12 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
A QUALITY YIJING READING SERVICE ‘IMPROVED’
Hilary Barrett has just updated her Yijing Reading Service. She is an exceptionally able diviner
with the Yi and her readings are sensitive and perceptive. Hilary has been offering a readings
service for many years. She has now found ways to increase the depth and quality of the service
she offers.
The Yijing may have been formulated in the Neolithic period, but it seems very adept at utilizing
the technology that is available. I imagine the excitement of bronze arriving and the casting of
the first Ding! Hilary’s service is highly recommended. Readings can be sought here.
posted Saturday, February 11, 2006 10:28 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments
MICHAEL MCKENNY – A MUST READ!
I very nearly didn’t write this blog entry as I was too busy reading Michael’s web pages! There is
a very good brief history of Chinese divination here.
Michael has a flare for bringing colour and depth to his subject whilst writing in a brief and
informative style. Other parts of his site cover Amerindian Lore, Paganism, Celtic Lore and
more. Much of his work, here, is in the form of descriptive book reviews. He explains the
content of each book chapter by chapter so that they are in themselves very informative. This is a
great place to lose a half day with no regrets.
You can find his homepage here.

posted Thursday, February 09, 2006 11:48 AM by Webmaster with 0 Comments
KUAN YIN GOES HOME TO CHINA
I have heard that translation rights for Stephen Karcher’s ‘Kuan Yin Oracle’, Time Warner, have
just been bought by a Chinese publisher. It is about to be translated into Chinese for sale on the
mainland.
Kuan Yin is the ‘Compassionate One’ her image is found wherever there is a Buddhist, Daoist or
Shinto shrine throughout China and Japan. This is an old temple oracle which is still very much
in use today in temples and homes. Kuan Yin is a Bodhisattva and her name means, ‘She who
hears the cries of the world’. The Bodhisattvas are described in the Lotus scripture
(Saddarmapundarika Sutra) and the Land Scripture (Shukavativyuha Sutra) which talk of the
Bodhisattva’s lifesaving powers and direct connections with the Buddha. A well-known passage
in the Lotus Scripture says that a person only has to call upon Kuan Yin with single mindedness
to be saved from any ill.
Each ‘outcome’ in this oracle begins with a short evocative verse of wisdom. This is followed by
statements tied to the phase of the moon, season and lifecycle. Finally, there are prognostications
in each of the areas below:
Household and family
Business
Relationships
Children and birth
Litigation, Judgements, news from afar and journeys
The place you make home
Illness
The Kuan Yin oracle speaks clearly to our everyday concerns. However, the attached advice
reaches somewhere a little deeper into the nature of the time and the way we conduct ourselves.
posted Wednesday, February 08, 2006 3:56 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
NEW ARTICLES
We are working on a new set of articles. These will appear in ‘Yijing Basics’. Each one will
explain the meaning and use of a different part of the reading matrix which is developed when
the Yijing is consulted. Articles will include: Nuclear Hexagrams, Change Operators, Crossline
Omens, Ideal and Shadow Hexagrams, Seasons and more. Hopefully these will start to go online
in about a week from now.
posted Tuesday, February 07, 2006 8:55 AM by Webmaster with 0 Comments

MULTIPLE MOVING LINES AS VOICES
As promised, we have started to add more ‘Basics’ articles to the website. These are designed to
take the user through the different parts of a reading, explaining ways of using the different
dimensions. So here is the article “Voices of the Lines”.
This approach treats each line as being a voice speaking from that line position. So, for example
line one is the ‘voice’ talking of those things which have not yet, or are beginning to emerge into
the situation described by the primary hexagram. Looking at lines in this light enables the diviner
to see the lines as representing different dynamics happening at different points in the ‘change’.
Multiple moving lines then become more manageable and there is no problem with lines which
appear to contradict each other.
I will be on the forums, in the coming week, to talk more about this, as well as other ways of
working with multiple moving lines. Hope you will join me.
Do remember our announcements page where everything we do is posted to make it easy to keep
up to date. Announcements are here.
SEEING WITH DIFFERENT EYES
Kent University, Canterbury, England
The Religious Studies Department has an M.A course in Cosmology and Divination. It doesn’t
shy away from looking at these fields from a range of perspectives which include Traditional
Metaphysics and Magical forms as well as those from the post enlightenment period. The people
teaching it have exceptional credentials too. You can find them here.
However, what really caught my eye was the list of keynote speakers from both the USA and UK
who will be at their Divination Conference, “Seeing with Different Eyes”
“This conference will explore the nature and implications of the visionary knowledge which
arises through divinatory practices, the ‘inner sight’ which is evoked through the use of metaphor
and symbol in a ritual or therapeutic context, or in everyday life.” Details can be found here.
I will be booking a place for this one and look forward to meeting any Great Vessel folk who
make it there.
posted Saturday, February 04, 2006 7:54 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
WHO ARE YOU? AND NOTES ON A BUSY WEEKEND
The three of us, myself Stephen and Peter, met up for the weekend to review where we have got
to and where we should be heading. This has resulted in us all having impossibly long lists of
things to do. One of which is to celebrate our first month’s birthday around the end of February.
To celebrate we will add some more material and a surprise offering to the site.
I have received a lot of really positive email about the site and the program. Thanks to all!
However, I do leave the lights on in the forums in case someone happened to post there. Anyone
feel like posting a little about themselves and what they do in the area of divination or the
Yijing? You would be made welcome. There are no dragons lurking there, I think.
posted Monday, January 30, 2006 10:57 PM by Wandering Sages with 0 Comments
A WORLD OF CHANGE
A short piece newly posted on our site:

It introduces the Yijing and looks at some of the different sorts of change found there. I
particularly liked the part on how one can use change, Wang Lai, “going and coming on the river
of time and space.” You can find the article by clicking here.
posted Monday, January 23, 2006 10:02 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments
‘YIJING AND THE ETHIC OF THE IMAGE’
I have just posted another of Stephen’s academic papers on the site. It is ‘Yijing and the Ethic of
the Image’. This is an Eranos Round table paper.
There are a number of interesting ideas in this paper, but the part which particularly caught my
eye was on ‘Preserving the Language’. Here Stephen talks about the way the Yijing’s short
phrases create image clusters which we can roll and turn in our minds until, “the texts touch a
meaningful cluster of images and emotions…” It is at this point that the spirit and the
understanding of the text and its meaning constellates within us.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. You can find the article by clicking here.
posted Monday, January 23, 2006 9:25 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments
VOICING CHANGE
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how we usually use Change as a sort of self-help device.
Maybe that’s part of our personal development culture, all those psychological gymnastics,
something I have certainly bought into in my time. But when I took a look at what divination
does in traditional cultures, I had my eyes opened to a whole different world. It’s a thing they use
to create sacred space. It tells everybody in the community that the ancestors and the spirits
haven’t forsaken us. A consummation much to be desired.
Those other kind of diviners see themselves as a kind of “talking instrument.” People use them to
speak to the spirits and, mirabile dictu, they get answers that open their hearts and minds. The
words help heal them. And this kind of divination does something even more interesting. It
opens up what I call the Secret Sickness Pathways that connect what we might think is our own
little problem or crisis to a disorder in the culture we’re born into. So, it helps to heal the culture,
too. And face it, we live in a pretty sick culture.
I want to look at this. I want to explore some of the ways we can give Change this kind of voice,
how we as diviners can make its mythic images work, not just for personal development but to
help heal the world we live in.
posted Saturday, January 21, 2006 7:28 PM by Kevin with 0 Comments
CHANGE AND THE GREAT ENTERPRISE
I’ve been obsessed with Da Yeh, the Great Enterprise, ever since I translated Dazhuan. I see it as
a way to put individual and cultural change together without becoming another hero or guru,
launching another army or throwing another bomb – and I’ve had quite enough of those in my
life.
The idea of Da Yeh originated with the Sages and Diviners of the Warring States period, a truly
“yi” time when everyone was lamenting the obvious loss of the Way and trying to find it again,
not just for themselves but for a world that had fallen apart. You have to remember what China
was like in those days – massive civil wars, parts of the country turned into wastelands, a
continual ebb and flow of the various warlords – a lot like us. In fact, I call this period our
Distant Mirror. It’s when they invented the idea of the individual, too, and struggled with it.
They were asking how an individual person can help the world to find its Way again.
The first thing these Warring States Sages did was to take the old Zhouyi and turn it into a
portable altar, a kind of engine of transformation. They used its xiang or symbols to “reflect the
Sage Mind and the shen or spirits in and through our persons.” The old Shamans (Wu) did
precisely this, they said, when they “drummed and danced” to bring down the spirits into their
body. This is the first step, they said. Now, what would happen if we all used it, if we all had
access to the old magic of its words and symbols?
Then they noticed a particular line from Zhouyi (14.6) woven through its texts as a magic
allusion to the time when the leaders of the Zhou Dynasty received the blessing or Mandate from
Heaven to “renew the time” (Ge Tian Ming). They set this up as a link to the powers of the old
mythic world, the blessings of the Ancestors and the virtue of the Zhou kings, and attempted to
bring them into the new age. To do this, they re-invented the idea of the Junzi, the ‘Realizing
Person’, turning it into something like what Jung talked about in that story he got from Wilhelm
about the Rainmaker, the little old man who brought rain to a drought-stricken village by letting
himself be “infected” with the people’s insanity and confusion, then putting himself back in Dao.
So, this is what we are engaged with in the Great Enterprise - the work of trying to raise this
force, this power of Change, into awareness and making it available to help people change their
world without being taken over by the malice of all those ‘Jealous Gods’ running around today.
It is what the Sages were teaching. It is how we bring the rain. It links the Realizing Person to the
Great Enterprise of moving Change into the world, a non-heroic cultural counterpart to the
individual process of transformation.
posted Saturday, January 21, 2006 5:56 PM by Kevin with 0 Comments
GREATVESSEL.COM - LAUNCHED!
At last we have launched. This site was a year in gestation followed by 8 months of
exceptionally hard work. There is a lot more we want to do and a huge backlog of material
waiting to be coded for posting.
Stephen Karcher calls it ‘The Great Vessel’, but our programmer calls it an interface or
something using words I can’t understand. Nothing new there then!
We do hope it will be useful and enjoyable for both ourselves and those who choose to visit.
Please let us know what you want. Our hope is that members will use it to communicate their
ideas, experiences and insights.
Welcome!
www.greatvessel.com
posted Friday, January 20, 2006 7:00 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments
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THE GREAT VESSEL BLOG

PERSPECTIVES, NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE

posted Sunday, October 12, 2008 6:56 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments

posted Tuesday, September 02, 2008 8:56 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments

posted Sunday, August 31, 2008 7:47 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments

posted Monday, August 25, 2008 7:48 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments

I CHING - WORKING WITH TRIGRAMS

Definitely worth checking out.

posted Monday, August 25, 2008 7:32 PM by Webmaster with 2 Comments

TOTAL YIJING V2.3 – I CHING EXPLORER AND CASTING PROGRAM

And of course, there is a free 15-day trial.

Chuckling and very happy about this development.

posted Sunday, August 17, 2008 8:21 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments

2 THE DIVINER AND THE DIVINATORY PROCESS – SO WHY DO WE

To understand the importance of divination in human experience we need to look at human

So, let’s consider this:

Peace of mind requires centeredness

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posted Sunday, August 17, 2008 7:12 PM by Webmaster with 3 Comments

1 THE DIVINER AND THE DIVINATORY PROCESS – INTRODUCTION

This is an introduction to a series which will explore the divinatory process.

posted Sunday, August 10, 2008 9:11 PM by Webmaster with 2 Comments

G.V. I CHING LINKS PAGE HAS BEEN UPDATED

posted Sunday, August 03, 2008 11:22 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments

NEWS FROM STEPHEN

posted Saturday, July 19, 2008 8:55 PM by Administrator with 0 Comments

NEWS AND AN ARTICLE

Well that’s the marketing done!

I have posted a short article by Stephen “Using Crossline Omens” here.

Wishing folk a good year of the Male Earth Rat:

15 Humbling/The Great Grey Rat QIAN

Stimulus: 23 Strip away the past.

52 Mountain or Bound is a very powerful image or symbol (a xiang or imaginal operation) of

June 2007 - Posts

IDEAL AND SHADOW

GREAT VESSEL NEWS

So, what have we got coming up?

There is more which will come online in time.

I hope you find something you like in these new developments.

ANSWERS FROM YIJING AND THE DE OF THE INQUIRER

Somewhere in the Mawangdui (commentary) texts, “Confucius” is quoted as saying something

YIJING COMPANION - ‘FOUNDATIONS OF CHANGE’ BY STEPHEN

• The development of Yijing in its original historical and cultural context.

Part IV details casting techniques – getting an answer.

OPENING THE INNER THESAURUS OR SOUNDS AS EGGS

ANCESTOR WORSHIP IN THE MODERN WORLD

Ancestors and the Personal Altar is a new article on our site.

Dedicated to Hilary and her mother.

posted Monday, April 09, 2007 2:21 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments

THE FURIES AND THE WATER SPIRIT DISORDER

I found this article rich with a knowing and very informative.

posted Saturday, April 07, 2007 1:47 PM by Webmaster with 0 Comments

SOURCES FOR THE DECADES

He says of this article:

PAINTING THE CANVAS – THE ACT OF DIVINATION II

WEAVING THE CANVAS - THE ACT OF DIVINATION I

NESTING OF IMAGES BY GLENROY WOLFSON

New Jersey USA

(First posted on Midaughter - A Yijing Forum)

THE I CHING’S TEN YEAR CYCLES – A STRUCTURE WITHIN THE KING

Given the complexity of each hexagram it is quite a profound model.

CALLING TO THE ANCESTORS IN ANCIENT CHINA

All the Spirits are drunk.

Surely they will come now,