The I Ching—Oracle and Book of Wisdom

Here is a link to a major presentation I gave on February 21, 2021, to the C. G. Jung Club of Orange County on “The I Ching—Oracle and Book of Wisdom”.

The I Ching is one of the oldest and most profound books of wisdom whose origins go back to Chinese shamanism and prototypical Chinese ideograms. Jung, who used it extensively, described the I Ching as a book of archetypal imagery first assembled in 1050 BCE. Every major Chinese thinker, artist, and philosopher had been influenced by I Ching until the modern era. One can put a question to the book and via synchronicity get a meaningful answer as if from a Chinese sage. Examples are given to illustrate how the book can be used personally and in the therapeutic setting for guidance on relationships, difficult life situations, and psychological and spiritual development.

The most complex part of my presentation explores the binary code numerical base of the I Ching, which computers run on, and how numbers as the purest forms of the archetypes (Jung) framed the thinking of the sages as they put images and words to abstract numbers beginning with yin and yang lines. Hermes from our Western tradition is used to illustrate how things cross over from what Lao Tzu called the “dark enigma” into consciousness.


https://video.wixstatic.com/video/2efa49_018810ac62c24b48a10144872bf343c0/720p/mp4/file.mp4