Ask Fili for an I Ching reading (Classic of Changes):
Faced with many pathways in a world that is so much bigger than us, it’s helpful to have a way look beyond our limited thought patterns, and connect to a broader, ancient view of reality. This is the idea behind in the 3000 year development of the famous I Ching (Yìjīng) or ‘Classic of Changes’ — an ancient text and divination method that has its roots in the lands and ancient cultures of present-day China.
What is Divination? Divination is often defined as a way of fortune-telling or seeing the future. A more literal definition of divination is a system of intuitive insight and guidance, which pays attention to the flow of manifestations (symbolic, energetic, literal) of the world around you. Regardless of our spiritual leanings, we can all likely relate to the value of spending time with our feelings and intuition - and that’s the basis of this practice.
How the readings work
In keeping with the tradition of the Changes, we / Fili are offering readings as an intuitive aid to help with questions and decisions in life. This works similar to a tarot reading, but uses a very different system.
If you have a question or situation you would like to get clarity on, you can send us/Fili a request using the form above. There are a few methods we can use — coin and digital methods can be completed over email, or we can book a yarrow session, meeting up online or in-person. After making your reading, we will write down our observations in a written chart, and send it to you, and we can also book a brief follow-up call to clarify anything.
We are currently offering the readings by-donation, according to your means, and any amount is welcome. You can send an e-transfer or paypal transfer after the reading has been sent.
Different kinds of readings
There are 3 main types of reading that we/Fili can offer:
- Digital - in this approach we will generate the coins digitally using a computerise coin flip. Though it is not traditional, it is easy to make and we have found it generates very precise results.
- Coins - a more traditional material approach is to draw the reading using three coins. We use a set of 3 bronze coins dating from the Song Dynasty for this.
- Yarrow - this is one of the oldest way of drawing the readings using a set of 50 handmade stalks of the Yarrow plant (Achillea Millefolium). We use a set of stalks that we gathered and dried by hand near Percé, Québec.
In the first two methods (digital and coins), you can simply send a question and we/F will prepare a reading and a chart with specific insights and readings that relate to your question.
On the other hand if we want to use the Yarrow method, it is best to meet up — either in person, or over a video call — and do a small ritual to open and close the space. It takes just over an hour to complete. This slow and spacious work is intentional, allowing for deeper intuitive messages to come through. It is valuable for questions that need special care and insight.
The text and intepretation
Just like Chinese characters of this text, the I Ching is very visual in nature. We can think of it as an ancient picture book — transmitting understandings of land, wisdom, spirit, morals and cosmology. Likely the product of many authors since pre-history, the system contains an archive of ancestral sayings and wisdom that still resonates in the present day.
Divination using the Book of Changes consists of drawing up a hexagram — a symbol with six lines. This image represents the situation you are faced with. Each line can have a yin quality (broken line) or yang quality (solid line). An interpreter is able to draw reading based on how these relate to your question.
Each hexagram and each line have a piece of classical text associated to it. You can go quite deep into the interpretation of the meanings. When preparing a reading, we'll prepare some notes exploring deeper interpretations on the lines, and you can keep these for ongoing reference! We’ll also offer an introduction to the symbolism interpretation process, and would be glad to answer any questions you may have.
Our approach It’s important to acknowledge that though our mother is Han Chinese, we/Fili grew up in rural Ontario in Canada, such that we barely speak Mandarin, and we can hardly consider ourselves an expert on Chinese classics! That said, this practice has been a meaningful way for us to reconnect with our ancestry, we have done our best to carefully study the meaning and etymology of these ancient writings for several years, looking also at the wider historical context and philosophical framework of the tradition.
When preparing a reading, we draw directly from the original classical Chinese — known for its ambiguity and associative grammar. We draw on interpretations of the ancient characters, as well as what we have read on the ancestral spiritual and ritual context of the Changes.
We base our readings in the most popular Qing dynasty version of the text, which comes with a substantial body of traditional analysis including the famous ‘Ten Wings’ attributed to Confucius. Over the past years we have slowly been making our own translation of this text, feeling into what our ancestors from the earliest historical periods of China (Xia, Shang, and Zhou) might have to share in these matters.
We usually think of I Ching as specifically ‘Chinese’— but it’s worth considering that divination traditions which developed by many peoples — living in cultures that predated China as a nation or empire. The story of these cultures were defined by their navigation of political and ecological catastrophes, the presence of plural tongues and ways of writing and knowing, animistic understandings of matter, crafts that combine intuition and technique, and a proactive awareness and engagement with the lands they lived in.
The lessons we can learn from these ancestors, we feel, resonate strongly with the times we are living today.
Read more
Here are a few resources to learn more on the background and context of this tradition:
Wikipedia: I Ching Divination
Video: Benebell Wen - What is the I Ching (Yijing) Book of Changes?
Past Readings
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