The Red Dragon of Heaven descends from the light of the sky.
The Yellow Horse of Earth comes forth from the darkness of the Underworld.
Uniting in ecstasy, clashing in war, from their play arise all life and death.

This concept of a universe born of and sustained by the interplay of opposites is at the heart of the I Ching. It is a vision of perpetual change, each change giving rise to a myriad of forms that ascend in action and then descend to rest and dissolution. From each particular combination of these forces, a unique quality of form and action arises.

It was the genius of the originators of the I Ching to identify these qualities by observation of the natural world, and to relate them to human situations. In these seemingly simple combinations of six broken and solid lines lies a wealth of wisdom about the nature of surrounding conditions and the outcome of actions taken under those conditions.

This rich legacy has now reached across the world, and today people from all walks of life consult the coins or yarrow stalks for insight and advice about problems that range from the most spiritual to the most worldly. Even those who don’t use the I Ching are likely to have heard of it.

But the I Ching is more than just an oracle. It is also an incredibly powerful tool for magick and meditation. Encoded within these sixty-four symbols is the interplay between the primal forces of the Cosmos—the essential manifestations of the Dark and the Light. To the practitioner of magick, this is a potent treasure.

In the words of author Richard Herne, from his new book Magick, Shamanism & Taoism:

practical changes
“First and foremost, this book is concerned with both theoretical and practical magick and meditation. It is not intended to be just another transliteration of the I Ching, intended only for the purposes of divination.

“My aim, instead, has been to create something that may help readers view the I Ching on a much more expansive and experiential level. I hope that they will see that it is more than just an oracular system or tool for analytical psychology, important though such aspects undoubtedly are.

“This book is primarily concerned with the Book of Changes, and its links to Taoism, the magickal practices of the Chinese Wu, and related schools of thought. My ambition has been to open up the I Ching so that it can be approached on several levels, all of which are important aspects of the overall whole.

“Whereas most books on the I Ching focus on the system’s oracles as a means of divination, my work builds on that important base to include the potential for magickal rites and meditations, blending traditional ideas with contemporary experimentation. In this way, it allows for a greater personal appreciation and assimilation of the primal elemental forces that underpin the Trigrams and Hexagrams. In doing so it not only describes the basic tools appropriate for Chinese-style magick but also explains the symbolism and esoteric theory behind their use.

“Parallels that I have drawn between Taoism and other world-views such as shamanism, Ninjutsu, Shinto, Thelema, and Tantra help to broaden and explain fundamental occult concepts. Hexagram correspondences bring together interpretations of the figures with related symbols, gods, ritual instruments, and appropriate magickal workings in a way never before attempted in a work on the I Ching.”

Magick, Shamanism & Taoism is not merely a theoretical work, but is filled with detailed instructions for ritual and guided meditation, along with extensive lists of correspondences and supporting material. It also provides the regular Chinese word-characters for the hexagrams as well as representations of their archaic antecedents, based on the earliest known examples of Chinese calligraphy. This opens up the potential for creating interesting and authentic variants for talismanic magick.