How to Interpret an I Ching Casting: Part 2

In I Ching tradition, the number of changing lines you have affects what should be read, and allows you to determine which particular part of the overall reading represents the “centre”, that part of the casting that marks the present or the most urgent thing to attend to (with all that comes before that “centre” being previous developments, and all that comes after being later developments).

In the reading, if you have: Then read:

-No Moving Lines: then read the Main Hexagram Text only.

-1 Moving Line: then read the Main Hexagram Text, the Moving Line, and the Future Hexagram Text, and the Moving Line is the “centre”.

-2 Moving Lines: then read the Main Hexagram Text, both Moving Lines, and the Future Hexagram Text; and the UPPER Moving Line is the “centre”.

-3 Moving Lines: then read the Main Hexagram Text, all three Moving Lines, and the Future Hexagram Text; and the MIDDLE Moving Line is the “centre”.

-4 Moving Lines: then read the Main Hexagram Text, the four Moving Lines, the Future Hexagram Text and the two lines from the Future Hexagram that were unmoving (for example, if you get a hexagram with lines 1-4 moving; then you will read lines 5 and 6 of the Future Hexagram). Of these, the LOWER Future Hexagram Line is the “centre”.

-5 Moving Lines: then read the Main Hexagram Text, all five Moving Lines, the Future Hexagram Text, and the unmoving Future Hexagram Line; and the single unmoving Future Hexagram Line is the “centre”.

6 Moving Lines: then read the Main Hexagram Text, all six Moving Lines, and the Future Hexagram Text; and the Future Hexagram Text is the “centre”.

Naturally, all of the above describes the basic way you would read an I Ching casting, and it is how you begin. However, as you develop there are other aspects you are doing to want to look at, but it is not good to overburden yourself at the beginning. Make certain that you have a firm grasp of the fundamental method before delving into other details. Later on, you may want to look at and contemplate the structure of the hexagrams you cast: look at the lines, which line is where, understand why that makes certain things good or bad. Look at and contemplate the image evoked by the component trigrams (both the “official” one described in the book and other ways you could imagine those two elements combining to create an image). You will also want to look at the Nuclear Hexagrams involved, as well as the opposite, overturned and reversed hexagrams; there may be more information on this later.

If you want more information and guidance to performing an I Ching casting, please consider purchasing the book "The Magician's I Ching".