Since we have been exploring changing cycles, this seemed like a good time to introduce you (or reacquaint you) with I Ching which is, in English, The Book to Changes.
I Ching is one of the great contributions to world learning and spirituality. It is both a book of wisdom and an oracle. It originates in China.
It began as an oracle based on reading signs from nature. It is constructed of 8 trigrams, each one of them connected to an aspect of nature, also to a compass direction, and to a family relationship. The 64 hexagrams are built out of the various combinations of the 8 trigrams.
Over the 3000 years of its existence, it has been added to by various teachers and philosophers along the way, including Confucius. We use the Wilhelm/Baynes version of I Ching. Richard Wilhelm went to China as a Christian missionary and returned with China's spiritual gem of I Ching. Wilhelm translated I Ching into German. Cary Baynes translated Wilhelm's German translation into English. (For further information on the I Ching and how to use it Click Here.)