On the advice of my long-dead grandfather (he didn’t talk to me from Beyond; he advised me when he was alive and I’ve only followed through now, decades later) I recently purchased a copy of the I Ching.

The I Ching is an ancient system of divination. To use the I Ching, you toss some coins (or dice, or bones, anything that can give you a binary answer), do some basic arithmetic, assign each result a straight or broken line, and then convert those lines into trigrams, and then convert the trigrams into hexagrams. Got it?

It sounds complicated but once you do it a few times it gets pretty easy. All you need is a copy of the I Ching (available online for $15 or so) and some sort of binary-indicating objects as described above. I use coins; some people use special coins specific for this purpose, but I used a few quarters that I have lying on my shelf near my tarot cards and assorted other paraphernalia of the weird.

Here’s how to set up for a reading. Take a piece of paper. Label six rows, starting at 6 and counting back to 1. Toss all three coins and counts the results in terms of heads or tails. Each coin that lands on heads is worth 3 points; each tails 2. The mathematical result of each throw is tallied, and the result written in the corresponding row (start with row 1 and work up). Once you have your numbers, do your lines. If the number on a row is odd, draw an unbroken line next to it; if it is even, draw a broken line. If your mathematical result is a 6 or a 9, you have a changing line (more on this another time). The lines are then broken into upper and lower trigrams, which are found on a grid and cross-compared to make a hexagram, which gives you the information the I Ching wants you to have.

Still with me? Let’s work through an example.

My First I Ching Reading

In late September, I completed a whole journal and began a new one. To close out the old journal, I decided to perform an I Ching reading and find out what it had to say to about my life. I charged my coins by leaving them on my old journal for a few days, letting them symbolically absorb the energy of everything I wrote about over the last year or so. I then approached the I Ching to see what it had to say to me.

I tossed the coins and got the following results:

Upper Trigram: 7(——); 8(– –); 8(– –)

Lower Trigram: 7(——); 7(——); 7(——)

The Upper Trigram is Ch’ien, or Heaven. The Lower Trigram is Kên, or Mountain. These trigrams combine to create Hexagram 26: Ta Ch’u: The Taming Power of the Great.

Ta Ch’u: The Taming Power of the Great

I won’t quote the I Ching at length, but here are the basics of this hexagram:

In the face of rising tension, keep still. Honor in practice what you have learned from the I Ching.

A difficult and challenging time must be taken as an opportunity to express in the outer world our highest inner principles. This hexagram counsels us to keep still under pressure and embody the virtues of the I Ching. In this way even the most arduous trials can be met.

Here are my personal notes from the rest of the reading:

• Keep still under pressure.
• Cling to the Power of the Great, the Power of what is right.
• This can inspire others to grow spiritually and tame negative energy.
• Challenges to our strength and character enable us to embody in practice the strength of the I Ching.
• A spiritual understanding not practiced under fire is without value.
• Only by applying our knowledge in troubling situations do we come into genuine possession of it.
• Do not punish or condemn others.

Context & Interpretation

Anger

I have always struggled with anger. Throughout my life I have periodically had explosive outbursts of anger or rage. Once or twice I’ve gotten so angry that I literally have blacked out. Even when not erupting, my anger often seeps through to the surface in the form of abrasive or cutting remarks, hostility, bitterness, and generally grumpy and discontented behavior. My closest people have had to listen to me rant and rave and carry on about whatever nonsense has me wound up.

I began therapy this past year. My deep well of anger is perhaps the most salient problem I have, but it is by no means the only one. It does, however, suggest a number of things. First, anger is often a mask for sadness. It’s also the only emotion that men in Western cultures are allowed to experience without being mocked, derided, or labeled as soft. It’s also an easy emotion to access when in the face of overwhelming sadness, frustration, or aggravation. It is, in other words, a proxy emotion, a way to vent feeling without confronting the actual feeling.

Explosively venting anger is the direct opposite of keeping still under pressure. It is a frantic, chaotic, outward push of energy. As someone who was frequently on the other end of anger as a child, it is not a fun emotion to be around: it does not inspire a taming of negative energy or spiritual growth, but rather inspires fear and horror.

Spiritual Development

I have also recently been on a quest to find some manner of spiritual guidance. My life as a rigid materialist atheist was unfulfilling. It left me feeling empty, dissatisfied. Despite what the hardcore atheists might say, I believe that spiritual fulfillment is an integral need for human beings. We need some deeper sense of meaning, a sense that we belong to something greater than ourselves, a notion that this isn’t just a short and painful life filled with random chaos.

That path, however, is hard to navigate when you are filled with contempt for your fellow man.

The Final Analysis

I feel like the bullet point of this reading is that the I Ching is telling me to work on my wrath. My long-suffering wife has mentioned to me a few times that my wrath is her least favorite part of me. I agree with her. I feel like the I Ching is telling me that the biggest blocker to my continued personal development is my inability to embrace the values espoused in this Hexagram. In order to grow spiritually, in order to be of value to the people who matter to me in life, I must confront, interrogate, and master the wrath which too often consumes me. I think my wife and my therapist would likely agree.

Other Reads

This reading spoke to me on a personal level and seemed to be very appropriate to the questions I brought to the I Ching. Since taking this reading in September, I’ve taken a few others and found them to be quite valuable and relevant to me also. I did one for my daughter when she was facing some difficulties, and she found her reading to be insightful and accurate for her situation. While I am still very new to the I Ching and just beginning to get familiar with it, I’ve found it to be an exceedingly helpful adjunct when I’m working through situations in my life. If you don’t have a copy of the I Ching, do yourself a favor and get one. It’s a wonderful tool full of insightful wisdom, and I’ll be incorporating it into my weird little practices going forward.