I Ching for Beginners: A Modern Interpretation of the Ancient Oracle

by Mark McElroy

For more than three thousand years, the I Ching has offered guidance to emperors, generals, and philosophers. Amazingly accurate, this ancient oracle anticipates change and recommends timely action in all the important areas of your life.

With clear summaries of each of the I Ching's sixty-four passages, this friendly divination book makes it fun and easy to consult the beloved classic—and all you need is pocket change or a deck of cards. Call upon the wisdom of the I Ching to guide you through life's challenges and rewards:

Resolve conflict • Get through difficult times

Strengthen relationships • Find and nurture love

Achieve your goals • Live your life with purpose • Experience health and wellness

Genres: Divination, Nonfiction

312 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2005

About the author

After escaping his home town of Anniston, Alabama, in a rainbow-hued balloon, Mark McElroy was kidnapped by post-modern minimalists at the prestigious Center for Writers (University of Southern Mississippi), where he earned an MA in creative writing. During that time, he designed and taught in the nation’s first computer-aided collaborative writing classroom, earned his first writer’s paycheck with a wince-worthy comic book script, and began coming to terms with the fact that, despite having been groomed as a fundamentalist minister, he was definitely gay.

Since then, he’s authored more than a dozen non-fiction books on subjects from Apple Computers (101 Reasons to Switch to the Mac, from Que Books) to lucid dreaming (Lucid Dreaming for Beginners, for Llewellyn Publications). He’s also designed and scripted more than a dozen Tarot decks for publishers in the US (Llewellyn) and Italy (Lo Scarabeo). His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages.

Unlike his characters, Mark lives a quiet and happy life with Clyde (his husband for thirty-one years) and their two rescue dogs, Sunny Day and Windy Day. Parallel Lines is his first novel.

Reviews

[Shadowz Greymoon]

It was a great help in my parapsychology/ astrology course I am taking.

[Knocturn]

I was first introduced to I Ching in Phillip Pullman's book The Amber Spyglass. Its basically a non tarot, non runic divination system using an oracle book of philosophical quotations and yarrow stalks. I tried understanding it from other books but it was too confusing. In this book by Mark Elroy he explains the system in simple language with simple pictures. He even goes into alternative methods than the yarrow stalks. I found the book most helpful, enlightening, and entertaining.

[Jeff Mayo]

I'm not a believer in anything mystical. This made for a fun drinking game.