How to cast a six-line reading: setting up and reading it

The classic way to cast a six-line reading is to shake three bronze coins six times. Each shake gives one line, and the six are stacked from the bottom up, with the moving line identified by whether the coins land face up or face down.

These days an online cast is used instead. The principle is the same, and what matters is still that your mind is settled and your question is clear.

Casting the same question repeatedly in a short space leaves the hexagram confused. When the circumstances have changed, casting again is far more meaningful.

Once the hexagram is cast, it has to be dressed: assign the stems and branches, fix the world line and the response line, mark the parent, sibling, offspring, wife and wealth, and officer and ghost relatives, and note the element of each line.

The world line stands for yourself and the response line for the other party or the object. The six relatives stand for different people and matters. This is the biggest difference between six-line reading and simply reading a hexagram text.

After the dressing, every line carries a role — who, what, producing or overcoming whom — and only then can the reading land on a specific matter.

The key to the reading is to identify the “significant star”（用神）according to what you asked: for money, the wealth star; for a career, the officer and ghost; for an elder, the parent. Then look at the strength of that star and at the producing, overcoming, combining and clashing of the moving lines.

Six-line reading puts the weight on judging the success and the timing of one specific matter. The more focused the question, the more usable the conclusion.

The moving lines are the trigger of the change. Who moved, and what it did, usually says more about what comes next than the static balance of strength does.

Six-line reading does not suit asking about too many things at once. Rather than asking “will things go well for me from now on”, ask “will this interview move ahead” or “is it right to sign this partnership now”.

A good question has an object, a time range and the choice you actually face, so that choosing the significant star does not wobble.

If the question is vague, the significant star is hard to fix, and the reading of strength and overcoming easily goes off track.

The significant star matters, but you cannot look at that one line alone. You also have to consider the relation between the world and the response lines, the source and the taboo stars, the moving lines, the month and the day, the void and the combining and clashing.

Sometimes the significant star looks weak but is supported by the month and the day or helped by the source, and there is still a turn for the better. Sometimes it looks strong but is clashed by a moving line, and caution is needed.

The month and the day are like the weather of the day. Looking only inside the hexagram, without the month and the day, easily mistakes a temporary weakness for a final defeat.

Six-line reading belongs to the I Ching system, and the primary and changed hexagrams and the texts can still serve as background reference. But six-line reading leans much more on the world and response lines, the six relatives, the significant star and the producing and overcoming.

If you are just starting, learn to read the primary hexagram, the moving lines and the changed hexagram first, and then learn to dress the hexagram and find the significant star. Running the two lines of study together makes the reading steadier.

For a complicated matter, you can use six-line reading for the success and the timing, and then use BaZi for the longer-term structure, taking the best of each.

While you are practising, fix three things: the question in one sentence, a note of which star you took as the significant one, and the judgement about advancing or holding back in the conclusion. Keeping a few consecutive records shows you whether you are really reading the situation far more clearly than changing your method every time.