Ramapaniching is an I Ching reader for the present day. For three thousand years the Book of Changes has been consulted at turning points: a situation held in mind, six lines cast, a hexagram read. Here the oracle casts for us, or we bring a cast of our own made with three coins or an eight-sided die, and the reading comes back in plain contemporary language: what is happening now, what it grew out of, and what it is becoming.
Ramapaniching
Contemporary Book of Changes
The I Ching answers a situation, never a yes or a no. We hold the matter in mind and let the lines fall.
No dice to hand? Throw six with Ramapani Dice, and the roll comes straight back here.
The oracle reads a situation, so we think of where we stand and leave the answer we want to one side. Which of these is closest to the heart of it?
The nuclear hexagram: lines two to four make its lower trigram, three to five its upper.
The opposing hexagram, every line turned over: how the situation behaves if approached in the opposite spirit.
The underlying forces that shaped how things became what they are.
An alternate past shaped by different choices or circumstances.
The nuclear hexagram of the figure the lines become: the trend already forming the next stage.
Where things lead if our actions push against the direction of change.
We begin with Cast a reading. The oracle tosses the coins for us, six times, and builds the hexagram from the bottom line up. Before the reading appears we are asked which of three registers the question belongs to:
The oracle responds best to a situation held sincerely in mind. A question that wants a yes or a no gets a poorer reading than one that asks how things stand.
In the free edition the oracle casts up to three readings a day; the count starts again at midnight. Our own casts, entered by hand, are never counted.
With Enter our own cast we can bring a reading made with three coins, the method that Western translators made familiar in the nineteenth century. Tails counts 2 and heads counts 3; three coins tossed together give one line, the sum of the three:
We toss six times, starting with the bottom line, and write the six results in order, such as 687996. That string goes in the box.
An ordinary eight-sided die gives the same four kinds of line as the coins, including the changing ones, where the commercial I Ching dice stop at trigrams. One roll per line, from the bottom up, each from 1 to 8, written in order such as 178364. The app turns each roll into its line.
The reading is in three parts. What is happening now is the hexagram cast, with its two trigrams, a description, a few sentences in the chosen register and two lines of guidance to tick off as they are taken up. What it grew out of reads the same hexagram as the past. What it is becoming is the hexagram the changing lines turn into; with no changing lines the present stands.
Under each part, Deeper opens two more figures: the nuclear hexagram, made from the four inner lines, read as the hidden essence of the situation, and the opposing hexagram, every line turned over, read as the shadow or the road the situation would take if approached in the opposite spirit.
The line at the top of the reading names the changing lines. Inside Deeper, each hidden figure is drawn as six small lines: a whole line for yang, a broken line for yin.
The start screen keeps a streak: the number of days in a row with a reading. It grows by one the first time a reading opens each day, and a missed day starts it again from one. Schedule tomorrow's reading, at the foot of a reading, downloads a small calendar file for the same time tomorrow, with a reminder ten minutes before; opening the file adds it to the device's calendar.
Share makes a link that carries the hexagram, the register and the seed the oracle used, so someone else sees the very same sentences. On a phone it opens the device's own sharing; elsewhere the link is copied. Copy as text puts the whole reading on the clipboard as plain text, for notes or a message.
Supporters on Patreon have the enhanced edition: the oracle casts without a daily count, and a reading can be added to the journal with the question we held and any notes. The journal lives in this browser only; nothing leaves the device. Save to a file keeps a reading as a small file we can load again here, on any device, and Export writes the whole reading out as HTML or plain text for printing or keeping.
Hexagram names chooses the classical names (The Creative, The Receptive) or the contemporary ones (Momentum, Receptivity). Trigram art chooses the style the figures are drawn in. Inverted trigrams draws each trigram the other way up, as some traditions do; our own casts are then entered trigram by trigram, top line first.
Kept in this browser. Changes apply at once.
Nothing we cast here is sent anywhere. Readings and settings stay on this device.
The I Ching reads a situation rather than giving a yes or a no. We say which register the question belongs to, practical, psychological or relational, and the hexagram's sentences are drawn for that register. Each reading has a seed, so the link we share brings back the very same words. Under each part of the reading, Deeper opens two further figures: the nuclear hexagram, formed from the four inner lines, and the opposing hexagram, every line turned over.
The Help screen explains the coin and dice methods and how the reading is put together. The 64 hexagrams and the eight trigrams can be browsed on their own, with classical or contemporary names and three styles of trigram art in Settings.
Supporters on Patreon get the enhanced edition of Ramapaniching, here on this very page once they sign in:
Inner-Light is £2.10 a month and opens every enhanced app on this very page. Not ready yet? Patreon also has a free tier, so we can follow along at no cost.
Already a supporter? Sign in once and the enhanced edition opens here.
Members of Ramapani on Patreon sign in here once, and the Inner-Light features open on this device. Signing in sets one cookie that keeps us signed in here for thirty days; Sign out removes it (privacy & cookies). Not a member yet? Join on Patreon: there is a free tier, and Inner-Light is £2.10 a month.
Joining Inner-Light on Patreon and signing in here opens the enhanced edition of Ramapaniching and all 8 other apps below, on their own pages, plus the member downloads, for as long as we stay a member. Radiance, the tier above, adds every retreat in Ramapani Retreats.
One sign-in opens every enhanced edition on this device, and nothing about us is kept on the server. Supporting Ramapani keeps the servers running and new features coming. About membership
Behind-the-scenes notes, early access to new creations, generous discounts, and off-menu Ramapani experiments.
The form comes from SendFox, who send the emails for us; they hear nothing until the button is pressed, and only the name and address typed in once it is sent. Privacy & cookies.
Nothing we cast in Ramapaniching is sent to ramapani.com or anywhere else. The reading is built in this browser; the daily count, our settings and the Inner-Light journal live in this browser too, and clearing its data removes them. "Share" uses the device's own sharing, or copies a link that carries only the cast, the register and the seed. The site counts nothing.
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