The consultation room at Well Bath where Joe holds I Ching readings.

Session at Well Bath

I Ching Consultation

The Book of Changes, consulted for the question you bring

“I came in with a knot I could not name. I left with a shape I could work with.”

L. after an I Ching consultation

You sit across from Joe. You bring a question. The Book of Changes answers not with prediction but with a mirror. The I Ching, the Book of Changes, is one of the oldest divinatory texts in the world. Joe consults it as an oracle in a one-to-one session for the specific question a client brings. The reading is unhurried and interpretive, worked slowly with you rather than performed at you.

Well suited to people at a crossroads, in the middle of a difficult decision, or simply curious about a wisdom tradition older than most religions.

Duration

60 minutes

Price

£100

Available add-ons

You can extend the session on the booking page

1 hour extra £100 · +60 min A full extra hour for a longer reading.

What people bring

Presentations commonly worked with

The I Ching is a text consulted rather than administered. People commonly book a session when:

A specific decision is pressing and the usual weighing has stopped helping
A pattern in life keeps repeating and there is a wish to look at it from a different angle
A relationship or a working situation is in transition
A creative project has stalled or wants direction
There is no crisis at all, only curiosity about a wisdom tradition older than most religions

The I Ching is a contemplative tool, not medical or psychological treatment. If you are in acute crisis, please speak to a doctor or a therapist first; the I Ching can accompany that work but does not replace it.

What a session is like

From arrival to the last breath in the room

An I Ching session at Well Bath is unhurried by design. The reading itself takes twenty minutes; the sitting-with it is the rest of the hour.

01

Arriving

Come through the front door into the foyer. Herbal teas and water on the Welsh dresser — help yourself. Joe collects you when the room is ready. Sessions are held in the therapy rooms at Well Bath.
02

Forming the question

The first ten minutes are the honest work of shaping the question you are bringing. Vague questions produce vague readings; specific questions produce clear ones. Joe helps you refine it without steering it.
03

Casting the hexagram

The traditional method is three coins, cast six times. Each cast builds one line of a six-line figure. Joe explains what is happening as you go so the process feels present rather than mysterious.
04

The reading itself

Joe reads the resulting hexagram — and any changing lines — from a lineage of translations he has been working with for years. Wilhelm and Baynes for grounding, Karcher and Ritsema for the deeper Chinese-to-English work, his own notes for the shape of the specific reading.
05

Sitting with what came

The last twenty minutes are yours. What did the reading name? What does it invite? What in it resists? Joe holds the space and offers a light hand rather than an interpretation.
06

Taking it with you

You leave with the hexagram number and a short written summary if you would like one. The I Ching often continues to work in the days after a reading; you might return with a follow-up question in a few weeks.

Weighing it up

The I Ching compared with tarot or with modern therapy

Different tools do different things. Naming what the I Ching is and where it sits helps you decide whether it fits what you are bringing.

	I Ching consultation	Tarot / therapy / modern astrology
What it is	A Chinese classical text used as an oracle. Structured, symbolic, contemplative.	Tarot: visual archetypal cards. Therapy: modern psychological practice. Astrology: modern psychological reading.
How the reading is done	You form a question, cast coins, and Joe reads the resulting hexagram from lineage translations.	Cards drawn and read; conversation over weeks or months; birth chart read against modern archetypes.
Register	Considered, precise, sometimes stern. Not designed to comfort.	Varies. Tarot often narrative; therapy relational; astrology often psychological.
When it fits	A specific question at a threshold, and a wish for a considered outside view without a person's opinion.	Ongoing self-understanding (therapy), narrative exploration (tarot), personality mapping (astrology).

The I Ching can sit alongside any of these. Some people bring what came up in a reading into their therapy the following week.

What the evidence says

Research and clinical literature

The I Ching has no clinical evidence base and does not claim any. Its authority is lineage and continuity of use — a document consulted for approximately three thousand years across changing dynasties, philosophies and cultures.

The I Ching is one of the oldest continually-used texts in the world, dating from the Western Zhou period (approximately 1000 BCE), and one of the Five Classics of Confucianism.

Rutt, The Book of Changes (Zhouyi): A Bronze Age Document (1996)
Carl Jung wrote the foreword to the Wilhelm/Baynes edition, engaging the I Ching as an example of what he called 'synchronicity' — meaningful coincidence — as a philosophical category rather than a truth claim.

Jung, foreword to Wilhelm/Baynes translation of the I Ching (1950)
The Wilhelm/Baynes translation remains the most-consulted English edition in the West; the Ritsema/Karcher edition offers a more literal reading closer to the classical Chinese.

Multiple English editions, 1950 to present

Questions people ask

Before you book

Do I need to believe in it? +

No. The I Ching does not require belief. Some people take the reading as symbolic and helpful without any metaphysical claim; others engage it more traditionally. Both work.

What if I don't have a specific question? +

Then the first part of the session is spent shaping one. Vague questions produce vague readings. Joe will help you find the honest question you are actually asking without answering it for you.

Is this fortune-telling? +

No. The I Ching is not predictive in the way tabloid horoscopes claim to be. It reflects the current pattern back and suggests a considered orientation. What you do with the reading is entirely yours.

Can I ask about specific people? +

You can ask about a situation involving people you know. The reading will speak to your part in the situation, not to what the other person is thinking or will do. That is a boundary of the practice.

How often should I have a reading? +

Rarely. The I Ching works best when it is not consulted casually. A specific question at a threshold, followed by weeks or months of living with what came up, is the traditional rhythm. Return when there is a new question worth asking.

Is Joe formally trained in this? +

Joe has been reading the I Ching for over fifteen years, working with the Wilhelm/Baynes and Ritsema/Karcher translations and studying the Chinese context. He is not a scholar of classical Chinese, and does not claim to be. The reading is offered as a practice, not as academic authority.

Held by

Practitioner

Tui Na, Shamanic Breathwork, Prana Kriya, I Ching

Joe Macnab

Sole owner and lineage practitioner at Well Bath. Trained in Tui Na under Errol Lynch. Founding voice of the sanctuary.

Other work by the same hands