Customer Reviews

The I Ching Gift Set: The I Ching: The Book of Answers + 50 Yarrow Stalks

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The yarrow stalks are said to be a better tool to use the I-Ching than the coins; that was the main reason for buying this set. But I must admit that the book is very well written and helpful for beginners like myself. The instructions for how to use the sticks might seem a bit complicated to understand at first, but they are not as hard to understand as other reviewers expressed.

I'm buying my second set now because after several years using my current set, my yarrow sticks are wearing thin. I would hate to break one and have to go without this powerful tool. I love it. I use it regularly. The wisdom and guidance I receive is profound and specific and always helpful.

The box is nice, the book seems to be quite good compared to some other I Ching versions I've seen and the Yarrow Stalks are... well "Yarrow-y"?

It would have been nice if they had included a cloth/bag/blanket to wrap the stalks & book in when not in use and to spread things out on, you certainly don't need it (as I said the box is nice) but it would have been nice.

I took the author's advice and went to a supermarket and bought 100 - 10 inch bamboo skewers for $2.29, plus $10.85 for the book and I'm delighted! They even feel kind of "yarrow-ry" as one reviewer suggested.

List price on this item is a few cents shy of $40. If I'd had to pay that much I think I'd have asked for my money back. (Think about it -- the book has a list price of $15.95, which means they're charging $25 for the yarrow stalks. I've seen bundles of 50 stalks sold elsewhere for about $9.) Luckily Amazon shows a good discount ($26.37 as of this writing) meaning this is just worth the price.

I've been going over Wu's interpretations of the I Ching for a couple months now. I have to say he's a little on the fruity side for me -- I don't like it when people get too spiritual about fortune telling methods because you never know what the religious or ethical code of the person trying to use it might be. While the I Ching theoretically is a religous book, the evidence as I understand it indicates that that came later; basically it became a religious work because it worked well as a fortune telling mechanism (rather than something meant as a meditative religous work that only later came to be employed for practical fortune telling.) I also incline to complain that his effort to describe the yarrow stalk method is very confusing; I still can't figure out how it's done (the text tries to include pictures but they aren't detailed enough to figure what he means.)

On the plus side, he does provide better summaries and interpretations of the hexagrams than a lot of versions, being a bit more clear on what's represented by some of the imagery and explaining what the advice of the hexagram is meant to suggest. The I Ching is a funny book, and by its nature of being not-in-English, the more translations one can collect the better one usually is for it. But, on the downside, Wu tends to cold-read, unfortunately, and he omits the overall interpretations and instead only gives the line-by-line advice. Still, I do recommend the book somewhat: you might want to forgo the set as there's a good chance you can find cheaper yarrow sticks elsewhere.

EDIT: After over a year, I finally figured out why the instructions for the yarrow were never producing the desired effects. There is one more yarrow stalk in the box than it says, so the reason it never seems to work is you're starting out with the wrong number.

I will also update to say that this version of the I Ching seems to have become my go-to version whenever I'm specifically looking for advice, since most of the book seems to be phrased in that way. It's not so good for fortune telling but it is a decent edition for suggesting how to proceed in a situation.

I REALLY ENJOYED MY GIFT SET. I JUST WISHED THAT IT CAME WITH SOME CHING COINS THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN COOL TO HAVE. BUT IF IT HELPS IF YOU LIKE TO READ THIS IS A GOOD BOOK!

In the introduction, the writer attempts to refer to "runes" and instead calls them "ruins" which should have been a tip-off for me to not continue reading, but I did. Later, he goes on to explain how to split up the yarrow sticks after asking a question and the way he explains it is physically impossible! Do not buy this book.

I have since tried to figure out how to divine using yarrow sticks and virtually every explanation I find, I cannot follow for some reason and the answers I get using coins do not make any sense.

I have used runes and tarot and never had a problem. Nor am I the kind of person that cannot figure out systems as I have been working in the field of systems' analysis for many years.

I have therefore come to the conclusion that the I-ching is for those with an "eastern" mind (which I obviously do not have).

Still, if you're interested in the I-ching, I would recommend a different book as this one is really hard to follow.