Chinese Cosmology > Celestial Pivot
Celestial Pivot (tian shu), 35x42 , Stomach 25, hand-dyed and commercial fabric, embellished with beads and paint. This point is located two inches lateral to the center of the navel, bilaterally. It is the place where Celestial Qi and Earthly Qi intersect, and is the origin of man's Qi and the Ten Thousand Things. In the Tao Te Ching, Verse 42 reads, 'Tao gave birth to One, One gave birth to Two, Two gave birth to Three, Three gave birth to the Ten Thousand Things. The Ten Thousand Things carry the Yin on their backs and hold the Yang in their embrace, deriving their vital harmony from the proper blending of the two vital Breaths.' Tian Shu is also the ancient name of the central star in Ursa Major, and the other six stars in that constellation rotate around it. They all rotate around Polaris, and never dip below the horizon in the Northern hemisphere. Finally, any depiction of Order in the universe would not be complete without remembering the Divine Trickster, Coyote, and his tendency to introduce some Chaos.