The I Ching is one of the 5 main books of ancient and time-honored knowledge from China. There is a large body of philosophical writing built upon it, yet accessing it begins by using it as a seemingly simple Oracle system. The I Ching is unusual for an Oracle system when compared with less-evergreen Western systems, in that its central Principle is to improve ones thoughts and motives behind the deeds you act out in the conscious world. The I Ching can be consulted on a daily basis for guidance, or on a ‘per question’ basis if your needs are more urgent than daily.

Consulting the I Ching:

You simply need to spin 3 coins, 6 times, in order to get a reading from 64 possible Readings. You should consider these 64 Readings like Psalms or passages from a bible: they are to be dwelled upon, in order to draw from your daily reading, some meaning to your current personal situation. Each Reading is a set of short symbolic statements presented to you by this computer program, which will have some relevance to ‘your life’ or ‘a question’ you are currently considering in your own mind. ie. You don’t choose your Reading, the I Ching program does: It is the conduit between the Conscious and the Unconscious, for the one currently most relevent to you right now.

Food for Lateral Thinkers:

For the dominantly rational and/or non-spiritual/ non-religious person, the I Ching has considerably value as an 'idea generator'. ie. Stopping and contemplating the short symbolic sentences in the 'Judgement' and 'Image' paragraphs, can lead you to lateral, previously hidden thoughts about things you’ve been pondering. Much thought by the ancients has gone into the text combinations within the 64 different Readings. And conversely, many modern scholars have drawn significant inspiration at critical times, from consulting the I Ching.

Program User Notes:

For the Quick Start or Past user:

• Press the ‘Start’ button,

• then the ‘Spin’ button, 6 times.

For the Wiser or New User:

• After giving this Java Applet a reasonable amount of time to download into you Browser, press the 'Start' button.

• Then Press the 'Spin' button to cast the 3 coins. What you are after via the coins is the majority face - 2 or 3 of them will be 'heads' or 'tails'... sorry, I mean 'Yin' or 'Yang'. Yin is represented by a broken line/bar, which is drawn on the screen. Yang is represented by an unbroken line (thick yellow bar here).

• Spinning the coins 6 times, stacks up 6 such lines. The group of all 6 is called a Hexagram. (ie. 2 to the power 6 - either Yin or Yang 6 times - gives 64 combinations, hence 64 unique hexagrams.)

• A window then pops up with your personal I Ching reading, via your hexagram.

• Ponder the 'symbolic' statements for a while, and consider whether they offer any good advice, to your current important circumstance or burning question.

• Please tell your friends about this great Java Applet and our Website.

Copyright, Christine Yunn-Yu Sun & Steve Goschnick, 1997.
Solid Software Pty Ltd, Australia, 1997-2006.