Three Old CoinsHexagramsCalculatorPricingConsult the I Ching for free
You cast three coins six times, and the way they land decides each line of your hexagram.
Online, free and without ads, with a guide if it's your first time.
What is the I Ching
The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is a three-thousand-year-old Chinese book you consult by casting coins. Its 64 texts describe situations we all live through, and the coins choose which one is yours to read.
Confucius read it so often that the leather cords binding his copy broke three times. Jung used it for more than thirty years, and Philip K. Dick wrote The Man in the High Castle consulting it to decide the plot.
How it works
- 1Think of your situationA decision, a relationship, something you do not know how to face. If you like, write it down.
- 2Cast the coins six timesEach throw gives one line, and the six form your hexagram. The coins land with the same odds as three in your hand. How we checked
- 3Read what the book saysThe text of your hexagram and of the lines that change, with a guide if it is your first time.
Questions
What this is
No. Tarot is a deck of images and depends on whoever interprets it. The I Ching is a book that describes 64 situations, each with a written text that is the same for everyone. In China it was studied for about two thousand years as one of the core books, alongside those of Confucius.
No. It describes the situation you are in and how it is wise to act in it. When a text speaks of good or bad fortune, it means where a way of acting leads, not a fixed fate. That is why it almost always comes with advice.
Because chance only picks the text. What helps is what the text says. Each one describes a particular situation (a conflict, a wait, a hard beginning) and how it is wise to act in it. Reading it with your matter in mind makes you consider something you were not looking at.
The I Ching is not a religion. It has no worship and no beliefs to accept. What Christian churches reject is divination, that is, claiming to know the future, and here nothing is predicted or invoked. You cast coins and read a text for reflection. If the doubt remains, take it to whoever guides you in your faith.
From China. Its oldest part was written about three thousand years ago, and over the centuries commentaries were added, among them those attributed to the school of Confucius. Its name means "Book of Changes". In the West it spread in the twentieth century through Richard Wilhelm's translation.
Before you cast
You do not need to write it or say it. It is enough to keep in mind what troubles you while you cast. It works better with a particular matter than with general curiosity.
Yes. Each coin spins, bounces and falls, and the result is read from how it came to rest. It has the same odds as three coins in your hand, and none is thrown by itself. Casting three coins is the traditional method, in use for centuries.
What you receive
Yes. Casting the coins, seeing your hexagram and reading the book's text cost nothing, and there are no ads. The only paid part is the interpretation of your cast.
Not to consult or to read the book. The account is for keeping your readings, with no limit, and for the interpretation.
Afterwards
Each part of the result says what it is for, and the guide takes you through the book in the order it is read. If some lines come out marked as moving, they show what is changing in your situation and form a second hexagram, which shows where it is heading.
Yes, for another matter or when the situation has changed. Repeating the same consultation right away does not help. The book itself warns about it in one of its texts, where it stops answering whoever asks the same thing two and three times.
When you feel the moment has come.