Yarrow guide

How to ask an I Ching question.

A useful I Ching reading usually starts before the cast. The question has to be narrow enough that you can reflect on the answer without turning it into a demand for certainty.

Start with the real tension

Do not begin by asking the oracle to approve a decision. Begin by naming the situation that keeps returning to your mind.

Prefer attention over prediction

Prediction questions often push you toward passivity. Reflection questions give you a way to act after the reading.

• What am I not seeing clearly in this situation?
• Where am I forcing the timing?
• What would a careful next step look like?
• What is the cost of waiting?

Cast once

Repeated casting usually turns a reading into a search for the answer you already want. Yarrow is designed around one honest question and one source path: hexagram, moving lines, changed hexagram, and Yilin note when relevant.

Write one sentence after reading

The most useful output is not a prophecy. It is the next clear sentence you can live with: a boundary, a question to ask someone, a risk to watch, or a smaller first action.