Customer Reviews

I Ching: An Introductory Guide to Working with the Chinese Oracle of Change

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Dr. Stephen Karcher has done a brilliant job adapting the I Ching oracle for modern readers. As a major contributor to the Eranos Foundation's first complete translation of the I Ching into English in the mid-Nineties, Dr. Karcher has mastered the I Ching and its subtle historical, spiritual and psychological contexts. For this slim edition, a revision of his excellent "Elements of the I Ching", he's created the finest I Ching translation for everyday use. The issue with many adaptations of the I Ching, including the venerable Wilhelm/Baynes and the Legge translations, is that the original ancient Chinese social context is kept intact, which can make such a translation very difficult to understand. Karcher writes in a clear, direct style that avoids the oblique "it serves the great man to cross the great water" style of its predecessors. Dr. Karcher has also included a new method of consulting the book, using colored glass marbles, which combines the mathematical probabilities of the laborious yarrow-stalk method of divination with the ease of use of the popular, but mathematically inaccurate, three coins method. As for the book itself, Element Books has done a beautiful production job in its choice of typefaces and paper stock. A first class effort...and a bargain, too.

I love this book. It speaks in direct , everyday language anyone can understand. I have looked at alot of books on the I Ching and this is by far the best and my most favorite. There is alot of information in this small book. I highly recommend it.