“Zhēnwŭ, also known as the Dark Warrior (Xuánwŭ 玄武) or Highest Emperor of the Dark Heaven (Xuántiān shàngdì 玄天上帝), is a divinity known for his powers of healing and exorcism. In Han dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE), the Dark Warrior was one of the four animals corresponding to the cardinal directions (see under siling). Usually depicted as a serpent coiled around a tortoise, the Dark Warrior was correlated with winter, water, the color black, and the constellations of the northern quadrant of the sky.”—Theodore A. Cook
Under any circumstances I could imagine myself like the Dark Warrior or Highest Emperor of the Dark Heaven, no. But I am truly correlated several months of the year with winter, water in the form of snow, the color black (typically one week every month when the moon is too small to be visible), and the constellations of the Northern Polar sky. And who we are when we try to be honest with themselves and we cannot be always sure we are right? Dark Warrior is inside us, no matter how light we look in the sunny days.
