In the ancient Japanese religion of Shinto, the islands of Japan were created by the two divine counterparts Izanami-no-miko and Izanagi-no-mikoto.

After the separation of Heaven and Earth emerged from chaos, Izanami-no-miko (she who invites) and Izanagi-no-mikoto (he who invites) stood upon the floating bridge in the sky. Together they held the sacred jeweled spear, and began to stir the primeval ocean. Drops fell from the spear tip to form the island of Onogoro.

Izanami and Izanagi descended to the land upon a Rainbow as husband and wife. Their first born was Hiruko “leech-child” who was born without bones, because the ceremony was incorrectly performed—Izanami spoke first. The two kami were urged to perform the wedding again, and this time Izanagi correctly spoke first giving birth to the island of Japan.

This sacred union was performed around a pillar. The two danced about the pillar to perform the marriage, and merged in creation each place they met. In time, Izanami bore eight children that became the kami or spirits of the trees, mountains, waterfalls and volcanoes.

This Shinto tale describes the male and female divine counterparts often called yin and yang. Together, the forces of yin and yang fashioned the visible reality from light–as they descended the “floating bridge” or Rainbow of Colors.

The Rainbow is reminiscent of the seven colors of the visible spectrum to conclude that the two kami were born of Light.

It’s interesting to note that all perception of the visual reality comes as a product of light being translated by the mind into the colors of the rainbow.

Yet, if we take this esoteric connection one step further, we see that the ancient people who lived in the East used the seven colors to also denote the seven chakras–the gateways from which we collect information to interpret the visible reality. Although this is not a prominent belief in Shinto, it is an extension of Taoist health practices.

The kami of Izanami eventually created the eight symbols or trigrams of the bagua–often depicted as the yin and yang sign surrounded by three rows of “open” and “closed” lines.

This ancient system use to depict the underlying forces of nature is quite similar to the idea of binary code. However, where there are “1’s” and “0’s” on a computer, the bagua depicts open and closed lines.

Learn more about yin and yang in the Chinese calendar system with Tao of the Chinese New Year.

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cc: Lorena a.k.a. Loretahur, Roy Wangsa, Smithsonian Collections, theirry erhmann