Dear Rasheed,
My apologies for not elaborating on the use of yarrow stalks and cyclical
reading.
Yarrow stalks are the stalks of the herb, yarrow which the traditional
Taoist masters would grow as part of their apothecary. The stalks are cut
and rubbed smooth at lengths of between 8 and 14 inches. These are used to
consult the I Ching by taking fifty stalks, removing 1 (one theory is that
the one removed witnesses the consultation), then manipulating the remaining
49 stalks a total of 18 times (six sets of three manipulations), meditating
during each manipulation, then recording the results of each set of
manipulations to develop a hexagram of yin and yang lines which will refer
to one of the 64 accomplished gua. Sometimes, a set of manipulations of the
stalks will result in an old yin line or an old yang line, in which case,
that day's reading will involve two accomplished guas formed by the changing
of old yin lines into new yang lines and vice-versa. When this happens, one
of the six lines of the original accomplished gua is consulted to understand
the inherent change. The lines of the hexagram are numbered one through six
starting with the bottom line. Regarding the actual recording of the results
of manipulating the stalks, Master Huang's book provides a very
comprehensive tutorial, including the method of reading multiple changing
lines as taught to him when he was a novice. Also, there are numerous
web-sites that describe it in some detail. Today, in addition to growing
your own yarrow stalks, they can be purchased in bundles at, of all places,
amazon.com. However, I can tell you from personal experience that if you
wander through the Chinatowns of the major cities of the West in search of
yarrow stalks, even among the herbal apothecaries, they seem to have no idea
what you are requesting or why.
Regarding cyclical reading, the I Ching is literally the "book of changes."
The universe is constantly dynamic because it always changes. The beauty of
the I Ching is that it is a mirror of the universe and all change that will
occur is addressed within the text of the I Ching. However, that change will
not occur in the order in which the I Ching is written (chapters 1-64) but
rather through the seemingly random order that is revealed through the
manipulation of the yarrow stalks. You will see the natural changes in a
given day resulting from the conversion of old yin and yang lines, as well
as the changes from day-to-day. For this reason, it is important to keep a
permanent record of each days results for your personal study.
I hope that I have provided some clarification to these terms and I
certainly welcome any other questions that you may have.
The Bard
----- Original Message -----
From: <HisSheedness@aol.com>
To: <moq_discuss@moq.org>
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2001 8:29 PM
Subject: Re: MD The I Ching in day-to-day practise!
> Thracian,
>
> Thanks for the post. Im actually reading the Thomas Cleary translation as
of
> now but i might check out the one you mentioned soon. ANd what in the
world
> is a yarrow stalk anyway? Im not sure there is anything in my intro about
> manipulating the stalks, but maybe i overlooked it. ANd how do you read
it
> cyclically? The only thing is that i have no problems or conflicts to face
at
> the moment (it's summer) and thus no way to utilize the I Ching. LIke the
> masters say, it's always easier to find stillness in meditation than in
the
> midst of life. But I'll try anyway, and hopefully be able to actually
> experience it instead of just studying it. thanks again.
>
> Rasheed
>
>
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