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so...?
there are 2 people performing and skilled labor of some kind together, an element of ritual.
is it two people or, as in many cultures, one with two souls?
人+人 --> 从
从 + 工 --> 巫 Wu
above them, rain, yang water is falling from the heavens.
雨 - Yu
"Drops of water ⺀ falling 丨 from clouds 冂 under the sky 一."
bringing nourishment to 土 tu / soil and 地 di / land
rain has to do with fertility and creativity and new beginnings.
in hebrew, heaven or sky is HaShamayim השמים
Ha means "the"
Shamayim is aiSh אש (fire) and Mayim מים (water).
1 fire for fire --> yang, 2 water for water -->yin
and HaShamayim, The Sky, is the above place of sun and rain, fire and water
and according to the most ancient elemental ordering of the sephirot
first there is
breath of the living creative forces
wind from breath
water from wind
fire from water
sky from fire
earth from sky
then the 4 winds / directions
north south east west
10, not 9
10, not 11
and they are BeliMah
"without what" - beyond reach
so water comes before fire, which comes before sky
雨 - Yu. similarly, we have that part of the Du that descends from Du 17 diagonally out to the inner Shu points of the UB (Yang Water) Channel, starting with UB12 Wind Gate and flowing into the Kidneys, where the San Jiao can then convert Yuan Qi into Yang Qi which flows up the Du and out to the Shu points. another water ritual.
between 巫 Wu's ritual on the Earth and 雨 Yu's ritual in the Heaven are three mouths 靈
mouths are gates, they lead somewhere, and there are three
there are 3 Hun.
many earth centered traditions have Wu/Shaman/etc who traverse between the three worlds.
perhaps the ritual is to get the blood moving?
which gets the 3 Hun moving
and maybe it is they whom the Wu rides through these gates to the three worlds?
the above world,
the below world,
and sometimes the hardest,
the inner world.
so my question is about understanding Ling relative to Shen.
i think i get why Ling is more Yin, because one must do something in the physical world to evoke them?
it is possible that the idea of Ling is older, more related to predynastic Shamanism?
Shen is less tanglible. Its more like one's intangible conscious experience of life.
Meditation is more suited to working with Shen?
Ritual is more suited to working with Ling?
i got Jeffrey Pang to talk about the Shen one night
he talked about the Shi Shen in the brain (probably same as Jerry's Zhi Shen, just cantonese)
our normal busy rational mind
and the yuan shen in the heart
that true quiet place from which we (hopefully) rule our inner landscape
and then there are the 5 zang shen
hun shen yi p'o zhi
which is more emotional
except perhaps originally one skilled in such arts might take their 3 Hun for a walk through the gates into the 3 worlds.
in Jewish, Hun is pretty much similar to Ruach, which is the level of spirit that has the character of Wind and is involved in prophesy, dreams, creativity, inspiration etc.
all hard to utilize if one doesn't have a sail or a windmill.
we don't have three Ruach (that i know of), but there are the three Mother letters which represent air water and fire, the 3 worlds.
Maciocia seem to consider the Yi and Zhi as parts of the Shen, but the Hun and P'o as related, but semi-autonomous Gui/ghosts.
Jeffrey Yuen talks about Yi and Zhi being added around the Song Dynasty (<-- if i remember correct) out of a wanting to make it fit the
newly popular Wu Xing Zang Fu Theories.
maybe Song is when they we teased out to be more separate ideas, even though an equal group of 5 entities might not be proportionally accurate?
then there's the 7 P'o. on some level i think i have a general grasp of what P'o is as the hungry corporeal soul which has close relationship with the Breathe and therefore the Lungs. Its essentially the same thing as what we call in hebrew, Nefesh.
but i don't 100 percent have the 7 aspects of it down. i think i remember someone mentioning a relationship to the 7 Chakras.
after the 3 Mothers of air water fire (heaven earth and life in between)
there are the 7 doubles, which relate to the 7 directions
north south east west above below and center
the 7 planets in space
sun moon mercury venus mars jupiter saturn
the souls of which are considered to be the 7 named archangels
michael gabriel, etc
the 7 sensory orifices in Nefesh
eye eye ear ear nostril nostril mouth
and the cycles of 7 in time
7 days in a week
shabbos is the 7th day
every 7 years is a shabbat for the earth
after every 7 of those (49), the 50th year is the jubilee year
where all debts are forgiven, slaves are freed, and land goes back to its ancestral owners
what's with there being 7 P'o? 7 is the completion of a cycle. do you move through 7 P'o on your way somewhere.
weird thing is that P'o/Nefesh is itself more Yin~Physical than Hun/Ruach, but maybe that's why you need a ritual to invoke the Ling & Hun spirit guides, whereas the P'o are always there with you. they help orient you to the 7 directions of physical tangible life? maybe they don't transcend newtonian mechanical "reality?" and that center place, the 7th direction, is the heart place, the seat of the Yuan Shen who watches over it all, smiling, and hopefully driving the bus.
maybe the 7 P'o are what help you move through daily life, without dying whereas if the P'o drive the bus, one's appetites will get the best of them?
and the 3 Hun are your guides to other places one might journey in the inner worlds, but if Hun drive the bus, one will have trouble living in the world in which they have been birthed?
one's Yuan Shen, hopefully, makes the final call, with the help of the external & internal data from Hun and P'o, the rational deliberations of the Shi Shen, and the emotional feelings of the Zang Shen?
am i on track or have i lost my way? i'm sure there's a question in there somewhere?
