Workshop description:

Sometimes we may feel we are wandering in mist. And yet the universe is always offering guidance if we’re paying attention. On occasion however we have to ask directly. Many people wait for signs or “markers” as to how to proceed in difficulty. Casting the Hexagrams of the Book of Changes is one way to do this deliberately. This workshop is about drawing every ounce of meaning from the Hexagrams and lines of the Book of Changes in order to illuminate the way.

The Workshop will be interactive and experiential as well as educational.
Each student is requested to pose a question prior to the workshop and to share the Hexagram the Book of Changes offers in response. We will examine every one of the Hexagrams cast – which of course is one reason numbers are limited – first in the abstract and then in light of the question. During the week before the workshop I will coach by email anyone who doesn’t know how to cast a Hexagram. No previous knowledge of Chinese or other metaphysics, the esoteric or the world of woo-woo required.

The Book of Changes or I Ching commonly known as the Yi, consists essentially of sixty four images or guas. Each represents an aspect of the human experience, opening with Qian, The Creative and concluding (or not) with Wei Ji or Not Yet Complete. Casting – whether by yarrow stalks, dice, coins or some other means – draws from the Yi a Hexagram in answer to an enquiry. Sometimes answers hint at the future, often at the past. Some say that the Yi represents the thrust of the universe; spirit, higher mind or tao; others that we’re simply informing ourselves of what we already know. Either way Chinese emperors, generals, politicians and businesspeople have been using the Yi as adviser and reference for over 3000 years. And it seems to have been working for them.

The workshop will include some background, some tradition and some history and take a good look at the shape and structure of the Yi. Then we will examine each cast. And take it from there. It may even get personal – strict confidentiality is a condition of admission.

We may examine the Hexagrams in the usual ways – lines, elements, family relationships, traditional interpretation and so on – but we’ll also give ourselves permission to break all the rules and strip the Hexagrams back to their ancient simplicity, back to the Shang & Zhou Diviners of antiquity, before Confucius or anyone else fixed their meanings and see what the Yi is saying to us now in 2020.

Bio:

Richard Ashworth is one of the most respected Western Masters. He pioneered feng shui surveys at a distance on My Spirit Radio in the early noughties though he is probably best known for introducing classical feng shui to a mass audience on Channel 5’s Housebusters as well as for his book the Feng Shui Diaries which chronicles a year of his work including a trip to Wuhan. His Audible ‘Imperial Feng Shui, The Real Thing’ (currently) free is a pretty good introduction. He has been featured in the Sunday Times and on Big Brother’s Little Brother as well addressing the GrandMasters at the IFSC in Singapore. He studies the Yi daily.

Instagram: richardashworthfengshui
Facebook Page: Richard Ashworth Imperial Feng Shui