How to Cast the I Ching with Coins: A Beginner's Guide

The three-coin method is a practical way to generate an I Ching hexagram: you toss three coins six times, turn each result into a line value, and build the figure from the bottom upward. This page explains the mechanics and recording convention. It does not claim that a cast predicts events or replaces practical judgment.

What this method does—and does not do

Casting generates a structured starting point for reading the Zhouyi and later commentaries. The coin method is one procedure among several, including yarrow-stalk approaches; different editions and schools may describe notation or multi-line interpretation differently. Treat the convention below as a transparent method for making a record, not as the only authentic historical practice.

For questions involving health, safety, money, law, or another person's rights, use appropriate professional advice and ordinary evidence. An auspicious label is not a guarantee of an outcome.

What you need

• Three ordinary coins. Use the same heads/tails convention for all six throws.
• A notebook or note app with six numbered rows.
• A way to record which lines are changing before you consult an interpretation.

Choose a focused question if you are using the cast as a reflective practice. The question is part of your record; it is not a promise that the resulting text will produce a scientifically validated prediction.

The three-coin method

For this tutorial, count one side as 3 (yang) and the other as 2 (yin). Add the three values after each throw:

The arithmetic gives four possible totals: 2+2+2 = 6, two 2s plus a 3 = 7, two 3s plus a 2 = 8, and 3+3+3 = 9. The 6/9 changing-line labels belong to this commonly used coin convention; other systems can use different procedures or naming.

Record six throws from the bottom upward

Throw the three coins once and write the result in row 1. That is the bottom line of the hexagram. Repeat until row 6, which becomes the top line. Do not write the first throw at the top: the figure is assembled upward.

Here is a complete example. The coin faces are not important once you have recorded the total:

The six recorded lines form the primary, or cast, hexagram. Mark the 6 and 9 lines clearly. To form a relating or transformed hexagram, change each marked line to its opposite polarity: old yin becomes yang and old yang becomes yin. That transformation is a structural operation; it does not by itself tell you how to interpret several changing lines.

From casting to interpretation

Stop and preserve the record before opening a commentary. The primary hexagram describes the starting configuration in the chosen reading tradition; changing lines identify the positions treated as in motion; the transformed hexagram is the figure produced after those marked polarities flip. How a reader weighs two or more changing lines varies across traditions, so do not present one website's priority rule as universal.

For the interpretive stage, continue to how to read an I Ching hexagram. You can also review what the I Ching means as a text and tradition, the I Ching change entity, and the first hexagram card. Those pages address meaning and context; this page is deliberately limited to casting and recording.

FAQ

Which line do I record first in the I Ching?

Record the first throw as the bottom line, then stack later throws above it. The sixth throw is the top line.

What do 6, 7, 8, and 9 mean in the coin method?

With the 2-for-yin and 3-for-yang convention, 6 is old yin, 7 young yang, 8 young yin, and 9 old yang. Six and nine are marked as changing in this convention.

Can the I Ching tell me what will happen?

This procedure gives you a hexagram record for reflection and interpretation. It has not been established here as a scientifically validated forecasting method, and it should not replace practical judgment, professional advice, or responsibility for a decision.

Claim map

• C-101: six throws and bottom-up line order — source S-106.
• C-102: 2/3 coin scoring and 6–9 totals — source S-106.
• C-103: changing lines flip polarity; multi-line rules vary — source S-106.
• C-104: Zhouyi hexagram/line statements and translation layer — source S-101.
• C-105: coin and yarrow-stalk methods are distinct procedures with different distributions — source S-107.
• C-106: prediction and professional-advice boundary — source S-104 plus editorial safety rule.

Further reading

• Wilhelm and Baynes, The I Ching (S-101).
• Smith, The I Ching: A Biography (S-102).
• Adler, The Yijing: A Guide (S-104).
• I Ching Online, “Instruction for the Coin Method” (S-106).