My goal for this episode is to explain the idea of divination using the I Ching as an example. I will include a link to the associated podcast episode once it is published.
The I Ching, also known as “the book of changes”, originates from China in mythical antiquity, over 3000 years ago. The version I am looking at is the translation by Richard Wilhelm. He says that Confucianism and Taoism have common roots in the text of the I Ching. It is an ancient text on how to interpret 64 symbols known has hexigrams. The book has been called a “magical book of spells” by some, but this edition by Richard Wilhelm, and the forward by Carl Jung, help to explain how this book of “divination” is more of a philosophy and approach to understanding reality and the human mind.
It is outside of our standard Western views of rationality and causal determinism, but I believe it is possible to understand the concept of divination rationally. It does not require supernatural belief.
I am bringing this topic to the Between Two Raven’s podcast, because of the potential parallels between divination using the I Ching and divination with Runes (if you haven’t yet, please see episodes 7 and 9 on the topic of Runes). There have been few examinations of what is occuring psychologically when someone is divining using the Norse runes, but Jung’s interpretation of the divination process using I Ching may be informative.
Reading runes is a less standardized practice compared to the I Ching. The interpretations are unique to the individual person reading the runes. But I hope the theory of divination underlying Runes may be informed by what has been examined by the Chinese within the I Ching for over 3000 years.
I hope a relatively rational exploration of a topic like divination doesn’t take away from the significance of the practice, rather I hope it opens up the idea of divination to more people in our modern secular culture, to consider finding meaning in the process.
I’ve mentioned on the show before, the idea of reading runes as a Sedir magic practice which is referred to in myths and sagas. There is also historical documentation of the practice going back to the year 100 CE by the Roman historian Tacitus ad his study of the Germanic people.
Reading runes is a modern spirituality practice for some heathens, pagans, or other believers in magic or what might be called new age spirituality.
There are numerous books you can buy and read on how to understand the runes and how to do rune readings as a process to divine some type of knowledge or wisdom. There is no universal agreement on how to read runes. To a large extent the process was lost to history as pagans were persecuted by the Christian church throughout middle ages.
That’s the risk with an oral tradition of mystical wisdom, it is only reserved for a select few who have the wisdom and desire to learn it.
Modern authors have to reconstruct the process from fragments of history and mythology. Some of the authors I have read suggest that knowledge of nature, mythology, and archetypal images help to inform the process of interpreting and making meaning from the symbols.
This contrasts with the I Ching, where the text on learning to interpret symbols is documented to trace back 3000 years.
A simplified way to describe the process of divining runes, is to consider taking a bag of 24 runes carved on wood, bone, or stones, put them in a bag, and then pull out 3 runes at random.
What each rune means is important. You, the reader, have to determine what each rune means, as well as the meaning of the relationship between any 3 runes. Then knowing yourself and your life situation, what they must mean to you.
The randomization process seems important. You can think of this as fate determining what message is presented. You could also choose to view it as purely random, a chaos that your chaotic unconscious mind will attempt to map on to.
This is Jung’s concept of synchronicity. A meaningful coincidence. Yes scientifically it is technically just a coincidence. But can I find meaning in it?
This is the practice I have been advocating throughout the podcast, studying myths to learn to practice symbolic thinking. The language of dreams, poetry, and the unconscious. It is the language in which your unconscious mind speaks. So you can learn to communicate with these messages from your inner self. Or you can ignore the messages, until the unconscious directs your actions in a way you can no longer ignore.
I’m going to describe an example of divining using the I Ching and then come back to how this all might relate to runes.
Carl Jung wrote a foreword to the version of the I Ching translated from Chinese to German by Richard Wilhelm, and then from German to English by C.F. Baynes.
The reason for a translation from German to English, rather than directly from Chinese to English, is that Wilhelm was such a scholar of both the Chinese Language and the philosophical underpinnings of the I Ching. His version captures a unique understanding of I Ching by a Westerner informed by his personal relationships with Chinese scholars who still had a connection to the tradition and lineage of the ancient art. He learned from scholars who understood it as a living art, rather than purely a reconstruction of an ancient technique.
The images in the I Ching, are related to daoism, a spirituality underlying Chinese Medicine, the ideas of Yin and Yang, as primal energies of dark and light. Another way to say that is the difference between potential energy and kinetic energy. The Yin and Yang can be divided into 4 or 5 elements. Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind, or including Metal, or Wood, depending on the theory. These elements are symbols. Where Yin and Yang can be considered dark and light, cold and heat, the 4 or 5 elements are much like the seasons spring, summer, fall, and winter. Relatively increasing or decreasing in energy.
In the I Ching the 64 images, called hexagrams, are made up of pairs combining eight “trigrams”.
The trigram symbols are Heaven, wind, fire, mountain, marsh, water, thunder, and ground.
The hexagram symbols in the book of changes provide images of what is in the process of change, when one trigram changes to another, or stays the same.
When some people hear the word divination, I imagine they think of it as predicting the future. Divination in this system is not exactly predicting the future. It is not telling about a future or present state, but rather giving an image of what is currently in the process of changing. The moment that is getting ready to change.
In Jung’s analysis of the “Chinese mind” which created the I Ching, the book is concerned with “the chance aspect” of reality. Rather than the cause and effect laws of nature as in Western science, what about the variability around what happens on average.
Rather than the question of what can be predicted by theoretical laws, I Ching asks what IS, in this unique moment.
In modern philosophy this is known as phenomenology. Looking to an individual or within one’s self for what IS. Using the I Ching is seeking wisdom as to the complex reality of the present moment that cannot be perfectly predicted by cause and effect. It is not a supernatural process to predict a future that no one can know for certain. It is providing a canvas to project the non-rational intuition of the mind to say “what is really important about what is happening right now?”
I hope that makes sense. It is certainly an abstract process.
To determine a trigram, a person flips 3 coins 3 times. Then they flip 3 coins another 3 times to get the second trigram. Looking up the pattern in the I Ching, gives a hexagram, an image with associated poetic imagery.
Whatever random pattern of heads and tails emerges, once it is cast, that is the only image that actually happened. It is no longer an uncertain future, but rather the only combination that was fated to occur at this moment.
But what does it mean? That is the question.
Jung provides an example where he asks a question to the book the I Ching. He admits it is a strange thing to ask a question of a book, but he figures it is worth a shot. “What does the book think about its present situation in the world?” Jung receives the symbol “the cauldron” Jung, speaking for the book, interprets that the cauldron’s image of food and nourishment, represents the book believing itself to be a source of spiritual nourishment.
There are further details to the process, when the less probable occurrences of obtaining 3 heads or 3 tails appears, there is a “change” in the image. It gives you a slightly different interpretation than if you had the more probable event.
Jung explains that it is not necessary to take a superstitious perspective and believe the book is truly talking. Rather Jung admits his mind is making efforts to make meaning and find significance in the result he received.
Jung also says the ritual of using the I Ching should not be used too skeptically or frivolously. Approaching the process as meaning-less would defeat the purpose and potential of finding meaning in it.
My interpretation of Jung’s take on the I Ching, is that it is a good exercise for having an open mind. An exercise in making meaning and finding meaning where there could be none. That is something I think we need more of in the world.
He also says the responses from interpreting the I Ching may help a person to identify “psychological blind spots”, the thing they are not wanting to recognize.
It is also an exercise like interpreting a dream, or interpreting a myth. I’ve used the I Ching several times with some interesting results. Mostly I’ve learned that I’m not very good at asking the right question. The first response I got I found quite profound. The second attempt I asked a question which upon reflection seemed to be a stupid question. I received the exactly identical response for 18 coin flips as I had in the first reading. I took this to mean that I’m asking the wrong question and I need to pay more attention to the first response.
I find the question “what is it I need to be paying attention to right now?” gives me room to find a meaningful interpretation. Asking for specific advice about a course of action seems to give me answers that say “you’re not asking the right question.”
So let’s try to ask a specific question. What is the direction for the podcast?
HTH, THT, HHH, / HTT, THT, THH
I got a solid line, open line, and a solid line which was all Heads, which is significant. Then open line, open line, open line. The lower portion is trigram ‘Li’ “The clinging, fire.” The upper portion is ‘Ken’ “Keeping Still, mountain.”
Combined this is hexagram 22 ‘Pi’ or ‘Grace’.
“This hexagram shows a fire that breaks out of the secret depths of the earth and blazing up, illuminates and beautifies the mountain. Grace, beauty of form, is necessary in any union if it is to be well ordered and pleasing rather than disorganized and chaotic.”
I’m going to predict Shawn’s joke here. “A burning mountain. Great. Our show is a giant dumpster fire.”
But in all seriousness, it sounds like the I Ching thinks well of our podcast. That the podcast has grown, “like spreading wild fire” it is certainly growing faster than Shawn or I expected when we started our first episode. That we try to illuminate, find wisdom, in Norse Mythology seems fitting as well.
The I Ching continues:
“Grace has success.
In small matters
It is favorable to undertake something.”
This is a particularly interesting one as I started writing this episode in early May 2022 and several opportunities have opened up for me, that I will talk about more in future episodes. It truly has come to pass that the podcast has gained attention and created opportunities for Shawn and myself that I only could have vaguely guessed at when I consulted the I Ching.
The commentary in Richard Wilhelm’s editing notes that Grace and beauty are necessary to make something truly great, but they are not the whole picture. The strength (to me: fortitude, dedication, hard work) is the substance, the mountain, that makes a thing work.
A way to say this in modern language is that you need both luck and hard work to achieve greatness. Either one alone is not enough.
From the I Ching:
“Fire at the foot of the mountain:
The image of GRACE.
Thus does the superior man proceed
When clearing up current affairs.
But he dare not decide controversial issues in this way.”
My interpretations of Wilhelm’s commentary, The light of the fire brings attention to the situation, but fire burns out quickly. Determination, seriousness, and hard work are needed to capitalize on the attention. Strike while the iron is hot, would be my way to say it.
So the coin flips give the result of an image of a mountain with a fire at the base. It is interpreted by the books’s author as beauty or the “grace” needed to capitalize on an opportunity.
It is also worth noting the effect of getting a solid line as a result of 3 heads in a row. A rarer occurrence than 2 heads, one tail. This is called a “nine in the third place,” and gives the reading:
“Graceful and moist.
Constant perseverance brings good fortune.”
The interpretations from Wilhelm:
“A very charming life situation. One is under the spell of grace.” Grace can make things better (an adornment) but we can also sink into passivity, thus the need to maintain perseverance even given the good luck.
So then it is up to me to interpret how does this relate to my life and the question I asked.
“What is the direction for the podcast?”
The podcast has been something quite fortunate for Shawn and I. We both enjoy creating it, it is an opportunity to appreciate beauty in old poetry. We have to strike a balance bringing different perspectives to the project. It is a bit grandiose to say it is like a burning mountain, a shining beacon that brings attention and interest. It brings beauty to other people, certainly something needed in the world as we hope to arrive to an end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Going forward, we have to strike a balance, it continues to take commitment, but also balance to not burn our selves out. There is a great deal of material we can talk about regarding Norse Mythology and we can keep it going as long it seems beneficial, and it will likely continue to be beneficial for us in return.
So How does a modern person make sense of the I Ching and the whole idea of divination?
In some ways it is a bit like astrology, where the answers given are vague enough that it allows you to project the communication from your unconscious onto the image.
It could be taken as unserious superstition and irrational thinking, but there is also room for taking the process seriously, as an opportunity to ask what is my unconscious mind up to, that I might not otherwise be willing to see.
I like the I Ching because half the process has already been done. I do not need to understand the symbols of the trigrams at the level of an expert, or understand how each interrelates. I only consult the scholars who claimed to truly understand.
But then I take that image, and look into my unconscious and decide what it might mean for me, in the present moment.
So what does this have to do with Norse Mythology?
I don’t think I have sufficient wisdom or understanding of the individual runes to create readings for myself or others. Let alone identifying what it may mean for the combination of any 3 given runes to show up in a particular order.
But hopefully if you are someone interested in divining from the runes, my explanation of the I Ching will interest you and might inform your practice or enhance your ability to derive meaning from the runes.
And if you have no personal interest in divination at all, then hopefully my summary of Carl Jung’s estimation of the psychological significance of divination gives some explanation of what is going on for someone who is doing divination. Rather than pure superstition, it can be seen as a process of greater personal understanding of the unconscious mind, the collective unconscious, and making meaning.
Between Two Ravens: A Norse Mythology Podcast 
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