Bagua
In classical Feng Shui each of the eight compass directions and the centre stands for its own themes, an element and a family member.
The I Ching and its 64 hexagrams
The I Ching is one of the oldest books in human history. It brings together the 64 hexagrams with their arrangements and meanings. A hexagram consists of six lines, solid for Yang and broken for Yin, and is an information code, rather like a barcode. Highly complex calculation methods based on these hexagrams are the backbone of the Imperial Feng Shui I work with.
- Hexagrams64in the I Ching
- LinessixYin broken, Yang solid
- Trigramstwoone above the other
What does “I Ching” mean?
I Ching means “Book of Changes”: Yijing in Chinese, I Ging in German. All three spellings refer to the same book. It is one of the world’s oldest books of wisdom and brings together the 64 hexagrams with their structures of order and meaning. Through them, it describes Chinese philosophy and cosmology.
The title tells us what it is about: the continual change of Yin and Yang. Each hexagram captures one state within that change. Since every state can turn into another, the 64 hexagrams form a whole network of transitions.
What is a hexagram?
A hexagram is a fascinatingly logical representation of fundamental energy patterns, an information code of six lines. The open, soft line represents Yin energy; the solid, strong line represents Yang energy. Depending on where these open and solid lines lie, a trained Feng Shui consultant receives detailed information assigned to a room and a measurement point within a dynamic energy matrix.
In principle, the line structure is nothing other than the world’s first barcode, of the kind found on every product today, holding all the information about it. The supermarket scanner reads that code; an Imperial Feng Shui Master reads a room’s code from the Lo Pan and its corresponding hexagram.
Each hexagram consists of two trigrams, one above the other, each with three Yin and Yang lines. The eight trigrams form eight times eight pairs: the 64 hexagrams. The more deeply you explore this very particular knowledge and “code”, the more logical and fascinating it becomes.
Upper trigram
Li, Fire
Lower trigram
Kun, Earth
Shao Yong and the binary arrangement
My historical Imperial “family tree” goes back to the founder of hexagram teaching, Grand Master Shao Yong (1011 to 1077). He arranged the 64 hexagrams with mathematical precision according to the binary code.
The Yang line represents the mental impulse, the flash of inspiration, the idea: the immaterial that creates the material “out of nothing”. It is assigned “0” in binary code. The Yin line represents the mother, the birth of the material, the creation of the ten thousand things, the foundations of our earthly existence. It stands for “1”.
This lineage connects me with Shao Yong. Read more about my training with Grand Master Chan Kun Wah on the page about me.
Consulting the I Ching
Among other things, you can ask the I Ching about future fields of potential and how to act in a particular situation. That is why the questions are generally open-ended.
You do not ask “Should I move to Munich?”, but “What experiences will I have if I move to Munich?” The answer in the book is not yes or no, but an image that you must relate to your own circumstances.
Changing lines: hexagram 35 becomes 64
35Progress
64Before Completion
With the coin method, you throw three coins six times. Each throw produces one line, the first at the bottom and the last at the top. The side with the characters counts as 2, the other as 3. The total determines the line.
- 6 is a broken Yin line that changes.
- 7 is a solid Yang line.
- 8 is a broken Yin line.
- 9 is a solid Yang line that changes.
A changing line turns into its opposite and produces a second hexagram, which I read as the future aspect.
An example from a reading of my own: I received hexagram 35, Progress, with Fire (light) above Earth (grounding, transformation). The second line changed, giving hexagram 64, Before Completion, as the future aspect. Something entirely new is beginning.
My favourite is the I Ching by Alfred Huang, a Taoist master.
A table of the 64 hexagrams
The numbers follow King Wen’s sequence, and the names come from Richard Wilhelm’s translation. You find a hexagram through its two trigrams: the lower one names the group, and the upper one appears beside each hexagram. The lines are arranged as in the symbol, the lowest at the bottom, solid for Yang and broken for Yin.
Lower trigram Heaven (Ch’ien)
- 1
The Creative
upper trigram Heaven
- 34
The Power of the Great
upper trigram Thunder
- 5
Waiting
upper trigram Water
- 26
The Taming Power of the Great
upper trigram Mountain
- 11
Peace
upper trigram Earth
- 9
The Taming Power of the Small
upper trigram Wind
- 14
Possession in Great Measure
upper trigram Fire
- 43
Break-through
upper trigram Lake
Lower trigram Thunder (Chen)
- 25
Innocence
upper trigram Heaven
- 51
The Arousing
upper trigram Thunder
- 3
Difficulty at the Beginning
upper trigram Water
- 27
The Corners of the Mouth
upper trigram Mountain
- 24
Return
upper trigram Earth
- 42
Increase
upper trigram Wind
- 21
Biting Through
upper trigram Fire
- 17
Following
upper trigram Lake
Lower trigram Water (K’an)
- 6
Conflict
upper trigram Heaven
- 40
Deliverance
upper trigram Thunder
- 29
The Abysmal
upper trigram Water
- 4
Youthful Folly
upper trigram Mountain
- 7
The Army
upper trigram Earth
- 59
Dispersion
upper trigram Wind
- 64
Before Completion
upper trigram Fire
- 47
Oppression
upper trigram Lake
Lower trigram Mountain (Ken)
- 33
Retreat
upper trigram Heaven
- 62
Preponderance of the Small
upper trigram Thunder
- 39
Obstruction
upper trigram Water
- 52
Keeping Still
upper trigram Mountain
- 15
Modesty
upper trigram Earth
- 53
Development
upper trigram Wind
- 56
The Wanderer
upper trigram Fire
- 31
Influence
upper trigram Lake
Lower trigram Earth (Kun)
- 12
Standstill
upper trigram Heaven
- 16
Enthusiasm
upper trigram Thunder
- 8
Holding Together
upper trigram Water
- 23
Splitting Apart
upper trigram Mountain
- 2
The Receptive
upper trigram Earth
- 20
Contemplation
upper trigram Wind
- 35
Progress
upper trigram Fire
- 45
Gathering Together
upper trigram Lake
Lower trigram Wind (Sun)
- 44
Coming to Meet
upper trigram Heaven
- 32
Duration
upper trigram Thunder
- 48
The Well
upper trigram Water
- 18
Work on What Has Been Spoiled
upper trigram Mountain
- 46
Pushing Upward
upper trigram Earth
- 57
The Gentle
upper trigram Wind
- 50
The Cauldron
upper trigram Fire
- 28
Preponderance of the Great
upper trigram Lake
Lower trigram Fire (Li)
- 13
Fellowship with Men
upper trigram Heaven
- 55
Abundance
upper trigram Thunder
- 63
After Completion
upper trigram Water
- 22
Grace
upper trigram Mountain
- 36
Darkening of the Light
upper trigram Earth
- 37
The Family
upper trigram Wind
- 30
The Clinging
upper trigram Fire
- 49
Revolution
upper trigram Lake
Lower trigram Lake (Tui)
- 10
Treading
upper trigram Heaven
- 54
The Marrying Maiden
upper trigram Thunder
- 60
Limitation
upper trigram Water
- 41
Decrease
upper trigram Mountain
- 19
Approach
upper trigram Earth
- 61
Inner Truth
upper trigram Wind
- 38
Opposition
upper trigram Fire
- 58
The Joyous
upper trigram Lake
Hexagrams in Imperial Feng Shui
The Imperial Feng Shui I learnt and use in my consultations rests on the precise statements of the 64 hexagrams, their information codes, directional correspondences and fields of potential. These 64 directions appear on the Lo Pan with its 64 directions.
In a space, hexagrams lie at its acupuncture points. They often inspire new ideas there: for paths, walls or jewellery. I even wear one with my kilt. I had a hexagram sporran, the pouch worn at the front, made with a hexagram that works well with my birth hexagram.
In the layout of paths
Here is an example from a garden design in Münster. The hexagram lies in the path, activating an acupuncture point. My photographs show more hexagrams in paths and on walls.
In wall design
Here too, the hexagram activates precisely the required acupuncture point, in an art collector’s villa in Sri Lanka.
Leibniz, C. G. Jung and the I Ching
It is said that the hexagram system inspired Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646 to 1716) to develop the binary code. Leibniz read the Yang line as 1 (current flows) and the Yin line as 0 (no current flows), the reverse of Shao Yong. If that is true, this ancient knowledge runs through all our modern IT.
The psychoanalyst C. G. Jung (1875 to 1961), once a close friend of Sigmund Freud, worked intensively with the knowledge of the I Ching. In particular, it enriched his theory of archetypes and his understanding of synchronicity and symbols. His methods remain relevant and influence the work of many psychoanalysts and therapists.
Richard Wilhelm, translator of the I Ching
I visited the grave of Richard Wilhelm (1873 to 1930) in Bad Boll, the pioneering translator of the I Ching. Anyone who studies Feng Shui in depth will sooner or later encounter his translation. He lived as a pastor in Tsingtau and became a sinologist through his extensive research. His friends included Albert Schweitzer, Hermann Hesse and Carl Gustav Jung.
What is interesting about the grave is the incorrect arrangement of the trigrams. Apparently nobody in the family thought about it, and the trigram stones were simply placed any which way.
A very special moment for me. A thank-you to Richard Wilhelm, and incense sticks to carry the thanks up to heaven.
Further reading
I explain the eight trigrams that form each hexagram in the Bagua guide, and the interplay of the two lines under Yin and Yang. The school behind the hexagrams is Imperial Feng Shui, and its tool is the Lo Pan. As a book, I recommend Martin Schönberger’s “Weltformel I Ging und der genetische Code” (Windpferd Verlag, in German).
Yin and Yang
Yang stands for sun, day, brightness and movement, Yin for moon, night, darkness and stillness, and nothing is only one or the other.
Lo Pan, the Feng Shui compass
On the Imperial Lo Pan, the 64 hexagrams are arranged around 360 degrees, each occupying 5.625 degrees.
Hexagrams in your rooms?
Using the 64 hexagrams as an oracle is different from applying them in Imperial Feng Shui, although there is much overlap. I show you what they mean in your rooms on site, in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Read more about Feng Shui consultation.