Taomeow Posted August 28, 2017 (edited) Today, on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, the Festival of the Seven Sisters, who reside in the Pleiades constellation, is celebrated in Taiwan, Hong Kong and other places -- it used to be one of the most important holidays of the year in China too, before PRC. The legend behind it is a folk interpretation of the taoist microcosm/macrocosm explorations and goes something like this: The Seven Sisters are the daughters of the Jade Emperor Yu Huang Da Di, who make his clothes, spinning, sewing and embroidering the entire year. But on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month they take a vacation, and go skinny dipping to a hidden beach. Once, a poor scholar Niu Lang, who supported his studies by herding cattle and is known as Cowherd Boy, stumbled across the scene. He hid behind a bush, and while watching the seven beautiful and stark naked sisters, fell in love with the youngest, Jr Nu -- Weaving Girl. He then stole her clothes and waited. The other six sisters soon came out of the water, put on their clothes, and returned to heaven. But the seventh sister couldn't, on account of not finding her clothes. That's when Cowherd Boy came out, handed them to her, and declared his love. Which was immediately reciprocated. They got married and tried to live happily ever after, as mortals on earth. The Jade Emperor didn't like it, as fathers whose will is not obeyed tended to, and so he condemned the couple to be separated the entire year. She was banished to the Weaving Girl star, he, to the Cowherd Boy constellation, with the Milky Way between them. They were allowed to meet and make love only once a year, on the evening of the 7th day of the 7th lunar month. All of the crows and magpies of earth fly to heaven on this day and make a bridge across the Milky Way so the lovers can cross it and meet. There is always a light rainfall on this evening (well, perhaps in China -- not here in SoCal ) -- the tears of the Weaving Girl shed when she meets her lover and then parts again for another year. One story, however, asserts that she cries because he doesn't wash his dishes for the whole year, and makes her clean the kitchen before they make love. In traditional China, this is the day when a woman can propose to the man of her choice. She prepares a specially embroidered silk ball and throws it at the man she has chosen. The man who receives the embroidered ball is blessed by heaven for accepting a wedding proposal on the evening of 7/7. The inner counterparts of Weaving Girl and Cowherd Boy in heaven reside here in the human body: Edited August 28, 2017 by Taomeow 9 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
morning dew Posted August 28, 2017 Great story This looks like the diagram that Damo Mitchell goes over in his alchemy videos. Does this story have anything to do with internal alchemy at all on a deeper level? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Taomeow Posted August 28, 2017 (edited) 1 hour ago, morning dew said: Great story This looks like the diagram that Damo Mitchell goes over in his alchemy videos. Does this story have anything to do with internal alchemy at all on a deeper level? Of course. The Cowherd boy and the Weaving Girl are personages of the middle dantien. The middle Cinnabar Field, shaped as a spiral and located in the region of the heart, has the Cowherd Boy (Altair) just above it hold the Big Dipper, the center of the cosmos. The Weaving Girl (Vega) below it turns the Spinal Handle, opening the "second path." Everything here is significant in alchemical work. Edited August 28, 2017 by Taomeow 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
