The Nature of Dragons

The Tao is a softly lucent ocean of pure void, a pearly mist, boundless, immaculate. Born of this ocean, two dragons sport entwined- the male, bright as the sun with fiery golden scales, master of activity; the female, radiant as the moon with shining silver scales, adept at passivity. Their intercourse brings forth rhythms of cyclic change – the movements of the planets, the progression of the seasons, the alternation of day and night. From their sport proceed five shining vapours- blue, red and yellow, white and black- which, swirling, overshadowing, contending, intermingling, give to heaven its roundness, to earth its squareness, to the myriad objects their transitory shapes. From heaven pour forth like rain three cloud-like essences of yang; from earth arise like mist three essences of yin; these meet and intermingle. Thus has it been since heaven and earth were formed. Such is the original perfection.