The three coin method takes about two minutes to cast a hexagram. The yarrow stalk method takes closer to twenty. It involves dividing a bundle of 49 stalks through a series of operations, counting remainders, and repeating the entire process six times. It is, by any modern efficiency standard, completely impractical. It is also the method the I Ching was designed for — the method used without interruption for at least two thousand years before coins became the standard shortcut.
Whether the slower method produces better readings is a question that admits multiple answers, and this article tries to give you the honest ones. There’s a real probability difference between coins and yarrow stalks that affects how often changing lines appear. There’s also a real difference in the quality of attention that a twenty-minute ritual requires versus a two-minute one. Whether either difference matters for your practice depends on what you’re practicing for.
The History of the Yarrow Stalk Method
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is a plant with a long history of sacred and medicinal use across many cultures. In China, its association with divination appears in the earliest written references to I Ching practice. The Zhouyi — the core I Ching text from the Western Zhou period — was explicitly a divination manual, and the yarrow stalk method was the divination technology it assumed.
The stalks used were dried and straight — typically the straight central stalk of the yarrow plant, cut to equal length. The number 50 is traditional: 50 stalks, with one set aside at the beginning, leaving 49 active stalks. The number 49 has cosmological significance in Chinese thought — one less than the complete number 50, pointing toward the principle that the oracle operates from a position of deliberate incompleteness, always leaving one element outside the counting to represent the unnamed.
The coin method developed as a practical simplification, likely during the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) when the I Ching’s use expanded beyond specialist diviners into more general practice. The coins are faster, more portable, and don’t require access to a bundle of dried plant stalks. Their use has been standard practice for over a thousand years and is entirely legitimate within the tradition.
The Probability Difference
The three coin method and the yarrow stalk method produce the same four outcomes (old yang = 9, young yang = 7, young yin = 8, old yin = 6) but with different probabilities:
Three coin method:
- Old yang (9, changing): 1/8 = 12.5%
- Young yang (7, stable): 3/8 = 37.5%
- Young yin (8, stable): 3/8 = 37.5%
- Old yin (6, changing): 1/8 = 12.5%
Changing lines occur with equal probability (12.5% each), giving an overall changing line probability of 25% per line.
Yarrow stalk method:
- Old yang (9, changing): 1/16 = 6.25%
- Young yang (7, stable): 5/16 = 31.25%
- Young yin (8, stable): 7/16 = 43.75%
- Old yin (6, changing): 3/16 = 18.75%
The yarrow stalk method produces changing lines less frequently overall (25% combined versus 25% for coins — actually the same total changing rate), but the asymmetry between old yang and old yin is pronounced. Old yin (6) is three times more common than old yang (9). Stable yin (8) is the most common outcome at 43.75%.
The practical effect: yarrow stalk readings tend to produce more yin-stable lines and fewer dramatic yang transformations. The overall character of yarrow stalk readings is often described as more contemplative, less kinetic, than coin readings. Some practitioners find that this probability profile matches the quality of attention the slower method creates.
The debate about whether the different probabilities produce “better” or more accurate readings is unresolvable in any empirical sense — divination accuracy is not the kind of thing that submits to controlled experiment. What can be said is that the yarrow stalk method’s probability distribution was the one the original text was calibrated against, if the designers of the method had probability in mind at all (a question that remains open in scholarship on the I Ching’s origins).
What You Need
49 yarrow stalks. Traditionally dried yarrow stalks, cut to approximately the same length — somewhere between 12 and 18 inches is common. The specific length doesn’t matter; consistency matters. Bamboo skewers or wooden dowels of equal length are functional modern substitutes. The ritual use of actual yarrow has value for practitioners who want the plant connection; the mathematical operation is identical with any set of 49 identical objects.
A flat surface large enough to work on comfortably. Traditionally a cloth or mat dedicated to the practice.
A container to hold the stalks when not in use.
Paper and pen to record the six line values.
The Casting Process: Step by Step
The complete process generates one line value per cycle. You will complete this process six times to build a complete hexagram, from Line 1 (bottom) to Line 6 (top).
Setup
Begin with 50 stalks. Set one aside permanently — this stalk does not participate in the counting. You now have 49 active stalks.
Hold all 49 stalks loosely in both hands. Take a moment to focus on your question. This transitional moment — before the first division — is the point of entry into the consultation.
The Three-Part Operation (repeated three times per line)
Part 1: The Great Divide
Hold all 49 stalks in one hand. Without counting, split them randomly into two groups — place one group to your left, one group to your right. The split does not need to be equal; it should be as close to random as you can make it.
Take one stalk from the right-hand pile and place it between the ring finger and little finger of your left hand. This stalk represents the unifying principle and stays in the left hand throughout this part.
Now count the left-hand pile into groups of four, setting each group of four aside. Count until you have a remainder of 1, 2, 3, or 4. (A remainder of 4 is possible — unlike remainders in modular arithmetic, the I Ching’s counting does not treat 4 as equivalent to 0. If you have exactly 4 left, the remainder is 4.) Place this remainder between the middle and ring fingers of your left hand.
Now count the right-hand pile into groups of four in the same way, setting each group of four aside. Count until you have a remainder of 1, 2, 3, or 4. Place this remainder between the index and middle fingers of your left hand.
You now have between 3 and 5 stalks in your left hand: the single stalk between ring and little finger, the left pile remainder between middle and ring, and the right pile remainder between index and middle.
The total will always be either 9 (the first operation’s total is always 9 or 5 in the second and third operations — but on the first operation, the total is always either 9 or 5). Set aside everything currently in your left hand as one group. Gather all the remaining counted-out groups-of-four — this is your new working pile.
Why the total is always 9 or 5 on the first operation: The left remainder can be 1, 2, 3, or 4. The right remainder can be 1, 2, 3, or 4. The single stalk is always 1. The possible totals are: 1+1+1=3, 1+2+4=7… The constraint from the mathematics of the operation ensures the total must be either 5 or 9. This is a structural feature of the method.
Parts 2 and 3: Two More Divisions
Take your remaining working pile and repeat the entire operation (Great Divide, set one aside, count left by fours, count right by fours, note remainder totals). The second and third operations always produce totals of either 8 or 4 — different from the first operation’s 9 or 5.
After three complete operations, you have three set-aside groups. Note the total number of stalks set aside across all three operations. The working pile you have left determines the line value.
Converting the Remaining Stalks to a Line Value
After three complete operations, count the stalks remaining in your working pile:
- 36 stalks remaining = old yang (9) — changing yang line
- 32 stalks remaining = young yang (7) — stable yang line
- 28 stalks remaining = young yin (8) — stable yin line
- 24 stalks remaining = old yin (6) — changing yin line
Record the line value. Gather all stalks back together into a pile of 49 and begin the next line.
Repeat Six Times
The full three-part operation must be completed six times — once for each line of the hexagram, building from Line 1 (bottom) to Line 6 (top). A complete yarrow stalk casting therefore involves 18 three-part operations. This is why the method takes 15–30 minutes depending on pace.
Building and Reading the Hexagram
Once you have six line values, build the hexagram exactly as you would with the coin method: read the lines from bottom (Line 1) to top (Line 6), identify the lower and upper trigrams, find the hexagram in the lookup table, and read the Judgment and Image. Changing lines (values 6 and 9) transform to their opposite to produce the relating hexagram.
The reading process and the interpretation of changing lines are identical for both casting methods.
The Question of Whether Yarrow Stalks Matter
Practitioners who prefer the yarrow stalk method often describe two things that make it worth the additional time and complexity.
The first is ritual quality. Twenty minutes of careful, repetitive manual operation creates a quality of attention that two minutes of coin-throwing does not. The slowing-down is not inefficiency — it’s part of the practice. The act of dividing, counting, and gathering produces a meditative state that many practitioners find helps them hold the question more openly and receive the hexagram more receptively. The oracle is not only the hexagram; it’s the quality of mind in which the hexagram is received.
The second is the probability profile. The yarrow stalk method’s greater prevalence of stable yin lines and rarer occurrence of changing yang lines produces readings that feel, to many practitioners, more grounded and less kinetic than coin readings. This isn’t better in any absolute sense — but for questions requiring patient understanding rather than action guidance, some practitioners find the yarrow profile more appropriate.
The honest answer is that neither method is superior. Both produce valid hexagrams. Both have been used in serious practice for centuries. The coin method’s accessibility has democratized I Ching practice in ways that seem overall positive for the tradition. The yarrow stalk method’s slowness preserves something about the quality of attention that rapid consultation can erode.
Many serious practitioners use both: coins for the daily practice and questions that arise in the flow of life, yarrow stalks for major consultations or for the annual or seasonal readings that deserve more extended engagement.
Sources for Yarrow Stalks
Actual yarrow stalks can be obtained from herbal suppliers, from dried flower shops, or from your own garden — yarrow is a hardy perennial that grows readily in most temperate climates. The stalks should be straight, dried completely, and approximately equal in length. Many practitioners keep a bundle in a dedicated cloth bag and maintain a small ritual around their care.
Functional substitutes: bamboo skewers (cut to equal length), wooden dowels, straight twigs, or even 49 identical pens or pencils. The mathematical operation is the same regardless of the medium. The choice to use actual yarrow or a substitute is a matter of personal practice orientation rather than technical requirement.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the yarrow stalk method more accurate than coins? There’s no evidence that either method produces more accurate readings in any measurable sense — divination accuracy isn’t empirically testable in the way the question implies. What the yarrow stalk method produces is different probability distributions (more stable yin, less old yang) and a significantly slower, more ritual-intensive process. Whether either difference matters for your practice is something you can only determine through your own extended experience with both.
I miscounted during the operation. Do I need to start over? If you notice the error before recording the line value, recount from the point of the error if possible, or redo the entire three-part operation for that line. The mathematical integrity of the operation matters — the four possible outcomes are generated by specific stalk counts, and errors in counting undermine the statistical properties of the method. If you’re uncertain whether an error occurred, redo the line.
Can I use other sacred or meaningful objects instead of yarrow stalks? Many practitioners do — the mathematical operation works with any set of 49 identical objects that can be divided and counted. The choice of medium connects to what the practice means to you. Actual yarrow has herbal and historical resonance; other objects may have different personal significance. The I Ching doesn’t specify that yarrow is sacred and other materials aren’t — it specifies a mathematical procedure that can be performed with any suitable medium.