From Yang to Yin and Back Again

The transition, seemingly overnight, from a cold and damp spring to the hot blaze of summer provides an opportunity to contemplate the meaning of yin and yang. For many, the yin and yang are difficult ideas to grasp despite their seemingly simple symbolic meaning. As with many concepts in Chinese medicine, yin and yang at first appear as clear and distinct entities, easily grasped by out dualistic and comparmentalized style of thinking her in the West, until continued scrutiny leads to a proliferation of possibilities of interpretation. Are the yin and yang actual substances, either tangible or intangible, or are they just metaphors to describe certain aspects or attributes of things? The answer is yes, to all of the above. Yin and yang are pervasive throughout the natural world, and their interaction can be attributed to all sorts of transformative, cyclical movements within nature and ourselves.

The Chinese characters for yin and yang can be translated into the "shady" or "sunny side of the mountain" respectively. These images provide directional cues into their natures. Things which are yin in nature are dark, damp, cold, still, contractive, consolidated and substantial. Things which are yang in nature are light, dry, warm, moving, dispersive, and ethereal. While in opposition to one another, their positions are not static. Yin transforms to yang and back again, as the night transforms to day and winter transforms to summer only to return back in the other direction.

Don't let the appearance of separation in these natural phenomenon fool you. Yin and yang exist intertwined with one another, and this tight coupling drives the physiology of the body. The heart provides a clear example. The flesh of the heart muscle is yin, but the electroconductivity of the heart muscle is yang. One does not exist without the other, and yet they serve two distinct and different purposes. The muscular chambers of the heart holding the blood, and the contractile pumping of the heart moving the blood. Stillness to movement, substance to energy, a perpetual transformation and return.