Phrasing the question

The Book of Changes describes situations and the movement inside them. It is at its best when you bring it a situation — and at its weakest when you bring it a demand for a verdict. The difference is almost entirely in the phrasing.

Ask about your own position

The strongest questions are about your own next move in a situation you are actually in. "How should I approach the conversation with my brother" gives the oracle a situation with you inside it. "Does my brother respect me" asks it to report on the inside of another person, which is not what it describes. When a question is really about someone else, turn it until you appear in it: not "will she change," but "what is my right conduct while this stands unresolved."

Prefer "how" and "what" to "whether"

A yes/no question wastes the instrument. The hexagrams are pictures of times — times for pushing forward, holding still, retreating, gathering, waiting — and a picture answers "what is this time like and how does one move in it" far better than it answers "should I." If a decision is genuinely binary, ask about one arm of it: "what would taking the job ask of me."

Plain words, held steadily

Say the question in the words you would use to a trusted friend, and settle on the words before you begin. The slow count exists partly for this: eighteen divisions of the stalks give a vague question time to sharpen, and it is worth letting it. A question that shifts mid-cast tends to produce a reading that answers neither version.

What not to ask

• Predictions with dates on them. The Book describes tendencies, not schedules.
• The same question again because the first answer displeased. The chapter on youthful folly is unusually direct about this.
• Questions you have no intention of acting on. The reading is counsel for movement, not entertainment.

When the question is ready, cast on it — or walk through the annotated first cast from the start page if this is new to you.