How to "read" an I Ching reading

      I Ching readings come in three parts:  The main message, or hexagram; the changing lines; and the future reading.

      All of the parts need to be read together as a story.  The main message will be the theme of the story, the basic message of what the hexagram is trying to tell you.  And it will also be the beginning of the "timeline" of the story:  where things are now, in the present. 

     The changing lines are the middle of the story, and they follow the timeline.  Receiving the first changing line will give you information about the very beginning of the situation. The succeeding lines will give information about where the situation is going.  Receiving Line 6 will tell you where the situation is likely to end up.

      When you change the changing lines to their opposites, you have a new hexagram, which indicates the future of the situation.

       But it is not a story that is just being told to you.  It is a "Choose Your Own Adventure" story.  These are children's books where the reader is the protagonist. The reader makes choices that determine the course of the action and the outcome. Originally some of the books allowed the reader to choose  "facts" - like whether the monster was scary or silly -  but later books only allow the reader to choose his or her own actions in response to the facts.

       And so it is with the I Ching. The hexagram you receive, which carries the main message, will tell you what forces are in play now, and will probably give you some advice on how to deal with it.  It is entirely up to you, however, to follow that advice.  Or not.