Palmists, fortune tellers, psychics, tarot readers are among those who can read the future. So can Daoist deities and immortals, and Buddhas. How accurate the readings will ultimately depend on the skills of each reader or the medium. The criterion also applies to an I Ching divination.
While many people read the Yi, some do not believe in divinations, some do not consult because their religion forbids divinations. Not wanting to divine for these reasons is understandable. But those who believe in Yi divinations and yet do not think that the Yi can tell the future are fooling themselves if not out of their depth in Yi studies.
There are also those who prefer not to know the future. They do not wish to know the misfortunes that may arise along with the good if they have their fortune read. Perhaps they may find it worthwhile to ask the Yi instead.
The Yi not only allows diviners an insight into the future, it usually empowers them with alternative actions to change their future for the better too. If only the diviners can interpret with certain accuracy what the Yi wanted to say. Reading skills come with continual practice. In any prognostication, the Yi will give alternative courses of action. For clarity, staying put or not doing anything is also an action. (On the assumption, the divination was for taking an action, like for a travel, or for an investment.)
Therein lay the difference between a fortune telling and a Yi divination. The Yi provides alternative actions to overcome current or unforeseen obstacles and/or to make life better, if one follows the prognostications. While a skilled fortune teller, palmist, psychic and tarot reader just tell what lies ahead. They cannot foresee many changes.
If one is skilled in Yi divinations and in interpretation of prognostications, the future can be seen way ahead of time. Instead of swimming against the tide, the diviner will then be able to go with the flow. And learn something about Tao. Is this not like ‘without going out of the door, you can know the world’ and ‘without looking at the window, you can see the ways of Heaven’? (TTC 47)
If instead you like to cast the Oracle outdoors, perhaps that could be cheating (as a result of the peeks)?
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