I-Ching, Tarot and other fortune telling methods --was Re: Thanks, Bekah! Welcome, Peter 186. 1-19

[Ande]

I used to throw the I Ching, in much the same manner, using the yarrow 
stalks to create a singular experience---now when I want "advice" from 
the universe, I  use the Emily Dickinson Random Epigram Generator 
(http://www.logopoeia.com/ed/)--and read it in much the same manner as 
the I Ching---the randomly generated epigram forms the core of the 
advice, and after I contemplate the wisdom offered in context to the 
question presented, I then search for the whole poem, and re-examine my 
conclusions--I suppose someone could make a Pynchon Random Sentence 
Generator, and it could be used in the same manner.

Ande


David Morris wrote:

> On 4/17/07, Peter Petto <ppetto at apk.net> wrote:
>
>>
>> There was a time in my life when I often consulted the I Ching, and 
>> not just because I'm a math-head who loves permutations. I find that 
>> when I consult its precise-but-vague and allusive text, what I end up 
>> seeing is not it, but something that was already within me, but that 
>> I hadn't already seen.
>>
>> I suspect that properly-used Tarot works much the same way.
>
>
> My wife and I also throw the I Ching now and then, but not often,
> usually no more than once or twice a year (usually on our birthdays),
> in order to make the times we do more significant.  And I also like
> the abstract language which invites introspection.  When I throw the I
> Ching for others and then read them their fortune, I usually add some
> of my own understanding of the meaning to the reading of the texts,
> and in some ways I think being "sensitive" (I hesitate to use the word
> "psychic") is supposed to be a part of the reading, adding specificity
> or application to the abstractions of the text.
>
> I also suspect that's how tarot works.
>
> David Morris
>
>