I Ching Kit: All the Tools the You Will Need to Work with the Oracle of Change [With 50 Sticks, 3 Coins, Pencil, Colth, Notepad, Chart]

This is a great kit as it provides you with all you need to get properly started on I Ching, including the Chinese coins and especially the 50 yarrow sticks, which are not always easy to find. Its nicely presented too, a set you'll be happy to own and use. But there are two small but serious typos in the quick reference card that comes it, in translating the answers of your oracle (6,7, 8 or 9 values) into lines, which can be misleading. The book is correct, the card isnt. So if you get this kit - and I recommend you do - you could begin by comparing this key to that in the book, and make the necessary corrections on the card right away to avoid confusion. After you have been introduced to the art of I Ching, you can decide if you want to enhance your readings by getting a more comprehensive book, such as Karcher's own translation.

The kit as a whole is invaluable, bringing together "yarrow" sticks and coins with a book that reduces the interpretive material to a reasonable level for the beginner. The summary divination (image) reads well and seems to get the gist of the details over nicely, at least for me. Going to Ritsema and Karcher's larger, more exact translation provides an intermediate/advanced interpretation. One flaw: typos on the quick reference card for consulting the oracle with coins or sticks, mixing yin and yang--check the diagrams in the book instead, which are accurate.

I like this kit a great deal because it provides the tool necessary to properly consult the oracle. Further, it translates the hexagrams into language that is more palatable to the the Western ear. It is truly amazing that man has found a way to query and listen to the forces of nature that influence his life. This has helped me gain insight to many of my most puzzling life questions.