Listen to Robert expand on the importance of the I Ching in The Running Grave.
Transcript
It was funny how I came to the I Ching. Funny because I’ve had an old copy of the I Ching in my house for probably about, it might even be 30 years and I haven’t opened it. And I think I must have . . . I can’t even remember buying it, but it must have come from a second-hand bookshop because it’s got a pencilled 20p inside it. So I probably picked it up at a second hand bookshop.
And I have no memory of opening it. And I was looking for something for the epigraphs that would – the chapter epigraphs – that would express some of the obliqueness but the simplicity of the Universal Humanitarian Church’s ethos. And I picked up the I Ching and started flicking through it and I thought this is it, this is perfect. And for those who don’t know what the I Ching is, it’s not really a fortune telling device like tarot or crystal balls or anything, it’s over 2,000 years old. It is thought of as an oracle. So I became kind of fascinated by it and I started to understand why odd people have become very interested in the I Ching, and it actually became part of the plot.
So one of the church leaders, Jonathan Wace’s wife is particularly interested in the I Ching. But she doesn’t use it as it’s supposed to be used. But I had to learn how to use it properly so I could work out how she would be abusing it.
