You can substitute a coin toss for drawing reeds and mapping heads to a long line and tails to a broken line arbitrarily. The fortune is read as a statement either auspicious or inauspicious. For example, “The seahawks will win the superbowl:”

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The hexagram is the 23rd, peeling. “It would not be fitting should one set out to do something. Compliance, cessation, and restraint.” Inauspicious. For a second example, “It will snow tomorrow:”

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The hexagram is radical change. “Radical change finds one on the day itself, when it begins.” Auspicious.

First, looking at the oracle bones, imagine that you had to recreate a picture of the Shang from the information extractable from oracle bone inscriptions. What could you learn or not learn from these bones, and what obstacles might lie in your way? Second, the two passages from the book of changes are confusing. Suspend disbelief and approach these passages as if they possess ultimate truth. What can you learn?