How to obtain an oracle

In contrast to our traditions and even to our common sense, hazard is very important to a chinese mind. As Jung suggests, the ``ideal form'' is the last step of the process by which our minds classify and filter the different identified (and assumed) entities comprising the object of our attention, [1]. In contrast to this ``ideal form'' the ``real form'' seems to be of much more interest to a chinese sage. For him, the representation of the moment comprises ``all'', and hence, the act itself by which the oracle is generated is also part of the observed object.

The following is the method suggested by Wilhelm [1] to generate an hexagram:

  1. Let one side of a coin be two units and the other three.
  2. To generate a single line throw the three coins to the air.
  3. Sum their resulted values. Assign the line in the following way:
    Sum Line
    6 mutant yin
    7 yang
    8 yin
    9 mutant yang
  4. Beginning with the first line (the lowest) repeat 2., and 3. until the whole hexagram is generated.
  5. Study the oracle entities associated with the hexagram.
It is easy to see in the previous method, that the probability to get a fixed line (yin or yang) is 3/8 and a mutant one (yin or yang) is 1/8. No matter what method you use to generate the hexagram you should try to keep this relation, (all the methods used in the I Ching keeps it for you).

Jean Pierre Charalambos 2002-04-14