ABUNDANCE HEALTH
REVIEW
The Logic of Chance :
A New Approach to the I Ching Interpretation for Decision Making
by Alberto Ramon
I
think most people know about the I Ching . It ’ s also called The Book of Changes . It ’ s been reputed to be the oldest book in existence , born in China over 3,000 years ago . A lot of people , including myself , rely upon it as this wonderful , intuitive tool for making decisions . You may think that you ’ re all set then , all you need is that book , and I think there ’ s a degree of truth to that . You can just play around with the I Ching and get good results , but having said that , that ’ s pretty much how I got to use the I Ching .
In this book , The Logic of Chance , Ramon has clearly given a lot of thought to providing insights for how to make best use of this divination tool . There are guides out there that focus primarily on how to interpret answers , but this book helps readers first grasp the importance of how you phrase the questions . This is really critical because people might assume , “ Of course we know how to ask questions . We ’ ve been asking questions all our lives .” Okay , true , but having said that , what ’ s really terrific about Alberto Ramon ’ s take on this is that he shows how by using many different starting points , you can get really different answers based on the way you ask the questions . Because he respects the I Ching so much , he ’ s able to lead readers through these recommended ways to ask questions to get the most benefit from the I Ching .
Another wonderful thing is that short-term outcomes can also be divined by consulting with the I Ching . He has lots of examples of that . One of the more amusing and entertaining sections is about questions that should be avoided , like including assumptions , vagueness , or focusing too much on other people rather than yourself . This book contains all 64 hexagrams and key concepts and ideas associated with each of them , but it does not include all the changing line descriptions . For that , there ’ s a nice link to the website that you can go to for free access .
There is a fair amount of variability in the description of the different hexagrams across different authors , so it ’ s important to find a good book where the descriptions fit what makes sense to you . That ’ s true of any divination tool . This book does cover the basic concepts , and if you ’ re new to the I Ching , it ’ s a great starting point . You can actually use this to make important decisions in your life , which is exactly how I ’ ve used the I Ching for decades now . If there ’ s a decision in my life that ’ s really important , I go to the I Ching .
• Reviewed by Cynthia Sue Larson
26 | HAPI Guide