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Anthony Publishing

About the Institute

The I Ching Institute was founded in 2000 by Carol K. Anthony and Hanna Moog, to teach and share the new discoveries they learned from the I Ching. These new discoveries came about after they had learned a new way to communicate with the oracle that enabled them to clarify its messages. This new way of communicating was not a method of channeling, but of proposing hypotheses, to which the oracle could reply in a differentiated way, as described in the separate article below.

Their new discoveries include a totally new understanding of the way the healthy psyche functions in the service of the wholeness of the individual. They discovered as well, how the false use of language causes the psyche to be disturbed, and how, through the correction of language and thought, that wholeness can be restored. They found, coincidentally, that this restoration also heals the body. They further gained, through their researches, a totally new understanding of the nature of the Cosmos and its way: that the Cosmos is a self-protecting system of harmonic principles, with which humans come into conflict (create adverse fates) when they become out of harmony with themselves.

These discoveries are described in their new version of the I Ching called I Ching, The Oracle of the Cosmic Way. Their researches into new fields of application is ongoing.

The I Ching Institute offers a regular course of seminars at its home in Stow, Massachusetts, and occasionally in other places, as listed in this website. Those offered in Stow are graded into Intermediate, Advanced, and Professional. Other courses are offered, as well, on specific subjects such as healing by way of the I Ching.

All online courses and seminars are based on I Ching, The Oracle of the Cosmic Way.

The I Ching Oracle, as Defined by Itself

by Carol K. Anthony and Hanna Moog

The I Ching (in simplified terms) is the Number One wisdom book of China. It is the foundation of the Chinese culture, and the origin of Chinese philosophy, and as such, is the wellspring of both Confucianism and philosophical Taoism. Its philosophy is at the root of all Chinese arts, of medicine, and acupuncture, and it has influenced many offshoot applications such as T’ai Chi, Chi Gong, Feng Shui, and Chinese cooking.

More precisely, the I Ching is an ancient oracle that is designed to answer people’s most fundamental questions. Put in its own terms, it is a way of reading what is contained in our DNA, which the I Ching calls our inner truth. It is the knowledge stored in our deepest cell structures that tells us about ourselves, about our place in the Cosmos, and about the Cosmos itself. It is this knowledge that makes it possible for us humans to interface with our natural environment seamlessly, without the necessity of thinking. Our access to it is not directly through our mind, but through our inner bodily senses. They are our five inner senses of perception: inner seeing, inner hearing, inner taste, touch, and smell, which have the function of translating the knowledge that is stored in our DNA in the form of feelings and images into a language that speaks to us as our “commonsense.” Our commonsense then brings it into our conscious awareness. The oracle is another translator for this knowledge, for those times when we have become separated from our inner senses: it goes one step further by translating this deep inner truth into words.

The core philosophical question that the I Ching oracle addresses is: How can humans live in harmony with the Cosmos? Behind this question lie two profound and true realizations on the part of the ancient Chinese: (1) that a person’s original nature is only good, and (2) when he is in this natural state, he is in harmony with the Cosmos. When a person is in harmony with the Cosmos, his acts have the quality of being spontaneously correct, meaningappropriate and fitting, without any conscious intention. This natural state is described in Hexagram 25, which has been translated variously as “Innocence,” “Without Error,” “Integrity,” and “Without Falsehood.”

These two realizations gave rise to the two basic philosophies of China: Taoism and Confucianism. From this beginning point, that every person’s nature is only good, the two philosophies turn in different directions, each answering the question: how do humans lose their original natures, or true selves? Followers of Confucius said that this happens as a result of man’s animal nature, and that he has the choice either to follow his “higher,” nature, which is seen as good, or his lower, animal nature, which is seen as tending toward evil. Lao Tzu, founder of philosophical Taoism, rejected this view as contradictory, stating that humans lose their original nature through social conditioning. (Note: philosophical Taoism is not to be confused with the Taoist religion, which mixes the original animist religions of China with Buddhism.)

The other profound realization of the Chinese, which is derived from thousands of years of using and studying the I Ching, is that the person who is true to his original nature is continuously blessed and protected by the beneficent Cosmos. That view is behind the I Ching predictions of “success,” which mean: “the success that comes from the Cosmos to the person who is sincere in his way of life.” Its predictions of “misfortune” refer to actions and thoughts that are not in accord with one’s true nature.

The person who consults the I Ching over a period of time begins to understand what, in his education and conditioning, has led him to his misfortunes. The true purpose of the I Ching is to help him return to his true self. (Note that its use has long been degraded into a superficial fortune telling.)

The I Ching as a Means to Access our Inner Truth

Through their decades-long researches with the I Ching, Carol Anthony and Hanna Moog have learned that when a person is in harmony with himself, every body cell is at peace and at rest, because he is in tune with the greater harmony of the Cosmos. They have also learned that when a person has not been alienated from his true nature through conditioning, he knows the true way to go in every circumstance, through his body’s ability to feel what is harmonious and what is not. It is when we lose contact with our ability to feel this harmony and disharmony, that we lose our way and become separated from our unity with the Cosmos.

In its use as an oracle, the I Ching’s answers address the questioner’s emotions and thoughts by commenting on whether they are in harmony with the Cosmos. It addresses these things because they are the precursors of action. Evil in the world, it makes clear, originates in ideas and beliefs that falsely present the nature of the Cosmos and its way, and the human place in it. It is in the realm of thinking consciousness and the false use of language that all discord and conflict arise. When we have accumulated a number of wrong convictions and conclusions about life, and are no longer able to know ourselves, we need a competent teacher that is able to get us back in touch with our inner truth. The I Ching oracle is just this teacher. It teaches by pointing out those wrong convictions and conclusions that have led to the specific difficulties we are dealing with momentarily. Thus, it is a teacher that deals with the real world, and with our real needs of the moment. It further shows us that there is a Cosmic way to get out of our difficulties. We know it speaks the truth, because when we hear it, it resonates throughout our bodies as correct, fitting, and appropriate in all respects. The answer shows us the situation from the Cosmic perspective, thus removing the basis for conflict and restoring inner harmony.

The I Ching oracle developed (3500-4000 years ago) from people’s using a chance method to ask whether their intentions were in harmony with the Cosmos. It was no more complex than tossing a coin to get a yes or no answer. The yes answer was represented by a positive line ( — ), the No answer by a broken line (- - ). Later, this yes/no system developed into a more differentiated three-lined system by using three coins. The throw of three coins allowed for a “definite yes” (3 straight lines) a “relative yes” (2 straight lines, one broken line), a “definite no” (3 broken lines) and a “relative no” (2 broken and 1 straight lines).

Gradually, the three lined figures (called trigrams) were given names and seen to have characteristics that were taken as indicators of good fortune or misfortune. By 1150 B.C., the trigrams had been combined into the six-lined hexagram system we know today, comprised of 64 hexagrams.

In this system, each hexagram was seen to represent a theme that had been experienced over and over. Connected with this theme was a prediction of success or failure known as “The Judgment.” The theme was explained by a text. Each of the six lines that make up the hexagram has its own oracle saying that treats a specific aspect of the overall theme of the hexagram. Over the centuries, these anonymously written texts were overwritten by scholars in various dynasties, sometimes with deliberate intent to justify the political intentions of the ruling regimes. While this practice created contradictions in the commentary text, and obscured its original meanings, the core text remained in the form of The Judgments and the oracle sayings of the six lines.
 

Why a New Version of the I Ching?

In their new version, I Ching, The Oracle of the Cosmic Way, authors Carol K. Anthony and Hanna Moog have used the ancient yes/no method on which the I Ching was based, to ask the Oracle to define itself. The question had suddenly hit them, why, when an oracle can speak, have humans not allowed it to define itself? That has seemed, in retrospect, most elementary.

The authors proceeded by starting with a daily I Ching reading, which was usually connected with a problem that occurred in their daily lives. Sometimes it was a family problem, sometimes a financial issue or a health problem, sometimes a question that had been lingering about the Cosmic way, or a question about the way the mind/body works. The I Ching had proven to them over a longer period of time to be an invaluable resource for researching every aspect of their lives.

In writing the new book, the authors began by asking the oracle whether it wanted to keep the old text. When the answer was No, they then asked whether other texts were to be read. More often than not, the answer was No, with it becoming clear that it wanted an entirely new text. They then asked for intuitions and mindflashes that would indicate the new direction, and resorted to proposing what they thought it might want to say. Sometimes they were pointed in one direction, sometimes in another. On a few occasions, as in Hexagrams 5, Waiting, and 46, Pushing Upward, they were pointed in a totally new direction. Often, they were guided to meditate, to allow the direction to be shown. They generally concluded by asking if any corrections were needed, and corrected them when indicated, with the oracle’s help. All in all, they asked thousands of questions, to clarify to themselves the answers received.

The answers received by the authors have stripped away many of the misconceptions that were added over the centuries. This new version shows the Cosmic principles embedded in the hexagrams. Sometimes, what they learned was quite shocking and revolutionary, completely outside conventional thought. It was similar to the shock that accompanied Galileo’s discovery that the earth revolved around the sun instead of vice versa. For example, the oracle made it clear that the human-centered, power-driven, hierarchical view of the Cosmos is the product of human hubris and exaggerated imagination. The new I Ching presents a view of the Cosmos that shows it as non-hierarchical, and as not working through power, as has been assumed by most of the world’s cultures. It is rather a system of harmony that is self-protecting through limits that are placed on every thing. When a thing exceeds its natural limits, it runs into the wall of Fate that guards and ensures the duration of Cosmic Harmony. It furthermore is a system that functions through the attraction that draws each thing to its complement. It includes in its system of harmony, multitudinous invisible helping forces that keep the Cosmic harmony, and give help to everything that is in accord with it.

The furor that Galileo aroused seems not to have been about whether the sun goes around the earth or vice versa, but whether humans rightfully have dominion over the earth. The prevailing view that the sun turned around the earth supported the idea that humans are the centerpiece of creation, around which the universe revolved. It was this idea that was threatened. When Galileo’s discovery was finally acknowledged by the authorities (mainly the Catholic church), it had implicitly become divorced from this question. The new astronomy was accepted, but the human-centered view prevailed. What the authors of I Ching, The Oracle of the Cosmic Way found, is that to be in harmony with the Cosmos, the much-treasured idea that humans are the centerpiece of creation needs to be abandoned, as it is this idea that has separated humans from the Cosmic Unity, and has created a matrix of conflict between humans and the Cosmos. In fact, the “modesty” which the I Ching discusses in Hexagram 15, is entirely based on humans recognizing their true place in the Cosmos as equal to every other aspect of the Cosmos.

The idea to write the new oracle book was connected with a discovery the authors made with the help of the oracle, that a similar mistaken idea as the one quoted above had been the cause of an illness. This, in turn, led to their being shown a way to deprogram the mistaken idea in question, with the result that the illness was healed within a very short time. This method also proved effective in healing other illnesses. I Ching, The Oracle of the Cosmic Way, has been written in such a way that “sick-making” ideas are revealed as mental programs that can be deprogrammed with Cosmic help.

The book also shows mistaken ideas and beliefs that cause emotional disorders, conflicts in relationships, the inner causes of poverty, joblessness, and the creation of personal fates, along with ways to free the persons affected, from their influences.

What makes these inner efforts effective? The research done by Ms. Moog and Anthony with the I Ching taught them that the Cosmos is composed of consciousness, and that consciousness and matter are not separated. Rather, all matter is compressed Cosmic Consciousness. This finding has great implications in that it shows us the effect of thinking consciousness on matter, such as our own body cells. Recognition of this fact frees us from the common mistaken idea that “there is nothing that can be done” about certain bodily ailments. When people decide, for example, that they hate their bodies, it creates feelings of rejection in the consciousness of their individual body cells. As a consequence, the body cells react with resignation and gradually cease to function normally. Getting rid of those thoughts, and any related negative thoughts they have taken on about their bodies, frees the affected cells, restoring the body’s sense of well-being.

The Importance of Our Relationship with the Cosmos

Illness, the I Ching informs us, is but one indication of the presence of thoughts that have a disintegrating effect on our relationship with the Cosmos. Human separation from the Cosmos is caused by human thinking that is contrary to the Cosmic Harmony. This is also to say that the myth that the Cosmos abandoned humans is false. Rather, it is that humans abandoned the Cosmos through adopting pretentious ideas about themselves that elevated them above all other things as “special.” The effect of this hubris was and is people’s excluding from their conscious recognition, the multitudinous helping forces of the Cosmos. This exclusion has made these helping forces unavailable to them. It further makes people feel alone and separates them from Cosmic help so that “they have to do it all themselves.”  

When people bring themselves back into harmony with the Cosmos by correcting their thinking by including the invisible Cosmos in their lives, they experience Cosmic blessings in all aspects of their lives. In the absence of inner harmony, they experience inner and outer conflict, and they are unable to fulfill their true purpose in life. Life to them seems to be a waste, nothing but suffering, and senseless.

As the I Ching makes clear, the overall Cosmic Consciousness, of which we are all a part, is the source of everything we experience as meaningful in our lives: love, material and other possessions, the job that suits us, security from harm, learning opportunities, and many more things.

Finally, the I Ching, experienced over many years as their personal guides, has shown the authors that the oracle is not a parlor game, a source of luck, or an indicator of a life-script that is written in the stars. Rather, it is a guide and friend that translates for us our own inner truth. Its other objective is to connect us with the wonders and blessings that the Cosmic Consciousness holds for us, when we cease living in opposition to its way.

Press this link for a sample reading from I Ching, The Oracle of the Cosmic Way.