By Ville-Matias Heikkilä a.k.a. viznut/pwp; supplements the blog post at Countercomplex.
| Shape | •• •• •• •• |
• • • • |
•• • • •• |
• •• •• • |
| Modern binary | 0000 (0) | 1111 (15) | 0110 (6) | 1001 (9) |
| Visual interpretations | group of people/things, maximum number of things | road, path, single, half | crossroads, joining of two figures | enclosure, prison cell, link in chain |
| Unified semantics | HOME: stay at home, family (-> people), no change (-> permanence, stability, longevity), enough wealth (-> satisfaction, yin), receiving guests. | ROAD: travel (-> messenger), change, exploration (-> new, expanding, yang), being a stranger (-> incompleteness, solitude, sibling). | MEET: encounter (-> trade, business, external relations, problems with strangers), join (-> alliance, copulation, children). | JAIL: reclusion (-> privacy, secrecy, introspection; -> avoidance, self-restriction, postponing), protection (-> security), chain (-> heritage, unchangeable essence). |
| 4-way | grouping + stability | separation + movement | grouping + movement | separation + stability |
| Greek | (unknown) | (unknown) | (unknown) | prison, watch |
| Greek trigram | sun (000) | moon (111) | hermes / mercury (010) | kronos / saturn (101) |
| Ilm-al-raml | assembly | road | unity, meeting | deception, link |
| Geomantia | people, congregation, diurnal moon | way, nocturnal moon | union | prison |
| Sikidy | abundance | solitude, death, journey | slave, bad thoughts, weights and measures, protection from thieves and enemies | vagabond protection, house, food |
| Ifa double | longevity, good journey | good visitor | children, end of good luck | bad visitor, avoid journey |
| Igbo Afa double | bad condition | reappear, twice | worthless, destructive | miss the target |
| Igbo Afa single | home, family, conflict | journey, visitor, coming, death, messenger, market | birth, death, waste, illness | ancestor, mother, anger, underworld |
| I Ching trigram | earth, receptive, yielding, yin (000) | heaven, creative, expanding, yang (111) | water, abyss, danger, rapid rivers, moon (010) | fire, radiance, clinging, rapid movement, sun (101) |
| I Ching hexagram | field, receptive, acquiescence, flow (000000) | force, creative, strong action, key, god (111111) | great exceeding, critical mass (011110) | swallowing, jaws, comfort/security (100001) |
| I Ching hexagram (alt.) | small exceeding (001100) | center returning, inner truth (110011) |
| Shape | • • •• •• |
•• •• • • |
• •• • •• |
•• • •• • |
| Modern binary | 0011 (3) | 1100 (12) | 0101 (5) | 1010 (10) |
| Visual interpretations | beam of lights from the sun, emptied container | blessings growing from earth, full container, knife | incoming arrow, two emptied bowls | outgoing arrow, two bowls |
| Unified semantics | POOR: poverty (-> hunger, desire), temporary help from outside (-> debt, gift), lost greatness (-> modesty, obstruction). | RICH: wealth (-> power, success), long-term independent success (-> stability, rich family), gained greatness (-> victory, difficult beginning), knife (-> right hand, blood, lineage, death). | GONE: arrow (-> danger, risk, destiny; -> poison, medicine, illness), loss (-> something outside grasp, leaving for dangerous journey, sacrifice). | DONE: avoided arrow (-> safety after risk), gain (-> money, something within grasp, new friends/enemies). |
| 4-way | lack + passivity | satisfaction + activity | lack + activity | satisfaction + passivity |
| Greek | incoming fame | outgoing fame | outgoing things | incoming things |
| Greek trigram | (no counterpart) | (no counterpart) | (no counterpart) | (no counterpart) |
| Ilm-al-raml | victory leaves | victory comes | incoming arrow | outgoing arrow |
| Geomantia | minor fortune, aid coming in, minor adventure, diurnal sun | major fortune, aid going out, major adventure, nocturnal sun | loss | gain |
| Sikidy | chiefs, elderly, pride, domination, food, anger | fire, creator, most sacred | tears, land, enemy protection, boss, child | money, misfortune |
| Ifa double | poverty | longevity, slander | good wife, journey, prosperity | share, be alert |
| Igbo Afa double | pay a debt | knife, right hand | see | suffering |
| Igbo Afa single | food, greed, gift | blood, violence, war, lineage, wealth, animal sacrifice | joy, sacrifice, poison, medicine | suffer, escape, alcohol |
| I Ching trigram | (no counterpart) | (no counterpart) | (no counterpart) | (no counterpart) |
| I Ching hexagram | obstruction, standstill, stagnation, selfish (000111) | pervading, peace, greatness (111000) | not yet fording, before completion (010101) | already fording, after completion (101010) |
| Shape | • •• •• •• |
•• •• •• • |
•• • • • |
• • • •• |
| Modern binary | 0001 (1) | 1000 (8) | 1110 (14) | 0111 (7) |
| Visual interpretations | arch, fountain, rainbow, mountain | broken arch, stake being driven into ground, thunder cloud, tornado | new moon's crescent | old moon's crescent |
| Unified semantics | UP: high thing (-> mountain, high building, immovability, stability), high status (-> king, government, god, keeping up), high mood/state (-> joy, happiness, good luck, prosperity), going up (-> rising, appearing, future; -> seeing far, wisdom). | DOWN: opposition (-> evil, struggle, revolution), low mood/state (-> sorrow, suffering, accident, bad luck), going down (-> disappearance, destruction, past), low things (-> earth, foundation) | IN: appearance (-> beginning), internal (-> internal problems, internal authorities, self-sufficiency), inner circle (-> secrets, relatives) | OUT: going out/away (-> disappearance, retreat, end), external (-> outsider, outside influence, sudden unexpected change) |
| 4-way | away + vertical | near + vertical | near + horizontal | away + horizontal |
| Greek | upward-moving | downward-moving | the lintel when coming in | (unknown) |
| Greek trigram | aphrodite / venus (001) | ares / mars (100) | zeus / jupiter (110) | zeus / jupiter (011) |
| Ilm-al-raml | joy, beard | bearded, reversed | inner threshold | outer threshold |
| Geomantia | joy | sadness, small transversion | dragon's head (ascending lunar node) | dragon's tail (descending lunar node) |
| Sikidy | king, strength | spouse, stubbornness, tears | evil thoughts, arguments, trials, bad destiny, wars, children | slave, cold words, a type of fate |
| Ifa double | coming of good luck | accident, honor | difficulties in work | sudden trouble/wealth |
| Igbo Afa double | forest difficulties | thing struggled for | villain | thing standing outside |
| Igbo Afa single | future, high, joy, authority, god | relatives, war, truth, firmness | breath, life, survive, escape | authority, visitor, nature force |
| I Ching trigram | mountain, stillness, immovability (001) | thunder, arousing, excitation, revolution, division (100) | lake, swamp, joy, satisfaction, stagnation (110) | wind, gentle, gentle penetration, flexibility (011) |
| I Ching hexagram | stripping, splitting apart, flaying (000001) | returning (100000) | displacement, resoluteness, break-through (111110) | coupling, meeting (011111) |
| I Ching hexagram (alt.) | viewing, looking up (000011) | nearing, approach, forest (110000) | great invigorating, power of great, great maturity (111100) | retiring, retreat, yielding (001111) |
| Shape | •• • •• •• |
•• •• • •• |
• •• • • |
• • •• • |
| Modern binary | 0010 (2) | 0100 (4) | 1101 (13) | 1011 (11) |
| Visual interpretations | clashing swords, turned glass | glass, scales of justice | vulva, woman with exaggerated breasts, execution cross, mouth | sword, erect phallus, scarce beard, fish, drop of water |
| Unified semantics | WAR: violence (-> death, blood, red), campaign (-> march, booty, managing to escape), aggressive feelings (-> anger, passion, feelings overcoming wisdom, settle disputes by force). | LAW: wisdom (-> intelligence, knowledge, careful planning, wisdom overcoming aggressive feelings), superficial harmony (-> purity, white), justice (-> punishment, captured criminals, legal trouble). | PEACE: harmony (-> innocence, passivity, beauty), unity of people (-> fellowship, consensus, shared wealth), peaceful talk (-> settle disputes by talking, truth, talk, storytelling). | CRIME: rebellion (-> robbers, misfortune, illness), young men (-> workers, passion, aggression) water (-> rain, river, fish, harvest, accumulating) |
| 4-way | rough + unfair | rough + fair | gentle + unfair | gentle + fair |
| Greek | redness of war | (unknown) | minor, male | scarce, female |
| Greek trigram | (no counterpart) | (no counterpart) | (no counterpart) | (no counterpart) |
| Ilm-al-raml | redness | whiteness | solid | beardless |
| Geomantia | red | white, shining white | girl, measure from face | boy |
| Sikidy | joy, ghost, riches, clothes | diviner, crowd, heartbreak, thievery | riches, love, favorable day, land/earth | robber, misfortune, workers, harvests |
| Ifa double | health, prosperity | accept advice | peace, consensus | prosperity despite enemies |
| Igbo Afa double | run, escape | handcuffed, in trouble | (bad) talk | accident |
| Igbo Afa single | run, escape, journey, war | trouble, female, wisdom | talk, story | water, river, struggle, tears |
| I Ching trigram | (no counterpart) | (no counterpart) | (no counterpart) | (no counterpart) |
| I Ching hexagram | grouping, holding together, alliance (000010) | leading, army, troops (010000) | great possessing (111101) | concording/gathering people, fellowship with men (101111) |
| I Ching hexagram (alt.) | enthusiasm, excess (000100) | humbling, modesty (001000) | small accumulating/harvest, taming power of small (111011) | treading, continuing (110111) |
| I Ching hexagram (alt.) | clustering, finished (000110) | ascending, pushing upward (011000) | great accumulating, taming power of great, potential energy (111001) | without embroiling, innocence, pestilence (100111) |
Shape: The "lines of stones" representation of the four-bit binary array.
Modern binary: The bottom-up translation of the array into modern binary notation. Single markers are interpreted as 1, double markers as 0.
Visual interpretations: Some possible visual interpretations for the binary array.
Unified semantics: My own non-scientific guess of an "original" or "defiltered" meaning of the combination. Derived from the rest of the fields in this table. I've aimed at sensible pairs of opposites whenever possible.
4-way: A simplification of the meaning using a set of two dichotomies. Each row is assigned a dichotomy pair of its own.
Greek: The associations of the shape from Greek manuscript 2419, as given by van Binsbergen.
Greek trigram: The associations of the corresponding three-bit combination from Codex Harleianus 5596, as given by van Binsbergen.
Ilm-al-raml: The associations of the shape in the Arabic Ilm-al-raml system, as given by van Binsbergen.
Geomantia: The associations of the shape in European Geomancy, as given by van Binsbergen.
Sikidy: The associations of the shape in the Madagascan Sikidy system, as given on the website http://www.serenapowers.com/sikidy.html
Ifa double: The associations of the double nybble in the Yoruba Ifa system, as given by Manfredi.
Igbo Afa double: The associations of the double nybble in the Nri-Igbo version of the Afa system, as given by Manfredi.
Igbo Afa single: Common associations of the single nybble in the nybble pairs of Igbo Afa and some other related systems. Derived by myself from the 256-entry table given by Manfredi.
I Ching trigram: The associations of the corresponding three-bit combination from the Chinese tradition.
I Ching hexagram: The I Ching associations of the corresponding six-bit combination, using the interpretations listed in Wikipedia.
van Binsbergen, Wim: The astrological origin of Islamic geomancy, 2004.
Manfredi, Victor: Afa, the Nri-Igbo counterpart of Ifa, 2010.
Wikipedia: List of hexagrams of the I Ching (as accessed in 2011-05-25).
Serena's Guide to Divination: Sikidy (as accessed in 2011-05-25).