Oracle of the Turtle

ORACLE OF THE TURTLE: POEMS ON THE I CHING, a DVD featuring illustrated and animated readings of 64 poems by Robert Dyer based on the 64 hexagrams of the ancient Chinese book of wisdom known as the I Ching. Each poem is accompanied by a briefly animated pen and ink drawing and by musical excerpts from the repetoire of the Deli Llama Orchestra. The I Ching probably began in ancient China as a shaman's divination tool, but later became a many-layered book of wisdom with commentaries by a long line of Confucian and Taoist philosophers. Fu Hsi, the legendary originator of the I Ching is said to have gotten the idea from looking at the markings on the shell of a turtle, and the old Chinese shamans made their oracular pronouncements by observing the cracks that developed in turtle shells placed in hot coals. You may order by mail. A new and revised printing of the text of Oracle of the Turtle is being prepared in a limited edition letter press version by Timberline Press, Fulton, MO, and should be ready by December 2006