I know you've heard about yarrow stalks being the 'pure' way of doing I Ching readings.
And you may have some experience with throwing coins to cast your readings.
But, the truth is, you don't need to do your I Ching readings with either of those methods.
I'm here to tell you about how simple, self-created index cards can get the job done, faster, and potentially more accurately.
If you're not sold, let me first tell you about the benefits I've experienced from doing readings with my deck since creating it in the summer of 2022.
The Benefits I've Received From Doing I Ching Readings With Cards
1) It's Silent
As someone that has memories of a very annoyed girlfriend that had to hear copper clanging together at all hours of the night, I can tell you that silently shuffling a deck can be a good way to maintain an I Ching addiction while respecting someone's sleep.
2) It's Faster
While I recommend doing decently intensive shuffling to maintain the integrity of your readings, it is much faster than shaking three pennies six times for one reading.
Yes, yes, maybe it's more meaningful, significant and addiction-deterring for the process to be more difficult, but after a year of doing readings with my deck, there's been no drop-off in accuracy, and maybe actually an increase.
Which brings me to benefit three:
3) It's Potentially More Accurate
I remember reading what someone wrote about doing a bunch of tests for the mathematical accuracy of I Ching readings with coins, trying to find the perfect way to do readings, and while I'd say that I don't think there will ever be a 'perfect' method, I have started to think that a card deck is more accurate than coins.
Why?
With the way I've constructed my deck (which you'll read about below), I've found that it's much more common for me to get readings with four, five, or six changing lines.
In year after year of doing readings with pennies, I got six changing lines perhaps once.
With cards, there's been many instances.
With this fact, it may be true that readings with coins make your resulting readings 'simpler', I personally believe that if you get six changing lines (and the transitional lines associated with them), then that means they're pertinent to your question.
And even with five or six changing lines, I've found my answers to be extremely relevant to the situation I'm in that I asked a question about.
And number two: if I'm getting a greater variation in the number of changing lines I receive, that gives me more faith in the method.
4) It Can Give You Extra Information At A Glance
When you see how I construct the deck below, you'll see that I add in trigram and elemental information on to the cards.
This allows me to pull two cards for my reading and see which trigrams are present in a reading, which also allows me to gain more experience in seeing how the different elements can play out in a situation.
The value you personally get from this may be different, but it's helpful to have it at the ready.
5) It Allows For Experimentation
When you have an I Ching deck, knock yourself out: do a Celtic Cross like you would with some Tarot cards.
Pull a card for each hour of your day.
Because the time it takes to do a reading is cut in half (at the least and possible cut by three-quarters), you can experiment and come up with new ways of learning from the I Ching.
That's one of the most exciting things about it: in a world full of stale hippie ideas about the I Ching, you can free yourself from superstitious constraints about the 'right' way to consult the oracle.
It's certainly been fun for me to do so.
But let's get into the making of the deck.
How To Make Your I Ching Deck
Creating this deck is actually pretty simple, so let's get into it.
1) Get 140 Index Cards
You'll want these to be college ruled, preferably, so one side is blank and one side has lines.
This is helpful simply to distinguish fronts from backs.
2) Create Your I Ching Deck
Find yourself an image showing every hexagram of the I Ching, like this.
Use the bonus section to have the trigram information in front of you.
Then make your cards look like this.
*But*, you'll want to make each hexagram card twice, with the same information.
Ex: Two hexagram 15 cards, two hexagram 40 cards, etc. like it's Noah's Ark
Finally, you'll want to add 12 blank cards to your final deck.
3) Why We Do It This Way
You want double of every hexagram (two hexagram 12's, two of hexagram 13, etc.) because you want to give yourself a fair shot of having an unchanging hexagram.
You also want 12 blanks to give yourself an even fairer shot of getting an unchanging hexagram.
4) How To Do Readings With Your Deck
For a traditional I Ching reading with your deck: You always pull two cards.
If you get two of the same hexagram, consider that an unchanging reading for that hexagram.
If you get one hexagram and one blank, also consider that an unchanging hexagram reading.
If you get one hexagram (22) for your first pull, and a second hexagram (54) for your second, consider the reading to be 22.2.3.4.6 > 54, with hexagram 54 being the 'relating hexagram' or 'context' of the reading. Please see my Strategic Divination post if you're confused by that terminology.
A quick way to see what changing lines resulted from your two-card/hexagram pull is to check here and enter those two hexagrams into the dropdown menu.
This will also give you the transitional lines for the reading. If you have no idea what a transitional line is, again, check out the Strategic Divination post and ctrl+f for "transitional."
Of course, you can also simply look at the hexagram image on each card, and see where each line changes, but I'd recommend the automatic online version of doing this to simplify your life.
Until I write a book with my personal interpretations for each hexagram and line, I'd recommend a simple, and great translation of the I Ching, by James Legge, which you can find here.
You can also check Bradford Hatcher's translations here.
Wrapping It Up
It's really that simple.
You can make your life a lot easier by doing your I Ching readings with cards.
I know that I don't have much interest in going back to pennies, as much as I appreciate their years of service.
I hope that by creating your own deck, and possibly showing others this post, we can build the I Ching community, and help to get others experimenting with an oracle that's three-thousand years old, in this world dominated by Tarot and Astrology.
And I wish you all as much success I've had in using my own deck.
Bonus: Trigram Information For The 64 Hexagrams
—
The Trigrams
Heaven
- Busyness
Earth
- Receptivity
Water
- Emotions
Thunder
- Shock
Mountain
- Stability
Wind
- Subtlety/Subtle Influence
Lake
- Indulgence/Socializing
Fire
- Visibility/Action
--
Hexagram 1
Upper Trigram: Heaven
Lower Trigram: Heaven
--
Hexagram 2
Upper Trigram: Earth
Lower Trigram: Earth
--
Hexagram 3
Upper Trigram: Water
Lower Trigram: Thunder
--
Hexagram 4
Upper Trigram: Mountain
Lower Trigram: Water
--
Hexagram 5
Upper Trigram: Water
Lower Trigram: Heaven
--
Hexagram 6
Upper Trigram: Heaven
Lower Trigram: Water
--
Hexagram 7
Upper Trigram: Earth
Lower Trigram: Water
--
Hexagram 8
Upper Trigram: Water
Lower Trigram: Earth
--
Hexagram 9
Upper Trigram: Wind
Lower Trigram: Heaven
--
Hexagram 10
Upper Trigram: Heaven
Lower Trigram: Lake
--
Hexagram 11
Upper Trigram: Earth
Lower Trigram: Heaven
--
Hexagram 12
Upper Trigram: Heaven
Lower Trigram: Earth
--
Hexagram 13
Upper Trigram: Heaven
Lower Trigram: Fire
--
Hexagram 14
Upper Trigram: Fire
Lower Trigram: Heaven
--
Hexagram 15
Upper Trigram: Earth
Lower Trigram: Mountain
--
Hexagram 16
Upper Trigram: Thunder
Lower Trigram: Earth
--
Hexagram 17
Upper Trigram: Lake
Lower Trigram: Thunder
--
Hexagram 18
Upper Trigram: Mountain
Lower Trigram: Wind
--
Hexagram 19
Upper Trigram: Earth
Lower Trigram: Lake
--
Hexagram 20
Upper Trigram: Wind
Lower Trigram: Earth
--
Hexagram 21
Upper Trigram: Fire
Lower Trigram: Thunder
--
Hexagram 22
Upper Trigram: Mountain
Lower Trigram: Fire
--
Hexagram 23
Upper Trigram: Mountain
Lower Trigram: Earth
--
Hexagram 24
Upper Trigram: Earth
Lower Trigram: Thunder
--
Hexagram 25
Upper Trigram: Heaven
Lower Trigram: Thunder
--
Hexagram 26
Upper Trigram: Mountain
Lower Trigram: Heaven
--
Hexagram 27
Upper Trigram: Mountain
Lower Trigram: Thunder
--
Hexagram 28
Upper Trigram: Lake
Lower Trigram: Wind
--
Hexagram 29
Upper Trigram: Water
Lower Trigram: Water
--
Hexagram 30
Upper Trigram: Fire
Lower Trigram: Fire
--
Hexagram 31
Upper Trigram: Lake
Lower Trigram: Mountain
--
Hexagram 32
Upper Trigram: Thunder
Lower Trigram: Wind
--
Hexagram 33
Upper Trigram: Heaven
Lower Trigram: Mountain
--
Hexagram 34
Upper Trigram: Thunder
Lower Trigram: Heaven
--
Hexagram 35
Upper Trigram: Fire
Lower Trigram: Earth
--
Hexagram 36
Upper Trigram: Earth
Lower Trigram: Fire
--
Hexagram 37
Upper Trigram: Wind
Lower Trigram: Fire
--
Hexagram 38
Upper Trigram: Fire
Lower Trigram: Lake
--
Hexagram 39
Upper Trigram: Water
Lower Trigram: Mountain
--
Hexagram 40
Upper Trigram: Thunder
Lower Trigram: Water
--
Hexagram 41
Upper Trigram: Mountain
Lower Trigram: Lake
--
Hexagram 42
Upper Trigram: Wind
Lower Trigram: Thunde
--
Hexagram 43
Upper Trigram: Lake
Lower Trigram: Heaven
--
Hexagram 44
Upper Trigram: Heaven
Lower Trigram: Wind
--
Hexagram 45
Upper Trigram: Lake
Lower Trigram: Earth
--
Hexagram 46
Upper Trigram: Earth
Lower Trigram: Wind
--
Hexagram 47
Upper Trigram: Lake
Lower Trigram: Water
--
Hexagram 48
Upper Trigram: Water
Lower Trigram: Wind
--
Hexagram 49
Upper Trigram: Lake
Lower Trigram: Fire
--
Hexagram 50
Upper Trigram: Fire
Lower Trigram: Wind
--
Hexagram 51
Upper Trigram: Thunder
Lower Trigram: Thunder
--
Hexagram 52
Upper Trigram: Mountain
Lower Trigram: Mountain
--
Hexagram 53
Upper Trigram: Wind
Lower Trigram: Mountain
--
Hexagram 54
Upper Trigram: Thunder
Lower Trigram: Lake
--
Hexagram 55
Upper Trigram: Thunder
Lower Trigram: Fire
--
Hexagram 56
Upper Trigram: Fire
Lower Trigram: Mountain
--
Hexagram 57
Upper Trigram: Wind
Lower Trigram: Wind
--
Hexagram 58
Upper Trigram: Lake
Lower Trigram: Lake
--
Hexagram 59
Upper Trigram: Wind
Lower Trigram: Water
--
Hexagram 60
Upper Trigram: Water
Lower Trigram: Lake
--
Hexagram 61
Upper Trigram: Wind
Lower Trigram: Lake
--
Hexagram 62
Upper Trigram: Thunder
Lower Trigram: Mountain
--
Hexagram 63
Upper Trigram: Water
Lower Trigram: Fire
--
Hexagram 64
Upper Trigram: Fire
Lower Trigram: Water
--