The Yarrow Stalk Method
an algorithm demonstration of the 50-stalk yarrow method
The 3,000-year-old yarrow stalk method of the I Ching, now reproduced as an algorithm. Fifty stalks, eighteen operations — the procedure Confucius followed.
What Makes the Yarrow Method Unique
- · The only method of hexagram formation recorded in the I Ching, transmitted through the orthodox lineage for over 3,000 years
- · Full name: "Yarrow Stalk Divination," also called "Dayan Method," from "The number of the Great Expansion is fifty, its use forty-nine."
- · Dividing into two symbolizes yin and yang; suspending one symbolizes heaven, earth, and humanity; counting by fours symbolizes the four seasons; setting aside the remainder symbolizes the intercalary month. Thus incorporating heaven, earth, humanity, seasons, and leap months
- · Three changes yield one line; eighteen changes yield a hexagram. Using non‑uniform probabilities and complex mathematics, it simulates the changes of heaven and earth
↗ Unlike the coin method: coins yield equal probability (1/8 each), while the yarrow method's distribution mirrors nature — yang lines tend toward stability, yin lines toward change.
↗ Unlike generic AI: the yarrow method follows the complete ritual recorded in the I Ching, and hexagrams emerge from the canonical procedure with its natural probability distribution, not from statistical pattern inference.
How the method works
- 1
You ask a question
One sentence held still in mind.
- 2
The algorithm runs
18 operations, performed by the algorithm with the same probability distribution as the canonical method.
- 3
The hexagram emerges
With or without changing lines.
- 4
You receive the hexagram
The original I Ching text for your hexagram, presented without interpretation.
- 5
Optional: Full Analysis
Multi-dimensional analysis — situation, dynamics, reference, timing, warnings, trajectory.
Begin when you are ready
Hold a question still in your mind. The stalks are waiting.