To demonstrate this interesting system, let us look at an example. The question for this divination is "Who killed Jon
Benet Ramsey?"
To use I Ching Divination method, we have to cast 3 metal coins 6 times to get 6 lines for constructing a Hexagram.
By casting 3 coins, one can expect 4 possible outcomes:
1. One head means a yang line.
2. Two heads means a yin line.
3. All heads means a yang line changing into yin.
4. All tails means a yin line changing into yang.
After this casting process, a Hexagram will appear with Yin and Yang lines as well as active changing lines showing
areas of action. Instead of looking up the book of I Ching for meaning, we will go through a process of labeling each
line with 5 elements, 5 aspects of life and 5 category of people. The following is a fully labeled Hexagram relevant to
our sample question - who killed JonBenet Ramsey?
Question - Who killed JonBenet?
Month - water
I (metal)
Date - water
P (wood)
--
M (water)
--
Tiger
C (earth)
--
Snake
I (metal)
--
R (fire)
--
Firebird
C (earth)
--
Dragon
Tortoise
Earthworm
ICR - Resources,
intelligence,chil P - Power, killer
colleagues,
parents
d
brother
M- money,
wife
Jon Benet Ramsey is a little girl in Boulder, Colorado who was found murdered in the basement of her home on
Boxing Day, 26/12 in 1996. The murder is still unresolved as of today and even her parents and brother were said to
be "under the umbrella of suspicion". The purpose of this I Ching Divination exercise is to find hints to see who is
likely to be the killer.
How to interpret this Hexagram to get the answer. The first step is to establish our focus. In a Hexagram, there are
usually 2 areas of focus. Firstly, the type of person or matter we are checking. In our case, it is a child, which is
labeled as I, this falls on the 3rd line of the Hexagram - a metal element. The second important area is a line of
activity as it is a line revealing the action area related to the question. In the Hexagram, we can see the top line is
active. This is a line represented by P, meaning power - a wood element.
By examining these 2 lines we can obtain a message from the Hexagram. The Power line, meaning a "destroyer" or a
"killer" is active and in crash with the 3rd line of metal, representing the child. This reflected an action of killing. The
wood power line is active and changing into metal which is I also meaning the child, and metal conquers wood, so it
seems the child had put up a struggle. Is this resistance successful? When interpreting the strength of an element,
we have to look at the seasonal influence which determines which element is strongest during the time of the I Ching
Divination. In this sample case, the exercise was done in winter (November) of 1999, a month of water and a date of
water. The water support the wood, did not support the metal. As such, the wood killer is stronger than the metal
child. So the child was murdered.
Then who is the killer?
In the Hexagram, we only see the Power line - a killer is in action. The other lines R - symbolising parents, and C
symbolising brother are quiet. This reflected that the family members are not involved. So the killer is someone else,
perhaps an intruder. What kind of intruder? We can see more information from the list of 6 animals next to the
Hexagram. The animal on the top line next to the Power line is tortoise - which is a symbol of theft. So the killer could
be a thief.
So this manner of interpretation provides more insight and clarity to understand a situation. If one use the Book of I
Ching, one can only see the Hexagram is called "Keeping Still" and the active line in the 6th position is explained as
"Peaceful Stillness - a great blessing" which one finds hard to relate to our question.
For students who are already interested in the I Ching, this technique opens up new perspective of using the
technique with much more accuracy in forecasting and understanding a situation. The labeling is not difficult and it
will lead you into yet another new treasure chamber in Chinese metaphysical studies.