Yin and Yang in Internal Alchemy

 

The Seal of the Unity of the Three

Quoted from:

The World Upside Down: Essays on Taoist Internal Alchemy, by Isabelle Robinet, page 4

One of the basic principles of Chinese Internal Alchemy consists in using two elements that by themselves summarize the entire alchemical Work. The two principles are Yin and Yang, but can be symbolized by West and East, Metal and Wood, Dragon and Tiger, Fire and Water, the feminine and the masculine, and so forth.

However, an important feature of this discipline is that it is only concerned with True Yin, which is the Yin enclosed within Yang, and with True Yang, which is the Yang enclosed within Yin. These are the concealed core, the hidden internal truth; they are the materials or the "ingredients" of alchemy. Our goal here is to bring the internal and the hidden toward the external and the visible.

 

Chrome bullet   This is one of several articles on Internal Alchemy available from the Golden Elixir website. See the complete index.