I Ching Divination with Moon Blocks – benebell wen

I’ve coated moon block (Jiao Bei, 筊杯) divination before here in a previous Tinkering Bell video. And this downloadable PDF linked here is a quick reference sheet for utilizing moon blocks.

Whenever you stroll right into a Buddhist or Taoist temple anyplace within the southern areas of the Mainland, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, heck– simply typically the East Asian cultural sphere– you’re going to see moon blocks. Baskets filled with moon blocks. It’s so you possibly can ask your query of the patron divinity or spirit, then toss the moon blocks and obtain a solution from past.

Moon blocks will also be used for divination with the Zhouyi (I Ching).

When may you go for moon blocks quite than the normal yarrow or coin toss strategies? I would go the route of moon blocks for I Ching divination for the needs of spirit contacts. Particularly invoked spirits.

In different phrases, as an alternative of posting to a normal viewers on a message board beholden to whoever’s round to see your submit, that is like dialing a selected telephone quantity to succeed in a particularly named contact.

If I’m simply having enjoyable with the Oracle or presenting a secular query about on a regular basis life, then I’m not going to make use of the moon blocks.

If the intention is to conceptualize the Oracle because the Tao, or as Shangdi, then once more, I received’t go for moon blocks. If I’m conceptualizing the casting as communion with a holy guardian angel, greater self, interior self, or self-exploration, I received’t go for moon blocks.

Utilizing moon blocks in I Ching divination is reserved for contacting a particularly invoked spirit, be that ancestral or celestial.

For operable moon blocks, I’d distill the required parts to the next:

1. The moon blocks have been consecrated.
2. You come earlier than the divine cleansed and consecrated.
3. The nexus or channel between the realm of the divine and the realm of humanity has been consecrated.
4. If divining with the moon blocks in a temple or what’s already sacred area, then consecration of the bottom isn’t mandatory. Nevertheless, in case you are utilizing the moon blocks exterior of sacred area, then typically it’s good apply to first consecrate the bottom the place you can be tossing the blocks.
5. You’ve cultivated your interior shen and qi to be in harmonious alignment with the resonance of the divine.
6. Phrases and/or Fu (sigil magic) invoke the divine, petitioning the divine’s presence. [The concept of offerings is also typically used to petition the divine’s presence.]

How precisely these naked bones necessities are met will differ from custom to custom, area to area.

There’s a chunk of recommendation my mother as soon as gave me about moon blocks that has caught with me, and that I adhere strictly to: Don’t current any query to the moon blocks that you don’t actually wish to know the reply to.

Now let’s get into the how-to.

PREREQUISITE: 

These divination directions are written with the presumption that you’re already accustomed to both the yarrow stalk or coin toss divination methodology and perceive the idea of fixing traces.

For the needs of I Ching divination, listed here are the moon block correspondences:

“YES” = YANG. In conventional moon block casting at a temple, one rounded up and one flat facet up leads to a “sure” or affirmative response from the shen (spirit). Thus, for yin and yang divination functions, that outcome will correspond with a yang line outcome.

“NO” = YIN. When each moon blocks yield the rounded facet up, the result’s a “no” or detrimental response from the shen. Thus, in I Ching divination with moon blocks, we correspond that outcome with a yin line.

“LAUGHING GODS” = PRECEDING RESULT IS A CHANGING LINE. When each moon blocks yield the flat facet up, the outcome is named “laughing gods,” which means the spirits have declined to be responsive presently. When this occurs, the earlier or previous yin/yang line result’s now famous as a altering line, which in I Ching divination is often marked with an “X” to notice that the yao (i.e., that yin or yang line) will change within the remodeled hexagram.

HOWEVER, IF your moon blocks casting yields “laughing gods” twice in a row, then take that as an indication that the spirit invoked has declined to reply your query presently. The spirit is letting that proper now will not be a very good time to be divining on the matter.

If instantly upon the primary toss of the moon blocks the initiating result’s “laughing gods,” it is a warning to not proceed along with your question presently.

If you’re daring sufficient to toss once more “simply to see” and the result’s once more “laughing gods” now twice in a row at first of the casting, then you’re strongly suggested to cease and abandon the question for now.

CASE STUDIES: 

Studying case research assist us to higher formulate how we are going to method the factor ourselves, so listed here are three.

Invoking Queen Mom of the West

A practitioner presents the query, “The place do I am going from right here?” to the patron goddess, the Queen Mom of the West. Gown in all white, absolutely cleansed and well-groomed. Carry out the divination at a time corresponding with Metallic and Venus (the Wu Xing correspondence to the West directional), or a while between 3:00 pm and 6:59 pm. Burn sacred incense as an providing.

ASTROLOGICAL TABLE OF ASCENDANT HOURS

Maintain each moon blocks reverently in each fingers and focus the thoughts on an interior visible manifestation of the Queen Mom. Ponder the query, which on this case is, “The place do I am going from right here?” Let your ideas orbit that major query, reflecting on the non-public context for that inquiry.

Integrating the road textual content from hexagram 35, line 2, invoke the Queen Mom with the next incantation:

Recite the incantation reverently and sincerely as soon as by way of earlier than tossing the moon blocks. Observe the outcome. Then recite the incantation once more and toss the blocks once more. Recite the incantation as soon as earlier than every toss.

By means of an instance, listed here are the precise moon block toss outcomes when presenting the query “The place do I am going from right here?” to the Queen Mom at an hour of Metallic/Venus:

The outcome was a locked or single hexagram outcome, hexagram 60. To the query “The place do I am going from right here,” I learn The Oracle part from the entry, then the ruling line (Line 5). The Lake (decrease trigram) units the bounds limiting how the Water (higher trigram) is stuffed.

As for Line 5, it jogs my memory of that well-known Gandhi quote: “Be the change you want to see on this planet.” However right here, with the implication of boundaries and limits, don’t over-exert your self or demand extra of your self than you’ll demand of others. The grace you’ll present others is the grace to indicate your self.

Consulting Grandma

A practitioner want to “name grandma,” albeit lengthy deceased, and provides the late grandmother a life replace. A super time for such a life replace and chat with a deceased grandparent could be Tomb Sweeping Day (the fifteenth day after the spring equinox) or the Mid-Autumn Moon Competition (the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month), although actually, any time in any respect will do. Wait till an hour after sundown.

Arrange an altar devoted to grandma, e.g., a framed {photograph} of her, candles lit on both facet, contemporary flowers, some meals choices for grandma (particularly a bowl of cooked rice with chopsticks standing vertically upright within the rice), a brew of your greatest tea, and burn incense.

Kneel in entrance of the altar with fingers clasped in prayer. Name out to grandma. Then converse freely by way of the ideas in your thoughts. Many will want to really converse aloud as if speaking to grandma’s spirit, who’s current within the room and listening.

Whenever you’re carried out along with your life replace to grandma, solid the divination moon blocks to yield a studying, which is interpreted as grandma’s response to your life replace.

Observe how the primary toss (Toss #1) yielded a optimistic yang outcome. Toss #2 then yielded laughing gods, which suggests Line 1 yang is a altering line marked with an X. Toss #3 yields one other optimistic yang line within the Line 2 place. Persevering with on to Line 5, solid from the seventh toss (Toss #7), the moon blocks gave a detrimental yin outcome. And so forth.

The I Ching divination yields grandma’s response to the practitioner’s life replace:

Hexagram 34 could recommend an expression of nice pleasure, but additionally fear over nice threat. Line 1 of hexagram 34 is grandma saying, watch out, take it straightforward, one step at a time, and don’t rush issues. Be very calculated in your decision-making. “It isn’t sufficient to be nearly as good as your competitors; you should be thrice higher.”

However (shifting on to Line 3) this doesn’t imply thrice the extreme drive! “The higher means is to hide your energy and provides the impression of powerlessness. To show drive now could be dangerous.”

Then we conclude with the picture and judgment (or within the I Ching, The Oracle textual content, summarized as “The Oracle”) for hexagram 40. It’s evident that this Grandma is Asian, as a result of she says, “Nice job, however now get again to work.” Additionally, perhaps Grandma is nagging a bit, and saying that you simply get up too late within the mornings; you gotta stand up earlier, and she or he’s sticking to traditions– “Outdated methods are favorable,” she says.

A Ghost Haunting

A spirit medium has confirmed {that a} ghost is occupying a home and haunting the human occupants. The human occupants wish to placate the ghost in order that it stops pestering them. The spirit medium makes use of the moon blocks and I Ching to speak with the ghost and ask what it needs.

The query introduced to the ghost: “Why are you bothering these occupants?”

Upon the primary toss of the moon blocks, the outcome was “laughing gods.” The spirit medium would then admonish and warn the ghost to adjust to the request.

The spirit medium asks a second time, “That is your closing warning. Reply me now. Why are you bothering these occupants?” The outcome was a repeated “laughing gods.”

That is interpreted because the ghost in impact “laughing” on the querents and refusing to dignify their inquiry with a responsive reply. In such circumstances, within the Taoist or Buddhist traditions, the spirit medium would seemingly proceed with an exorcism.

Traditionally two clam shells have been used, which resemble cups. Therefore the namesake 杯. The clam shells could be consecrated into divination instruments by etching poems or incantations onto them. Through the Tang dynasty, bamboo or picket formed moon blocks have been popularized in lieu of the clam shells.

When your objective for the I Ching is to work with the Oracle as a telecommunications gadget with the spirit realm, and you plan to “name up” a really particular spirit entity, then utilizing moon blocks is a traditional occult methodology.

Collect the moon blocks between your palms in a prayer mudra, petition the shen by identify, current your query, then toss the moon blocks onto consecrated floor.