I want to tell you an important story about a trivial decision. What matters is the process. How it was made is profound because it applies to any life question. We consulted Carl Jung’s favorite oracle, the I Ching. This ancient book of Chinese wisdom has been in continuous use for 3,000 years. You can ask any question and locate a very specific answer-an answer that mirrors your own deepest intuition. It’s like a megaphone for the “still small voice” of inner knowing.
My partner, Debbie Hart, and I have used the I Ching to inform our major life questions, career choices and health decisions for years. We would hate to do without it. Guessing at life choices that have huge consequences is a risky business.
Along with big issues, we often “discuss” everyday issues with the I Ching. For example, when we lived in the romantic coastal village of Mendocino, California, Debbie had driven 10 miles to Fort Bragg to purchase a “wheeled cart.” I wasn’t able to go along that day.
Only after she returned home with a fine “two-wheeler,” did I realize I really wanted one that could convert to a four-wheeled cart like one I once used to move my stone sculptures. Oops!
We didn’t want to make a pointless 20-mile journey to the hardware store if this was ultimately our best choice. We also didn’t want to simply settle for this “bird in the hand” when we could ask a reliable source: the I Ching. Above all, we didn’t want to create relationship friction over “this minor issue” (a phrase I prefer to “this mistake of mine”). Neither of us really knew what was best to do at this point.
Most life choices are made with partial information amid great uncertainty. We must choose where to work and where to live and whom to marry, with no advance assurance what path is best for us. The divorce rate and the business-failure rate testify to the difficulty of love and work decisions.
We make better choices with relevant information from without and by hearing our intuition from within. I Ching readings mirror intuitive knowing and thereby help you hear the guide inside. Readings trigger insights you can feel. There is an “Aha” of recognition and often, a physical sense of “felt validity.” Don’t just take advice-listen for your own inner resonance. The I Ching stimulates self-awareness instead of needing weeks in a retreat to arrive at inner clarity. It accelerates intuitive awareness.
For decision help, we turned to our favorite future-predictor, relationship-mediator, and now hardware-store-Sherpa: the ancient I Ching. To have a mutually trusted referee available to mediate relationship questions and decisions has allowed us to eliminate needless conflicts from our relationship; the I Ching result that means the most to me, personally.
We asked first about keeping the two-wheeler we already had and next about seeking out a potential four-wheeler.
For the convenient choice of keeping the two-wheeler we were told: “Matters are at a standstill. Take the initiative in helping to put things right. A completely new approach is needed.” (Hexagram 59:5, > 4)
For a wheeled moving-device, to be “at a standstill” is not good. We agreed to “take the initiative to put things right” by continuing our search. The “completely new approach” meant finding a completely new cart.
We were also told: “Because you lack experience of the issues involved you feel confused… you need to ask for help,” but there is no fault or blame involved. This helped disperse any negativity: It’s good to search further and it’s OK to not know. Knowing that you don’t have the answer opens the door to learning.
Further insight followed from the phrase “ideas you cherish may now be turned upside down,” since the desired cart does turn upside down! I realized our search for a cart was already a waking life symbol of seeking new life “vehicles” since we had turned our Colorado lives upside down to begin a new phase of life in California.
For our second question about seeking the four-wheeler, we were told: “The resources you have steadily accumulated can at last be used. You can now achieve something truly worthwhile” (Dening) and, “In doing this, you walk heaven’s highway. Have no doubt about its success” (Karcher). (Hexagram 26:6, into 11)
It is quite a cart that can travel a heavenly path! I would translate “walk heaven’s highway” to mean we were choosing our path based on “spiritual guidance” instead of ego impulses. (Note: the human “ego” is the necessary-and sometimes loveable-village idiot of the psyche.)
The answer included: “Projects will thrive… Letting people know what you want will bring positive results,” so we went back to the store and let the owner know just what we wanted. Searching through his supplier catalogues together, we found a fabulous, two-wheel dolly that converts to a four-wheel cart! Being made of lighter-weight, rust-proof materials, it was better than we had hoped for. The hardware-store owner loved the new cart and began stocking them, to better serve his customers.
The new cart was a great solution we might never have found without I Ching encouragement. We ordered the “lucky” find on the spot. Except “luck” had nothing to do with it. We were not lucky. We were guided. It’s very different.
Finding the right cart is trivial, but being intuitively informed in advance is not. Knowing when not to settle for a convenient-but inferior–choice is huge. Avoiding needless relationship conflicts will upgrade your entire quality of life (and your partner’s). Knowing when to pursue a goal and when to retreat could literally save your life… which an I Ching reading did for me.
It’s success in magnifying the still small voice of intuition has kept the I Ching, or Book of Changes, in continuous use for 3,000 years. How to locate your best options in life, without giving up prematurely or pressing on pointlessly, is invaluable in any decision.
Some life choices have enormous consequences. To hear personalized, inner guidance is a life-changing advantage. Accessing intuition lets the “still small voice” come in “loud and clear.” Whether that comes from meditation, reflection, hypnosis, prayer, psychotherapy, retreat, visions, or the I Ching-however you find it, intuitive knowing is your best guide in an unpredictable world. We did not tell the store owner his brand-new cart had been pre-recommended by an very-ancient oracle.