Okay, here is my sharing about “i ching ifate” today:
So, I got into this whole I Ching thing recently, right? It’s like, this ancient Chinese way of divining the future, or getting advice, or whatever. Anyway, I heard about it from my friend Sarah, who’s super into all that new-age stuff. She told me you could use it to get answers to questions about your life. I was going through a bit of a rough patch, job-wise, so I thought, “Why not?”
First thing I did was try to get a feel for what this I Ching thing really was. I found this website, iFate, that seemed to have a pretty good handle on it. It had all these explanations of the different hexagrams – which are like, the symbols the I Ching uses – and what they supposedly mean. It was a bit much to take in at first, honestly. There are 64 of these things, and each one is made up of six lines, and each line can be either broken or solid. It’s complicated.
But, the iFate site said it had some modern translation of the original I Ching, which made it a bit easier to understand. They mentioned that the original is full of references to all these old Chinese historical figures, which I definitely don’t know anything about. So, having a more modern take was helpful.
Next, I figured I needed to actually try this out, you know? See if it actually worked. I read somewhere that when you consult the I Ching, you’re supposed to say “please” as part of your question. Like, it’s some ancient custom from way back when. So, I did that. I had this big question about whether I should take this new job offer I got, so I concentrated on that, said “please,” and then I started the process.
- Getting the Coins:
I didn’t have any special I Ching coins, so I just used three regular pennies. I figured it wouldn’t make that much of a difference. Each coin toss represents one line of the hexagram, you’re supposed to do it six times to get the whole thing.
- Tossing and Recording:
I started tossing the coins, one at a time. Two or three heads meant a solid line, two or three tails meant a broken line. I wrote down each line as I went, starting from the bottom, like they told me to.
- Building the Hexagram:
After six tosses, I had my hexagram. It looked kind of like a little tower made of lines, some solid, some broken. It was all very mysterious, to be honest.
- Looking It Up:
Then came the hard part – figuring out what it meant. I went back to the iFate site and found the hexagram that matched the one I’d created. It had some name, and then a whole explanation of what it was supposed to mean in relation to my question.
I have to say, the explanation was kind of vague. It talked about change and transition, and how things were in motion. It wasn’t a direct “yes” or “no” answer, which was a bit frustrating. But, it did give me some things to think about. Like, it made me consider the risks of taking the new job, but also the potential rewards. It also talked about being open to change, which I guess is always good advice.
So, did the I Ching give me a definitive answer about my job situation? Not really. But, it did get me thinking about things in a different way. It was like, a different perspective, you know? And it was kind of fun, doing the whole coin toss thing. I might try it again sometime, maybe with a different question. It’s definitely an interesting experience, even if you don’t totally buy into the whole divination thing.
