I ching coins
Put the coins back, mix them up a little, and repeat for the remaining lines.I prefer another way of using coins: selecting them from a mixed-up group. But coins are definitely faster and easier than yarrow stalks, and it is easy to see why they are more popular. Plus, “casting coins” sounds to me like “casting spells.” And I feel like I am playing craps at a casino when I do it. I have never liked the idea of throwing coins, because the process seems to separate the user from the final result I prefer a more “hands-on” method such as yarrow stalks because the division of the bundle is a volitional act that happens completely in one’s own hands. If these two coins are both heads, the line is changing.Įach line (yang or yin) has a 1/4 chance of being a changing line, so each changing line has a 1/8 chance of being thrown. Three-coin method to retain the traditional coin probabilities: Note that if the first coin is heads, then there is a 3/8 chance that it will be changing, and the total odds of a changing yang are thus 3/16 but if the first coin is tails, the chance of it changing is only 1/8, and the total odds of changing yin are 1/16. Exactly three heads among all four coins means the line is changing. Throw one coin to determine yang (heads) or yin (tails).The three-coin method retains the traditional coin probabilities.įour-coin method to reproduce the yarrow stalk probabilities: The four-coin method reproduces the yarrow stalk probabilities.
And it is consistent with the binary nature of the I Ching: one bit of information determines the line, and another whether it is changing or not. These methods both consist of first throwing one coin to determine yang or yin, then throwing 2 or 3 more to determine whether the line is changing. The easiest coin methods to remember and to perform were described by Stuart Anderson in his article,īringing the Yarrow and Coin Methods Into Agreement.