Just finished
The Magus of Java: Teachings of an Authentic Taoist Immortal by Kostas Danaos. Found it fascinating, both as pure story and as imparting some insights into neikung and the internal Chinese arts.
Without ruining the entire thing (it's a cracking good read), the story concerns one John Chang, a master of this art form who lived in Indonesia. Above is some video showing his purported abilities.
Keeping in mind that I am a neophyte with regard to chi and that nothing herein should be construed as medical advice in any sense, the author made two points that stuck out to me.
1) Even among the various sects and clans, there was no clear, universal agreement as to methodology regarding these internal arts, such that some practitioners would conduct lethal experiments on acolytes to determine what was effective. This suggests that there's an alternative explanation to why some students get sick while attempting these arts, namely—they're doing it wrong, or their school or teacher doesn't know exactly the right way to go, or even if there
is a single right way to go.
2) According to the author, Chang's method distinguishes yang and yin chi as being
celestial (solar) and
terrestrial (telluric?), respectively, and as fundamentally opposed forces—that is, they do not mix, and are used in tandem only with great difficulty. This is highly suggestive, for those of us in the West, as the distinction between Heaven and Earth is recognizable both from a Christian and non-Christian perspective (to say nothing of its resonance in Taoism).
Taken in a non-dogmatic or doctrinal manner—as reportedly Chang himself did—the yin chi evidently provided one some degree of insight into the spirit world, as the author attests, allowing interaction with "earthbound spirits."
As a newbie to this thinking, I found it useful to break this down as such:
| Yang chi | Accrues in the dantien (omphalos); intake through the breath | celestial | solar (?) | descending | active |
| Yin chi | ascends through the feet through the perineum into the area of the kidneys | terrestrial | telluric (?) | ascending | passive |
My conjecture is that different cultures had differing degrees of knowledge of these forces and employed them in different ways. I've written before about
how I believe spiritus (the Latin equivalent of chi) may be employed in liturgical rites. The difference, I suspect, is that we in the West have an incomplete (or imperfectly articulated) understanding of spiritus (keeping in mind the limitations of my own knowledge of the literature). In the liturgy, for example, I suspect that the congregation is invited to share its solar spiritus (yang) with the presiding priest ("and with your spirit"...intriguingly, in the Roman rites, kneeling in involved, which to me suggests an intentional suppression of exposure to terrestrial/telluric currents (yin)). The presiding priest, then—who, again in the West, is asked to be celibate, which has specific ramifications for the yin, per Chang/Danaos—is involved in the act of transubstantiation, in which the bread and wine become the body and blood...literally the manifestation of Heaven in the form of things on Earth.
Consider, too, the cross, with its vertical axis representing the solar/celestial and its horizontal the terrestrial.
Further conjecture: The solar Logos*, the light that lights every person that comes into the world, through which all things were made, is associated with the yang chi (the celestial). The yin is associated with forces such as gravity, and with the Void, the primordial chaos upon which the Craftsman imposes his vision (the terrestrial). Per the author, the interplay and struggle between these two opposed forces are what confers life itself.
In terms of the spiritual world, then, there are additional possible readings into how this may be understood in a Christian context. We assume that the evil demons are bound to the Earth, and thus hold sway, as "pure spirit." Thus, in their fallen state, they are associated both with the Void/chaos and the yin chi. Yet this force is not "evil" unto itself (although the spirits may themselves be corrupted), and, if the model holds, is integral to life/manifestation. With regard to the yin chi, I am also led to think of Mary, the Blessed Mother (Mater, matter), who in the exorcist literature is thought to be particularly repellent to the evil demons (the powers of this World). It is Mary as a vessel who, through the Holy Spirit, is understood to manifest Jesus Christ—the solar Logos made flesh, the will of Heaven expressed on Earth. In this we can understand the perfect conjunction of two opposing forces—the ascending and the descending—as the Way. If this is the case, consider the proportionate alteration of solar and terrestrial invocations in, say, the Rosary, and
some of the miracles associated with its recitation (CF "closed body" phenomena ("corpo fechado")).
Quite apart from these speculations on liturgy and theology, these ideas also may shed light on the hesychast tradition, which,
as I noted in another post, already have tendencies that resonate with Chinese methods (as I understand them, at least; CF Symeon the New Theologian, "The Three Ways of Attention and Prayer"). This, too, may be the cultivation of yang chi, insofar as this function was understood among the Desert Fathers. It should be noted, too, that these monks were continuously assailed by demons during their wanderings. According to Chang/Danaos, the yang chi in one's body exists in some proportion to the yin chi. Could it be that the desert monks' cultivation of the "solar spiritus" engendered an equal and opposite reaction from the "terrestrial spiritus" (the demons)?
* I think, too, of those experts who believe that the imprint on the Shroud of Turin documents a sudden, massive burst of radiation, as with nuclear fusion.
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ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-08-10 10:45 pm
