yinyang

 10. Yin-Yang 

The alchemists agree that the Stone develops and operates from the combination of female (yin) and male (yang) principles. Everything contains these two forces in different proportions, and the most stable proportions are not 50/50, but with either one of the two dominating. This is why the Philosophers' Stone comes in two forms: the Red Stone (male) and the White Stone (female). This is also the relationship between gold (male) and silver (female), and why the Red Stone transmutes metals into gold, whereas the White Stone transmutes them into silver. Of course, when we say that gold is male and silver is female, this does not mean that gold is all yang and silver is all yin, everything contains both, but with one of them dominating for the time being. 

Furthermore, we can clearly see the relationships between male and female principles in Nature. The two depend upon each other. Obviously we have the fact that animals come in male and female genders, who are attracted to one another. Also the relationship between animals (male) and plants (female) is of the same type, we also depend upon each other for survival. 

The male force is the active force (growth and multiplication), whereas the female force is the passive force (stability and dissolution/decomposition). Too much male force will end up multiplying and overpowering its surroundings, leading to destruction. Too much female force will reverse development, reducing everything to its components. Together the male and female forces combine with the male force expanding and developing and the female force keeping it under control and everything orderly and harmonious. The male force attempts to impose itself upon everything, it wants to multiply itself. The female force on the other hand tries to bring everything back to its original element. It is the female force that allows for rebirth by encouraging reduction and decomposition back into the original element, supporting and nourishing this for the task of the male, which is to encourage growth, development and multiplication.

Imagine the world was only full of men, or only full of women. The men would spend the whole time fighting in their efforts to impose their views and themselves on the rest of the world. The women would sit around and talk all day long, developing nothing. Now consider animals and plants. The plants have a lot of yin, they just sit around all day and don't even try to move, whereas the animals are busy running around and eating everything they can put in their mouths. 

The sea has a dominating male force, which is why fish are so obsessed with eating each other. It's also why there are very few plants in the sea, even the coral are animals. The air has dominating female force, therefore lots of trees and comparatively few animals in between. 

The genders are one manifestation of the yin-yang principle, but on a more fundamental level it is these two forces constantly pulling back and forward against each other in a tug-of-war, and so create the cycles of Nature. Yin-yang is polarity. We live in a universe of opposites. The cycles we see in Nature are all due to the polarity of our universe, and it is these cycles (caused by yin-yang) which themselves cause growth and development of all things, from the atom to the whole universe itself. 

The Philosophers' Stone also develops from the yin-yang principle of polarity. In the natural development of the Stone, and therefore everything else, the dominating principle moves to and fro, from yin to yang and back, in the form of evaporation and condensation (sun and rain). In this way the Stone develops to higher and higher degrees of perfection.