Part 3: Dark Clarity: Divination and Spirit-Work During Exhaustion
People think clarity is a feeling, calm, focused, bright. And while that may be true from a Yang perspective, classical Daoist texts describe another kind of clarity as a counterpart:
bright clarity (明, ming): sharp, directional, upward
dark clarity (幽, you): diffused, subterranean, dreamlike
Most Western practitioners only know (and trust) the first. The the second is the one that appears when you’re in a Yin season, whether that is reflected through Winter, are in a liminal space, or are simply spent and exhausted. Yang is associated with knowledge; Yin is associated with knowing, or what is oracular and peripheral.
Field Notes on the Meaning of Yin
This first, introductory piece sets the stage for better understanding and relating with the Yin principle in Daoist theory and practice. It will help you see that Yin is not simply rest or collapse, but a distinct way that magic, spirit, and matter move. It also opens a three-part blog series:
Across the series, I explore how depletion, exhaustion, and winter alter our relationship to spirit work and map the actual behaviours of Yin in the world. Below are my field notes gathered from mediumship, ritual practice, working with the I Ching, and the lived mechanics of Yin governance: how she moves, how she influences, and what she requires. Rather than a definition, what follows is the sensorial, relational, and often hidden architecture of Yin magic.