Over the years, we, Carol and Hanna, have often received telephone calls and emails asking, “What is the difference between I Ching, The Oracle of the Cosmic Way, and other books on the I Ching?”

On this website page we want to share with you, our readers and potential readers, what makes our new version of the I Ching and the two subsequent books we wrote, Healing Yourself the Cosmic Way, and The Psyche Revealed Through the I Ching,different.

I Ching, The Oracle of the Cosmic Way was inspired by concrete experiences that blew away our previous understanding of what we thought to be “irreversible principles” on which the I Ching was based. Our new understanding was made possible thanks to three factors:

• Carol’s experience of the Sage, the Cosmic Teacher that speaks through the I Ching. This experience came from many years of meditations in which the Sage had revealed itself to her. They are documented in her book, The Other Way, Meditation Experiences Based on the I Ching. Thus, to her the I Ching was no longer merely a book, but something the Sage was able to use to teach her hidden aspects of the text. What she learned in this way went into her other early books: A Guide to the I Ching, The Philosophy of the I Ching, and Love, An Inner Connection Based on Principles Drawn from the I Ching.
• Carol’s subsequent discovery, around 1994, of a method that allowed her to put direct questions to the Sage for the purpose of clarifying a message received through the I Ching text
• an experience Hanna had in 1998, of spontaneous healing that was made possible through using the clarifying method mentioned above, on the one hand, and I Ching meditation, on the other. Both means enabled the Sage to correct several very basic false assumptions that had been written into the I Ching by scholars of the Confucion school around 350 B.C. One of the most fundamental of these was the replacement of the principle of transformation by what they called the “law of changes.”  The enormous relevance of this change is described below. I Ching, The Oracle of the Cosmic Way and all our subsequent books are based on the principle of transformation as the means through which the Cosmos achieves all things.

The difference between transformation and change is easier to understand today than in earlier times, since the most advanced research in physics, i.e., quantum theory, recognizes that the Universe is consciousness, and that matter is a manifestation of consciousness. Transformation refers to the process by which consciousness is trans-formed into form, as when atomic particles pop out of what appears to be empty space, and also the process by which things in form are trans-formed back into consciousness, as at death. Transformations are carried out by invisible forces that the I Ching, in a number of hexagrams, refers to as Helpers or friends that need to be engaged. By contrast, changes are of a purely mechanical nature. They are the result of the use of manipulation and force by humans who have refused to recognize the existence of the Helpers, thereby negating the most basic principle on which all harmonious changes are based. In a nutshell, mechanical changes are the result of a view that sees humans as the center of the universe — the ones who ‘do it all.’ The backside of that arrogance is the suffering in the world.

The purpose of the I Ching was to show humans the true causes and effects of events happening in their lives. Its predictions were not to be read as foretelling a prewritten future, but as reflecting the effects of our thinking and attitudes: when our thinking is in accord with Cosmic truths, it automatically engages the invisible helping forces of the Cosmos and results in success. However, when our thinking contradicts Cosmic truths, it creates what the I Ching calls “misfortune.” When we understand that the causes of misfortune lie in ideas and beliefs that contradict the Cosmos, we can correct our thinking accordingly. The I Ching also describes the help that is available to us to carry out that correction, and thereby return, step-by-step, to our true nature, which automatically knows the way of the Cosmos. The purpose is no longer to “become” something through making changes (in our looks, or in the way we present ourselves to the world around us, or even in how we want to see ourselves), but to gradually free ourselves from the human-centered mindset, and thereby return to the Cosmic unity.

The articles we shall be posting on this page are meant to summarize major steps in our process of learning about the Cosmic Principles of Harmony that govern all life, about healing ourselves physically, mentally, and emotionally, and about bringing Cosmic help into our lives generally.

Article #5. How Our New Version of the I Ching Was Written by Carol Anthony
Mar. 31, 2011

© 2011 by Carol K. Anthony and Hanna Moog.

All rights reserved.

 

Prior to 1998 it would have seemed preposterous to write a new version of the I Ching. I, Carol, personally felt a deep sense of gratitude to Richard Wilhelm for having brought this wonderful book to the West.* To write another seemed disloyal at the time.

The thing that made us, Hanna and I, put the question to the oracle, “Are we meant to write a new version of the I Ching?” was the large body of new insights that came out of our use of the rtcm (the Retrospective-Three-Coin-Method) during the first six months that we began working together. We both noticed, on using this method, that the Sage frequently used the opportunity to correct a number of our previous views about what a hexagram could be addressing at a given time. Also, a hexagram could be pointing to one thing now, and an entirely different thing later. The insights, on occasion, completely blew away the meaning conventionally attributed to a hexagram. With these insights accumulating nearly daily, it became the obvious question to ask whether we were meant to write them into a new version. The answer received through the rtcm was an unequivocal “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

On beginning this project, we were guided to follow a method that gave the Sage the maximum ability to “write” the book from an experiential viewpoint. That is, each day we worked on the hexagrams we received that were relevant to situations in our lives. Once we had developed the hexagram, we asked the Sage, “Do you want us to include in the text anything that was written in… (the Wilhelm, the Legge, the Alfred Huang, the Wu Jing-Nuan, or other well known translations, and even anything written in my Guide to the I Ching). Most often it said “No” to all of these, preferring us to ask what the Sage wanted to include in the hexagram and line texts.

Once we understood what the Sage wanted (or did not want) to be included in the text, we always asked two questions: “Do we now understand it correctly,” and, “Is this all the Sage wants to say?” Sometimes the Sage corrected only one word that would give the reader a wrong impression. Sometimes whole sentences were to be removed. The Sage was very precise in making the text clear. We found through these questions that some words had too many connotations and were thus too “polluted” to use, or “too vague,” having a potential to mislead. Some words, such as “guilt” were to be recognized as having no Cosmic validity at all, because they were human inventions made to support the hierarchical ordering of society.

The second question, “Is this all the Sage wants to say,” was asked when we thought that perhaps enough had been said. To our surprise, the answer was often “No.” It was not until after the book was complete that we could see that each hexagram had been given more than one “window of understanding” as to how the text was to be viewed. Being a lover of small books, I often felt resistance to the book’s growing so large, yet in the end I realized not only how wrong it would have been to impress my view upon the book in that way, but that each of these understandings addressed a particular issue that would be of help to the reader.

One of the most interesting experiences in this process occurred on the day that we received Hexagram 5, Waiting, as the next hexagram we were to work on. Traditionally, this hexagram had counseled the person seeking advice to be patient and wait in the certainty that the help he needed would come. Following our method, we began asking, “Does the Sage want us to include the Wilhelm understanding?” “No.” As we went through all the other versions, we kept receiving, “No.” We then fielded hypotheses that came to mind. Each still received, “No.” When we had exhausted everything we could think of, we sat feeling quite dumb. Then it occurred to us to ask the Sage, “Help!” Almost immediately the question came to mind, “Is this hexagram about the Helpers waiting to be asked to help?” “Yes! Yes! Yes!” was the clear answer. This was to be the entire focus of the hexagram. No other hexagram, in writing this version, received such a complete reversal of its traditional meaning.

A final point that we found interesting in this process was the fact that we were a year and a half into the project before we received Hexagrams 1 and 2. By that time we were ready to see that Hexagram 1 was speaking of the Cosmic Consciousness as the origin of all things, and Hexagram 2 as “all the things manifested into the forms we see as Nature.” This process, seen from our perspective today, nine years later, still astonishes us to think that such a book as this, with its nearly 700 pages, was written in just two years. There is simply no way we could have done this by relying entirely on our own minds and experiences. It was the product of our collaboration with the Sage that speaks through the I Ching.

 

*Before Richard Wilhelm’s translation was published in Germany in 1924, more than five different translations of the I Ching had been made. These versions were little read outside the field of sinology. Even Wilhelm’s now famous translation languished unread until world-famous psychoanalyst, Carl G. Jung, wrote the Foreword to the English edition, calling the I Ching a mirror to the unconscious.

Article #4: The Purpose of Consulting the I Ching Oracle by Carol and Hanna
Mar. 23, 2011

 

© 2011 by Carol K. Anthony and Hanna Moog

 

 

The purpose of consulting the I Ching oracle has traditionally been defined as “bringing oneself as an individual human being into harmony with the order of heaven.” Our new version of the I Ching differs from this definition in that it speaks of bringing oneself into harmony with the order of the Cosmos. The word “Cosmos” comes from the Greek and means “the Universe in its harmonious order.” This is not just a minor difference, but one that determines our relationship with the invisible world, and thereby the way by which we can bring ourselves into harmony with its order.

 

The traditional versions of the I Ching speak of the “order of heaven” in terms that create the impression that the entire Cosmic order is synonymous with the human-made feudal social order that has traditionally ruled China. This was an order that passed from one conquering warlord to another. This way of one group of people assuming power over others was passed on for so many centuries that it became viewed as “the way things are.” We do not need to look only at China to see that the feudal mindset was extended worldwide. Historians have upheld such structures to represent the “greatness” of human achievements when they point to the empires of ancient Egypt, Rome, and to others in the West, generally. The more power and grandeur each achieved, the more they have been admired.

The I Ching makes us aware, through its use over many years, that these hierarchical pretensions are in conflict with the Cosmic principles of harmony; when we follow them as “the way,” we create what the I Ching calls “misfortune.” Thus we find that our striving for power and dominance may succeed for a while, but that ultimately we are deprived of the joy of life. The Cosmos, as we see, wants us to have a joyful life.

All hierarchical ideas are products of the feudal mindset. Among them is the justification for the use of power, threats, and punishments, and the presumption that one group has the right to dominate another; other ideas are that we must uphold and be faithful to the established system; and that conflict is the natural state of things because ‘the world, visible and invisible, is divided into good and evil.’ All such ideas become “true” when we follow the way of grandiosity.

The I Ching has similarly made it clear to us that the feudal order described above, in its placing humans as the “centerpiece of creation,” is totally mistaken. We were shown that our conflicts, be they of a strictly personal or collective nature, are the consequences of this human-centered view. We were shown that the I Ching was originally given to humans to help them become free from this human-centered view, but that it became overwritten with edits made relentlessly over the centuries by one dynasty after another, with the intention to legitimate the authority of the feudal system and its right to control others. When writing I Ching, The Oracle of the Cosmic Way, we were guided by the Sage to separate those overlays from the underlying Cosmic Principles of Harmony that supercede all human-made social structures.

 

The Sage showed us that the Cosmos is a system of Principles of Harmony whose main principles are the equality, uniqueness, and modesty of all aspects of the Cosmos. Equality refers to the worth and dignity of its every aspect; uniqueness means that no aspect can be compared to any other in terms of “higher” or “lower,” or “more special,” or “less special.”  Modesty, one of the central themes of the I Ching, is the result of understanding and following these first two principles, which are imbedded in our original human nature. For indeed, goodness is our true nature, and following the feelings within ourselves that “feel good” and “feel fitting” is what leads to the expression of our dignity, worth, and happiness. There are many other Cosmic Principles of Harmony the user of the I Ching becomes aware of in our version of the I Ching as he addresses the things that are causing disharmony in his life.

Article #3: The New Method to Clarify the I Ching’s Message by Carol and Hanna
Mar. 22, 2011

© 2011 by Carol Anthony and Hanna Moog

 

This “new” method allows us to put questions directly to the Sage, enabling the Sage to clarify the received text. We put ‘new’ in quotes here, because it is new to our contemporary use of the oracle. However, in Richard Wilhelm’s foreword to his classic translation, he states that the I Ching originated from a simpler “yes/no” method of putting questions to the Cosmos.

 

Our method is an amplified yes/no system in which we put questions and/or hypotheses to the Sage such as: “Have I understood the message correctly?” – “Is this part of the text referring to me (or to the person I have an issue with)?” We then throw three coins to obtain the answer. The answer comes in four possible ways: 3 heads, 2 heads and 1 tail, 3 tails, and 2 tails and one head. We have chosen heads to mean “Yes” in this system, and tails to mean “No.” When we toss 3 heads, we take it to mean the answer is a full Yes. When we toss 2 heads and 1 tail, we take it to be a relative Yes; a toss of 2 tails and one head is taken as a relative No, while 3 tails is taken as a full No.

 

Thanks to this method, in 1998, we were able to come to a completely new understanding of the cause of an illness, its nature as a Fate, and how to successfully relate to it. This new understanding made it possible for Hanna to heal nodules that were found in the back of her lungs within a week. This event and many of the numerous healings that followed are described in our book Healing Yourself the Cosmic Way.

The I Ching uses a metaphorical language, such as “It furthers to cross the great water,” or, “In the midst of the greatest obstructions friends come,” or, “Shock comes—Oh, Oh! Laughing words—ha, ha!” Because metaphors are multidimensional and can be read on different levels, the use of this yes/no method allows us to find how the metaphors are to be interpreted in each specific reading.

 

Metaphors are the language of the oracle precisely because of this multidimensional quality; they combine feelings and images with words. The feelings give them their color, the images evoke a context, and the words express both the color and the images in terms that the rational thinking that characterizes our mind can understand. Metaphors allow the oracle to refer to many different situations that are based on the same Cosmic truth. That is also why in our version of the I Ching, each hexagram presents several “windows” into the theme of the hexagram. These different windows help the user to expand his view of the possibilities contained in each hexagram, while the additional use of the yes/no method, or “rtcm,” helps us determine which “window” applies to us at a particular time. At the same time, the method illuminates the Cosmic perspective of the problem at hand. This Cosmic perspective also contains the correct remedy we seek.

 

Finally, it takes practice and patience to learn this method, simple as it actually is. This is because the Sage speaks from a Cosmic perspective that we are not familiar with, since most of us have been trained from childhood not to listen to our feelings when we are examining a problem. When we ask questions from our accustomed non-Cosmic perspective, we tend not to understand the answers. When the question comes from an outright ego-based attitude, the Sage cannot answer at all. We are then only getting answers from the ego, or what the ego in us wants to hear. This is easily remedied, however, if we remember to ask, “Is this answer coming from the ego?”