Yarrow stalks

Yarrow stalks are the traditional, and oldest, instrument for consulting the I Ching. Fifty stalks are used, one of which is set aside; the remaining forty-nine are divided and counted off in fours according to a precise ritual, repeated for each of the six lines. The method is slow and requires sustained attention, which practitioners regard as part of its meditative value. It makes changing yang lines more frequent than yin ones, unlike the coin method.