The Seven Principles of Macrobiotics

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.