Wen Wang Gua is such a fun oracle. It is rather cerebral in its functioning, not unlike horary astrology, but it is incredibly accurate. In fact, I think the I Ching (in its Wen Wang Gua or Plum Blossom forms) is to Chinese Astrology what horary astrology is to Western astrology. There are some limitations to the analogy, but it is a good one, as far as it goes.

Some days ago, I asked the I Ching when it would rain, just for kicks. Being the end of August, some rain wouldn’t be bad.

Subject: Here
Object: the Weather
Focus: Parents line (represents rain, because it is life-giving)

Parents hold the Object line with Shen (Monkey, metal.) It also holds the Month branch, therefore not only is it vibrant: it is also useful. But it doesn’t move. Furthermore, the Subject, Wealth Snake, moves to restrict it, and while it is untimely at the Month branch, it is supported by being at the Day branch which is also Snake (although Metal is born at Snake). The Day Branch holds the Parents up in a combination. It is a very uncertain picture, and indeed we’ve been having a very changeable weather, with clouds and sun, but not rain. It is complicated by the fact that this is a six-combination Hexagram, which doesn’t favor change.

But the situation should change on Goat day, that is, in two days, when the Goat Wei clashes the void Ox line from void to compact to drain away the restricting Snake energy and generate the Parents line. It is more likely to rain in Wei or Shen hours (1pm-5pm). However it probably won’t last very long as the resulting Hexagram is an all-clash.

(Note: these are my notes on the reading taken on the day of the reading)

Flashforward to two days later

I asked again. This time the question was if it would rain that day

The Hexagram is still. Technically this would mean that there are no changes, but this is not necessarily the case, as change can happen in many ways. For instance, in this case we have the Parents line still represented by the Monkey Shen at Subject and, again, at the Month Branch, while the Object is void, which usually is said to indicate unpredictable weather. Voids prelude to change. In this case, Goat at the Day Branch clashes the Ox from void to compact to generate the Monkey. It will probably rain in Goat or Monkey hours.

Result: it rained in Monkey hour, at 15:30, but it lasted less than an hour, as predicted by the six clash Gua. I’m wondering if there is something I was missing that would have allowed me to narrow down the hour to just Monkey and not Goat in the prediction.