In the most common procedure for I Ching divination three coins are tossed and the sum of heads (value 3, yang) and tails (value 2, yin) is taken to signify one of the line forms of the Messenger kua (6,7,8,9). There are eight possible arrangements of heads and tails but, since the order of the coins is not taken into consideration for the traditional procedure, there are only four numerical totals; one for each of the line forms of the Messenger stage of the process. By taking the coin tosses in sequential order, drawing a yin line for tails (value 2) and a yang line for heads (value 3), and drawing those lines from the bottom up, a greater amount of information manifests in the process. Each line of the Messenger kua can then be seen to be the result of one of eight possible arrangements of the three coins.
To use the full set of kua that are implied in the divination process treat each of the three coin tosses as a discrete and sequential event; drawing a yin line when a tail comes up and a yang line when a head shows up and drawing the lines from the bottom up. In this way you will have a trigram for each of the lines in the Message kua. You can then regroup the 6 trigrams thus created into 3 kua. By following the instructions below you will be able to see the full unfolding of the stages of change leading to the Message kua and its Translation.
As in the common method, the numerical values of the trigram are added to produce a single line form for the Messenger kua but now there is, in addition, the three line form which shows the sequence of yin and yang from which the Messenger line evolved. In between these forms are the historically assigned two line forms called the "emblematic symbols" or images.
The line form for young yang (----- value 7) in the Messenger kua can result from three different sequences of heads and tails in Stage I (322, 232, 223). In each of these sequences there is but one value of 3, a yang line. The young or stable form of yang at the Messenger stage can be said to reside as a minority yang line within the three line figure of Stage I.
The line form for young yin (-- -- value 8) in the Messenger kua can result from three different sequences of heads and tails in Stage I (233, 323, 332). In each of these sequences there is but one value of 2, a yin line. The young or stable form of yin at the Messenger stage can be said to reside as a minority yin line within the three line figure of Stage I.
The line form for old yang (--o-- value 9) in the Messenger kua can result from only one sequence of coin tosses; all heads (333). Here there is no minority line; the configuration is said to be unstable. By the process of enantiodromia (reversal in extremis) a minority line is "created." The yang line of the Messenger kua is marked as "moving" and the process of "manifesting a minority" is completed by changing the moving line to its opposite thus creating a new line in a Translated kua.
The line form for old yin (--x-- value 6) in the Messenger kua can result from only one sequence of coin tosses; all tails (222). Here again there is no minority line and like the old yang the situation is unstable and a minority line is created in the Translated kua.
The intervals between Stage I and II, and also Stage II and the Messenger kua demonstrate the shedding of the majority lines of the Stage I figure.
The end result of the complete process of divining with the I Ching is a kua which represents a minority configuration of lines that speak of the future. The Translated kua consists of all the minority lines which reside in the Stage I figures. If there is no minority line in the three line figure of Stage I, the logic of the I Ching demands that one be created. A "moving" line is one which has reached the limit of its development and must manifest its latent qualities. The Messenger kua therefore represents a transitional stage for the situation that is the subject of divination.
The transition is between "old" and "young" elements, "majority" and "minority" influences, as well as "past" and "future" conditions. The general message contained in the full expansion of the divination process is that any one prevailing situation, explainable by the 64 states described by the I Ching, is composed of old and new, majority and minority, and past and future elements. A full and complete understanding of the current conditions that make up the subject of divination is possible when the prior and future conditions form a frame or context for them. The Translated kua is the complete symbolical antithesis of the Ground kua. These two kua create a contextual frame around the Messenger kua which signifies the conditions currently pertaining.