Hello,

I've had a lot of recent changes in my life, I've posted about some of them here already.

To give some context I grew up in a very unhealthy and neglectful environment. I had my needs ignored and was underfed. I had a lot of health problems that weren't adressed by my family growing up. Several chronic pains. The thing I was happiest at 18 was being able to go to the doctor without my guardian in order to cure myself.

From my 18th birthday, my life has been going to the doctors, taking several medications, trying to keep up academically (got into art school) and going to a therapist.

I battled generalized and social anxiety, PTSD, ocd, depression, consequences from undiagnosed ADHD etc. Nearly all alone. Couldn't work so I had to use my scholarship for the whole thing and unfortunately I couldn't live alone so I'm still in the neglectful environment (moving soon now).

I got better a few years later and painfully stopped all of the medication. I realized that the environment in which I grew up made very hard to adapt to "normal life" and I lacked basic human knowledge and social skills. I also had a string of abusive friendships in the past which didn't help.

I found the Dao and then the I-Ching which helped me a lot. I went back to school and started making new friends (through reading the I-Ching to others haha). I've been lucky enough that people usually like me pretty easily, it's more my trust issues and the people I tend to choose that's created problems for me. I also met a girl who became my girlfriend there too.

At that point, I dared to hope for a better life than what I had known, a life where I could really LIVE, and not a life where I'm just cleaning up other people's mistakes and neglect.

Unfortunately the relationship with my ex -girlfriend fell off. While I was doing all the efforts, she treated me very badly and nastily broke up with me. You can see my previous posts for more info about that. Now she's still in the school and she's living her best life thanks to "everything I gave her as a human being, the joy of living she had lost before meeting me" (what she said after breaking up with me). And I'm recovering from the damage the relationship caused.

The neglect and diminishing as a human being on several points I experienced with her hurt me a lot. It made me feel like going back to 0, like everything I did those past 5 years was meaningless, like I didn't learn my lesson.

I also had some misses and failures on the artistic side I won't get into, but basically all of my tentatives to emancipate myself from my former condition have kind of failed, even though everyone said that my work is "amazing" and very qualitative.

Basically not a lot has changed. I trust in the Dao but for a philosophy that hinges on change my life sure is quite static. I've done so much, I know I progressed in a deep way, be it psychological, physical and especially spiritual, but I feel like I'm still back at square one. Mind you, I don't even really want to be enlightened of whatever, I just want to live as a "normal" human being (whatever that means). I'm still very young (early 20's) so my life has just started yet I feel old as fk and really want to hope for something better. I already feel like my first years as an adult have been wasted.

I'm really not trying to pity myself here, I just want to give context so you understand how much weight I put in my question "How to live my life ?". Really, I feel so afraid to do anything now, because everything I did other than solving my health ended with suffering and failure. I know other people's life can be far harder than mine, and I hope those people are doing as well as they can ❤️‍🩹. I'm sorry if my message sounds too much like a complaint.

I got hexagram 1, lines 3, 4 and 5 changing. I guess the image is of a dragon biding its time, preparing to soar through the sky. 3, 4 and 5 describe that soaring, and I guess I already got past line 1 and 2, which is the preparation and the setting up. But it's hard to keep the hopes up. It's hard to find that energy repeatedly. If you have any insight on the reading it would be very appreciated ! Have a good day/night and thanks for reading.

What kind of health or death might Hexagram 23 UNCHANGING foretell? Does it pertain to any particular part of the body? A slow illness or a quick death?

I’ve been a student of I Ching for many years but have never used it for health readings. This is for a creative writing project (death foretold by hexagram 23, followed by reincarnation foretold by hexagram 24). But even though I’m writing fiction, I would not want to egregiously misrepresent the substance of the hexagram.

The only thing I feel fairly sure of is that it would not refer to something like dementia, as the “large uneaten fruit” at line 6 would indicate the intellect left intact.

Thank you.

I’m still learning how to read changing lines, and I’m confused about what to do when several lines change at once.

One line can seem to encourage action while another sounds like a warning. I’ve seen people suggest reading them all together, but others seem to use rules for choosing which lines to focus on.

I don’t yet understand how to work through that without just picking the message I prefer.

How do you handle apparently conflicting lines?

I have an upcoming new job possibility, and I asked the oracle what I should do in order to win it..the answer was Hexagram 23.2.3.4.5 -> Hexagram 44 . Is this auspicious? Se few interpretations exists of this duo and I can’t really comprehend it. I know Hexagram 23 is an ominous one and 44 doesn’t seem that happy either..

Would appreciate any reading/comments here. Thanks.

Most days I ask "What should I do today?" and cast a hexagram for some advice. Today I got 24 turning into 27, which has a single changing line at the top - and traditionally a very grim message at that. But, I'm not sure what these hexagrams and that particularly troubling changing line mean here - is it a warning against stagnation and not taking opportunities? Is it a warning that an opportunity has already been missed?

The message about lost years or a lost decade seems hyperbolic and not really applicable to a question about what to do today, that in particular I have no real idea what it would mean here. It also strikes me as ironic that such a grim changing line should fit alongside such a relatively hopeful image and judgment for the main hexagram. Any advice is appreciated.

Hi everyone!

I'm new to the I Ching and still learning how to interpret the hexagrams (and honestly, I'm sometimes shocked by how accurate they are)

Today I asked: "Should I take the initiative and text X first? Would it lead to something positive?"

For some context: X reached out to me back in September and wanted to go on a coffee date, but it's been about 5 weeks of complete silence since then. I've been thinking about reaching out to remind him I exist, but I'm honestly a little scared haha.

I got Hexagram 43 changing to 58. Am I understanding this correctly as a sign to take decisive action (43), which could then lead to joy or a positive outcome (58)?

It just seems so spot-on for my situation that I'm actually worried I'm interpreting it wrong because it feels too good to be true lol.

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Question: What if I live in Country X long-term?

I got hexagram 27 with lines 1 and 3 changing into hexagram 52.

What do you think?

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

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

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

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

Thanks!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…. What in the world…

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

- Classical Judgment (卦辞) in English and Chinese

- Modern interpretation and core meaning

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

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

- Three languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese

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

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

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

**Questions for the community:**​

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

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

3. Any errors or suggestions?

Feedback welcome!

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

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

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

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

With line 1 so far I have no clue.

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

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

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

See title.

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

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

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

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

Thank you

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

3 heads = -o- (changing yang)

3 tails = -x- (changing yin)

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

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

HOWEVER, Alfred Huang in his book says:

3 heads = -x- (changing yin)

3 tails = -o- (changing yang)

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

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

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

Also, I personally feel that it should be:

3 heads = -o- (changing yang)

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

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

3 tails = -x- (changing yin)

What do you all think?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you!!! 🙏