FORTUNE-TELLING & ESOTERICISM
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The Chinese oracle even considers free will in the answers and suggestions to take action. The reading of sequences of hexagrams is an alternative way for planning changes based on the oracular value of the book, like a sequences planner.
The Book of Changes shows a particular perspective about what links beings and things. Whatever be the use we make of it, the comments and descriptions are always surprising, not just about moments and states but also about movements and tendencies. Meditating, forecasting, studying the very understanding about order and disorder are all possible usages bringing us closer to I Ching, its hexagrams and lines.
All of the changes
When reading the mutating lines, they’re considered as movements tending as a whole to another situation. That situation may be the hexagram related to the main one, which is the complementary o tendential one, or may be any other situation we want or expect for after the reading. In any case, it’s considered that the lines mutate in the main hexagram: those changes come from it! It is so even if considering a desired situation, no matter if the answer was or wasn’t a forecast or a tendency (mutations).
Changes in a sequence
For those ones not acquainted with the I Ching, it might be difficult to choose one of the 64 hexagrams of the book. In that case, a new reading might suggest a new one. When getting the new hexagram, then the reading is focused on all those lines necessarily mutating in the main one, for enumerating later the specific situations taking to the new one (the chosen or suggested one, after the new reading).
By proceeding this way, keep in mind that the type of reading has changed. Initially, there was a first situation, that of the main hexagram. Then, a desired situation was chosen, or a new reading suggested one. But the changes taking to the new situation are oracular changes. The interpretation includes a sequence of signs in which the querent takes an active role in the development of each situation indicated by mutations.
Due to the nature of this type of reading, the querent is directly alluded to by the oracular sequence (ourselves or the people the reading is about). Each one of the mutating lines describes the different situations, one after another, while the suggested actions are taken ahead, from the situation indicated by the main hexagram, by going through intermediate situations, until reaching the hexagram that describes the desired situation: the reading is an oracular sequence.
In the time of fortune-telling we're at the beginning, and the beginning has no starting point... In the time of fortune-telling we're at the end, and the end is at the beginning... Meditate about the structuring principles, yin and yang, and put them into practice in your daily life.
A practical case
A querent asked about a long-term legal problem seeming to remain unsolved over time, thus extending the duration of basic critical situations, with permanent conflicts not finding a solution and risking the availability of resources in a long-term period. The oracle’s answer was Ching The Water Well (48), without mutations.
A new question to the oracle suggested Ta Yu Great Possessing (14) as the desired situation, with mutations in the 4º, 5º and 6º positions, so the hexagram took to Kuei Mei Converting the Maiden (54). In brief terms, the global flow started in Ching and was taking to Ta Yu, and from the last one towards Kuei Mei, as the tendential effect:
Global sequence: Ching – Ta Yu – Kuei Mei
In global terms, the oracle forecasted an excellent and highly auspicious situation, of joy and happiness, if desires remained still and concrete actions calm. For reaching the suggested end and making the chance a real fact, people alluded to by the answer should follow very specific indications:
From Ching (48) to Ta Yu (14), four lines mutate: the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 6th ones in Ching. These ones are the lines indicated in fortune-telling. When the 1st line mutates, the situation is Hsü Waiting (5), the first hexagram of the sequence!
Leave behind usual places, people, criteria, ways and methods used up to the moment.
Then the second mutation suggested by the oracle was indicated by Hsü’s 4th line. When the line mutates, Hsü becomes Kuai Break-through (43).
Again, abandon long-term tendencies and impulses, or leave aside persistent desires, for avoiding problems and risks.
The third oracular suggestion was the mutation of Ching’s 5th line, to be found in the mutation of the same line in Kuai. When it happen, the situation turns into Ta Chuang The Power of the Great (34).
Take resolutive actions against what has to be banished, fought and removed out of the way, when the time comes.
These planned actions are about to end. Now it comes the last mutation in Ching, the 6th line, turning Ta Chuang into Ta Yu (14).
Be aware of some kind of quagmire in which it’s better remaining quiet, not taking action at all, while waiting for better conditions and opportunities.
After the last situation, the querent should expect for two specific events as an effect, such as the related hexagrams indicate in regular readings. The events from Ta Yu to Kuei Mei (54) are not sequenced as those suggested when turning Ching into Ta Yu, and they are not planned actions. Both events will take place as effects of what's been going on over time, and can be read like in any other type of consultation, like changes happening altogether in the main hexagram, which is Ta Yu in this case.
Expect for very good news, greater autonomy and global progress, while receiving benefits, expanding and even getting more trust. The forecasted scenario won't be too calm, and previous risks and dangers won't disappear, either. Anyway, they won't darken joy and satisfaction, even during convulsed times.
About the oracular changes, what they are and how they happen, an article in Art & Mancies section explains them related to the narration of a TV series released some years ago: The Man in the High Castle & I Ching.
This article has been modified to be distributed in Tres Mancias' Newsletter published in April - May 2026. It belongs to Fortune-telling & Esotericism series, a set of publications gathering I Ching, Tarot and Astrology articles related to these subjects. Visit this link to read the list of included publications and ask to receive them by email. The distribution is free of charge.
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