An oracle inside an alternative history
Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle, published in 1962, imagines an America shaped by an Axis victory in the Second World War. The author’s official website introduces the I Ching as an everyday presence in that fictional world. It is part of how the novel’s characters navigate uncertainty.
That alone would make the book an intriguing meeting of literature and divination. But there is also a documented account of the I Ching entering the writing process itself. The distinction matters: a novelist can invent characters who consult an oracle without consulting it personally. In this case, Dick said that he did both.
What Dick said he actually did
In the Hour 25 interview preserved on his official website, Dick explained that he used the I Ching while writing the novel. He described making casts and assigning results to characters, allowing the advice to influence what happened next.
His example involved Juliana Frink deciding whether to warn another character, Abendsen, of danger. Dick said that a different result would have led him to handle her decision differently. This is evidence of an author describing a creative method, rather than a claim that the book predicted an event in the outside world.
The less tidy part of the story
The same interview complicates a simple story of celebrity devotion. Dick expressed frustration with the novel’s ending and said he no longer used the I Ching. He also criticised it for seeming to tell people what they wanted to hear.
His later scepticism belongs beside the account of his earlier use. Keeping both in view gives us a more interesting portrait of an artist experimenting with a method, finding it productive, and then challenging it. It would be misleading to turn this interview into an unqualified endorsement.
An experiment you can borrow without copying a belief
Here is a writing exercise inspired by that account, rather than a method Dick prescribed: invent a character facing two plausible choices. Read a hexagram and ask which detail it makes you notice about their situation. Write one short scene from that observation.
Then consider the alternative scene too. Did the prompt reveal a possibility you had overlooked, or simply reinforce your first preference? The value of the experiment is something you can examine in the writing. A memorable encounter with an oracle need not become a claim that it can decide your life.