Take a moment to reflect on your question, then click anywhere on The Circle of Protectors template provided here for your divination.
For later reflection, write down the hexagram you receive, which is your Primary Figure, the number of the Transforming Line, and the hexagram it generates, which is your Relating Figure. Links to the Relating Figures are included in the Transforming Lines of every hexagram.
See below to learn more about The Circle of Protectors.
CLICK ABOVE FOR YOUR DIVINATION
Calling on the Circle of Protectors
Mothering Change uses The Circle of Protectors consultation template, first presented in I Ching: Symbolic Life, by Stephen Karcher. Based on a Taoist 8 token model, the Circle of Protectors generates two trigrams from the bottom up, forming your Primary Figure. Every divination delivers a single Transforming Line, which shows where Change enters your question with the strongest charge. This unusual divination method emphasizes the presence of the Spirit Helpers, or the trigrams, as vital helping energies with unique personalities that reflect both the process of change at work in your situation and the most useful posture to take in how you engage with it. Following the action of the Spirit Helpers, we can each become a Realizing Person, moving in alignment with the Dao, or the Ongoing Process of the Real, and giving it form in our daily life.
The print version of Mothering Change also shows you how to use the sixteen token method Karcher recommends to replicate the mathematical odds and ratios of the ancient yarrow stick method. With a single Transforming Line, and one Relating Figure, The Circle of Protectors offers a powerful experience of the trigrams and a divination which is clear, quick and incisive. The Sixteen token method generates a more complex reading with any number of Transforming Lines from zero to six.
Speaking with the Oracle of Change
Divination with the I Ching begins with taking the time to carefully formulate the question you wish to ask. Write it down to focus your attention and make a record of it for further reflection. The question is delicate affair, opening the door to the symbols of change, which speak in a unique language that has evolved over thousands of years. Rather than a yes-no question, the most fruitful inquiries are those that invite images of your situation so that you may see it in a new light, ask about the impact, outcome, or learning opportunity at the heart of a decision or how to most skillfully address a problem. Answers from the I Ching are rich in symbolic language, the key that unlocks our imagination and intuition as tools for solving problems and engaging more creatively with the process of change. Let your divination tumble in your heart-mind and grow smooth with meaning. This will help you see things from a multi-dimensional perspective, and enable you to act more skillfully in your situation. Through this way of Change, we cultivate de, power and virtue, or greater attunement with the unfolding wholeness that is mirrored in self and other, community and cosmos.
How to Relate to the Relating Figure
The presence of a Transforming Line always generates a Relating Figure. This second hexagram is an essential element of every divination, showing the future potential of your situation and your relationship to the process of change. Use the link provided with the Transforming Line in your Primary Figure to connect with your Relating Figure.
The Relating Figure arises from the transforming line(s) of your Primary Figure. It is constructed by retaining the stable lines of your hexagram and changing the transforming line(s) into their opposites. Unless you want to track the specific pathways of transformative energy between the hexagrams and hexagram-pairs, do not read the transforming lines of the Relating Figure. The Relating Figure is contextual. It shows your relationship to your situation and the process of change within it, the sea of feelings and circumstances in which your question occurs, and the future potential of your situation. Additionally, the Heart Theme of the Relating Figure shows a vital point of connection flowing from your Primary Figure, the central challenge and goal toward which your situation is moving.