I Ching

I Ching – the method C. G. Jung from "Synchronicity"

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The I Ching, which we can well call the experimental foundation of classical Chinese philosophy, is one of the oldest known methods for grasping a situation as a whole and thus placing the details against a cosmic background.

Unlike the Greek-trained Western mind, the Chinese mind does not aim at grasping details for their own sake, but at a view which sees the detail as part of a whole. For obvious reasons, a cognitive operation of this kind is impossible to the unaided intellect. Judgment must therefore rely much more on the irrational functions of consciousness, that is on sensation (the “sens du réel”) and intuition (perception by means of subliminal contents). The I Ching, which we can well call the experimental foundation of classical Chinese philosophy, is one of the oldest known methods for grasping a situation as a whole and thus placing the details against a cosmic background—the interplay of Yin and Yang.

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This grasping of the whole is obviously the aim of science as well, but it is a goal that necessarily lies very far off because science, whenever possible, proceeds experimentally and in all cases statistically. Experiment, however, consists in asking a definite question which excludes as far as possible anything disturbing and irrelevant. It makes conditions, imposes them on Nature, and in this way forces her to give an answer to a question devised by man. She is prevented from answering out of the fullness of her possibilities since these possibilities are restricted as far as practicable. For this purpose there is created in the laboratory a situation which is artificially restricted to the question and which compels Nature to give an unequivocal answer. The workings of Nature in her unrestricted wholeness are completely excluded. If we want to know what these workings are, we need a method of inquiry which imposes the fewest possible conditions, or if possible no conditions at all, and then leaves Nature to answer out of her fullness.
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Li & K’an ALCHEMISTIC MEANING OF THE TRIGRAMS

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The trigram Li: sun, fire, the lucid, the Clinging, plays a great role in this religion of light. It dwells in the eyes, forms the protecting circle, and brings about rebirth… The trigram K’an: water, the Abysmal, is the opposite of Li, as is already shown in its outer structure. It represents the region of eros, while Li stands for logos. Li is the sun, K’an the moon. The marriage of K’an and Li is the secret magical process which produces the child, the new man…

hex_63AFTER COMPLETION
hex_64BEFORE COMPLETION

Man’s heart stands under the fire sign. 1)↓ The flames of the fire press upward. When both eyes are looking at things of the world it is with vision directed outward. Now if one closes the eyes and, reversing the glance, directs it inward and looks at the room of the ancestors, that is the backward-flowing method. The energy of the kidneys is under the water sign. When the desires are stirred, it runs downward, is directed outward, and creates children. If, in the moment of release, it is not allowed to flow outward, but is led back by the energy of thought so that it penetrates the crucible of the Creative, and refreshes heart and body and nourishes them, that also is the backward-flowing method. Therefore it is said, The Way of the Elixir of Life depends entirely on the backward-flowing method.
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1. ↑ The two psychic poles are here contrasted with one another. They are represented as logos (heart, consciousness), to be found under the fire trigram [Li], and eros (kidneys, sexuality), under the water trigram [Kan]. The ‘natural* man lets both these energies work outwardly (intellect and the process of procreation); thus, they ‘stream out’ and are consumed. The adept turns them inward and brings them together, whereby they fertilize one another and produce a psychically vital, and therefore strong, life of the spirit.

ZAPYTAJ WYROCZNIĘ I CHING

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1. Potrząśnij trzy monety w dłoniach i rzuć je na płaską powierzchnię.

2. Niech „orły” będą miały wartość dwa, „reszki” trzy. Dodaj wartość wyrzuconych monet. Trzy reszki to dziewięć, dwie reszki i jeden orzeł: osiem, reszka i dwa orły: siedem, trzy orły: sześć.

3. Jeśli liczba jest nieparzysta, zaznacz linię ciągłą. Jeśli jest parzysta, zaznacz linię przerwaną. Obok zapisz wartość liczbową linii.

4. Rzuć po raz kolejny monetami, by narysować drugą linię twojego heksagramu. Linię narysuj ponad pierwszą, nie poniżej!

5. Powtarzaj procedurę, aż będziesz mieć sześć linii zaznaczonych jedna nad drugą. Pamiętaj, by posuwać się w górę od pierwszej linii a nie w dół. Twój heksagram na przykład może wyglądać tak:

iching50-PL

6. Aby dowiedzieć się który to heksagram, sprawdź tabelę poniżej. Dolne trzy linie heksagramu to dolny trygram (lower), górne trzy linie, to górny trygram (upper). Numer jaki znajduje się w tabeli na ich przecięciu (górnego i dolnego trygramu) wskazuje numer twojego heksagramu. Przykładowy heksagram powyżej ma numer 50.
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yarrow stalks I Ching

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The hexagrams and lines in their movements and changes mysteriously reproduced the movements and changes of the macrocosm. By the use of yarrow stalks 1)↓, one could attain a point of vantage from which it was possible to survey the condition of things. Given this perspective, the words of the oracle would indicate what should be done to meet the need of the time.

the yarrow stalks makes it possible for the unconscious in man to become active

The only thing about all this that seems strange to our modern sense is the method of learning the nature of a situation through the manipulation of yarrow stalks. This procedure was regarded as mysterious, however, simply in the sense that the manipulation of the yarrow stalks makes it possible for the unconscious in man to become active. All individuals are not equally fitted to consult the oracle. It requires a clear and tranquil mind, receptive to the cosmic influences hidden in the humble divining stalks. As products of the vegetable kingdom, these were considered to be related to the sources of life. The stalks were derived from sacred plants.
 Richard Wilhelm

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1. ↑ The stalks come from the plant known to us as common yarrow, or milfoil (Achillea millefolium).

I Ching trigrams chart

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The eight trigrams are symbols standing for changing transitional states; they are images that are constantly undergoing change.

trigrams

These eight trigrams were conceived as images of all that happens in heaven and on earth. At the same time, they were held to be in a state of continual transition, one changing into another, just as transition from one phenomenon to another is continually taking place in the physical world. Here we have the fundamental concept of the Book of Changes. The eight trigrams are symbols standing for changing transitional states; they are images that are constantly undergoing change. Attention centers not on things in their state of being—as is chiefly the case in the Occident—but upon their movements in change. The eight trigrams therefore are not representations of things as such but of their tendencies in movement.
 These eight images came to have manifold meanings. They represented certain processes in nature corresponding with their inherent character. Further, they represented a family consisting of father, mother, three sons, and three daughters, not in the mythological sense in which the Greek gods peopled Olympus, but in what might be called an abstract sense, that is, they represented not objective entities but functions.
 The sons represent the principle of movement in its various stages—beginning of movement, danger in movement, rest and completion of movement. The daughters represent devotion in its various stages—gentle penetration, clarity and adaptability, and joyous tranquility.
 Richard Wilhelm from Introduction to The Book of Changes