Stephen Karcher

Welcome to StephenKarcher.com where you can find out more about Stephen Karcher, his work, his publications and what he is currently up to.

Background and Goals
Current Projects
Publications
Courses and Events
Contact Me
Consultations

Background

Stephen Karcher, Ph.D., is one of today's most creative and controversial writers and practitioners in the field of Yijing studies, divination and myth. He is an internationally recognized scholar, translator and initiated diviner, teaching and lecturing on the Yijing and other divination systems in the US, Great Britain, France, Spain, Switzerland and South Africa. As Research Director of the Eranos Foundation in Ascona, Switzerland (1988-1996), he pioneered a depth psychological approach to divination. A prolific author, he has published many books and articles in the field of comparative mythology, divination, depth psychology and religious experience. He “liberates meanings … that have been missing from our understanding for a couple of thousand years ... revealing a whole new landscape of interpretation that makes previous translations feel cramped by comparison.”

Stephen sees his work as part of the Great Enterprise (Da Ye) of “raising Change into awareness and setting it out for all the people to use.” He often calls Change a Portable Altar that opens up the old language of myths and symbols, allowing them to educate us. The goal of the whole process is “a purification of the soul which saves the reality of the Gods and enables us to understand the intelligence that is given by them to humans.” It is a divination system’s power to change our hearts and, by doing so, to renew the time.

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Current Projects

GreatVessel.com Website

Stephen’s current work is available at www.greatvessel.com: an Yijing [I Ching] and Divination Resource, which he has made his home.

The Great Vessel site offers on-going guidance, information, inspiration and practical help for anyone interested in the Classic of Change. New articles, e-books and study material are always appearing. Our What’s New feature keeps you up to date. The Great Vessel Blog gives you information about and perspectives on new postings, interesting activities and upcoming events.

The Great Vessel website collects all of Stephen’s articles and papers published over the last 20 years as well as a wide range of new topics and teaching materials and interesting guests. To visit the Website click here.

Total Yijing Program

The Great Vessel team, which includes Kevin and Peter Sheffield, has developed an exciting new Yijing consultation and journal system that includes all of Stephen’s newest work: Total Yijing. For more information click here.

The Total Yijing Program can be used to consult the Yijing. It gives you direct access to all the texts and lets you cast, save, manage and interpret your Readings. It has been designed to aid the whole consultation process with a wide range of features to suit the needs of both beginners and the most demanding users. Total Yijing is:

Easy to install
Intuitive and menu-driven
Can be downloaded for a free fully functional 15 day trial. Click here.

Imaginal Menagerie

Hexagram 16 Glyph

The Imaginal Menagerie
The Dream Animals and the Sacred Sickness Pathways
in the Classic of Change

The Imaginal Menagerie is our newest project and should go on for at least a year. It is a portrait gallery of the Dream Animals and the Sites of Close Encounter in the Classic of Change, the Animal Powers of the psyche that dance around and through the Vessel of Transformation and the Sacred Sickness Pathways they use to bring us out of the caves of our personal suffering. It is intended to be an induction into the great myth-world Change offers when it is used as a real Portable Altar.

Over the coming months we hope to offer images, thoughts, practices and ways of imagining that might help to re-activate these powers, giving them a place in our heart-mind once again. This is another step in that cultural project articulated so long ago in a great time of troubles much like our own: “To raise Change into awareness and set it out for the people to use”. Perhaps it is where our real education starts.

Click here to access the articles and the archives.

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Courses and Events

For a regularly updated look at Stephen’s courses and lectures and other activities of interest click here

Publications

	Title	UK
	Total I Ching: Myths For Change, 2005 Called “beautiful, liberating, potent and inspiring”, Total I Ching presents a new way of understanding and using I Ching that makes “previous translations feel cramped by comparison.” There is a good Portuguese translation available.	More Details
	Symbols of Love: I Ching for Lovers, Friends and Relationships, 2005 A version of my basic translation oriented towards the vida amorosa of relationship with symbolic reflections and meditative practices directly attached to the hexagrams. There is a beautiful Spanish translation available.	More Details
	Essential Shiatsu 2003 Written with a Japanese Master, it examines the Eight Extraordinary Meridians so important in times of intense change and relates the practice of Shiatsu to the divinatory moment and the philosophical background of Change	More Details
	The Kuan Yin Oracle: The Voice of the Goddess of Compassion, 2003 Directly usable translation of a 19th century temple oracle, with divinatory background and a long and loving look at the traditions of this great Bodhisattva who “hears the cries of the world.” First published in 2001 as a quite elegant Kit. Translated into several languages, including Chinese and Indonesian.	More Details
	The I Ching Kit, 1999 First produced for Barnes and Noble, the I Ching Kit contains the texts of what is now I Ching Plain and Simple plus coins, yarrow stalks and a recording pad. All the Tools You Need to Work With the Oracle of Change	More Details
	New Perspectives: I Ching, 2000 A stripped to the bones version of How to Use the I Ching for those who value concision at all costs.	More Details
	Ta Chuan the Great Treatise, 2005 A beautiful and revolutionary translation of the most significant Chinese commentary on “making Change a part of your life” that strips away moralistic interpretations. First published in 2002. Elegantly illustrated.	More Details
	The I Ching Plain and Simple, 2004 Contains clear translations and instructions for use and a vocabulary of basic ideas that make it “probably the best introductory book on the market.” This is a reprint of How to Use the I Ching, Element 1997. Much translated.	More Details
	Illustrated Encyclopedia of Divination, 2002 An authoritative and lavishly illustrated guide to the historical and cultural record of the ways we imagine and interact with our destiny, with practical instructions on the use of various divinatory systems. First published in 1997, several translations.	More Details
	I Ching: Classic Chinese Oracle of Change, 2002 A revision and clarification of the 1994 Eranos translation published with Rudolf Ritsema. Based on five years of user feedback, it makes that “epoch-making” book much more accessible to the user. Contains the first western language Concordance to the texts. (Vega Edition, currently out of print)	More Details
	Way of the I Ching, 2002 This excellent little book presents basic images from the Classic Chinese Oracle of Change in an intelligent, direct and user-friendly way. A reprint of the 1995 Elements of the I Ching. Much translated.	More Details

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Contact Me

To ask questions about any aspect of Stephen’s work, click here to use our Question and Answer Forum. Stephen will respond to you personally.

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Consultations

Hello!
I’ve been a consulting diviner for about 25 years now and I’ve worked with all sorts of people - individuals, couples, groups and organizations - in various places all over the world. I am not a simple predictive diviner, though predictive possibilities certainly do come up during a consultation. I am more concerned with getting in touch with the deeper forces and spirits that are moving the situation and coming into harmony with them.

A private session usually takes about an hour. We explore your problem, develop a question or questions, charge the ritual space with energy and pose our questions to Change. We then circle through the answers the oracle offers, feeling out how they connect with the situation, move it around and suggest efficacious ways to think and act. All you need is something you are sincerely concerned about, a certain investment of time and energy and a willingness to listen to what Change has to say.

I do not do exclusively electronic consultations. I need at least to hear your voice and have a direct feeling contact with you. So, if you would like to explore arranging a session, please send a message telling me a bit about who you are, what you are concerned about and where the situation comes from. I will reply to you. If we feel we can work together, I will then ask you to telephone me for the actual session. A consultation costs $150, lasts a good hour and you have the right to ask further follow-up questions about the Reading later.

If you would like to explore the possibility of a personal consultation, click here.

Love and blessings
Stephen

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