XII. - STARTING ON-LINE DIVINATION
The drawing result gives an hexagram of six superposed lines of two qualities, Yang or Yin, binary alphabet composing, in 64 possible arrangements, the I Ching synopsys.
YIN LINE :
YANG LINE :
_ The system of hexagrams is dynamically underlyed by circular changes following the YIN and YANG dialectic, where a young line becomes old then changes again in its opposite (this applies to natural phenomenons ; for instance to the phases of the moon, or to any biologic cycles.) :
o o YOUNG YANG BECOMES OLD YANG
o o OLD YANG CHANGES in YOUNG YIN
o o o o YOUNG YIN BECOMES OLD YIN
o o OLD YIN CHANGES in YOUNG YANG
Moreover, the presence of mutables lines (classically : old lines) in an hexagram indicates a MUTATION (TRANSITION) from an initial SITUATION to an other ;
_ Commentaries associated to these mutable lines counsel on the adequate action that requires the situation ;
_ The significance assigned to every hexagram drifts some features of the moment in its constituent pattern and metaphorises systemic interactions.
Structurally, the 64 hexagrams result from a combination of eight emblems called trigram :
Each of these eight emblems ("Ba Gua") composed of three superposed
lines following, from the bottom to the top, the symbolic triad "Earth
Man Sky", are often displayed in a rose of winds, according to the order
of one or else of the two fundamental cycles specially important in acupuncture (See : cycles of five elements)
and curently used in geomancy :
(posterior order of the world, relative to which is acquired)
(previous order of the world, relative to which is innate)
Hexagrams of Yi King send back to 64 archetypal situations covering the diversity of all human experience. These hexagrams are either determined by chance (by a drawing), and this is the divinatory method, either determined by an intentionally choice, and this is the analytic method.
Both of these methods have the same historic foundation, in a pre-scientific tentative of a "magic" explanation of the universe.
The divinatory empirism calls intuition in the process of taking a decision, the descriptive theory, sometimes reductive, try to predict the evolution of a process, and is employed by Chinese traditional medicine (theory of the five agents or five elements) and for a long time in military strategy and art of war.
The commentaries corresponding (JUDJEMENT, SYMBOL, LINES) are poetic pictures "deducted" of the hexagram profile, just like the name of a constellation from a whole of stars. Therefore they agree with the situation to describe, or match intimately to the foreteller's mind.
Wings for imagination, the polysemy of these symbols help to requalify reality in raising its shade zones, and to singularise the actual situation it in its exact specificity, in such a way than CG Jung noticed their universality, their archetypal power.
In following the recommendations of the ethnologist Marcel Mauss, aiming the cultural context of traditional divination, one discovers a coherent methodology in the decision process that an old text about divination by I Ching describes [*] :
"...To don't make a mistake, when one practice divination, three diviners are solicited and one
follows the advice of two of them. If there is a doubt, consult your heart, consult the officials, consult the people, consult the turtle and the achillea..."
In this process of taking a decision, divination advice represents only two decisive voices among five :
"...In case you say yes, the turtle say yes, the achillea say yes, the officials say yes, the people say yes, it is called great agreement.It is fortunate.
In case you say yes, the turtle say yes, the achillea say yes, the officials say no, the people say no, it is lucky.
In case the people say yes, the turtle say yes, the achillea say yes, you say no, the officials say no, it is lucky.
In case you say yes, the turtle say yes, the achillea say no, the officials say no, the people say no, it is lucky for the interior business and unfortunate for the outside business.
In case the turtle and the achillea desagree with the men, it is lucky for the rest order business and unfortunate for the action order business..."
This protocol of taking decision in traditional divination clearly say that the weight of omen is relative to all information and useful opinion collected.
The two methods ; Achilleomancy (or yarrow stalk drawing) and Scapulomancy (or tortoises shell cracking) were employed together for a long time.
Then the primitive and direct method of scapulomancy, that aimed to interpret directly rights or induced oblique cracks provoqued by FIRE on a turtle shell, disapeared completly to the profit of the second method called achilleomancy or WOOD method, that used fithty achillea stalks, and numerology to interpret the drawing result correspondance in the Book of Changes .
Achilleomancy is based on a drawing. A yarrow stalk is separated at random, one count the rest in one hand, and following this result one gets a Yin or Yang line. This way to proceed is complex and especially more slower than the simplified method using 3 coins sapeqs by six times.
The drawing algorithm of yarrow stalk method is easy to implement on computer. In this way, electronic drawing becomes simple to operate and much more exact than coins method.
A computer simulation evacuates the symbolic dimmension of the body gesture which, although repetitive, tend to encourage calm and auspicious concentration...
[*] "About resolution of doubts", article 7 of the Great Law of the Book of the documents [ Jiyi, Shangshu, Hongfan] (citated by Wang Dongliang in "Les Signes et les Mutations," L'asiathèque, 1995)-
One could say that a particular drawing is a singular event.
Chinese word for chance is "Ou-Peng" (influence echo) ; this means an alternative conception of chance, as wearing information of the entire universe in connexion, to compare with sub-atomic word of modern microphysic where movement, speed, position, time, mater and energy are the same statistical reality of information.
By so, in the instant, drawing result is naturally in coincidence with the question.
This microphysic conception of chance doesn 't change nothing to our daily life reality, except in opening our mind...