alt Hacker NewsA counter point is that if you are stuck in a 50/50 position, out sourcing the decision to some random other thing can break the dead lock. Like flipping to a random page on a book and going with the first word you see that is positive or negative (Bibliomancy).
The occult language can make it sound mysterious but it can also sometimes just be a cover for a delegation of decisions.
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This perspective always fascinates me. I'm not trying to be negative, but am genuinely curious.
If you're truly split like that, why is any ceremony necessary? Just pick one. Does every choice have to be explained? Are you doing this to amuse yourself?
If you don't delegate to a source of randomness, do you feel guilty or ruminate about why you were un/successful? Are you afraid of your own thoughts misleading you once the outcome is clear?
It's a weak counter point in that it does not consider the long term effects.
Using I Ching to make decisions is like using an LLM to think. At some point, you will atrophy the faculty of independent decision making.
You are also neglecting that I Ching outcomes come with text and commentary that are by definition designed to affect your mindset -- "the image" -- (for the good of course but see below for that). This is precisly what Dr. Jung was saying about trifling with the occult. It affects you at an sub/un-conscious level - this is not some random book. It is the I Ching, and like all world scripture it has a textual potency that affects its readers.
If you are stuck at a 50/50 position, just throw a single coin. Average 3 if you must. Spare yourself the commentaries.
Correct and effective use of the I Ching requires a degree of maturity and self development (think Carl Jung) that is surely lacking in most of us when we are first introduced to this occult artefact in 20th and 21st centuries. That is because in this age of facile information we get our hands on matter that in previous eras were obtained after spending years at the feet of some guru or master!