I Ching is a Chinese book of Oracles


Consult the Oracle

In the I Ching Yin and Yang are symbolized by lines:
yin is -- -- and yang is -----
These lines were in ancient times piled up as 4 pairs and later as 8 triples.
Two trigrams of 3 lines make up a hexagram.
All variations of 3 or 6 yin or yang lines produce 8 trigrams or 64 hexagrams

Trigrams have names and symbolize an element
The hexagram-numbers can be found by looking up the upper and lower trigram in the following table. 

                |                             Upper
                | -----   -- --   -- --   -----   -- --   -----  -----  -- --
                | -----   -- --   -----   -- --   -- --   -----  -- --  -----
                | -----   -----   -- --   -- --   -- --   -- --  -----  -----
                | Ch'ien  Chen    K'an    Ken     K'un    Sun     Li     Tui
 Lower          | Heaven  Thunder Water  Mountain Earth   Wind    Fire   Lake
 ---------------+--------------------------------------------------------------
 ----- Ch'ien   |
 ----- Heaven   | 1       34      5       26       11     9       14     43
 -----          |
                |
 -- -- Chen     |
 -- -- Thunder  | 25      51      3       27       24     42      21     17
 -----          |
                |
 -- -- K'an     |
 ----- Water    | 6       40      29      4        7      59      64     47
 -- --          |
                |
 ----- Ken      |
 -- -- Mountain | 33      62      39      52       15     53      56     31
 -- --          |
                |
 -- -- K'un     |
 -- -- Earth    | 12      16      8       23       2      20      35     45
 -- --          |
                |
 ----- Sun      |
 ----- Wind     | 44      32      48      18       46     57      50     28
 -- --          |
                |
 ----- Li       |
 -- -- Fire     | 13      55      63      22       36     37      30     49
 -----          |
                |
 -- -- Tui      |
 ----- Lake     | 10      54      60      41       19     61      38     58
 -----          |

Every trigram is a symbol for a series of descriptions, determined by the position of the lines.
More information on this can be found at http://www.168fengshui.com and Clarity

So, the 64 hexagrams have, besides the interpretation of the trigrams and their influence on each other, a number and also a Name, an Image and a Judgement.

The texts that belong to these attributes can be found in the I Ching: The Book Of Changes and of course on this site.

Consult the Oracle

The Oracle can be consulted by casting 6 lines starting.
A line may be yin or yang, and may also be moving.

You ask (yourself!) a question. About work, people, choices.
You cast the lines, one by one, with coins, starting at the bottom working upward, to get a hexagram, continuously meditating about your question and studying the evolving hexagram.
this can be done by counting 6 times the sum of a cast of 3 coins: heads=3 and tails=2
6moving yin--x--
7yang -----
8yin -- --
9moving yang --o--
By choosing By Hand in this application you can do this and fill in the results afterwards
Or you can let the PC Throw coins for you

You let the hexagram work on you. Try to relate this (artfull) image to your question.
Yin is soft, open, weak, receptive. Yang is hard, closed, strong, creative.
This is the most esoteric fase of the whole experience
Then you read the Name of the hexagram.
Generally this comes as a shock, but try to swallow it down and relate it to your question.
Then read the Image and Judgement of the hexagram
The texts have a symbolic associative value for you, sometimes obscure, but they explain some of the mystics of the sign.
Then read the texts with the moving lines if there are any.
A moving line moves to its oposite via a consultive or directive text.
Then you ask for the Future hexagram, the situation you will come to via the texts in the lines and read Name, Image and Judgement of it.
The hexagram is changed to another hexagram through the texts of the moving lines

In all you have now enough inspiration at hand to read a sensible advice connected to your question.

There's more information to be found

The Corehexagram.
This consists of the hexagram that is formed by the two coretrigrams, that overlap with the two innermost lines.
The corediagram tells you what the actual core is of your question.

The Hexagram that lies Behind the hexagram
There are two orderings of trigrams and based on this, two orderings of hexagrams:
the after celestial (Wen) and the fore celestial (Fuxi) ordering.
The fixed ordering of the 64 Hexagrams by Emperor FuXi was based on 4 polarities of
the 8 trigrams e.g. heaven-earth and was altered by the more cyclic, fixed order of Trigrams carried out by King Wen 1700 years later (see Progress).

A behind hexagram of a Wen hexagram can be obtained by replacing the trigrams of it by FuXi trigrams that are in the corresponding place.
E.g. replace The Mountain bij The Thunder, The Heaven by The Mountain and The Earth by The Wind.

The different orders of trigrams. Outside Wen order, inside Fu Xi. The bottom lines are inward

So every Wen hexagram has a Fuxi hexagram behind it.
The hexagram you throw is a Wen diagram: the hexagram behind it can be read as the history of the hexagram you got by throwing the coins.
If you ask for the Behind hexagram of a Behind hexagram (which would then be as Wen), the fifth is equal to the first: the Heavenly fours.
While consulting the Behind hexagram, you can click its number to get every Behind hexagram. You might see this as the historical cycle you are currently in.

Position of lines and Kings
Further investigation is possible by looking at the position of the lines in the hexagram.
Counting up 1,2,3,4,5,6 starting at the lowest line, yang is correct in an odd place, yin in an even place.
The 2nd and 5th place are most important. Some lines are ruling O, others constituing Kings, mostly on 5th and 2nd places. The meaning of the sign is strongly influenced by them.
Not correct but in harmony is possible. The lines are then piled in a regular pattern more or less.

One more remark on the texts
The person that asks the question, which is you, is addressed by The Book in the third person and called 'the man'.