What is the Yin & Yang?

The Yin and Yang symbol is one of the oldest symbols depicting the understanding of God as the One Ultimate Being in which everything exists. The Yin and Yang symbol is probably 4000 years old. The main theme of the Yin and Yang is that it is opposites. Black and White with a line in between. There are two parents to every child. The symbol is black and white. Black is Yin. White is Yang.

Yin

Is female, dark and shy. The earth, soft, symbolizes nursing, receiving. It is Holy Wisdom and Mother. Yin is not active she is passive. It is secret and dark and always cool. It portrays all the female characteristics.

Yang

Is masculine, force, it is active. It is symbolized by the sky, it stands for light, it is warm and friendly and outgoing. It is hard and disciplined, and it penetrates. Yang is Holy Spirit and the Father. It shows all the male characteristics.

There is a small 's' line in the symbol, separating the black (yin) from the white (yang). This seems to keep to the middle between male and female, dark and light, soft and hard. If you follow this 's', you are neither hard nor soft; you will become a master of non-action or non-interference. There are no extremes on this path, on your one side is God the Mother and on the other God the Father.

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 Revised: 10/29/03. www.churchoftheeast.ca