How to cast the I Ching with three coins, step by step

Step 1: Write the question down

Before you toss anything, write one sentence on paper. The I Ching answers "what is the shape of this situation right now, and which way does it move more easily?", so the question works best when it is about something you can decide:

• "Should I turn my side business into my full-time work this quarter?" reads better than "will I get rich?"
• "Should I talk things through with him this week?" reads better than "does he care about me?"
• Ask about one thing at a time, and give it a time frame.

Read it to yourself once, and then leave it alone. Do not rewrite the question halfway through the tosses.

Step 2: Decide how the coins count

Take three identical coins and fix a rule before you start: one side counts as 3, the other as 2. With traditional Chinese coins, the inscribed side is often counted as 2 and the plain side as 3. With modern coins, just decide which side is 3 and stick with it every time.

For each toss, add up the three coins. There are only four possible totals:

• 6 (three 2s): old yin. Draw a broken line and mark it with an ×. This is a changing line.
• 7 (one 3, two 2s): young yang. Draw a solid line. It stays put.
• 8 (two 3s, one 2): young yin. Draw a broken line. It stays put.
• 9 (three 3s): old yang. Draw a solid line and mark it with an ○. This is a changing line.

A solid line is a yang line and a broken line is a yin line. "Old" means the line has run its course and is about to flip into its opposite. "Young" means it is stable for now.

Step 3: Toss six times and build from the bottom

Your first toss is the bottom line, called the first line. Then come the second, third, fourth and fifth, and your last toss is the top line. Draw them from the bottom of the page upward. This is the step people most often get backward.

Once all six lines are down, the lower three form the lower trigram and the upper three form the upper trigram. A trigram is a three-line figure, and the two stacked together make one of the sixty-four hexagrams. This first hexagram is called the primary hexagram, and it describes the situation as it stands.

Step 4: Changing lines and the second hexagram

Any line marked × or ○ is a changing line, the part of the situation that is in motion. Flip every changing line to its opposite (old yin becomes yang, old yang becomes yin), leave the rest alone, and you get a second hexagram, often called the relating or resulting hexagram. It shows where things are heading.

With no changing lines, read the primary hexagram as a whole. With one changing line, focus on that line's own text, the short verse written for that position. With several, comparing the primary and resulting hexagrams is usually more useful than reading every line in turn. Traditions differ on the details. This is the most common approach and the easiest to start with.

A full worked example

Question: "Should I turn my side business into my full-time work this quarter?"

Six tosses, bottom to top: 6, 8, 7, 8, 7, 8. That draws as broken (changing), broken, solid, broken, solid, broken. The lower trigram is Mountain and the upper is Water, so the primary hexagram is Hexagram 39, Obstruction, a picture of danger ahead and hard ground underfoot. The first line is old yin. Flip it to yang and the lower trigram becomes Fire, which gives Hexagram 63, After Completion: the job is done, and now it has to be held together.

The first line of Obstruction reads, in a common translation, "going leads to obstruction; coming back meets with praise". Put back into the question: quitting now to go full time on the side business runs into a wall. Stepping back and making your current clients and income solid is the move that earns respect. After Completion adds that once the conditions really are in place, this can work, but the task at that point shifts to keeping it steady. This week, that could mean adding up three straight months of side income before you write a resignation letter.

Where to look up your hexagram

Note the names of your primary and resulting hexagrams and find them in the I Ching hexagram index, which covers the overall meaning and each line. If your question only needs a direction, I Ching yes or no shows how to read one hexagram as "go ahead", "hold off" or "wait".

The LifeOs reading desk currently offers tarot, and online I Ching casting is not open yet. You can cast by hand with the method on this page. If you want to ask a question inside LifeOs, you can draw tarot cards there; the question is locked when you submit it, and you can come back later to note what happened.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use ordinary coins instead of Chinese coins?

Yes. What matters is that all three are the same, you decide beforehand which side counts as 3 and which as 2, and you do not switch partway.

Can I cast again on the same question?

Once per situation is enough. Casting over and over until you get the hexagram you want usually means you already know what you want to do. If the situation genuinely changes after a while, casting again is reasonable.

I have several changing lines. Which one matters?

Start by comparing the primary and resulting hexagrams: what kind of situation is turning into what. Traditions disagree on which of several lines to favor, so there is no need to memorize a rule. Read each changing line against your question, and the one that fits your circumstances most closely is usually the point of this cast.

Can the I Ching make the decision for me?

No, and it should not. It shows the shape of the moment and a direction of travel; the decision is yours. For health, legal or financial matters, go straight to a qualified professional.