Heaven to Earth, I Ching

04/24/10

Get to the Change Cycle

The next step is to use the Master Map to record each hexagram’s Change Cycle number, name, and traditional number.  List them with each hexagram to easily identify the hexagrams in the sequence they appear.  Order the hexagrams from lowest to highest by their Change Cycle numbers and line image.

The client received this personalized change cycle: 51c Difficult Beginnings 3t; 58c Return 24t; 62c Holding Together 8t; and 64c Receptive 2t.  See the next illustration.

To find a change cycle, begin with changing the polarity of the active lines in your primary hexagram.  In Return with two active lines, the static hexagram Holding Together is created.  The next step is to change the polarities of one active line and not the other and then vice versa.  These are secondary hexagrams.  To put them in your change cycle, use the Master Map to find each hexagram's name and Change Cycle numbers.  Order the hexagrams from lowest to highest Change Cycle number to find your change cycle.  Watch this animation of unpacking a three active line change cycle.

What’s next? Begin by reading the primary hexagram and its active lines because the primary is the overall response to your question.

A common misconception is to get hung-up on the pattern to find the active lines.  I suggest you find a set pattern that works.  It will help with three active lines, for example. 

Second, read all the active lines as they appear in the change cycle order. In the Return example, begin by reading the active first line in Difficult Beginnings and then the two active lines of Return. The third hexagram is the static Holding Together, so read its static hexagram text. Finally, read the active fifth line in the Receptive. A story can be told about the reading by writing down the line text in the order they appear (see Chapter Six). Active lines synchronize counsel with real events.

Do not ignore the value of redrawing each hexagram and using the dot and arrow method to show the changing active and inactive lines. First, you need to uncover all possible hexagrams to come from one to possible six active lines. At this point, there is no order to the hexagrams until their Change Cycle numbers are known. Second, read your active line text in each secondary hexagram because they apply to the question too. Therefore, know in which line position active lines occur.

As the illustration shows, secondary hexagrams form by combinations of active and inactive lines. It does not matter how you find them, but make sure you can tell which active lines are active in what change cycle hexagram. The Change Cycle sets the order of events that the active lines are revealing.

My experience has been that most primary hexagrams are static or contain one or two active lines. I have seen the occasional three active line change cycle, which includes a primary, static, and six secondary hexagrams. Rarer still are four active lines that unleash sixteen hexagrams: one primary, one static, and fourteen secondary hexagrams. Don’t panic, Heaven to Earth, I Ching principles will guide you to unravel your change cycle no matter how many active lines or not you receive. Stick to basics.

Contact:
James R. (JR) Wilkinson
503.269.4263 - jrw@changecycle.org
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Copyright (c) 2008 James R. Wilkinson.
Hexagram and line text used with R.L. Wing permission.
All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America.

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