I’m not an expert on macrobiotics, though I am very interested in it – especially the Seven Principles. The ones that I can understand are actually fascinating. Unfortunately, I haven’t found anywhere that has given me a simple explanation of these principles and how they work, (many places just list them and somehow expect you to understand them as if by magic) so over the years, I’ve kind of developed my own understanding and explanation of them, as they relate to the world as I see it. This article is a musing on my own understanding of the Seven Principles.

I’ve realised that it helps to understand these principles if you first understand or believe that the universe has to exist in balance, not necessarily a neutral balance, but a balance. The forces of this balance are called yin and yang and the whole of everything is made up of a balance of yin and yang – never neutral – always either more yin or more yang. The way I see it is, it’s like a jar that will only remain upright if there are a hundred marbles in it. The marbles are red (yin) and green (yang). It doesn’t matter what the ratio of red to green is, as long as there are always a hundred marbles keeping the jar upright.

Well, here we go…

Everything is a differentiation of one infinity.

One infinity can mean the whole universe, or it can mean a whole apple or for our purposes, a whole jar of marbles. Everything is differentiated into yin and yang. The marbles are red and green, the apple has yin properties and yang properties and the universe also has yin properties and yang properties. There isn’t room here to describe what yin and yang properties are, but at the end of the article I will list some helpful links. It is worth noting here that nothing is ever entirely yin or entirely yang – either yin or yang will always have dominance even if it is only by an infinitesimal amount.

Everything changes.

Nothing stays still and nothing stays the same. Everything is in motion, even if the human eye can’t see it. Everything is made up of atoms, which are made of protons, neutrons and electrons. The electrons constantly whiz around the nucleus of protons and neutrons. The human eye can’t see this, but it means that everything is constantly in motion. Everything changes, even though we may not notice. In our lifetime, the mountain behind our home may look to stay the same, but if we could go back a thousand years we would see that it was a very different shape to what it is now. The apple is sweet (yang) and becomes sour (yin). Maybe the marbles in the jar change constantly from red to green. Everything changes between yin and yang.

All antagonisms are complementary.

Simply put, an antagonism is something which is in conflict with something else – yin and yang are always in conflict with each other as things change between yin and yang (the apple changing from sweet to sour, for example). These conflicts are complementary – yin and yang can’t exist without each other. The jar of marbles will never have either a hundred red or a hundred green marbles, there will always be a combination of the two. The apple will never be entirely sweet or entirely sour (even though it may taste that way to us), day (yang) will always be followed by night (yin). For me, this is the trickiest principle to understand so I hope I’ve made sense.

There is nothing identical

This one speaks for itself. Look at DNA – no two humans have identical DNA, even twins, although it will be similar. Same with fingerprints and snowflakes (although I often wonder how these have been proved!) There are no two identical electrons which means that nothing can be identical even if on the surface they appear to be so. Maybe that’s why snowflakes are different – maybe it comes down to just one different electron, so even if we think they’re identical to the human eye, they’re not.

What has a front has a back.

The bigger the front, the bigger the back.

I’ve put these two together because I find them easier to understand this way. If you’re of more of a scientific bent, think of the principle “every action has an equal and opposite reaction”. That might help. If we take two green marbles out of the jar, two red ones must be put in to take their place. I often apply these principles to the damage we’ve done to the environment. If we insist on pumping out pollutants (the front), we can’t really be surprised that we cause damage to the environment (the back – Principle 5). The more pollutants we pump out, the more damage we will cause. (Principle 6). Or my favourite example – a school may make cuts to save money (Principle 5, front) but the upshot may be that the pupils miss out on important resources (Principle 5, back). The more cuts are made, the more resources the students will miss out on (Principle 6). I could go on…Basically, be careful what you do because somewhere down the line it will come back and bite you on the ass, or worse – bite someone else on the ass!

What has a beginning has an end.

If you subscribe to the theories explained above – that everything differentiates into yin and yang and that yin and yang are complementary antagonisms – sweet/sour, front/back, day/night etc, then beginning/end should make sense. The way I see it is – everything changes, everything is in motion, everything ends. Atoms, electrons, people, plants – they end. Often the end is death. One thing I’ve often thought about is – in order to keep balance, when one thing ends or dies, something else must begin or be born. Comments?

Anyway, if you’ve begun to understand a little from reading these, then the Twelve Laws of Change will seem a little easier and will even deepen your understanding. You can find those, and a list of yin/yang attributes here: Self Healing Australia Macrobiotics

And for a deeper explanation of the Seven Principles, go to this page and scroll down to the section entitled “The Unique Law”.

7 Levels of Judgment

For more details, googling “Macrobiotics” will open the gateway to a whole wealth of interesting websites.

Disclaimer: These views are entirely my own. They are conclusions about the meanings of the Seven Principles that I’ve come to on my own. I’m not claiming that they are right or accurate and I would certainly welcome further information or “corrections” to my ideas from any macrobiotics people that are out there, especially since I’m not at all certain that some of my ideas are right! . After all, we’re here to learn…