Category: I Ching The Oracle (book)

I Ching Oracle Cards (Free Printables)

On By benebellIn cartomancy, create your own deck, divination, free download, Fu talismans, I Ching, I Ching The Oracle (book), oracle deck, Tao of Craft (book), Taoism12 Comments

Download the digital files to a text-driven 64-card I Ching oracle deck for a free companion tool to my book, I Ching, The Oracle (North Atlantic Books, 2023).

This is a serviceable everyday personal divination deck that also doubles as an easy, accessible introduction to the I Ching.

It makes for a great study tool as flash cards and for learning the Ba Gua trigram and Wu Xing alchemical phase correspondences.

For your convenience, I’ve also uploaded the files onto makeplayingcards.com. External link and info below.

The listing is $23.20.

  • $22.95 of it goes to makeplayingcards.com, not me.
  • Only $0.25 of it goes to me.

Yes, that’s right. A quarter.

But if you are on a tight budget, you can download the printables file and crafty craft your own DIY copy of the deck.

Apart from the six-line hexagram images, the card faces are text only. No one is trying to wow you with artistry here. =P

This deck is intended to be a functional beginner’s tool for learning the I Ching, to be used in tandem with the book, I Ching, The Oracle.

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The Guan Yinzi

On By benebellIn Fu talismans, grimoire, I Ching, I Ching The Oracle (book), Magical in the Mundane, personal spirituality, Tao of Craft (book), Taoism, traditional witchcraft10 Comments

also known as the Wen Shi Zhen Jing: Sutra of Magical Spells and Aphorisms for Attaining Primordial Truth

The more recognized naming convention for the sutra is the Guan Yinzi (闕尹子) or Wen Shi Zhen Jing (文始真經) attributed to the gatekeeper who Laozi encountered.

The Guan Yinzi (or Wen Shi Zhen Jing)

According to lore, the gatekeeper at the Western Pass, named Yinxi 尹喜, later given the name Wenshi (文始), transcribed the teachings of Laozi and that text became the Tao Te Ching (道德經). Alternate tellings have Laozi writing the teachings down into two books himself, which the gatekeeper then receives.

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I Ching and the 60-Year Lunar-Solar Calendar Cycle

On By benebellIn astrology, divination, holistic horoscopes, I Ching, I Ching The Oracle (book), Tao of Craft (book), Taoism11 Comments

My Instagram post from five days ago noted that 2024 (or more accurately, year of the Wood Dragon) corresponds with hexagram 43. Some have been describing it as a forecast or prediction. That’s not entirely accurate, so I thought I’d clarify.

It’s not so much a forecast as it is an application of I Ching theory.

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Why is the word “feminist” triggering? Disappointing realizations.

On By benebellIn I Ching, I Ching The Oracle (book), opinion, personal, Tao of Craft (book), Taoism25 Comments

So I posted this video yesterday:

When I made this video, I genuinely did not think there’d be anything controversial about it. I will even continue the assumption now and say that if you actually watch it in the entirety, you, too, would not reach the conclusion that it’s trying to be anti-male. Nor will you find it laced with any ulterior motive of gender politics.

Heck, now in retrospect, I probably could have titled the video “Tao Te Ching & the Divine Feminine.” Right? It’s just that I have a complicated relationship with the concept of “divine feminine” hence I went with “feminist metaphysics.”

Within hours of its posting, I received the following comments:

This blog post starts with my reaction to the above responses, but then I’ll go off on a tangent to share some unfiltered ramblings with respect to Eurocentric Taoism and cultural appropriation.

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I Ching Divination with Moon Blocks

On By benebellIn divination, I Ching, I Ching The Oracle (book), Taoism5 Comments

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).

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Author’s Thoughts After Three Books

On By benebellIn I Ching The Oracle (book), opinion, personal7 Comments

Posted an author unboxing (actually no, it’s not really an unboxing) and first impressions (is it a first impressions?) of my third book, I Ching, The Oracle.

Then decided to swing by over here on my blog to repost and share some additional personal ruminations. Here are some of my thoughts and reflections after publishing three books.

Holistic Tarot debuted in 2015, then The Tao of Craft came out in 2016. I didn’t publish another book until 7 years later, 2023.

There’s this unspoken pressure on writers to crank out books on a fairly regular, repeating basis. To be clear, no one demands it of us; it’s more of an unspoken self-imposed peer pressure. You look around and all your colleagues are writing a book a year.

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Lady of the Nine Heavens and the I Ching

On By benebellIn Fu talismans, I Ching, I Ching The Oracle (book), Magical in the Mundane, personal, personal spirituality, Tao of Craft (book), Taoism, traditional witchcraft7 Comments

This video is part of a companion course series leading up to the release of my third book, I Ching, The Oracle. I’ve covered this topic previously here, “Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven (Jiu Tian Xuan Nü, 九天玄女).” However, given the personal relevance, we’re revisiting the Lady of the Nine Heavens, now within the context of my Purpose for publishing this new translation of the Book of Changes.

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Taoist Magic for Beginners: How to Get Started

On By benebellIn feng shui, free download, Fu talismans, grimoire, I Ching The Oracle (book), Magical in the Mundane, personal spirituality, Tao of Craft (book), Taoism, traditional witchcraft8 Comments

This is a companion write-up to the above video.

Continuing from what I said in the video chat, if this is something you seriously want to do, then start by getting that three-ring binder. Though I think organizing it into eleven sections is sufficient, I noticed you can’t buy packs of just eleven binder dividers. They come in sets of 12, so that’s fine. Having a final “Miscellany” tab is always a good idea.

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Taoist Spirit Maps (Líng Tú 靈圖)

On By benebellIn I Ching The Oracle (book), Taoism, traditional witchcraft11 Comments

Líng Tú 靈圖, or spirit maps, are oft referenced in the Taoist Canons (道藏經). They’re a recurring feature in the Canons that have always intrigued me, and how the term “Líng Tú” is used in the scriptures.

So that’s the topic for video #6 in this series.

修真歷驗鈔圖, one of the scrolls in the 洞真部靈圖類 of the Taoist Canons

Let’s summarize the three classifications of spirit maps: (1) maps of spirit realms for the purposes of astral journeying or spiritual cultivation, (2) enshrining divinities or creating thresholds for which communication between the physical and spirit realms can take place, and (3) Fu, which are talismanic edicts or petitions to regulate spirit forces in a way that will influence physical forces.

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Wu Xing: Five Movements 五行 · 오행

On By benebellIn astrology, divination, feng shui, Fu talismans, I Ching, I Ching The Oracle (book), Taoism, traditional witchcraft4 Comments

This is a crash course on the Wu Xing 五行, Five Dynamic Movements, though you’ll often see it called the Five Elements of East Asian metaphysics. These are five alchemical agents of change to describe how yin and yang qi create, destroy, and thus transform the physical world.

Download PDF
The Five Changing Phases and Their Correspondences
Download DOCX
The Five Changing Phases and Their Correspondences

1/30/2023 Erratum Update: A few of the correspondence rows in the Metal and Earth columns got flip-flopped in the subsequent reference chart. If you downloaded the table before 1/30/2023, please delete it and re-download the rectified version. ❤

I say “East Asian” here because it’s not limited to any one culture, ethnic group, or nationality, not to mention the concept itself is much older than modern-day borders.

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