Okay, so today I decided to mess around with the I Ching, specifically hexagram 62, which is all about “Small Preponderance” or “Little Exceeding.” I’ve dabbled in the I Ching before, but never really systematically recorded my process. Figured I’d change that today.
Getting Started
First things first, I needed to generate the hexagram. I don’t have actual yarrow stalks, so I went with the coin method. Much easier, though maybe not as “authentic.” Whatever, it works. I grabbed three coins from my desk drawer – all US quarters, just because.
Then, I started flipping. Heads is 3, tails is 2. Simple enough. I flipped each coin, one at a time, and jotted down the values. Six times, because, you know, six lines in a hexagram.
- First toss: 2,3,3 = 8
- Second toss:2,2,2, = 6
- Third toss: 3,3,2 =8
- Fourth toss: 2,2,3 = 7
- Fifth toss: 3,2,2 = 7
- Sixth toss: 2,3,2 = 7
Building the Hexagram
Okay, so now I had my numbers: 8, 6, 8, 7, 7, 7. Time to turn those into lines. Even numbers are broken (yin) lines, odd numbers are solid (yang) lines. And, importantly, you build the hexagram from the bottom up. So, my sequence translated to:
- Solid Line (7)
- Solid Line (7)
- Solid Line (7)
- Broken Line (8)
- Broken Line, changing to yang(6)
- Broken Line (8)
And that’s it. I had generated hexagram 62, with a changing line, the second line from the button.
Making a Note and Reflecting
I looked to another book and I found the I Ching talked about, prudence, be careful of my action and so on. I think it is important for me to keep my head cool today. I am trying, I must take it seriously.
So, yeah, that was my I Ching experiment for the day. A bit of a process, but kind of meditative in its own way. Maybe I’ll keep doing this and see if it leads anywhere interesting. It’s all about the small steps, right? Like the hexagram itself says.
