This article about how Oracles work is based on the study and research on different kind of oracles, particularly the ones of the ancient times that arrived to our times, as I Ching (from ancient China) and the Oracle consulted by the Augur through the birds flying described in the Iguvine Tablets (from the ancient pre-roman Italic Populations, the Iguvine Tablets are the only known complete description of a pre-christian liturgy survived in Europe).
All the oracles are based on the same scheme: all the reality and all the possible changes in this space/time are described by system of opposites, that works as a framework to randomly select the answer to the question asked to the Oracle.
I Ching, The Book of Changes, is the only known survived complete Oracle
The framework of the possible answers by an Oracle is a system of opposites
The framework as a system of opposites
The framework used by the I Ching
The response by the Oracle and the main law of changes
The Oracle’s response is not about the future, it is about the present
The role of randomness in an Oracle: connecting to present
The randomness used by the I Ching
How to formulate the question to an Oracle: asking from presence
I Ching, The Book of Changes, is the only known survived complete Oracle
I Ching, The Book of Changes, is the only known complete Oracle from ancient times that has survived until the present. It is at the same time an Holy Book (base of the Taoism, and probably more cults), a Wisdom Book, and an Oracle described in detail. The I Ching is the book that shapes the Tao. It is dated thousands of years B.C. and it has been written, studied and commented through centuries of layering of comments, research and interpretations made by wisemen and saints of all kind, including Confucius and Jung.
The I Ching gives a complete, detailed and mathematically precise framework for the selection of the answer obtained. All the others oracles have lost, over the time, the original description of the framework and they are based, for the interpretation of the answer obtained, mostly on the intuition of the interpreter, which can be good or not depending on his/her intuition abilities, but anyway they rely mostly on the personal abilities of the interpreter, then they rely mostly on subjective factors and not on objective. The answer through the I Ching is not based on the intuition of the interpreter.
The consultant of I Ching does not interpret anything. He/she just explains what the book, and so the framework used, says about the answer obtained. Any other interpreter would give a similar explanation, better or not based on his/her knowledge of the I Ching, including the Oracle purpose and functioning, and his/her communication skills. When you use an Oracle that has a complete description of the framework used, intuition can be used to have better explanations, not to obtain the answer.
The framework of the possible answers by an Oracle is a system of opposites
To describe all the reality and changes, the oracles use a framework that is divided in parts. The framework is mathematically built as a system of opposites, this means that the parts of the framework will be always in a number that is divisible by the number two. The framework contains and describes anything is real and anything is changing.
The system of opposites is used because the duality of opposites is the simplest thing that is common to anything is real, and anything changing, in this universe and in this space/time dimension. It is the duality intrinsic to anything that is real, that is always present in anything with both of the elements in different proportions: Yang and Yin, Sky and Earth, Proton and Electron, Light and Darkness, Fire and Water, and so on.
That’s the reason why the Oracle does not answer “yes” or “not”, because it does not exist anything in this world that is only Yang or only Yin, or if it exists it is not perceivable by humans who always need the duality to perceive the reality. We can not perceive the light if we don’t have the darkness, and if there would be a light without darkness then we would not perceive it.
The I Ching represents the duality of opposites with the word “Yang“, the “positive” represented by a whole horizontal line, and the word “Yin“, the “negative” represented by a broken horizontal line.
The symbol of the Tao represent the Yang and Yin in their interaction. It is a dynamic symbol, it has to be seen as in movement. The two points of the opposite element represents the indissolubility of the two opposite elements that are always present together, in different proportions, in anything is real.
The framework as a system of opposites
Then in theory any framework that has a number of parts divisible by two could be used as an oracle framework. Anyway only the frameworks based on the exponentiation of the number two are the ones which contain, among their parts, all the main mathematic relations between the opposites, that is the frameworks based on the exponentiation of the number 2 contain, among their parts, the relations based on the three main mathematic operations (sum, multiplication, exponentiation, and their opposites subtraction, division, root).
The frameworks based on exponentiation of the number 2 are the ones which better describe the reality and the changes in this space/time. This because the three main mathematic operations, contained in the relations among the frameworks’ parts, can so represent the 3 dimensions of space (line, area, and volume, or latitude, longitude, and altitude) and the 3 dimensions of time (past, present, future).
A point is the intersection of the 3 space dimensions if we could live without time, and by definition has no dimensions: we can conceive it, maybe we can perceive it, but we can not define/capture it as when we try to do, it will be already changed to another intersection (state) as the movement/change is continuous.
It not possible, in this space/time, to intersect the three dimensions of time among themselves, and we can intersect only 1 dimension of time with the 3 dimensions of space at a time. That’s the reason we say that we live in a world of 4 dimensions and not 6.
Moreover any exponentiation of the number 2 will be always divisible also by the number 4, and the number 4 is representing the relations between space and time.
In fact when we say “here” we mean the intersection of the three space dimensions and present. And with “there” we mean the intersection of three different space dimensions and the present, or the intersection of the three space dimensions and the past or the future, or the intersection of three different space dimensions and the past or the future. Anyway it is always about 4 dimensions.
We use to say “here and now” to emphasizes the presence state, the only one where and when life happens because when we intersect space with past we have history/memory, and with the future we have projecting/worrying.
The exponentiations of the number 2 have also other mathematic relations with the main numbers of the base 10, used to measure space, and of the base 12 used to measure time, but it is not a topic to go deep in this context.
Simplifying, referring to space:
1 = line = latitude = sum/subtraction
2 = area = longitude = multiplication/division
3 = volume = altitude = exponentiation/root
4 = Intersection among the three space dimensions and present or past or future
Simplifying, referring to time:
1 = past = sum/subtraction
2 = present = multiplication/division
3 = future = exponentiation/root
4 = Intersection among the three space dimensions and present or past or future
Observing life through time, from a philosophical/mathematical point of view, it is possible to say that:
1: the past corresponds to a line of facts that we sum up to the present.
2: the present is an area of events that interact among themeselves with multiplication and division (proportions).
3: the future is a volume of possibilities that is exponential to the present events.
Philosophically talking, simplifying:
0 = Absence.
1 = Existence, the beginning.
1, 2 = The opposites that are in common to anything is real and changing, in different proportions.
1, 2, 3 = The three dimensions of the space and of the time.
1, 2, 3, 4 = The relations / intersection between space and time. The Pythagorean Tetraktys.
The Tetraktys by Pythagoras is a triangular figure consisting of ten points arranged in four rows: one, two, three, and four points in each row and 4 points in each side. It is the geometrical representation of, among other things, “all” the numbers and proportions as taught by the Pythagorean school that considered mathematic as the “divine language”. As a mystical symbol, it was very important to the secret worship of Pythagoreanism, whose teachings remains mostly a mystery up to the date.
The Tetraktys by Pythagoras.
The framework used by the I Ching
The number 2 (the opposites present in anything real) raised to the power of 6 (the six dimensions of this space/time we live) gives as result 64. A framework with 64 parts contains all the main mathematic relations and proportions, among the opposites, within the three dimensions of space and the three dimensions of time considered as a whole, “space/time”. This framework is also developed to a sufficient analysis level to be useful for humans, then not too much general and not too much detailed.
The parts of the framework of the I Ching are called “Signs” and they are 64 in total. The 64 signs of the I Ching represent 64 states present in all of reality, and in any portion of it, which is in a continuous process of transformation.
Each sign, called also “hexagram”, is composed by 6 lines, that is by 6 different states that can be “Yang” or “Yin”. Every line represent the lower level of reality represented.
The lines are grouped in trigrams that are called “Symbols”, that is each symbol is composed by 3 lines and they are 8 in total. In the generation of the trigrams from the simplest Yang-Yin level has an intermediate step that forms symbols of 2 lines.
All the possible combinations among the 8 symbols, give the 64 signs that compose the I Ching.
The framework used by the I Ching, in general and in its parts, is described in a very detailed way.
From the Yang-Yin line (state) to the 8 symbols.
The Tao and the 8 symbols of the I Ching.
The 64 signs formed by the combinations of the 8 symbols.
The 64 signs in ascending order from the maximum Yang to the maximum Yin.
The response by the Oracle and the main law of changes
When one of the two opposite elements reaches its maximum, it transforms in its opposite, that’s the way the two opposite elements interact each other that is described by the main law of changes and that apply to anything is real and anything is changing in this space/time. When the Yang reaches its maximum it transforms itself in Yin, when the Yin reaches its maximum it transforms itself in Yang. In the I Ching that state of changing from a maximum Yang to Yin and vice versa, is represented by a mutant line, that is a whole line transforming in a broken line and vice versa. A mutant yang line is represented by a whole horizontal line with a circle in the middle and a broken mutant line is represented by a broken horizontal line with an “x” in the middle.
The answer will be a specific part of the framework used. The answer will be 1 or 2 signs of the 64 signs. It can be 1 or 2 signs depending if the answer obtained describes some specific changes or not. It describes specific changes when the randomness used to obtain the answer gives as result that one of the two elements of the opposites that compose each sign (represented by the horizontal lines) is at its maximum (mutant line), and in this case the sign of the framework obtained as response will transform itself in a second sign which will be formed by the same line types of the first sign but the mutant lines that will have been transformed in its opposite. In the case of having a response formed by two signs, the first sign represents the situation as it is, the second sign represents the situation as it tends to transform, and the mutant lines represent what is specifically changing.
The response by the Oracle is always correct as any of the signs would result, it will always describe a part of the reality, the part that better describes or better refers to the present situation from where the question was generated.
The response by the Oracle is the description of the phase among the changes described by the one or two signs obtained in the oracle consulting.
Example of a response by I Ching, containing mutant lines.
The Oracle’s response is not about the future, it is about the present
Destiny and free will
The Oracle is a tool for humans that helps to interpret the reality and the changes that are taking place in the present situation, to take decisions in a conscious way and in a way that is “harmonic” with the trends of changing taking place.
The Oracle gives answers about the present. We can ask to the Oracle only from the present dimension, we can not ask from the past or from the future situations, so also the answer is always related to the present situation and never to the past or future situations. That’s the reason why if you make the same question to the Oracle in two different times, you will probably obtain two different answers, and the two of them are “good” because the “good answer” is the one which gives us an insight, here and now, about the present situation and what is changing in it. This way it is useful for who is asking, giving him/her new perspectives, point of views, ways out, from where the petitioner can take decisions and use the free will to be in harmony with destiny or to change it.
In the same way that the Oracle does not answer “yes” or “not”, there is not a “positive” or “negative” response by the Oracle as this depends by the point of view of the petitioner. The answer obtained by the Oracle describes the present situation, here and now, referring to a specific question asked in the present, here and now. It describes the situation has it is, with its implicit consequences. It can also describe what is specifically changing in the present situation, and so to which other situation would tend to transform following the “normal” evolution of the changes, that is the evolution of the changes that is harmonic with the life cycles described through the framework.
This does not mean that what is described in the answer is going to happen exactly as described, because humans have free will and participate of the creation. Because of this humans can change their destiny.
The role of randomness in an Oracle: connecting to present
The Oracle is consulted through a method which uses randomness to obtain the answer, inside a framework that is a system of opposites.
There are many types and combinations of randomness that is possible to use, as coins toss, sticks toss, observing the birds flying, the coffee grounds, the cards thrown, the entrails of an animal, a person under the effect of drugs pronouncing random words, etc… and each of these can be used in different combinations: 1 or 2 or 3 coins, 1 or 2 or 4 birds, etc… The important thing, to obtain a proper answer, is that the randomness used has to be mathematically coherent with the framework used, this means that it has to be a method that gives the same probability to result to all the single parts that compose the framework.
Why the Oracle uses randomness? Because randomness connects to the present, to the “here and now”, and only in the present we can observe the reality as it is and take real decisions. Many randomness’ of the same type realized over a time, they create a trend that is statistically describable. So we know that if we toss a coin many times over a time, head or tail will tend to the 50% each of the past and future tosses. But one randomness is here and now, you never know before if it will be head or tail, you will only know when it happens, then you know it in the present. After that moment it will be in the past, so it will probably not be useful for the present situation.
So, to obtain the answer by the Oracle, we use a randomness mathematically coherent with the framework of opposites used to describe all the reality and the changes, and we use it at the same time, in the same here and now, that we make the question. Using randomness at the same time that we make the question ensures that we obtain an useful answer for the present situation, an answer that is inside a framework that is based on the only thing that is common to anything real (the opposites). If we would make the same question in another moment, the situation will have changed and so also the answer will probably change thanks to the randomness that connects the question to the new present to obtain an useful answer.
The randomness used by the I Ching
The response extraction methods used by the I Ching involve random extractions of the hexagrams line by line.
Studying the mechanism, Carl Gustav Jung coined the concept of synchronicity (no-causal connection of one or more significant events). The correspondence of the extraction of the hexagram on the one hand and the situation questioned on the other, considered to be in psychic connection with the personal and collective unconscious, allows us to associate the hexagram obtained with the relevant question and the problems it poses.
The most common method involves tossing three identical coins. You decide which side represents yin and which yang, and assign a numerical value to each side of the coin, i.e. 2 for yin and 3 for yang. A series of 6 launches is then carried out, obtaining the value for each of the six lines, and the values obtained are added, ordering them progressively from the bottom (first place) towards the top (sixth place). We will evaluate the value of each individual line as follows (in the example tails = yin; heads = yang):
2 + 2 + 2 = 6 = mutant broken line (maximum of Yin)
corresponding to 3 tails result
3 + 2 + 2 = 7 = whole line
corresponding to 1 head and 2 tails
3 + 3 + 2 = 8 = broken line
corresponding to 2 heads and 1 tail
3 + 3 + 3 = 9 = mutant whole line (maximum of Yang)
corresponding to 3 heads
Note that if we consider Yang as plus (+) and Yin as minus (-), the method described respects the mathematic multiplication rules as the multiplication is the mathematic main operation related to the present:
– * – * – = – (mutant)
– * – * + = +
– * + * + = –
+ * + * + = + (mutant)
How to formulate the question to an Oracle: asking from presence
Avoiding ambiguous and useless answers
Asking to the Oracle can be useful when a situation is unclear, in any aspect of life as business, work, relations, especially when there are decisions to take. Anyway it is important to formulate the question in a specific way that is compatible with an answer obtained inside a framework of opposites, that means that you will not get a “yes” or “not”, you will get a description of the present situation. Most of all the question has to be asked from the heart, or better said the question has to be asked from presence, which is the only real dimension in which we experience life and the only one that connect us to our consciousness and our essence. Also the response by the Oracle has to be listened from presence.
When we make the right question at the right moment, we make the right question for the present situation, and we obtain the right answer for us in the present situation. This avoids loosing time and attention in asking to the Oracle questions that are not really useful for the petitioner, mostly because they are anchored to the past or the future or they are not properly formulated, or questions that will receive by the Oracle an answer that then inevitably looks like ambiguous and useless, simply because it is not connected with the present of the petitioner or it is not properly formulated.
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