TO: I CHING WITH CLARITY- Hilary Barrett FROM: Joel Benson Re: NEW YI JING DIVINATION TOOLS. Improved Yarrow Stalk Divination

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1 TO: I CHING WITH CLARITY- Hilary Barrett FROM: Joel Benson Re: NEW YI JING DIVINATION TOOLS In the course of studying the Yi Jing recently I developed some tools that might make Yi Jing divination rituals easier and perhaps more enjoyable. My primary purpose is to communicate my ideas and the nature of these tools to the Yi Jing community with the hope that this information will be useful and helpful. I understand the Clarity website has considerable reach in the Yi Jing community, so I will summarize these tools/ideas with the hope that this information will be made available to your Yi Jing users. I believe the tools/ideas expressed herein are novel. Enclosed with this memo are some of the noted tools for your use and consideration. Improved Yarrow Stalk Divination The traditional forty-nine-stalk method of divination has long been known and has been supplanted by the quicker three-coin method and other relatively rapid modern methods, for example involving special dice or sixteen ritual objects such as colored marbles. I found it odd that in all the literature I examined, the assumption seems to be that yarrow divination is necessarily limited to the ancient method of sorting, counting and adding random bundles of thin sticks. I decided there has to be an easier way to perform a Yi Jing divination with yarrow, while enhancing the wonderful tactile feel and spiritual presence of yarrow stalks. After some thought I realized there is a simpler, quicker way to manipulate a limited number of sturdy, relatively thick yarrow stalks to randomly define primary hexagrams using the established Yi Jing yarrow probabilities. In my improved divination method only eight yarrow stalks are required. I prefer stalks about 10 inches long and about.25 inches in diameter. Each of the stalks has yin and yang ends that are marked in any way that may be preferred to designate old or young yin/yang in the accepted yarrow divination proportions. 1

2 My preferred way of marking the eight yang ends of the stalks is to insert a magnetized pin in each yang end. So the yang ends generate magnetic energy in accordance with their yang nature. The yin ends have no such pins and are therefore identified by their receptive, non-energy nature. A black end color is used to designate a single old yin end and three old yang ends, as required for yarrow divination. The remaining ends that are not blackened define seven young yin and five young yang ends. In the divination ritual, the eight stalks are shuffled and then an end of one stalk is selected at random to designate the first level of the primary hexagram. The selected stalk is then returned to the group of eight, the stalks are shuffled again and a random end of a stalk is selected to define the second level of the primary hexagram. This is continued until the six-line hexagram is defined. This method is similar to Rule of 16 divinations, except colors need not be memorized and only eight sturdy yarrow stalks are used. Also, the magnetic yang ends may be detected by a compass to add a mystical touch to the divination. So a few substantial yarrow stalks may be used in an easy, quick and modern style of divination. Following is an image of eight yarrow stalks of the type described and an image of a magnetic pin inserted at the yang end of a stalk to illustrate how the yang ends of the stalks are marked. 2

3 Improved Coin Method of Divination I have heard people complain that the three-coin method of divination is reminiscent of gambling and throwing coins is loud, distractive and possibly disrespectful. It has also been said throwing coins is not the proper type of volitional manipulation required for the most effective divination. These issues can be resolved. Following are images of coins used in a simple four coin divination method that does not require throwing coins or adding numbers corresponding to coin faces. Also the divination ritual requires selecting only single coins, a preferred volitional act. The first image shows the yang sides of the coins with the black face coin representing old yang and the uncolored faces representing young yang. The second image shows the opposite yin faces of the coins with the black face representing old yin and the uncolored faces representing young yin. In the divination ritual the coins are mixed and a single coin is extracted with a selected side facing up to designate the first line of the primary hexagram. The coins are then mixed again and successive coins are selected to define the complete hexagram. Note, no coins are thrown, no math is required and coins are randomly selected with a volitional act. The probabilities for the three-coin method are used. 3

4 Improved Rule of Sixteen Divination People have complained that using colored marbles for Rule of 16 divinations is unnecessarily complex because colors must be associated with yin/yang states. The simple answer to this concern is to use labeled yin/yang divination objects, for example glass stones marked with the necessary yin/yang symbols. Laser-etched stones may be obtained for this purpose at a relatively low price. Following are some illustrative images. Note old yin/yang stones are shown with asterisks. 4

5 Converting Primary to Secondary Hexagram I have designed a simple laminated paper tool for converting a primary hexagram to a secondary hexagram. Images of the front and back of this tool are shown below. The design is simple, inexpensive and effective if a Yi Jing user wants assistance in doing this conversion. The old yin/yang are designated with arrow heads and the line designations for the front and back have reversed positions, so note the line number in reading the conversion. The central spinner may be used to randomly define the primary hexagram by either selecting two random trigrams or selecting six yin/yang symbols from the outer periphery of the spinner with yarrow divination probabilities. 5

6 Converting Primary Hexagram to Nuclear Hexagram Here is a simple laminated paper tool that converts the primary hexagram to a nuclear hexagram. Images of the front and back of this tool are shown below. The old yin/yang are designated with arrow heads. The central spinner may be used to randomly define the primary hexagram by either selecting two random trigrams or selecting six yin/yang symbols from the outer periphery of the spinner with yarrow divination probabilities. 6

7 Portable Yi Jing Divination Yi Jing divination typically requires a collection of ritual items for randomly defining a primary hexagram in response to a designated question, a table to convert the hexagram to an index number, and a reference book to look up a translation of advice corresponding to the hexagram. These tools are not easily portable. I designed a simple, portable, hand-held laminated paper tool that uses a central spinner to randomly define the primary hexagram and a movable wheel that automatically converts the hexagram to its corresponding Yi Jing index number. The back of the wheel provides a summary of a responsive strategy for each index number. These strategies were derived by consulting several well-known Yi Jing translations. The front of the 7-inch diameter portable tool is shown in the following image. 7

8 Here is the back of the portable tool: 8

9 Versatile Yi Jing Divination Spinner In researching the Yi Jing, I was somewhat surprised to note that no one is using a simple spinner to define the primary hexagram. A spinner seems an ideal way to randomly select the yin/yang symbols of the hexagram. Also, a single spinner can be easily used to generate random symbols with either the yarrow or three-coin probabilities as well as use the trigram method which is favored by some users. I noted people who use the trigram method of forming a hexagram may use a separate die to select a single moving line of the hexagram. This seems inappropriate to me as the person in that case assumes that there is a significant moving line for the hexagram, without consulting the Oracle of the Yi Jing. This seems to violate the general principle that the Yi Jing Oracle must be consulted to determine the existence and identity of a moving line. So I designed the spinner shown below with two sub-spinners to be used when trigrams are selected by the spinner. The lower left sub-spinner determines if there is any single significant moving line. If there is such a moving line, the right sub-spinner determines the identity of that line. Alternatively, the main spinner may be used to select the two trigrams of the primary hexagram and then the lower left spinner may be spun six times to determine which lines are moving. Note the chance of obtaining a moving line is one-in-four for all methods of divination. 9

10 Final Note Thank you for considering this memo. Please feel free to copy and distribute this memo or any portions of the memo to your associates or display the memo or portions of the memo on the Clarity website. I only ask that you credit me as the source of this information. I will you a pdf copy of the memo if you wish. Also, feel free to use any of the information or materials provided herein for your personal use. As a point of information, I m providing the above-noted tools in the United States on the Etsy.com website under the trade name AnswerQuest. I have not implemented sales outside the U.S. because I do not know if there is any interest. Please let me know if Clarity members wish to acquire any of the noted tools from me. If there is significant interest, I can implement distribution of tools to Great Britain. Thank you. Joel Benson jbenson@netscape.com Mail: 7611 Oak Ridge Ct., Crystal Lake, Illinois, USA Phone: (815) Copyright 2014 by Joel W. Benson 10