I CHING & INTUITIVE DIALOGS

 

I offer I Ching classes and consultation. My work with the I Ching grows out of my own experience with the book, as well being a teacher of meditation and creative writing for many years. This work gave me the opportunity to listen - to who people are, to their creative imagination and to their aspirations. The council I provide is founded on deep listening, my experience with the I Ching and the guidance I receive in using the book.

 

 

 

 

WHAT IS THE I CHING?

 

The I Ching may be humanity's most comprehensive book. It is arguably our oldest, with roots preceding the Chinese Xia Dynasty, 2200 - 1800 BCE. One cannot fully understand the I Ching through scholarship alone, much less experience its transformative power. Precisely because the I Ching is more than a book, one must put its advice into action (or non-action). Traditionally called an "oracle," the I Ching is a way of opening our life to a larger system. C. G. Jung called this system synchronicity, “the peculiar interdependence” between ourselves and the events around us." This is also the world of the unconscious, of dreams, of contemplation. It is the world of spirit (or spirits), the world of the dralas. This world is potentially always available to us, ready to support our highest aspirations and activities. The I Ching is door, passage-way and tool. If we have a bit of faith and a bit of courage, the I Ching can speak to us. What matters is the sincerity of our intention and our openness of spirit.

 

 

Decisions and “Greatness”

 

Each day we are faced with countless decisions. Choosing between a green or blue shirt may or may not be of great consequence, but every choice we make has an effect and outcome. Compassion and wisdom are innate only as seeds and must be awakened to during a lifetime. It is only through informed and courageous decisions that our life becomes rewarding and our contribution to the world significant. Greatness is not measured in fame or comparison, but in what we make of what we have.

 

The I Ching has survived for 4,000 years because it is a unique tool for helping us make good decisions. I Ching insight reflects both nature and time. Nature is our potential, becoming who we are. Time is what is possible in this process of becoming. Just as a sunflower can only germinate in spring, reach maturity in summer and yield seeds in autumn, good decisions align who we are with the time we are in, telling us, for example, to begin, continue or retreat. The I Ching helps us make decisions that follow the nature and time of our heart.

 

 

USING THE I CHING

 

Consulting the I Ching occurs is a process of stages. From among the myriad challenges of daily life one forms a request, say: Guidance for traveling to Spain. The question or request is taken out of the the control of one's hopes and fears and made through a random or chance method: tossing of three pennies. We cannot control how the pennies will land, thus a gap occurs in our will or ego, and another possibility is allowed to enter and select the symbols appropriate to our situation. When we study the symbols or hexagrams and apply them, we not only may cut through confusion and make a better decision, we have entered into a expanded relationship with life's possibilities.