The Trigram Oracle
八卦兆 Bagua Zhao

      

Now and the future

八 [bā] 8, 卦 [guà] trigram, hexagram, 兆 [zhào] omen, million, mega.

  Very often the future does not come from elsewhere. It is embedded in us, in our soul, our wishes and hopes and fears. We influence the future based on our own character and intentions, and less often based on a change entirely beyond our control.
  "The naming of qualities is an invoking." (Havi Brooks)
  Naming or imagining qualities is strong, especially 'seeing' them. Our hearts understand images better than words. That's why dreams are like movies.
  Trigrams are images of primal qualities. Not of what we do, but 'how' we do it in our heart. Enthused, with fear, tentatively. But the strongest of all is faith that this is what will happen.

  Of course, countless things happen that we have no influence on and that happen to us or our environment. This oracle may be able to anwer about this kind of 'objective' or outside future, and then it would be most of all fortune-telling. But most of the time we consult the oracle because we want to know what will happen to ourselves or to what we are working on, and that depends for a very large part on our own involvement.

  You cast two trigrams. The first is the 'now' situation. The circumstances, possibilities, other people, but also what keeps us physically or mentally in its power. All together the 'field'. You can't hope to fly if you don't have wings. It is called 'Hui': regret; reflection on thoughts and behavior; error or disaster; setback. But originally it meant "Counseling, plans, strategy"! (see this page about it).

  The second trigram is the future. It is called 'Zhen', oracle-answer (in Wilhelm 'perseverance'). It is not a fixed future but rather something like a weather report. You listen to it because it makes you more prepared. The oracle's 'future' depends not only on circumstances but also for a large part on your own kind of 'weather', your will, abilities and intuition: your ancestors and spirits, your inner oracle! It is why the second trigram is inside. If you get 2 trigrams, through any random method, eg by throwing two trigram-dice (8-sided), the second one goes below, contrary to casting a hexagram. The cause of change is inside, in your intentions and character, your heredity, or the 'spirits'. In the hexagram oracle it is also called Zhen!
  Another difference with the hexagram oracle is the place of the dots and crosses, the changing lines. They don't show here which lines are changing, but which lines are (or need to be) activated. Change means to us usually 'time', before the change and after the change. But both in the I Ching (Yi Jing) 'activated' is the better translation.

  Asking an oracle about the future or 'making' a particular future is not very different. In 'asking' you trust that the universe will make it work, in 'making' you rely on your own hard work, or your clever know-how, or your deep inner intention. Your intent is the most direct, and whatever happens, whatever you do, you evoke your own connection with the universe. It is the most powerful tool or friend you can imagine. Your intent triggers 'something' that science is just now beginning to explore. Usually it is called divine, all over the earth by its specific name: God, Allah, Manitou, Brahma and so on. Some give it another name, it doesn't matter, but what still applies is the reverence it takes to approach it. Without that, it will not work properly or not at all. It is a meditative state, but it doesn't necessarily look like that. Inspiration works fine, or any other strong positive emotion, as long as it is stronger than your rational thinking.
  The sharp tip of the "intention-arrow" is a strong wish coming from your heart.

  "Reading" or interpreting an oracle is different. It triggers your creativity by changing your stance. If you look to the right, you have a very different view than to the left. On a certain mountainridge in the Swiss Alps, to the left water will end up in the North Sea, to the right in the Black Sea.
  In your own head you have something similar to this mountain ridge. Your brain has a yang and a yin side. The yang half is an expert in structure, the yin half is an expert in creativity. One flows West and one flows East.
  The oracle with its flexible answer takes your mind a bit out of its fixed position, just enough to give you a different picture with a different outcome. It frees your intuition so it can find the best choices.