I Ching: The Symbolic Life

I have about 10 versions/translations of the book of change. In my opinion; this books speaks in the clearest divinitory fashion. The clarity of this book is amazing. My most favorite I Ching book.So good, I bought a backup copy.Wish they had a hardcover edition.Steep price; but so worth it.Bravo Mr. Karcher!

Karcher's works are not precisely the same as the meanings you derive from the Wilhelm or Legge texts. They are generally far more mystical and include elements of Chinese shamanism. With that warning aside, This latest work is truly outstanding and compares favorably with his "Total I Ching" which has been my I Ching bible for a long time now. Graphically beautiful, poetically beautiful, mythologically accurate and shaministically correct, there is endless room in this book for exploration of every individual hexagram and each moving line. Amazingly, with all of this, the individual Hexagram discussions take up only three pages. Hence, you can spend as little or as much time on it as you wish. Karcher then goes beyond the call of duty to demonstrate how the moving lines fit seamlessly into hexagram pairings in the second half of the book. Either this book or Karcher's "Total I Ching: Myths for Change" or BOTH should be on the bookshelf of every dedicated I Ching enthusiast or scholar. I would also recommend Karcher's "Symbols of Love": an I Ching devoted to personal relationship questions, now, sadly, out of print but still obtainable on Amazon.

less of a meticulous I ching interpretation. more of a shamanic journey, taking into account the shadow lines of the consequential hexagram as hinting at more insight. widens active implementation of imagination. it does seem fitting as reflection of reality on the ground. interesting work.

karcher gets it. and katya walter.

I have been traveling with the I Ching for forty years - mostly using the Wilhelm/Baynes edition and often feeling I was missing something important; enthralled, but wondering if I was always getting the full picture, the full impact of the oracle. It was hit or miss.Stephen Karcher's research into the early pre-Confusian, Taoist roots of the I Ching, blazes a trail which for myself at least, has opened me to the amazing power of this amazing tool. I would say that this book, and another work of Karcher's -  Total I Ching: Myths for Change  - are indispensable for any serious student of the I Ching.