Book of Changes

Free I Ching Reading

Cast six lines with the three-coin method and read your hexagram, changing lines and where things are heading.

Each line is three coin tosses: heads = 3, tails = 2. A total of 6 or 9 is a changing line.

Hold your question in mind and cast the coins six times to build your hexagram from the bottom up.

How the three-coin method works

The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is an ancient Chinese text built on 64 hexagrams – figures of six lines that are either solid (yang) or broken (yin). To cast one, you toss three coins six times. Heads count 3 and tails count 2, so each toss gives 6, 7, 8 or 9.

A 7 is a solid line and an 8 a broken line. A 9 is a solid line that is changing and a 6 a broken line that is changing. Lines are built from the bottom up.

Reading your hexagram

The first hexagram describes your current situation. If any lines are changing, they flip to their opposites and form a second hexagram that shows where things are heading. CardSuffly shows both, with the number, the Chinese name and a short meaning.

Frequently asked questions

How many hexagrams are in the I Ching?

64, each made of two trigrams of three lines.

What are changing lines?

Lines with a value of 6 or 9. They change into their opposite and create a second hexagram that shows how the situation develops.

Is the online coin toss random?

Yes. Each coin is tossed with your browser’s cryptographic random number generator.