I Ching
Reaching for the coins.
I Ching
The I Ching is the oldest decision-making system in continuous use — three coins cast six times, six lines stacked into one of sixty-four hexagrams, each with a classical interpretation transmitted unchanged for three thousand years. We perform the cast with cryptographically-random coin flips and read it in the tradition of Wilhelm and Baynes.
Type a real question — about a decision in front of you, a relationship, a turn the road just took — and watch the hexagram that answers it emerge from the wheel.
Why it matters
Not horoscope generality. A specific three-thousand-year-old answer to the question you actually asked, drawn at random and read in the classical Chinese tradition.
How it works
One real, specific question — about a decision, a relationship, a moment you're trying to read. The I Ching answers what you actually asked, so the wording matters. You can take all the time you need.
Three coins are tossed six times, producing six lines bottom-up. The randomness is cryptographically secure (crypto.randomBytes), not Math.random — so the cast is genuinely undetermined at the moment you submit. We persist the cast to your journal regardless of whether you ask for a reading.
The sixty-four-hexagram wheel decelerates onto the primary hexagram drawn from your cast. If any lines are changing, a second hexagram is shown beneath: the trajectory the cast is moving toward. The classical Chinese name, Wilhelm romanisation, trigram decomposition, and image (heaven over earth, fire over water) all appear with it.
The free classical reading stands on its own. For a personal interpretation against your specific question — written by the watcher, in plain English, naming exactly what your hexagram says about your situation — spend a credit. Every account gets one free watcher's reading on the house.
What's inside
Free
Every cast you draw is yours: the six lines, the primary hexagram, the resulting hexagram if any lines are changing, and the classical context (trigrams, Chinese name, Wilhelm interpretation, image). No credit needed. Your cast journal at /me/casts keeps every reading you've ever drawn, with the question that prompted it.
First on the house
Every account gets one free interpretation by the watcher — a personal reading of your specific cast against your specific question, written in plain English, citing the lines and the changing-line marks that drove the conclusion. After that, subscription credits or a top-up pack unlock the deeper reading.
With a subscription
Subscribers get a monthly pool of watcher's readings — the deep, personal interpretation of each cast. Share a cast and earn bonus credits when a friend signs up. Cancel any time; your free classical layer keeps working as long as the account exists.
Method
We use Node's crypto.randomBytes for the coin flips, which is the same RNG used for cryptographic keys — there is no deterministic seed, no client-side draw, nothing the seeker (or we) can game. The interpretation draws on Wilhelm's German translation (1924), Baynes's English (1950), and the Ten Wings commentary, with modern phrasing.
Staying plants a tree
From your second month onwards, each subscription renewal triggers a real, verified tree planting through Tree-Nation. You get the species, GPS coordinates, and a public certificate you can share. (Your first month is on us — no tree — as a thank-you for staying.) The forest grows in your name as long as you stay subscribed.
Begin
The free layer is real — your chart, the classical I Ching cast, the opening palm read, your first daily. Subscribers get the deeper interpretive layers, the watcher's on-demand readings, and a tree planted in your name every month. No card needed to sign in.
Free with Google or Meta sign-in. No card needed yet.