The Tao Te Ching for Astrologers: Verse 31 & 32

Hey everyone, this is Acyuta-bhava from Nightlight Astrology, and today we are going to continue our series on the Tao Te Ching for astrologers. Today we are looking at verses 31 and 32. Of course, as I say in every episode, you don't need to have watched all of the previous episodes; you can jump in wherever you want in order to learn something new from the Tao Te Ching.

Every verse is kind of its own little world, packed full of wisdom that is deeply applicable for us as students of astrology. And one of the reasons I do this and have one day a week where we spend talking about bhakti yoga philosophy and sort of the philosophy of astrology is to remind ourselves of why we're tuning in. I think it's really important to do that. I don't care if you know, 1/10 of the amount of people watch these episodes is that the 10th of people watching these particular episodes are my people, so the rest of you are, of course, as well. Maybe you're just not into the Tao Te Ching, but to me, the people who recognize, hey, I need to reflect on why I'm doing this. That's when you really start getting the most out of astrology. This is like my soapbox. So something I say to all my students, too, if you want to get the most out of astrology, you need a spiritual practice; you need to be taking time out for the underlying Why Why am I doing astrology. So that's what this series is for.

We're going to pick up on verses 31 and 32. I'll read through them twice. I'm going to put them up on the screen, of course, so that you can see them as always, and we'll read through them twice, and then on the second time through, I will offer some reflections that I think are applicable to us as students of astrology. The Tao Te Ching has been a part of my daily study habits as an astrologer and Yogi, so to speak, for a long time. So I hope that you will find the parallels as amazing as I do before we get into it. Don't forget to like and subscribe, share your comments, and click the notification bell for updates; when you do, subscribing helps the channel to grow. You can always find the transcript of my daily talks on my website nightlightastrology.com.

All right, I'm gonna go ahead and share the screen, and we will get into verses 31 and 32. Let me make this full screen. I know some people watch this, you know on a bigger screen some people smaller so if you can't see the words it's you can just listen to it but if you if it helps you to look you can read. I also, by the way, I look at the Jonathan Star translation of the Tao Te Ching from Tarcher Cornerstone editions. I think it's a very handy place to start for beginners like myself. So anyway, verse 31 reads this.

Even the finest warrior is defeated when he goes against natural law
By his own hand, he is doomed, and all creatures are likely to despise him
One who knows Tao never turns from life's calling
When at home, he honours the side of rest
When at war, he honours the side of action
Peace and tranquility are what he holds most dear, so he does not obtain weapons
But when their use is unavoidable, he employs them with fortitude and zeal
Do not flaunt your excellence
Do not rejoice over victory
With the loss of others weep with sorrow and grief
After winning a battle, do not celebrate, observe the rites of a funeral
One who is bound to action, proud of victory, and delights in the misfortune of
others
will never gain a thing from this world below Heaven

Verse 32

Tao is eternal, one without a second
Simple indeed yet so subtle that no one can master it
If princes and kings could just hold it
All things would flock to their kingdom
Heaven and Earth would rejoice with the dripping of sweet dew
Everyone would live in harmony, not by official decree, but by their own inner
goodness
This world is nothing but the glory of Tao expressed through different names and
forms
One who sees the things of this world as being real and self-existent has lost sight of
the truth
To him, every word becomes a trap everything becomes a prison
One who knows the truth that underlies all things lives in this world without danger
To him, every word reflects the universe; every moment brings enlightenment
Rivers and streams are born of the ocean
All creation is born of Tao
Just as all water flows back to become the ocean
All creation flows back to become Tao

Let's go back to verse 31. We'll read it again, and we'll add some reflections here that apply to us as students of astrology.

Verse 31

Even the finest warrior is defeated when he goes against natural law
By his own hand, he is doomed, and all creatures are likely to despise him
One who knows Tao never turns from life's calling
When at home, he honours the side of rest
When at war, he honours the side of action
Peace and tranquility are what he holds most dear, so he does not obtain weapons
But when their use is unavoidable, he employs them with fortitude and zeal
Do not flaunt your excellence
Do not rejoice over victory
With the loss of others weep with sorrow and grief
After winning a battle, do not celebrate, observe the rites of a funeral
One who is bound to action, proud of victory, and delights in the misfortune of
others
will never gain a thing from this world below Heaven

Well, I think there are a number of things that are super applicable for us today in the world, what to speak of us as students of astrology, right? But first of all, if I had to summarize what the birth chart is, psychologically, there's a lot of things that it describes karmically fated events or themes or patterns that are playing out in our lives. But it also describes something of the innate character and the calling of life destiny. Our destiny is rooted in character; I think it was Heraclitus who said character is destiny. So when I read this verse, and I think about astrology, my everyday life as an astrologer, as someone like you, who likes to consume astrological content, I think of the birth chart as a picture of the natural law, that is our character.

The first house Indian astrologers referred to as Dharma. Dharma can mean a lot of different things. But one of the things that it means in the astrological sense, the first house sense, is the duty that we are bound to, obligated to by virtue of our character. Now that might have been warped at different times to mean something like caste or class or socioeconomic status or family or something like that. But spiritually, I think, what I take away is the idea that each of us are bound to a certain destiny that is rooted fundamentally in our character.

And the fifth house, some Indian astrologers associate because it is trine to the first house as the house that brings about joy and happiness in relation to the fulfillment of our dharma. So, in other words, if your method acting your character, well, if you're playing the role assigned to you, well, there is a sense of happiness. In the Tao Te Ching, here is saying that even someone who's very skilled and talented, if they go against natural law, by their own hand, they're doomed. In other words, there's something about whoever we are that requires that we keep aligning with it, that that there's a soul and that it's got a character, and that the soul has to choose to play that character well, over and over again, if you go against the nature of that character that you're there are karmic consequences.

And honestly, if I had to summarize what I see in working with people in birth charts every day, it is that people suffer when they try to be something other than who they are. And the birth chart gives not an exact picture. But it gives a symbolic representation of some of the most beautiful dimensions of who we are. It's like a painting of who we are. And what I see from people over and over again, as they somehow try to be something else. And they're trying to hammer themselves into some other shape, and they suffer. So a little bit different than what this verse is saying. But I think it's very similar that there is a natural law in the universe. And that law extends into the heavens and the planets and the way that they play a role in the shaping and formation of our character. The reason that we come here, the role that we're meant to play, one who knows down never turns from life's calling, you see, it's the same thing the birth chart is describing at a speaker come and give a talk in our summer speaker series named Shawn Nygaard is a good friend of mine, and he gave a talk on the daimon. The daimon in ancient astrology is the sense of almost like a guardian spirit that helps you to pursue the path that is unique and destined for you.

And when you are true to this calling, then there's a sense of being true to; not only the character that you are born with have desires to be played on the stage of life, but that you're somehow stepping into alignment with the universe itself. I remember when I was a kid, people used to say, just be yourself, you know, and I was always like, Well, how could you be anything else? That would be my response. Well, how could you be anything other than yourself? And as I got older, I realized, no, actually, you get, you know, your teenage years, early 20, something like that. You look around at the world. And you think, Well, you know, that's how that person over there, that's what I should be like, This is what I should look like, this is how I should act. And this is what defines success. And you start getting away from thinking about what is authentically you and being in accord with what is you, and if you follow that path, it turns out that everything that you're looking for naturally tends to come to you.

And the verse is saying something very similar, which is that if you are true to the sense of alignment that's built into nature, and I consider that to be what the planets are depicting in the birth chart, if you're true to that, then you kind of know when to rest or when to be active. You know, when it's a time of peace, or it's a time of war, so to speak, you know, when to push, Zig or zag, you know, you know when to push out or pull back in. And you know, when it's the right time to do something, and when it's not the right time to do something. And I don't think that's born of some sense of like, just adhering to some external law. I mean, it's partly that, but it's also about the inner law; I think it was Immanuel Kant who said, The only two things that fill me with awe is the starry sky above and the moral law within. I don't think what he meant by the moral law within is like the memorization of a set of societal codes. I think what he meant by moral law within is the sense of adherence to a code. James Hillman wrote a book called The Souls Code. And I think it's something like that. And then when you're following this, you kind of, you're listening very closely to the calling of character, then you know when it's the right time to do certain kinds of things, and when it's not the right time to do certain things.

One of the things I love about this versus that it also says, when you are good at something, or when you're receiving praise for something, or when you're victorious, don't be cocky about it, don't rub it in other people's face, don't rejoice that over other people because you won, or your great, or whatever. And that's a good warning. Because the truth is that when one is on a spiritual path, and one starts to pay attention to who you are, and to follow it, and to learn this kind of, you're navigating life with a certain kind of spiritual intelligence and grace. People start paying more attention to you, you start you, people will start saying, Oh, I like the way that they're living, or I like the way that they're doing, or they're succeeding at some things because that's a byproduct of this. And the Tao is giving this advice for Warriors, but it really applies to anyone who's doing well and sort of, you know, kicking butt, you know, but why are they doing? so it's because they're being true to character, and they're in alignment with some they're in alignment with the flow of the cosmos, so to speak. And that kind of person doesn't laud their victories over other people. They don't brag; they're not proud. Now, one who is bound to action, proud of victory, and delights in the misfortune of others will never gain a thing from this world below Heaven.

So a stern warning, it's like, yeah, that if you are in alignment with the Dow and with your sense of character and destiny, like good things can come to you. But you know, you'll know when to push or pull, you'll have a natural sense of timing, and you will not rejoice; I'm so much better than other people just because, again, one of the sort of tempting or seductive byproducts of following the Tao is that you often start doing well at things. I think that's a really important verse. And I see this all the time in astrology, you know, and Jupiter seasons, followed by a Saturn season. And if you don't, if you don't stay humble, it's pretty easy to get smacked down of our own accord. Anyway, verse 32.

Tao is eternal, one without a second
Simple indeed yet so subtle that no one can master it
If princes and kings could just hold it
All things would flock to their kingdom
Heaven and Earth would rejoice with the dripping of sweet dew
Everyone would live in harmony, not by official decree, but by their own inner goodness

You see, that's the part where I was saying it's not some kind of external law that the Tao Te Ching is talking about. It's an inner sense of what's right and the timing of things. It's a very present living sense of what is right. It's not a moralistic, you know, vain, proud, boastful, condemning, self-righteous kind of energy.

This world is nothing but the glory of Tao expressed through different names and forms
One who sees the things of this world as being real and self-existent,
which would mean like independent and, apart from this greater cosmic unity, has lost sight of
the truth
To him, every word becomes a trap everything becomes a prison
One who knows the truth that underlies all things lives in this world without danger
To him, every word reflects the universe; every moment brings enlightenment
Rivers and streams are born of the ocean
All creation is born of Tao
Just as all water flows back to become the ocean
All creation flows back to become Tao

How many memes have come from the Tao Te Ching, lots. But one of the reasons I love this verse is because, in this verse, we are getting the truth that, to me, is most fundamental about my daily practice of astrology. And you guys have heard me say this many times before. If you track the planets in everyday life, you start to realize that this world is the one become many, that you realize that the planets and the experiences you're having constantly reflect something of divinity and of the Lord, the divine intelligence, that is the unity underlying within all things transcendent and imminent at the same time. And the more that you get a felt sense of this present in your experiences through the reflective language of astrology, the more that you are able to see every experience as a blessing or a lesson or a piece of art or something that's curious and interesting, or something that's funny. It's like the universe is just begging us to see it as alive and for us to participate with a sense that life is glorious. And it's such a beautiful language that we even have an opportunity to walk through everyday life and see our experiences reflected by the planets pointing us toward this divine nature. I mean, how is you know, if it, if it doesn't blow our mind again, and again and again, then we're not paying attention. We're not paying close enough attention.

So, to me, the Tao Te Ching is saying the same thing saying, Look, if you study the Tao, you're going to start to see that it flows through everything. It's ever-present everywhere. And it will change your life and make you a recipient of the greatest gift in every moment, moment by moment when we study and practice this astrology. In this way, the recognition of the Tao comes into our consciousness might call it God or source. And that recognition grants an unspeakable beauty and intimacy into the very nature of life and experience. So that's why we do it. And but you have to remind yourself, that's why I'm doing this because there's this other dimension to astrology, where it's nothing more than, you know, a spinning wheel of cosmic gossip. And, you know, it's like a cosmic soap opera. And, you know, there's nothing wrong with the occasional soap opera. I mean, I'm invested probably in just as many as you are. But I have to stop and remember why I'm here and what I'm doing. What is this all about? And kind of look up, you know, I look up when I eventually look back down, I see things differently. And I can come back into the heart. It's easier to love. It's easier to forgive; it's easier to laugh. It's easier to feel gratitude if I'm doing that. So anyway, I hope that you guys get something of the same. Don't forget to like and subscribe, share your comments, and all that good stuff that helps the algorithm pick up the channel and helps the channel to grow. You can always find a transcript of any of my daily talks on the website nightlightastrology.com. That's what I've got for today. Bye, everyone.