The I Ching is an oracle. Its answers change the way you see things. Your anxieties, fears and desires emerge to be recognised and resolved, and hidden transformative energies are released.
Developed as an essential wisdom system over 3000 years ago in China, the I Ching was originally reserved for the use of rulers but later its help became available to individuals in troubled times like our own.
Inspired by C.G. Jung's insights into the psyche, and researched for more than 50 years through the aid of the Eranos Foundation of Switzerland, this edition is much more than another new translation. it presents the oracular core of the I Ching as a psychological tool, a way of connecting with the creative imagination that underlies all philosophies and systems.
We need this book most when we stand at a crossroads of the soul, failed by rational thinking and with insufficient facts to guide us. In these situations it gives voice to a spirit concerned with how we can best live as individuals in contact with both inner and outer worlds.
The transforming power is achieved by focusing on the book as an oracle, a method developed over many years by the translation o team to preserve the original wealth of the imagery. the result is a network of meaning that, when accessed correctly, provides insight into the hidden forces behind the very situation which prompted you question. The oracular symbols interact with our minds the way dreams images do. This is the language of the I Ching. It is an active sourcebook for the care of the soul.
This book is not for the occasional I Ching reader, but for people who like to read between the lines. It is intriguing and open an entirely new way of reading the oracle of changes. This is an example from hexagram 16:
Thunder issuing-forth-from earth impetuously. Providing-for. The Earlier Kings used arousing delight to extol actualizing-tao. Exalting worship's Supreme Above. Using equaling the grandfather predecessors.
Associated Contexts Thunder, LEI: rising, arousing power; the Symbol of the trigram Shake, CHEN. Issue-forth(-from}, CH'U: emerge from, come out of, proceed from, spring from; the Action of the trigram Shake, CHEN; contrary of enter, lU. The ideogram: stem with branches
It is clear (or unclear) that the hexagram text is show as a puzzle, that you have to ensemble. Other translation try to make sense of the texts, but this one show the meaning of each Chinese character is show in raw form. It is up to reader to combine the meaning of the disconnected words and make up the message.
I think it is too complicated for the average reader, but also falls shorts for those who seek to understand better the raw Chinese text. It is confusing because many Chinese characters share the same spelling (romanization). Karcher's book shows the characters using the traditional Wade-Giles romanization method instead PinYin, but either using PinYin of Wade-Giles, many characters share the same spelling, that is confusing, because you can see the same spelling in different hexagrams, but referring to completely different characters. It would be far best if it showed the Chinese ideograms as well. Still it is an interesting translation.
its written in many layers... from cover to cover it has a easily read "quick & dirty" layout for someone feeling the need to just pick up a couple pennies (or sticks) and toss a few times, find a hexagram, read a couple pages and be done with it...
but there is much more written there, and if you want to go at all deeper, even if it is a matter of looking for the "tone" of the message, or the shift in the colors or pitch, or some possible transformation: its all there, you just have to stop and look.
the book teaches someone how to find a hexagram with either the coins or sticks, and even though i've had this book for a couple of years there are so many dimensions to it that i am only now even beginning to see and understand....
i think i will never actually be "done" reading it.
I-cing can for real be a very effective way of finding answers to your problems. It helps practitioners to dig into themselves and find the answer to their question. I just found this copy on a market just today.
Cant wait to start giving i-ching answers to my friends!
Very complex style of presenting the Iching. Not for the average reader who is only using the I ching in a casual sense. The translation takes the original work down to its very core components. Very in depth for those that are interested in that.