The element of life: Qi, Yin-Yang and asexual people

My books and articles are mainly focused on the thirteen elements, elements of the subtle world, creatures based on those elements and all of it in the interaction. But the thing is that people are primarily concerned with themselves and consider everything only in case it may be of some benefit to them. So let’s talk about the matter in that aspect and fill this void. We will be talking about the element of Life, energy of the planet Earth, Qui, it’s Yin and Yang polar opposites and also cover some uncomfortable questions like “how did men become weak”, “where does cosmic energy come from” and “is it normal to be asexual from metaphysical point of view”. While we’re at it, let’s also cover the origin of negative energy and core principles behind Feng Shui.

We will be using Chienese terminology, as it is the most well-developed. Without fanaticism though.

Planet Earth, also known as Terra, has a funny feature – it always falls out of sight of most self-proclaimed astrologists and metaphysicist, like, they don’t see the wall they are standing right in front of. They are readily discussing angles of Venus and streams of Mars, but Terra, humanities’ base of life, remains unnoticed. On one hand, reading a book which is lying on your face is kinda uncomfortable. We, being on the surface of Earth, have trouble viewing it as a whole. On the other hand, no other planet has more influence on humans that Terra and it’s graha, Baal. Our planet is the one supporting and transforming the planetary stream which is energy of Life itself, a cyclical and multidimensional one, which keeps all the living beings in balance, even in the subtle world. It is also what is known as vitality in Qigong.

The element of Life is one of those created relatively late. Maybe that is why there is so much trouble with understanding what it is. The reason for that maybe lies in terminology, because “earth” is an: 1) element (which is, by the way, a stream of Saturn!); 2) soil; 3) planet. This ambiguity fuels a vast amount of crazy ideas emerging in peoples’ heads, like treating hemorrhoids with cucumbers. Right from the vine. Because Earth power. People tend to turn to Light, then to Darkness, to beg demons for help and to bow to the gods. But people never tend to Life, their closest element, which 90% of humans use as power.

Qi: the good and the evil.

The energy of life is actually Qi, the most favourite energy of Feng Shui masters, Qigong enthusiasts and other subtle sciences specialists. It is a special nourishing energy. It is divided into different variations, flowing continuously from Space to be transformed within our planet. That’s why it is double-sided – it is both energy of the Sky and energy of the Earth, which affect human’s subtle and dense bodies respectively. Taoist’s metaphysics also describes a sequence of objects and planets, through which Qi follows:

1. The North star. 2 Sun. 3. Saturn. 4. Moon 5. Physical objects and human auras.

Vega, Tuban and the North star have been known to humans as conductors of this gleaming energy since ancient times. They are also known as Purple stars in China. Our planet’s orbit is tilted towards the North star for that very reason: to receive Qi from it. Those energy flows are everywhere, passing through both subtle and dense objects. These flows and their ways in space were meticulously described in eastern metaphysics.

When we say “Qi”, what we mean is energy of life, the vitality, the ability to conduct movement and torrents of all sorts. It gives life to objects, transforms itself thus powering the cycle from birth to death and then disperses in the world. This is basically Qi phases. On a larger scale, there are two types of Qi: outer Qi and inner Qi, also known as skybound and earthbound Qi. We should also note that inner Qi can not exist without outer Qi, which streams through buildings, natural objects and other people, affecting inner Qi. This process pretty much resembles some kind of global metabolism: the planet receives cosmic energy from the outside, tailors it to suit it’s own needs, and conducts it through objects and living beings. Don’t forget that the planet also generates it’s own energy, which is also being conducted. As a result we have a number of pure and mixed energy types, which can confuse even profound Feng Shui masters.

Qi may be pure and constructive (Sheng Qi), may also be foul and destructive (Sha Qi), may be still (Shui Qi), defensive (Sha Qi). Energy needs conductors and rulers, from a small regional level (endemic spirits) all the way to divine creatures like Bhuwaneswari and Baal.

All the Qi currents in the world affect each other mutually. As a result, they all have different manifestations. That’s where all the above mentioned types, like pure Shen Qi, come from. The name, by the way, originates from a Chinese word meaning “to be born”. That’s the type treasured so much by Feng Shui and eastern magic advocates. Shen Qi has it’s exact opposite – Ssu Qi ((死气), energy of death and withering.

The longer the Qi particle travels, the dirtier it becomes – passing through abandoned places, absorbing negative energy from people, getting dirty from bad emotions. This way it turns into Sha Qi. You all must have felt this type of energy at least once – the feeling you get from old cluttered flats, landfills, old hospitals, the feeling of decay and dirt in the energy is exactly Sha Qi. The place feels murky and stinky, you can’t stay there for a long time. Sha Qi may be translated from Chinese as “to end”, “to close”, “to damage”. This translation gives a pretty literal understanding of the type of energy it is describing.

Qi operates on different frequencies. The difference in frequencies is the reason magic exists. Mages can accumulate pure energy and use it for different purposes. Energy they’ve used becomes “dirtier” and sows negativity and destruction. This is where Feng Shui originates from: you can actually arrange things in your house in a way that allows energy to flow more naturally, in a way that way less affects the energies of those living in the house.

That’s how Life works. What’s interesting about it is the fact that there are plenty of creatures, which do not contain Life in them, like demons, who operate on Darkness. Demons are not alive when compared to humans. They somehow resemble coniferous trees because they do not follow the “winter-summer” cycles. They are not hard-bound to cycles like humans. Humans have to undergo phases from birth to death consequently, simply because of the fact that the energy powering them does so. Other creatures can skip phases, change the order of going through them and so on.

Yin, Yang and health.

A stream of Qui, like all other elements in the dense world, has two polarities. A cold and passive one is called Yin, and a hot, bright and leading one is called Yang. These polarities form the androgynous factor of both alive and non-alive creatures and structures of the universe. Furthermore, even the Yggdrasil tree has these polarities. And also cycles.

Yang polarity is typically associated with men. It is warm and decisive, it loves challenges and loads, it presses forward. It is the active energy of light and sun. Yang may be compared to a seed – it gives the first push, the origin of life, it’s reason for a living. Yang is a general leading his troops.
Ying is the energy of a woman. It is chilly, calm, dark and liquid, passive. It takes emotion rather than rationality, it prefers diplomacy to a war. Yin is the power behind the throne, and its power is silent and discreet, sometimes even vile. Ying is general Yang’s army.

There is a common misconception implying that Yang is “strong” and Yin is “weak”. This misconception roots in misunderstanding of how these two opposites conduct power. The power of a crowned king may be equal to the power of a mighty duke reigning from behind the throne. And the duke may even be more powerful than the king. This is a way of balancing both of them and reaching harmony.

So how do the two work within a body?

According to eastern astrology, the North Pole is considered to be “a Gate of Life”. It has great meaning in the Chinese Metaphysics system. The Gate of Life is a point through which the soul first enters the body, and it is also a point conducting all energy. The South Pole, on the other hand, is considered to be a Gate of Death. Both of the Gates basically recreate concepts of Sheng Qi and Ssu Qi. During the process of reincarnation, the soul (also called “the diamond body”) enters the body through Gate of Life, leaves the body with death and the process repeats on and on. Until the soul levels up to a certain point.

Skybound Qi circles through the body which has 3 energy centers called Dantian. The upper energy point is located in the head, the middle one is the navel and the bottom body is located in the hips. Traditional Chinese medicine distinguishes between 4 types of energy within the body.

The entire corporeal system of the human body, including its dense and subtle aspects, is designed to conduct and reprocess this polar energy. The Chinese metaphysical system names 3 body types within a human being: a dense body, a subtle body and diamond body (also soul). Subtle beings do not possess dense bodies. The core principle within this system is that your subtle body consumes Skybound Qi, and your dense body consumes Earthbound Qi. Understanding this principle enables you to do so much more! Not only to yourself, but also to the world around you. Skybound Qi enters your body through your head, and Earthbound Qi – through your feet.

I like comparing humans to cars. It’s pretty astonishing how an example becomes so much more understandable being viewed from a different perspective. Viewing a human body as a car, you can compare the energy of Light to an ignition spark and the assembly point in this case is the engine.. The energy of Life in this case will be fuel, because the engine has to be powered by something and that something must come from the outside, just like it does in the human body. For the engine to work fine it has to maintain the balance of fuel and oxygen, both of which have to be measured precisely. And for the car to run it has to steadily maintain this balance.

The dense body of a human basically has the same structure. It consumes earthbound energy through feet and conducts it through yin and yang channels of the body. You can also call them female and male channels, if those are the terms you are more accustomed to. They are also called Ida and Pingala in the Indian tradition. Yang (Pingala) cruises through the back side of the body through the most “dense” part of the body – the spine, and then moves to the front side of the body, which is soft and smooth, turning into Yin. Both genders have different balance ratios of these 2 types of energy, but can not operate using only one of them, just like cars. But, people still try to do it. It seems pretty easy, right? Just keep your balance and be healthy and happy! But humans still fail to stick to this simple point. Women often live mostly on Yang energy and tend to get sick often, men tend to use Ying and become meek and amorphous. Some humans just ignore this whole “vitality thing” which results in falling seriously ill. But why does it happen, you may ask? Because we all exist within a system. The system has all the polarities assigned for us beforehand, and to function properly you must stick to these polarities. Women were not “designed” to carry heavy weights and men are not “designed” to lie on the sofa being spoonfed. Both cases are not impossible – of course they are, but they are harmful and unnatural.
A woman that carries heavy sacks around has to switch to a masculine polarity. Her body is not designed for it so both her mind and body suffer from using the wrong polarity. A man switched to the wrong polarity also suffers – with his Yang potential taken from him by a woman. And that’s how people get into a vicious circle – there are sacks to be carried, but there is no one to carry them. Because those carrying them now are those who don’t have to do it.

The most important aspect of the system you have to grasp to fully understand this system is the fact that the amount of the energy is constant. There is, roughly speaking, 1 billion elements of Life in this world. 500.000.000 for Yin and 500.000.000 for Yang. These elements can only be used. Humans do not produce additional elements, they can only receive them, use and send back into the world. Once one of the channels is activated, it can only use an outer source of energy.
To put it simply, a woman can not simply switch to Yang polarity. To do it, she must first take that Yang from a nearby man. I mean, literally rob that man of his Yang and use it as power for all her deeds, which she will accomplish jingling her newfound steel balls.
The man she has robbed loses his Yang and becomes weak and passive. He has to use Ying because Yang was stolen from him. He lies down on the couch, gains weight and fails to proceed with his life. This man and this woman have now switched places and are bound to fall ill.

Normally, they both should be balanced. The energetic and moral maturity of any person is to switch the modes of channels wisely.

A woman can be a pure sunshine at work, chasing men and making deals worth millions. But taking a step beyond the office threshold, she switches into Yin mode and balances her body and soul. She is a woman who allows herself to be weak, to hold feminine power, to depend on and follow a man. In the same way, a man whose Yang is directly attracted by challenges, struggles, overcoming himself, may well switch to Yin-mode and become attentive, emotional and sensitive, babysit children and cook porridge for his wife. It’s important to keep the balance, that’s all.

If there is a misalignment, the psyche and mentality suffer first of all, followed by the body, which starts to skew either through right-left (masculinity and femininity), or through top-bottom, or the body loses vitality and energy flows stop supplying it normally (hello, asexuals).

A dense body is a thing that is uncomfortable, sedentary and rough. In order for it to be healthy and happy, ALL parts of it must be fully functional and there must be – again – a balance between them. The Top with the Bottom, the Masculine with the Feminine. When a person does not bother to think, but only mindlessly exploits the body, the head and brains are cut off from the body and do not get nourishment. The head starts to ache in every sense, there are all kinds of vascular illnesses, pains, constriction of vessels and channels, low blood pressure and other joys of being cut off from the streams. And vice versa: a person who thinks and works with his head for 24 hours, sitting sedentary and not paying attention to the body, gets a skew towards an overdeveloped top and an underdeveloped, immobile bottom.

The body becomes amorphous, sickly, legs hurt (no energy support from the feet), and the head tends to get migraines, hypertension and psychosis. Normally the top-bottom-right-left should be energized and work harmoniously as 25 x 4, giving 100% mobility of all channels and polarities. This is what happens in children. When a child gets on his feet and starts to receive Qi from the earth through his feet, he starts to run around like a bunny from a battery commercial. He has no direction, no goal, he’s just a bunny! As we grow up, we gain experience (and traumas) and begin to form desires, which the received energy is already used to fulfill. Therefore, as we age, we become weaker. Qigong practices are aimed at achieving this balance and dispersing the flows, which allow us to increase the energy flow of all bodies and improve the existing one.

When a person suffers a trauma or phobia, he or she unconsciously blocks the thing that brought it on, erasing that aspect from his or her life, body, and universe in general. If we have been hurt, we don’t want to repeat the experience and block such connections. The trouble is that this is not always indexed by the brain, and more often than not goes completely unconscious. A child may have been frightened by adults in early childhood, or a doctor may have done unpleasant and painful manipulations to the body and he or she has registered it. It happens that the child is indoctrinated, that the body is shameful, sex is disgusting, genitals are something to hide and be ashamed of it… Or maybe just an unsuccessful sexual or bodily experience made the child ashamed of himself and afraid of contacts, touches, embraces, because it is mentally associated with pain. In short, the body has memorized that it is better not to touch and not to open here and there and turns off the nurturing flow for this area for many years, to prevent even the possibility of “wanting” to do something with that part. It turns off the flow of Qi completely, leaving little for physiological functioning. This is how various forms of asexuality appear: the body does not support the vitality of the whole bodily sphere (!) and system of organs, they do not get enough Qi and they seem to turn off from the whole picture of the body. It seems to the person himself that everything is normal, he just doesn’t need it, doesn’t want it, etc.

I’m going to disappoint you: a healthy body needs sex. It’s axiomatic. A healthy body always wants to balance itself through the connection with another person (or non-person), because sex fires up all the channels of the body and brings the yin and yang polarities into balance. It’s like mixing unequally filled vessels into one and pouring equally. It is like getting your car fully serviced and cleaning all the tiny tubes and channels. Therefore, by turning off this sphere from your life, you literally turn off the vitality and health of the whole body. The amount of this sex is strictly individual, someone needs to run it once in six months, someone needs it three times a day.

As you can see, we’ve gone around a long circle and once again come to a simple postulate: think with your head, don’t listen to other people’s opinions, and open what’s locked! 🙂 A person doesn’t have to try to become someone else at all, or try to resemble other creatures powered by other elements. A person is interesting and important in and of himself.

Mylene Maelinhon (c)