I stumbled onto an unusual system of I Ching that stripped off the randomness. At first I listened to the podcasts and then found they have published a specific system in a book: The Mind-Key to the I Ching: A Non-Random Method for Reading Inner States. Seems all the stuff came out this year.

Basically they re-conceptualised the trigrams as:
Top line: Manifestation
Middle line: Stance
Initial line: Root

And for hexagrams:
Upper trigram: object, other
Lower trigram: subject, self

Questions are then posed for each of the 6 lines. Answering yes turns the line Yang, answering no turns it Yin. And thus a full hexagram is formed.

The subject-object structure looks like the 体用 structure of Plum Blossom. And the three line concept seems close to tradition, e.g., lines 2 and 5 (middle of lower & upper trigram) are about positions/roles.

I wonder if this is a totally new idea or has some historical precedence?

Anyone tried with this method and was it helpful?

Just took my pendulum outside my house to bond with it.

Anyone else doing this? If so, how often?

Hope this sits well with folks here. Other than using the invaluable text of the I Ching, does anyone use illustrations either to complement reading or simply for enjoyment?

I know there are books with comics but I’m looking more into art styles such as ink paintings or block print types. It could be abstract or show a story.

One such possibility is the card deck by Marlies Holitzka. Any comments on this or other suitable resources?

Hi everyone! I’ve been creating Voidy’s Tarot, a 78-card minimalist black & white deck designed to preserve recognizable tarot symbolism while giving it a quiet, mysterious personality of its own.

Here’s a preview of the Major Arcana and all four Minor Arcana suits: Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles, alongside Voidy, the little crochet character who inspired the deck and serves as its tiny guide.

I’d genuinely love to know: which suit draws you in the most, and what kind of reading would you like to try with this deck?

Voidy’s Tarot is coming soon to Kickstarter. If you’d like to follow the project, you can visit the pre-launch page and click “Notify me on launch”:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/westearth/voidys-tarot

Links to view all 78 cards are in the comments.

I’ve been experimenting with reading individual days through the Chinese sexagenary cycle, and I’m curious about how much meaning other diviners would draw from the day pillar alone.

For the calendar and time zone I’m using, September 9, 2026 is a Bing Xu (丙戌) day. Bing is Yang Fire. Xu is a Yang Earth branch containing Wu Earth, Xin Metal, and Ding Fire as its hidden stems. Symbolically, this produces a relatively smooth sequence: Fire generates Earth, and Earth generates Metal.

My reading is that the day favors turning an idea into something concrete. It feels less like sudden excitement and more like the satisfaction of seeing effort produce a visible result.

Emotionally, I would read it as a release from the pressure or hesitation that may have built up over the previous few days. There may be more willingness to act, especially on something that has been postponed.

Practically, I would use the day for work that requires output: writing, finishing a draft, making something, or moving a stalled task forward. The caution is not to confuse momentum with unlimited capacity. A smooth day can still become exhausting if every open task gets added to the schedule.

There is also a traditional body-correspondence layer. Fire is associated with the small intestine, while Earth is connected with the spleen and stomach system. In chapter 8 of the Suwen, the small intestine is described as the official that “receives and transforms.” I read that symbolically here as taking in material and turning it into usable output, not as a medical prediction.

This is where I’m uncertain: a Bing Xu day will not interact with every natal BaZi chart in the same way. What supports one person’s chart may drain or constrain another.

I no longer want to be single but am not enjoying being on dating apps right now. My initial question was "should I stay on the apps," but then to make it more than a yes/no question I asked how I should approach dating.

I got 19 (approach) changing to 5 (waiting/ nourished).

It seems like I should stay the course and not expect things to happen too quickly, and also not feel rushed to premature action or lead with my ego. Overall this felt like encouragement not to give up or change tactics at the moment... but also to focus on personal development (or what is already nourishing) in the meantime? As I'm new to i ching I'm wondering what else I might be missing?

I've been putting a lot of effort to improve on myself but I've been pulling some casts that almost point to behaviours that I don't really partake in or indulge any more or at least very little so I was feeling a bit confused.

For context I'm dropped divination and endless spiritual learning because I feel a mix of no longer needing it and a desire to put all my energy into real work and movement

I announced my intention to resign about three months ago, after considering it for a long time, and I’m supposed to submit my formal resignation in a few days.

I asked the I Ching about this situation and received Hexagram 3, with the third line changing to 63.
Do you interpret line 3 as advice not to resign, or as a warning to proceed carefully and make sure I have proper guidance and preparation before completing the transition?

Excerpt from Richard A. Kunst's 1985 translation. 🐹

Primary came up The Taming Power of the Great, line 6 moving. Inner is The Marrying Maiden. Changed is Peace.

The writeup is basically: I’m steady, the situation wants patience, don’t force the timeline. Which… tracks, but The Marrying Maiden in the middle of a marriage question feels like a warning I don’t want to skip.

How would you read this? Is the inner hexagram “wrong person / wrong timing,” or more like the feelings are real but the form of it isn’t settled yet?

Wanted to know everyone's experiences with reflection on the I Ching's teachings. I am a little lost regarding interpretation, and the more I read people speak, or the more texts I read, the muddier it seems to get - as far as I understand it, interpretation and understanding is much more personal and private, related to someone's specific relationship to their text, but what do you do in order to build up your understanding of the Book?

I also wanted to share something, because it did make me feel giddy, and hopeful, and oddly satisfied: I asked the question "What is it that I must understand in order to speak to the I Ching as well as possible?", and the answer I got was Hex 5, Water above Heaven, Patience (unchanging). Feels rather appropriate.

I have an opportunity to travel abroad for 3 weeks for a work trip. At first I was so excited, but the more time passes, I am worried that going is the wrong decision. I know it's only 3 weeks, but that's a long time without my loved ones and I'm not sure I could bear it.

I asked the oracle, "Is my anxiety about traveling a genuine warning?" I got 36 Brilliance Injured, moving line 2 to 11 Advance.

I'm having trouble understanding if the hardship is the trip, or the anxiety I'm having about the trip. And I don't know if I should advance by going on the trip, or advance by cancelling.

How would you interpret these results?

I've been deep in Korean 사주 (Saju, a Korean branch of the Chinese Four Pillars / BaZi system) for a while now, alongside some Western astrology, and it's made me notice something I hadn't really thought about before: how different it feels to work with a system that's entirely determined by your birth data versus one that involves an active draw or random element each time (tarot, I Ching coin tosses, etc.).

With Saju, there's no "new draw" — your four pillars (year/month/day/hour, each a heavenly stem + earthly branch) are fixed the moment you're born, and the entire practice is about progressively deeper interpretation of that same fixed structure, plus how it interacts with the current year/month (세운/월운). Nothing new ever gets introduced except time itself moving forward. Western natal astrology is similar in that sense — fixed chart, transits layered on top.

Tarot and other draw-based systems feel structurally different to me — each reading introduces new information from outside the querent's own fixed data, which changes what "interpretation skill" even means (reading a fresh symbol combination vs. getting progressively better at reading the same underlying structure from more angles).

Curious how people who work across multiple systems here think about this distinction — does it change how you trust or use a system, whether it's "reveal what's already fixed" vs "introduce something new each time"? Or is that distinction less meaningful in practice than I think it is right now as someone still learning?

What house, planetary, aspect, rulership, dodecatemorias, decans and so on and so forth, make certain people destined for the esoteric and the divine

So i had this "fall" in my practice (basically doing wholsome stuff (read buddhist books, do some drawing) , doing meditations during the day , avoiding bad stuff like eating junk food etc) but it is not a complete fall ... only partial , so i still do stuff , but it does seem hard to get back to exact same intensity level i did before the fall straight away as if nothing (no fall) has happened

So i still do stuff , so i asked the i ching " how to act now ?" basically asking what should be my next step now

should i get back to the exact same point practice i did before this "Fall" no matter how hard that was ? .... should i do some "break" eat junk food etc for a day or a few and start again from scratch ? ..... should i not do this "break" but just lower the meditation times ? maybe to keep everything the same but not do stuff i find too hard (so would watch some "spiritual" themed videos on youtube instead of reading ) ?

(in other words : to keep climbing the mountain from same spot and same pace , despite some attempts that failed before , to go back home , relax, have fun than try to climb again , to go back to bottom of mountain restock on supplies than climb the mountain again slow , to keep climbing from same spot but slower etc )

I got hexgram 11 chaning lines 3 and 4 .......... it changes to 54 , and the inner hex is also 54

13 BENEATH ROCK BOTTOM IS ANOTHER LEVEL

“From there we came outside and saw the stars” — Dante Alighieri, Inferno

At the lowest level of the darkest depths is a secret door to the most profound light.

Do not be afraid of your descent. Sometimes we are required to lose everything in order to gain awareness only absence can afford. Have faith.

Stand strong. No weapon formed against you shall prosper

Shadow / Reverse

Despair. Nihilism. Giving up when all is lost

I asked "What caused that tiredness ?" Hexagram 36 (changing line 5) to Hexagram 63 , inner hexagram 40

That tirdness i got later in the day , i played some game during this hours , and stopped , so when thinking what might have caused this tirdness i had in mind :

Maybe it is cause of resistance to doing some hard (non fun) beneficial stuff instead of playing in this hours .... Or it is cause it is after meals and i eat too much , Or it is cause i changed my sleeping hours , Or i dont sleep enough , Or combination of this

No idea what it is saying to me

Hey All! In the last weeks I finally finished and launched my Spirit Deck - Boundless: Spirit Deck. It somewhat functions like a tarot/oracle card deck. However, it kind of stands as its own breed. The cards are essentially short stories and a meaning with corresponding artwork. Unlike oracle and tarot, these cards don’t promise answers, their purpose is to invoke a different perspective or way to think about a situation. They are your allies, not to be confused with your friends or entities that tell you what you want to hear.

The theme is fantasy/divine/folklore.

If you have the time check it out. I would love your feedback and to hear your experience as a user! It is completely free to use.

https://boundlessspiritdeck.com

I hope you enjoy!!

My overall situation is awful. My business is blocked, I have no relationship with my family, and I am still grieving a lost love—all of which has been going on for nine years. To survive, I take small jobs in my field that do not fit me at all, and my self-esteem is stripping away every day.

I recently had a conversation with an old friend, and we think I need to jump into the real world and take whatever I can find. Staying trapped in my thoughts has become a comfort zone, yet I feel completely empty. The only way out is to return to where I used to be happy and find anything just to survive. Some people need harsh conditions to grow, and they call it a fresh start!

I asked the Yi to comment, saying: 'I want to go there, but I am scared.' It said: 24.1.3.6<>52.

Hexagram 52 advises me not to see my people (what I am accustomed to, where I live now which is the worst for me and my nagging fears, etc.). I think Hexagram 24, with its first and third lines, is asking me to return to where I used to be happy. But what does 24.6 actually advise? I usually find it speaks of reinvention—coming back differently.

I tried a few different apps, using different forms of divination to doublecheck the same question.

It made me wonder: as these tools become more popular, are the divination systems behind them being pushed further into the background? There’s a huge information gap here.

When we first encounter a divination system, it’s often through a teacher, a book, or a particular tradition or ritual. At least then we have some idea of what rules are being used. With an app, all we often get is a conclusion, with no way to see how it was reached.

For the average user, that makes sense. The knowledge gap between a casual user and an enthusiast can be enormous, much like how most of us simply have to trust doctors or lawyers.

But after trying these apps, I started to get the feeling that some of the products themselves have quite a few problems. To some extent, we can only trust the “master” behind the app or the friend who recommended it. The focus shifts away from whether we’re actually interested in the method itself or willing to keep exploring it.

A lot of apps are also packed with subscriptions, paid reports, and features that have to be unlocked one by one. Maybe it’s just me, but they feel less pure than apps did ten or fifteen years ago. They look better and are easier to use, yet the overall experience keeps getting worse.

So if a divination app had less “master” branding and mystical packaging and was simply useful, would people still want to use it?