Yin or Yang?

How do you know if your a Yin or a Yang? And what does it mean to be one or the other?

? Yin and Yang

The concept of Yin and Yang is one of the most fundamental and profound theories of Feng Shui. It is the Chinese perspective of balance and continual change. Many Feng Shui practitioners claim they have a deep understanding of this concept, yet they cannot even represent the image correctly. In fact, this is a good indicator of the depth of knowledge a "master" possesses.

Many times these practitioners call themselves masters, yet their printed materials contain an incorrect Tai-ji (The name for the Yin and Yang circle) representation. How can one call themselves a master of Feng Shui and not even understand the basics of this deep and extremely significant diagram? Yin and Yang is a foundation theory for Feng Shui that supports many other theories including the Five Elements theory and the Environment. Hopefully by reading this, you will be better informed on what Yin/Yang theory is in Feng Shui.

? What the Western version might be

Yin and Yang are dependent opposites that must always be in balance. The opposites flow in a natural cycle
Always replacing the other. Just as the seasons cycle and create a time of heat and cold, Yin and Yang cycles through active and passive, dark and light, etc. Yin and Yang evolved from a belief of mutually dependant opposites that cannot live without the other. The Eastern view of opposites is, if you will excuse the pun, opposite of a Western view. If Yin and Yang are balanced and flowing in the East, in the West (if a similar philosophy were adopted), it might look like the image to the right.

We in the West tend to look as things as black "or" white, right "or" wrong, etc. There is separation and unrelated ness in the Western perspective. Whereas, the Chinese view opposites as evolving and cycling. There is neither right nor wrong, but rather there is balance, transformation, interaction, and dependent opposition. We need both to maintain a balance.

Within Yang, there is a small piece of Yin. Within Yin, there is a small piece of Yang. Just as in the heart of winter, a seed lays in wait to become life, so is Yang waited within Yin for its turn. In a hot summer, a sudden desert storm can bring coolness. This too is an example of how Yin is found in Yang. Again, there are no absolutes, just cycles in time.

? Yin ?Active?

? Hot.
? Life.
? Summer.
? Male.
? Day.
? Odd.
? Sun.
? Fire.



? Yang ?Passive?

? Cold.
? Death.
? Winter.
? Female.
? Night.
? Even.
? Moon.
? Water.

Qbone thank you so much for all the information. But, I still wonder how that applies to a human being. I read in a book that because of my birth date and birth time I am a yang. I am curious what in the world that means.

Caridad

In my humble opinion no body can be only ?yin? or only ?yang?. Philosophically speaking from Tao?ist and tai chi point of view, these forces are everywhere and must be kept under the balance or else they are cause the sufferings, I have no idea about other side of this ancient wisdom, in fact you are the first one who questioning this.

General and very, very simple explanation is:

Ying and yang referring to the active and passive principles of the universe.! Yin refers to the female or [inactive] negative force; Yang to the male or active force. These two polar forces continually interplay with each other.

Briefly, it means that "good and evil" and "right and wrong" are actually the SAME; they simply appear as opposites. Get rid of all the Opposites (seen and unseen, hot and cold, up and down, back and forth, day and night, high and low, etc.), and you can attain perfection (Nirvana, Samadhi, Prajna, etc.).


That book could be the result of forceful assimilation between eastern philosophy and western astrology, to make more confusion, how ever? its interesting idea and I wanted to know more about it, hope you share it with me when you get the answer you are looking for.

This book supposedly was written by seven people. And it states another energy influence taken into account in Chinese Astrology is the Yin-Yang polarity. Yin energy is passive and receptive, while Yang energy is outgoing and active. Yin and Yang balance each other-you can't have one without the other. They can be likened to two sides of one coin. Each Chinese astrolgical makeup is made up of many influences and factors, you are not all Yin or all Yang. You are a mixture of both with a predominance of Yin.

Yin and Yang people complement each other. Yang people are the movers and shakers- they act and do. A Yin person is easily able to recieve the active, out-going energy of a Yang person. Yin people naturally create environments where ideas, circumstances, and people can thrive and grow. They are the nurtures of the Universe. Yin individuals are willing to accept what is happening without necessarily feeling the need to make changes; they provide peace, comfort, and harmony. While Yang energy starts, Yin is able to conclude.

And I was wrong I am a Yin. Looked at the wrong day. I don't know how I end up finding this info. or these books but I am a very curious human. So the more I read the more I find that there isn't just astrology.