I’ve covered moon block (Jiao Bei, 筊杯) divination before here in a past Tinkering Bell video. And this downloadable PDF linked here is a quick reference sheet for using moon blocks.

When you walk into a Buddhist or Taoist temple anywhere in the southern regions of the Mainland, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, heck– just in general the East Asian cultural sphere– you are going to see moon blocks. Baskets full of moon blocks. It’s so you can ask your question of the patron divinity or spirit, then toss the moon blocks and receive an answer from beyond.

Moon blocks can also be used for divination with the Zhouyi (I Ching).

When might you opt for moon blocks rather than the traditional yarrow or coin toss methods? I might go the route of moon blocks for I Ching divination for the purposes of spirit contacts. Specifically invoked spirits.

In other words, instead of posting to a general audience on a message board beholden to whoever’s around to see your post, this is like dialing a specific phone number to reach a specifically named contact.

If I’m just having fun with the Oracle or presenting a mundane question about everyday life, then I am not going to use the moon blocks.

If the intention is to conceptualize the Oracle as the Tao, or as Shangdi, then again, I won’t opt for moon blocks. If I’m conceptualizing the casting as communion with a holy guardian angel, higher self, inner self, or self-exploration, I won’t opt for moon blocks.

Using moon blocks in I Ching divination is reserved for contacting a specifically invoked spirit, be that ancestral or celestial.

For operable moon blocks, I would distill the required elements to the following:

1. The moon blocks have been consecrated.
2. You come before the divine cleansed and consecrated.
3. The nexus or channel between the realm of the divine and the realm of humanity has been consecrated.
4. If divining with the moon blocks in a temple or what’s already sacred space, then consecration of the ground isn’t necessary. However, if you are using the moon blocks outside of sacred space, then generally it’s good practice to first consecrate the ground where you will be tossing the blocks.
5. You have cultivated your inner shen and qi to be in harmonious alignment with the resonance of the divine.
6. Words and/or Fu (sigil magic) invoke the divine, petitioning the divine’s presence. [The concept of offerings is also typically used to petition the divine’s presence.]

How exactly those bare bones requirements are met will vary from tradition to tradition, region to region.

There’s a piece of advice my mom once gave me about moon blocks that has stuck with me, and that I adhere strictly to: Do not present any question to the moon blocks that you do not truly want to know the answer to.

Now let’s get into the how-to.

PREREQUISITE: 

These divination instructions are written with the presumption that you are already familiar with either the yarrow stalk or coin toss divination method and understand the concept of changing lines.

For the purposes of I Ching divination, here are the moon block correspondences:

“YES” = YANG. In traditional moon block casting at a temple, one rounded up and one flat side up results in a “yes” or affirmative response from the shen (spirit). Thus, for yin and yang divination purposes, that result will correspond with a yang line result.

“NO” = YIN. When both moon blocks yield the rounded side up, the result is a “no” or negative response from the shen. Thus, in I Ching divination with moon blocks, we correspond that result with a yin line.

“LAUGHING GODS” = PRECEDING RESULT IS A CHANGING LINE. When both moon blocks yield the flat side up, the result is called “laughing gods,” meaning the spirits have declined to be responsive at this time. When this happens, the previous or preceding yin/yang line result is now noted as a changing line, which in I Ching divination is commonly marked with an “X” to note that the yao (i.e., that yin or yang line) will change in the transformed hexagram.

HOWEVER, IF your moon blocks casting yields “laughing gods” twice in a row, then take that as a sign that the spirit invoked has declined to answer your question at this time. The spirit is letting you know that right now is not a good time to be divining on the matter.

If immediately upon the first toss of the moon blocks the initiating result is “laughing gods,” this is a warning not to proceed with your query at this time.

If you are bold enough to toss again “just to see” and the result is again “laughing gods” now twice in a row at the start of the casting, then you are strongly advised to stop and abandon the query for now.

CASE STUDIES: 

Reading case studies help us to better formulate how we will approach the thing ourselves, so here are three.

CASE STUDY #1

Invoking Queen Mother of the West

A practitioner presents the question, “Where do I go from here?” to the patron goddess, the Queen Mother of the West. Dress in all white, fully cleansed and well-groomed. Perform the divination at a time corresponding with Metal and Venus (the Wu Xing correspondence to the West directional), or some time between 3:00 pm and 6:59 pm. Burn sacred incense as an offering.

ASTROLOGICAL TABLE OF ASCENDANT HOURS

Hold both moon blocks reverently in both hands and focus the mind on an inner visual manifestation of the Queen Mother. Ponder the question, which in this case is, “Where do I go from here?” Let your thoughts orbit that main question, reflecting on the personal context for that inquiry.

Integrating the line text from hexagram 35, line 2, invoke the Queen Mother with the following incantation:

I call upon the Queen Mother of the West	Bài qǐng Xīwángmǔ	拜請西王母
May I now receive Her blessings.	shòu zī jiè fú	受茲介福
All Hail the Queen Mother.	yú qí Wáng Mǔ	于其王母

Recite the incantation reverently and sincerely once through before tossing the moon blocks. Note the result. Then recite the incantation again and toss the blocks again. Recite the incantation once before each toss.

By way of an example, here are the actual moon block toss results when presenting the question “Where do I go from here?” to the Queen Mother at an hour of Metal/Venus:

The result was a locked or single hexagram result, hexagram 60. To the question “Where do I go from here,” I read The Oracle section from the entry, then the ruling line (Line 5). The Lake (lower trigram) sets the bounds limiting how the Water (upper trigram) is filled.

As for Line 5, it reminds me of that famous Gandhi quote: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” But here, with the implication of boundaries and limits, don’t over-exert yourself or demand more of yourself than you would demand of others. The grace you would show others is the grace to show yourself.

CASE STUDY #2

Consulting Grandma

A practitioner would like to “call grandma,” albeit long deceased, and give the late grandmother a life update. An ideal time for such a life update and chat with a deceased grandparent would be Tomb Sweeping Day (the 15th day after the spring equinox) or the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival (the 15th day of the 8th lunar month), though really, any time at all will do. Wait until an hour after sunset.

Set up an altar dedicated to grandma, e.g., a framed photograph of her, candles lit on either side, fresh flowers, some food offerings for grandma (specifically a bowl of cooked rice with chopsticks standing vertically upright in the rice), a brew of your best tea, and burn incense.

Kneel in front of the altar with hands clasped in prayer. Call out to grandma. Then speak freely through the thoughts in your mind. Many will prefer to actually speak aloud as if talking to grandma’s spirit, who is present in the room and listening.

When you’re done with your life update to grandma, cast the divination moon blocks to yield a reading, which is interpreted as grandma’s response to your life update.

Note how the first toss (Toss #1) yielded a positive yang result. Toss #2 then yielded laughing gods, which means Line 1 yang is a changing line marked with an X. Toss #3 yields another positive yang line in the Line 2 position. Continuing on to Line 5, cast from the seventh toss (Toss #7), the moon blocks gave a negative yin result. And so on.

The I Ching divination yields grandma’s response to the practitioner’s life update:

Hexagram 34 may suggest an expression of great pride, but also worry over great risk. Line 1 of hexagram 34 is grandma saying, be careful, take it easy, one step at a time, and don’t rush things. Be very calculated in your decision-making. “It is not enough to be as good as your competition; you must be three times better.”

But (moving on to Line 3) this does not mean three times the excessive force! “The better way is to conceal your power and give the impression of powerlessness. To display force now is risky.”

Then we conclude with the image and judgment (or in the I Ching, The Oracle text, summarized as “The Oracle”) for hexagram 40. It’s evident that this Grandma is Asian, because she says, “Great job, but now get back to work.” Also, maybe Grandma is nagging a bit, and saying that you wake up too late in the mornings; you gotta get up earlier, and she’s sticking to traditions– “Old ways are favorable,” she says.

CASE STUDY #3

A Ghost Haunting

A spirit medium has confirmed that a ghost is occupying a house and haunting the human occupants. The human occupants want to placate the ghost so that it stops pestering them. The spirit medium uses the moon blocks and I Ching to communicate with the ghost and ask what it wants.

The question presented to the ghost: “Why are you bothering these occupants?”

Upon the first toss of the moon blocks, the result was “laughing gods.” The spirit medium would then admonish and warn the ghost to comply with the request.

The spirit medium asks a second time, “This is your final warning. Answer me now. Why are you bothering these occupants?” The result was a repeated “laughing gods.”

This is interpreted as the ghost in effect “laughing” at the querents and refusing to dignify their inquiry with a responsive answer. In such cases, in the Taoist or Buddhist traditions, the spirit medium would likely proceed with an exorcism.

Historically two clam shells were used, which resemble cups. Hence the namesake 杯. The clam shells would be consecrated into divination tools by etching poems or incantations onto them. During the Tang dynasty, bamboo or wooden shaped moon blocks were popularized in lieu of the clam shells.

When your purpose for the I Ching is to work with the Oracle as a telecommunications device with the spirit realm, and you intend to “call up” a very specific spirit entity, then using moon blocks is a classic occult method.

Gather the moon blocks between your palms in a prayer mudra, petition the shen by name, present your question, then toss the moon blocks onto consecrated ground.