A Cosmic Year

A Cosmic Year

 

Dialogue 1
A: The rules that govern the five elements include a mutual generation cycle and a mutual restriction cycle.
B: Care to explain?

A: Well, mutual generation cycle refers to the manner in which the elements create one another. Wood easily burns and makes a fire. Fire produces ash, creating earth. The earth contains mineral from which metal is mined and extracted. When metal is heated and cooled, water droplets will be found over the metal as a result of condensation. Thus, metal creates water. Water promotes the growth of trees, which are wood.

B: And the restraining cycle?

A: It refers to the manner in which the elements restrict and control one another. Wood breaks up the soil and depletes the earth's nutrients, thus controlling earth. As dam prevents flooding, earth controls water. Water extinguishes fire, and therefore, controls its spread. Fire controls metal by its ability to melt it. Metal can be made into an axe that cuts wood into pieces, thus controlling wood. The control repeats in a cyclic fashion and provides an opposite force to balance the generative power. The generation and restriction properties of the five elements hold each other in check, preventing over-functioning.

 

Dialogue 2
A: The principle of birth, growth, harvest and rest applies to the four cosmic seasons of the universe.
B: What? The universe has four seasons?

A: Yes! Just as there are four seasons on earth, there’s a time frame called the cosmic year that all the universe abides by. Now of the fourfold principle, birth corresponds with spring, growth with summer, harvest with autumn, and rest with winter. This cosmic year consists of 129,600 earth years.
B: Then how does yin and yang apply to the cosmic year?

A: Just as there are the warm season of yang energy and the cold season of yin energy in our one year, a cosmic year also has this yin season and the yang season. The first half of the 129,600 years is called the Early Heaven, which is the time of yang energy, and the second half of the 129,600 years is called the Later Heaven, the time of yin energy.