History
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I Ching translated as the
Book of Changes is used as a form of divination
to determine the changing forces that are
happening around a given situation. As with
many ancient divination techniques it originally
began with perceiving patterns in the surrounding
environment and at a later date was formalised
and commited to writing. Unlike the origins
of runes and ogam, I Ching is accredited
to an inspired mortal rather than a God,
in this case Fu Hsi first emperor of China.
The I Ching has went through many ammendments
each time becoming more formalised and easier
to read.
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The I ching consists of the
two complementary opposites, yin and yang.
These represent odd / even, masculine / feminine,
positive / negative, day / night. In ancient
times yin was the shaded north side of a hill,
whereas yang was the sunny south side. Yang
governs all things masculine, positive, heaven,
hard, moving and living. Yin governs all things
feminine, negative, earthly, soft, static
and non-living.
The I ching consist of Yin and Yang but these
are said to have gave birth to the four primary
symbols. An extra line is then added to each
of these symbols to create the eight trigrams
which relate to the eight directions of space.
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| To the side
are the eight trigrams arranged in the Former
Heaven Sequence. To see any of the trigram
meanings click on the relevant symbol. |
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