A Pig Under The Roof

In ancient China, it was customary to divine the future and seek counsel on the present through reference to the I Ching; the Book of Changes. This oracle is a text that goes back to the earliest writing forms of ancient China and makes use of ideograms; compound symbols that have multiple meanings. For instance, one can interpret the construction that literally means ‘pig under a roof’ as ‘home’, ‘family’ or ‘house’. This miscellany of meaning is useful in an oracle, because it allows the inquirer to use their intuition freely in determining the significance of an answer to a question.

The process of divination in the I Ching requires the ritual division of a bundle of 50 yarrow stalks into small groups, and then repeating the process until it reveals one of the 64 symbolic images of the I Ching. There is guidance in a short poetic text attached to the image, a commentary by Confucius and notes by other sages, hence the phrase “Confucius, he say …”. Serious use of the book has waxed and waned in China over the two millennia that it’s been in use. The psychologist Carl Jung believed it could offer a glimpse into the powerful workings of our unconscious minds, which so often knows the answers to questions, despite our apparent conscious ignorance.

Perhaps we’ll see a resurgence in using the I Ching and a boom in the market for yarrow, now that 95% of those under 45 years old in the UK are looking for guidance on how to keep a pig under their roof. They have no spare cash; no likelihood of being able to save; and nearly half expect to rent into retirement.