I recently "shared" a picture on Facebook of a woman in white, in a stormy sky, staring down on her counterpart and mirror reflection in black beneath, with the yin/yang symbol formulated between them. The image came with the posting that "
Taoism sees change as opposites interacting with each other to both complement and oppose in a balancing act between harmony and disharmony...". Our nephew commented on the picture: "shouldn't half of it be male?" Well, yes.... yin/yang..... yang/yin. I agreed. And then it hit me! We'd just (less than two hours prior) returned home from seeing "The Taming of the Shrew". Shakespeare, you're brilliant! (Well, we knew that already.) You captured those "opposites interacting in a balancing act between harmony and disharmony" in your "
Taming of the Shrew". And where else would one expect to find it but in a relationship? Enter Petruchio and Katharina!
With our modern sensibility toward the equality of women and an equal lack of sensibility toward Shakespeare's language and frame of reference, it would be easy to see "The Taming of the Shrew" as man overpowering and dominating woman. But you might be missing the point. Take this quote, which really struck me
on Sunday: "And where two raging fires meet together, They do consume the thing that feeds their fury. Though little fire grows great with little wind, Yet extreme gusts will blow out fire and all." In other words, match fire with fire in order not to be consumed by it. Do not be afraid of fire, your own or anyone else's. People are not so fragile, or should not be. And do not be afraid of that "balancing act between harmony and disharmony".
Katharina is of what Shakespeare calls "a shrewish disposition", which means that she has a sharp tongue and is quite volatile. Little wonder, since her rather girlie, younger sister, Bianca, reaps all the praise and gets all the attention from their father in particular and from men in general. Except for Petruchio. True, he wants a wife with a good dowry, but he also likes a challenge. Furthermore, he lives life according to his own tenets and is not put off by "boy talk" about women. Charque and I often point out in reading sessions the limitations of "girl talk" and "girlfriend advice" when women are dealing with relationships. "Boy talk" about women, even in Shakespeare, isn't any better or any wiser. Ultimately Katharina proves her mettle, as well as the modern bumper sticker: "Well-behaved women seldom make history". There was a zany, modern
BBC version of "The 
Taming of the Shrew" some years back where Katharina was a Member of Parliament and Petruchio was an impoverished and eccentric young aristocrat with a large estate and a title but no money to maintain any of it. When they finally got through striking out on their own as well as at each other, "she" took care of the country as prime minister and "he" took care of the kids at home. You can do all sorts in the spirit of Shakespeare. Furthermore, Shakespeare is as good as Taoism or A Course in Miracles when it comes to teaching universal truths...and quite a bit more colourful.
Another more violent but interesting exploration of the interplay of light and dark is in the movie "
Black Swan". The exchange in this story is primarily between two dancers. Nina is selected to dance the role of the Swan Queen, Odette in "Swan Lake", as well as, of course, the role of the dark Swan Queen, Odile. She dances a very beautiful White Swan but is not able to express her dark side to give a
meaningful and compelling interpretation of the Black Swan. An over solicitous and controlling "ballet mother" and lack of experience has taught Nina to repress and attack, often very literally, her dark side. She is constantly haunted by her fellow dancer and understudy in Lily who has no problem with either her dark side or dancing the Black Swan. Nina becomes paranoid and enacts a series of horrific self attacks both in her head and for real which ultimately releases her repressions and enables her to give a powerful rendering of the Black Swan but also signals her demise.
Physically and metaphysically existence is centred between harmony and disharmony. In traditional religion, this is called Good and Evil.
Qabalah more accurately describes it as Mercy and Severity, which is much closer to Taoism's Harmony and Disharmony. Lao Tsu somewhat simplistically but more realistically calls this duality "The Easy and the Difficult". All of them indicate the ebb and flow of life and of self. More importantly, they are all saying that ebb and flow are natural and inherent to existence. Management of these forces is to be expected. But management is different from control. You work with these forces and embrace the opportunity for the creative expression and understanding that each one gives you. You don't judge them or try to cast one of them or half of them into the fires of hell. Ultimately that will destroy you. As Charque likes to say, without the differential between these two polarities, there is no experience. Consciousness and creative expression require change. That is why everything oscillates. Among
The Seven Hermetic Principles of The Kybalion, there is The Principle of Vibration (number three) which states that a) Nothing is still; nothing is fixed and b) Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates (atoms, molecules, worlds, galaxies, universes). Then, following, The Principle of Rhythm (number five) states that a) Everything flows out and in. b) Everything has its tides. c) All things rise and fall. d) The pendulum swing manifests in everything. e) The measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left. f) Rhythm compensates. In Tarot, the High Priestess pictures this ebb and flow, this cosmic dance between the different poles. You are part of this dance, part of the interplay of this cosmic rhythm. See yourself as part of it....without judgement. Take part and express in it freely.
