Ancient wisdom for navigating life
Consult the I Ching, turn your reading into a concrete practice, and learn more with Adam Bauer.
How the practice works
1Ask
Bring a real, open question about a situation or challenge you actually face. Or come without a fixed question, with an open heart, and ask to receive a message of value for this moment. Both are legitimate ways to work with the I Ching.
2Cast
Throw three coins six times to build the hexagram line by line, from the bottom up, and determine which lines are stable and which lines are changing.
3Interpret
Read the hexagram and any changing lines you received in this reading. Give yourself ample time for reflection: reread the text, consider the range of possible meanings, and let the messages settle in before you rush to nail down what it says.
4Commit
Consider whether your reading is suggesting you take action. If so, consider what one concrete next action might be, small enough to actually do this week.
5Review
Return to the reading and review it again, at least once or twice in the coming days. It is often surprising how much is revealed later that we did not understand in the moment of the reading. The benefits of the practice compound through reflection and review.
Wisdom for changing conditions
Study with Adam Bauer
Adam Bauer has been a student and practitioner of the I Ching for forty-five years, and has been teaching others how to use it for twenty-five. He brings a working teacher's patience to the Book of Changes: less fortune-telling, more a way of listening and reflecting.
He offers private consultations and, from time to time, small retreats. His approach is the one this site is built around: ask a real question, cast the reading, reflect on the range of possible interpretations, and see what is revealed, whether a personal orientation or a concrete next step.
Learn more about Adam →If you already read tarot or astrology
The I Ching for tarot readers
A familiar move for anyone who reads cards: draw, interpret an image, and find the guidance inside it — with changing lines instead of reversals.
Read the bridge →The I Ching for astrologers
If you already read cycles and timing in a chart, the sixty-four hexagrams offer another language for the same turning of conditions.
Read the bridge →Retreat
Practicing the I Ching in Hawaiʻi
A week of teachings, daily readings, and reflection in a small community with Adam Bauer, in a place made for slowing down.
Learn about the retreat →
The Book of Changes is at its most useful precisely when things are in motion — a decision half-made, a relationship shifting, a plan that no longer fits. It does not predict a fixed future. It reads the pattern of the moment and points to how it is already turning.
That is why the practice ends in action, not prophecy. When conditions are changing, the question worth asking is not "what will happen?" but "what is mine to do now?"
One of the keys to navigating our lives wisely lies in paying close attention to emerging circumstances, and to what the current moment is asking of us in action and behavior. Let the reflective process of working with the I Ching open new possibilities for understanding what is being asked of you now.