Oracle bone divination was the divination practice of the Shang court, roughly from the 13th to the 11th century BCE: people drilled and heated turtle plastrons or ox scapulae to produce cracks, read the cracks as the answer, then inscribed the question, the prediction and sometimes even the outcome onto the very piece of bone. This is the earliest layer of divination in China for which we have original texts to read.
What is the I Ching? Trace its origins in yin and yang lines and the philosophy of Yin-Yang and the Eight Trigrams, from the two symbols to the 64 hexagrams.
Alan Leo (1910) gave the Sun sign to the individual and the Moon sign to the personality, reading 144 pairs together. We read his text and note its limits.
Explore the physiognomic meanings of high, low, full, or bony cheekbones in Eastern face reading, along with a critical perspective from modern science.
A Lục Nhâm course type names a chart by the overcoming relations among its four courses. The four base types are Nguyên Thủ, Trùng Thẩm, Tri Nhất, Thiệp Hại.
When something goes missing, many Vietnamese families pray to Ông Địa, the Earth God, promising an offering if it turns up. Search first, then try the ritual.
The Self Line marks the querent, the Response Line marks the other party in Liu Yao. Their positions decide how the whole hexagram is assigned and read.
Khụ Sự Chà, the Hà Nhì New Rice Festival in Mường Nhé, Điện Biên, thanks ancestors with floating cakes, pig liver divination and glutinous rice pounding.
Phong tục in English is custom, tập quán is usage, and truyền thống is tradition. See how the three differ, plus a vocabulary table of Vietnamese customs.
Lục Nhâm is an ancient divination method in the Tam Thức group. Learn how Đại Lục Nhâm builds a chart: Thien Ban, Tứ Khóa, Tam Truyền, and Thiên Tướng.
Hexagram 44 Thiên Phong Cấu, one newly born yin line beneath five yang lines, speaks of sudden encounters and how to spot a new shoot while it is still small.
After a relationship crisis, young people often turn to Tarot not just for a prediction, but for a safe place to ask questions and name what they feel.
Wood physiognomy: a tall, lean frame with fine bones and a clear, carrying voice. How three old texts each describe the Wood type, and where they differ.