I Ching: Walking your path, creating your future [Paperback]

Hilary Barrett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 2010

I-Ching has been in continuous use for around 3,000 years. The Chinese Zhou people developed this Book of Changes. The I-Ching is an ancient Chinese oracle, a proven tool of divination that can help readers foresee the future. It is a complete guide to change: understanding it, moving with it, creating it. It describes change that is transformative and seasonal, global and personal, incremental and revolutionary. It tells stories of great historical change, and it sketches tiny vignettes of everyday life—marrying, surviving an illness, repairing a well.

The beautifully designed pages of this book, along with its striking flexibound cover will appeal to the reference and gift markets. This manual includes all 64 hexagrams with key questions delineating the main themes, and step-by-step instructions on how to cast a hexagram, with three coins or with yarrow stalks or beads. The book also offers simple techniques for discovering the personal meaning of the answers you receive and suggests ways to carry your readings into daily life.

This attractive, practical I Ching for divination pays homage to the original text while supporting the modern user with lucid explanations and guidelines for interpreting the oracle.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Hilary Barrett is an I Ching diviner with over ten years experience. A lifelong fascination with books led her to study literature at Oxford, and after completing her B.A. and M.Phil. she began to study, consult and learn from the I Ching. In interpreting readings and teaching practical divination skills, she helps people foster an awareness of meaning and connection in their own lives through a relationship with the I Ching.

 

Hilary can be contacted via her website www.IChingReadings.com

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Arcturus (August 31, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1848374534
• ISBN-13: 978-1848374539
• Product Dimensions: 0.7 x 8.4 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #582,761 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #67 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > Divination > I Ching

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I Ching: Walking your path, creating your future (paperback) October 15, 2010

By Rand Noël

Amazon Verified Purchase

Let me begin by saying that I have known Hilary Barrett for going on eight years now, and this review will be slightly prejudiced in her favor; Not because I know she'll read the review but because her reputation precedes her publication. The book itself is an excellent quality book and gives the I Ching (Yijing) student a wonderful insight into the machinations of this ancient oracle.
What impressed me, was Hilary's ability to put into everyday English what Scholars from Ancient China and throughout time all over the world have debated and published and re-published for most of the History of Mankind. The 'Yi' is considered by most to be one of the oldest written 'anything' in the world. Surviving massive book burnings, political upheavals and just time itself, Ms. Barrett, like the original, has kept it short and to the point without compromising philosophical integrity, or mystical insight. In this day and age of mass media and marketing it's a pleasure to know that some still have the ability to convey to the reader the beauty of the work. I am sure the (In)spiration for much of her work was none other that the message of the work itself "talking to her' and for this I am grateful that one more generation may have the ability to understand that magical world of Oracles and the I Ching that have guided ordinary people and Emperors alike throughout the ages.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I Ching- For Any Level of Practitioner October 27, 2011

By Appalachiacat

Amazon Verified Purchase

Not being a writer, it will be difficult to do this book proper justice; but here goes....
"I Ching; Walking Your Path, Creating Your Future" is easy to use and is full of wisdom, virtue and insight. If one is a beginner to the Oracle, you need this book. If you have already spent a few years communing with the I Ching, you really need this book to round out your understanding.
This book is well organized and both sensible and comprehensible (something that can't be said about many of the interpretations of "I Ching"). The Introduction starts with "What Is the I Ching"; showing the basic structure and definitions of lines, trigrams and hexagrams and then continues with a straightforward approach to consulting the Oracle. Each Hexagram (chapter) is introduced with perceptive "Key Questions", In the "Oracle", classic imagery is followed by lucid commentary. The chapter continues with "Image"; a kind of contemplative impression of the Hexagram, followed by "Sequence" which shows the connection to the preceding Hexagram and its place in the procession of Hexagrams. Finally comes the "Changing Lines" with a wonderfully clear discussion on the "heart" of each Line. If this seems confusing to the Beginner, it won't be when you open the book.
All this talk of "lucid" and "clear" and "insight" reminds me that the author, Hilary Barrett, has an I Ching website, "[...]", that is more than worth the time to check out. I've been an inspired follower of this website and Hilary Barrett for several years and have been eagerly awaiting this book. It's been well worth the wait.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Worthy Addition March 12, 2012

By callingcrane

Amazon Verified Purchase

Hilary Barrett's work is a wonderful addition to anyone's collection of the Book of Changes. She honors both the tradition and historical sense of the work and creates something fresh from it as well; it is a clear drawing from the source. I am glad I purchased it and recommend it without reservation.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite translation January 10, 2011

By Katherine M. Catmull

Amazon Verified Purchase

This is my favorite translation of the I Ching, a really unusual combination of great clarity and subtlety, a hundred thousand miles removed from a fortune-teller-style translation. Barrett is particularly good at peeling back and exposing the layers of meaning and historical context of lines, while never losing the core. I'm sorry it's not possible to search inside this book--reading a few lines would give you a much better sense of its clarity, intelligence, and wit than my description can.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical mysticism March 5, 2012

By bookreviewer

Hilary's interpretations are eloquent and quietly written, as though the author must have gathered the words together on cold winter nights by a fire. The I Ching can be obscure but with her wisdom and, no doubt, rich experience, this book turns the mystical into the practical. The most helpful feature for me when casting my own readings is the two or three questions she has put in reference to each section. A great book for everyone and a must have for I Ching enthusiasts.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilary Barrett's I Ching: Everything Old is Made New Again January 26, 2011

By Ginnie Snow

If you have never used the I Ching, but have been curious to try it, buy this book! You are in for quite a surprise!

If you are more experienced, you may enjoy the unique Key Questions section and will appreciate the author's up-to-date style of writing, subtle and sure. Few have managed to get through the stumbling blocks to clarity with such grace -- and effectiveness. After all, when we ask questions, we want to understand the answers.

I spent the whole evening after this book arrived browsing about in it, just to see what Hilary had written about the lines I am currently working on. You know how it is ...

On the minus side, I thought the red and black cover was off-putting and did not represent well the quality of the book itself. But it would be a mistake to judge this book by its cover. Overall, this is certainly a handsome and handy edition.

And so something old becomes new again. Someone said Hilary Barrett has now rewritten the I Ching for a new generation, and may it be a light that never goes out.