The Tao Te Ching for Astrologers: Verses 41 & 42

Hey everyone, this is Acyuta-bhava from Nightlight Astrology, and today we are continuing our series on the Tao Te Ching for astrologers. So today, we're gonna be looking at verses 41 and 42. You don't have to have been listening to the entire series previously to take advantage of this episode and learn something good from it. Every verse in the Tao Te Ching is completely unique. And they're not necessarily building on one another. Although there's many different things that the text says, and of course, you can study it in a linear way. But the Tao Te Ching is very, in my opinion, is beautiful because it's so nonlinear. And any verse packs the whole universe within it. So hope you guys will enjoy these verses. Today, we're going to look at them, read through both of them, and then consider them in light of our study of astrology.

I always do this midweek as a way of pausing and reflecting on why we're here and what we're doing; what is astrology mean? Why is it a part of our path? I appreciate all of you who actually tune into these episodes. We lose a significant amount of the audience every week when we do this, but I'm just not going to stop because I think that this is super, super important. And to me anyway, it's how I make sure that it's not just about numbers, it's not just about, you know, it's not just about grinding out constant astrology content, we have to pause and reflect on what we're doing and why we're here. So it's really important to me personally, before we get into talking about today's verses 41 and 42.

A few notes remember that you can follow along with this copy of the Tao Te Ching, which is the Tarcher Cornerstone addition translated by Jonathan Star. My book was published by Tarcher, so I really enjoy their work and the way they highlight spiritual texts in this cornerstone series. We get the Hermetica same edition from them as well.

Okay, well, before we get into it, don't forget to like and subscribe, share a comment in the comment section today, and share some of your own wisdom or eliminations, or reflections on today's content. Always appreciate that it helps the channel to grow. You can find a transcript of any of my daily talks on the website nightlightastrology.com. I'd also like to take you over there today because we have a new class that is coming up really soon. My New Year One program begins on November 12. Yeah, there we go. Saturday, November 12, the next first-year astrology cohort begins. This is my Ancient Astrology for the Modern Mystic course. It is a one-year course in ancient Hellenistic astrology; we start from history and philosophy, and astronomy and work our way up. And this is perfect for people who want to develop an astrology practice or who want to take their study or interest of astrology to the next level. It's a ton of things included in the program. You can learn more about it on the page here; what some recent alumni have had to say about their experience. We have 30 webinars on the year. In addition, we have 12 guest lectures that come in. So 42 classes total, I lead all of the programs. We also have breakout study sessions with the tutoring staff, and we have a forum discussion group where you can also ask questions year round that is staffed by tutors who answer within 24 hours. You can email me anytime you get to keep all of the material for good. You can download and keep all of it. You can go at your own pace there; everything's recorded if you can't make the live webinars.

They meet Saturdays, starting November 12, at noon Eastern time every week, and they're about two to three hours long. Every class, I would love to see some of you there. The Earlybird rate is open enrollment is now open. So please join love to see some of you in class. And don't forget that we have tuition assistance available if you, for any reason, need help taking the program, but we are limiting how many tuition assistance contracts we have available. We want to keep a mix of those and normal payments in the program. And so we are we do have a very specific targeted number of tuition assistance contracts available for students. So if you're someone who would like to take the class, but have a hard time financially, take advantage of that. But just be sure to apply right away while we still have them. Because they will go, and once they're out, they won't be available anymore. So just make sure that if you have any questions too, you can email us info at nightlightastrology.com. We're trying to make sure that nobody is priced out of taking the class. We do have to set a cap on it. So the classes don't get too crazy big. They're big classes already, but we try to, you know, keep them manageable.

All right, well, that being said, let's go today into the 41st and 42nd hexagrams. We're going to read through each of the verses. And then, I will read through them a second time and pause after each verse to offer some reflections.

So verse 41,
When the best seeker hears of Tao he strives with great effort to know it
When an average seeker hears of Tao he thinks of it now and again
When the poorest seeker hears of Tao he laughs out loud
Tao is always becoming what we have need for it to become
If it could not do this it would not be Tao
There is an old saying,
The clear way seems clouded
The straight way seems crooked
The sure way seems unsteady
The greatest power seems weak
The purest white seems tainted
The abundant seems empty
The stable seems shaky
The certain seems false
The Great Square has no corners
The Great Vessel is never filled
A beginner may be clumsy but after practice – what talent!
A large drum may sit silently but when banged – what noise!
Tao lies hidden yet it alone is the glorious light of this world

Verse 42
Tao gives life to the one
The one gives life to the two
The two gives life to the three
The three give life to ten thousand things
All beings support Yin and embrace Yang and the interplay of these two forces fills the universe
Yet only at the still-point, between the breathing in and the breathing out, can one capture these two in perfect harmony
People suffer at the thought of being without parents,
without food, or without worth
Yet this is the very way that kings and lords once described themselves
Who knows what fate may bring – one day your loss may be your fortune one day your fortune may be your loss
The age-old lesson that others teach, I also teach – “As you plant, so you reap”
“As you live, so you die”
Know this to be the foundation of my teachings

Let's go back to 41. I'm going to read this verse again. And then we'll pause and offer some reflections.

When the best seeker hears of Tao, he strives with great effort to know it. When an average seeker hears of Tao, he thinks of it now and again. When the poorest seeker hears of Tao, he laughs out loud. I think of this a lot when I think about astrology. First of all, what distinguishes really good students of astrology over 12 years of teaching classes full time? I will say that it is usually that when people hear about astrology, another a sacred spiritual topic, filled with gnosis, filled with some knowledge that gets us close or intimate with something divine that's here in the world, that when the best students hear about it, they get really serious about it, and they throw themselves into it, there's just a passion that burns inside of them.

And it could be this not necessarily just for astrology but for anything spiritual yoga, or, you know, for me, astrology, yoga, shamanism at an earlier stage in my life. You strive with great effort to know it. I know that's when I'm at my best is when I hear of something sacred. And that's all I want. Is that that sacred truth or knowing or relating that fills my life with joy and wonder and mystery.

Now, when an average seeker hears of Tao, the text tells us, he thinks of it now and again. There are a lot of people out there that would probably consider themselves spiritual, not religious. And when someone starts talking about astrology, their ears perk up; maybe they take in some content once in a while. And underlying everything is a sense that yeah, there's something more, but I haven't yet really gotten, like a fire lit under my butt, you know, to do something about it. And I, I think when I think of myself all the way up until my early 20s, that was sort of me. That was how I would describe myself. I was always interested in spiritual things. I grew up in the church as a preacher's kid. Most of you guys know that. I was never really that interested in spiritual things, on a deep personal level, like I was, sort of wasn't compelled by my own inner thirst. But then I fell into some addiction, and in order to get out of that needed spiritual experience, and that's when it got lit.

So I know there are lots of people out there like that with astrology too. It's like how many people do I run into where they find out that I'm an astrologer, and either it's awkward because they think it's, you know, the next one where they laugh out loud, or they're like, Oh, that's really interesting. I've always been interested in that. You can see them; that on again, off again switch is being turned on.

And then the poor seeker hears of Tao; they laugh out loud. And that to me, I've been listening lately to some of the people. I'm a sports fan. And some of the people in the media have been criticizing an NFL quarterback named Aaron Rodgers, who plays for the Green Bay Packers, for having consumed Ayahuasca. Now he's getting criticized for other things too. But in particular, I've heard a number of people say, you know, like, laugh out loud, and say, you know, what a loon. He's off his rocker to be drinking Ayahuasca. As someone who's drank Ayahuasca is an astrologer, you know, practices yoga, I'm very used to people looking at me, my life and what I have done, the choices I've made, and, maybe not in front of me, but laughing out, they would laugh out loud if they heard about it. Or they might be like, Oh, my God, like what, you know, what is that?

But according to the Tao Te Ching, these are indications of how close our lives are, or can be, to the Tao to feeling it, knowing it, and being in alignment with it. It has to do with, Are we the type who laughs out loud at it? Are we the type who think of it now and again, or are we the type of when we hear about it, there's something there's an unquenchable thirst, there's a drive, there's a passion propels us to want to know more, take up a spiritual practice, we get interested in astrology, whatever the case might be.

Tao is always becoming what we have need for it to become. If it could not do this, it would not be Tao. This is fascinating. I love this because it's a way of suggesting that the universe and the great spiritual intelligence behind the universe is always moving as it's like a great, you know, this, this world responds to our desires and what we want and what we're afraid of. And it constantly gives us what we want, or shows us what we want, or makes us more aware of our fears, or puts us in touch with them. It's fascinating. The way that this world is like this hyper-responsive jellyfish that's always changing as we are thinking and feeling and wanting or fearing. And the planets, to me, give me some sense that it's not just random. As an astrologer. I think the benefits of the planets are that it's not just willy-nilly, that there's like a great musical movement. There's a time signature; there's notes, there's a rhythm. It's symphonic, and the planets give you the sense that what you're desiring is rising up in you just as surely as Jupiter is passing through a certain house or mercury is turning retrograde.

And then it's the universe responds to what you think is only in your mind or your desires by shaping events all the way around you, and the planets are giving you this guide to this map to understanding it. So you can also trust that this is the Tao. This is the universe. This intelligent being that's that you're a part of and that wants to be known and communicated with.

There is an old saying,
The clear way seems clouded
The straight way seems crooked
The sure way seems unsteady
The greatest power seems weak
The purest white seems tainted
The abundant seems empty
The stable seems shaky
The certain seems false
The Great Square has no corners
The Great Vessel is never filled
A beginner may be clumsy but after practice – what talent!
A large drum may sit silently but when banged – what noise!
Tao lies hidden yet it alone is the glorious light of this world

This is setting us up for some things that are said in verse 42, as well, but it's amazing to me how. You know, astrology is the study of is like the science of the future. In a way, you're all you know; we're always we're either predicting or forecasting, we're always trying to get a sense of what's coming or what, what kind of archetypal energy front is moving through, like, a rain storm. And yet, isn't it amazing that even though you know, I could put I can predict, for example, Venus is going to be opposing Pluto in the sky, or Venus is going to be turning retrograde. And I can describe all of the archetypal themes and combinations. But it never is what I think it is going to be. There's always this element of novelty. The universe takes and combines things in ways. The raw material of our lives. It takes and combines the material of our lives in ways that I could never predict. Even though I might nail the archetypal themes or field that's coming.

There's this there's something about the Tao that likes to hide. And presents itself in things that you wouldn't guess or you wouldn't predict. It does that on purpose so that it is constantly showing us that like you might have, this predictive apparatus. But the predictive apparatus is being applied to a living being whose intelligence is always larger than the system that describes it or the system that it uses to communicate something about itself with. And so as a result, there's this way in which whatever way we using; the language of astrology, forecasting, predicting, describing, we, we use Jupiter to describe something, we use Saturn to describe something or Mercury transit, or whatever the case might be. And we describe it. But then, as we spend time getting to know it, it will often turn and reveal something that is, the description was a part of, but the understanding can't be there until the actual transit occurs and there's a living connection with it. And so that way, just like the Tao is saying that the Tao is hidden, but it's always revealing itself. So we have a science that allows us to see sort of general outlines of where the Tao is moving through the planets through the orchestration of all the planetary movements. But its revelation is always profound because it lies hidden in plain sight. The plain sight might be the planets and the transits, and the archetypal combinations and the videos on my YouTube channel. But its revelation is always profound because it comes out of its got a hidden majesty that's constantly coming out in ways that you can't predict even though, in a sense, you can.

Verse 42,
Tao gives life to the one
The one gives life to the two
The two gives life to the three
The three give life to ten thousand things
All beings support Yin and embrace Yang and the interplay of these two forces fills the universe
Yet only at the still-point, between the breathing in and the breathing out, can one capture these two in perfect harmony
People suffer at the thought of being without parents,
without food, or without worth
Yet this is the very way that kings and lords once described themselves
Who knows what fate may bring – one day your loss may be your fortune one day your fortune may be your loss
The age-old lesson that others teach, I also teach – “As you plant, so you reap”
“As you live, so you die”
Know this to be the foundation of my teachings

A lot here too. It's interesting to me that in the Pythagorean and platonic philosophy, that likely was a part of the transmission of the earliest astrologers. We have two primary categories that are often talked about the limited and the unlimited, represented by the one and the two, and the even and odd signs, masculine-feminine, the limited and unlimited, respectively. And it's the interaction of these two qualities philosophical categories that are broadly described as masculine and feminine, but also masculine and feminine in human gender sex terms are just emanations of these more fundamental qualities, which I think you know, in the Tao Te Ching are just called Yin and Yang, that it's their interaction that gives rise to everything. The one gives rise to the two, the two to the three, and the three to 10,000 things. It's amazing to me that parallel ideas exist philosophically in different traditions. To me, that's inspiring because it suggests that there is a truth that people are different sages and traditions are all tapping into.

There are, of course, meaningful differences too. But all beings support Yin and Yang and the interplay of these two forces fills the universe. To me, what's so amazing about ancient astrology is that everything works according to the interaction of masculine and feminine through signs, Sun and Moon, daytime and nighttime sect, malefic and benefic, dyads between planets, for example, the Sun and Saturn or the moon and Saturn, Jupiter and mercury, or Venus and Mars, as pairs that oppose each other in the Zodiac, or the exaltations, Venus and Mercury and exultation, Mars and Jupiter in their exultation across Cancer and Capricorn.

There's the entire language of ancient astrology is built off from dyads, and dyads are dualities that can exist as hard oppositions, or they are dyads that can represent the interplay of two forces that move across the kind of spectrum. And the more that you study astrology, and the more you pay attention to these movements, the more that you study birth charts through this beautiful heavenly philosophy, the more that you are able to start to perceive this underlying unity in duality, that there is duality and there is oneness and that they exist simultaneously like lovers. And I think that this is one of the reasons that I pair things like the Tao Te Ching, meditation, prayer, and exercise because you need to have a physical, mental, and emotional experience of these things every day that's really embodied for the astrology to be something more than just cosmic anxiety. And for most people, it will be you may say, Well, I take in astrology content, and you know, all the time I don't have a spiritual practice, and I'm not anxious. Okay, fair, right? That could be a fair rebuttal. Well, I would say this in response to my 40 days of spiritual practice, whether it's 10 minutes of prayer, meditation, or mindful, you know, walking, journaling, and tuning in to the heart within. Paying attention to the breath or doing a little bit of exercise.

You do those things every day. And what you thought was a life without anxiety, you will probably see is a life with a lot more anxiety than you thought you had. We're not the best judges of how happy or anxious we are when we're not taking care of ourselves, is my point. And I think it's important that the doubt aging says yet only at the still point between the breathing in and breathing out can one capture these two in perfect harmony. Otherwise, if we don't, then we're always it's like a dog chasing its tail in a circle could be funny at first, you know, but it turns into insanity after a while.

So, you know, how do we perceive the union and all of these opposites? The world fills us with which astrology is constantly showing us too. I mean, one of the things that I hear from people often about astrology is like, oh my god, it just feels like it's never-ending. Yes. And, in fact, it is. Right. This is you're describing manifest reality, which is a tension between opposites moving in circles and cycles endlessly without beginning or end. Yes, it's exhausting. If you're trying to work out a winner between opposites all the time, which is what most of us do unconsciously. You really start we start releasing that when not only when we study astrology, we become more reflective of the fact that all these dyads are moving around, which in itself can be kind of a relief to be like, Oh, okay, this is just the way it goes. But then, secondarily, how do you start to perceive the beauty, the alignment, that invisible intelligence or divinity within it, and draw close to it with devotion and love and care? Gotta take some time out to connect with it intentionally. So that's my thought anyway.

At the end of this verse, I really like this part right here, who knows what fate may bring one day or loss may be your fortune one day or fortune may be your loss? This is so true. There's that story, you know, I don't remember; it's like a, you know, it's like a classic fable or folk tale or whatever the person that comes back to the farmer, and they're like, oh, you know, your horse has a broken leg and what bad fortune and he's like maybe, and then you know, later, it turns out that the horse, having a broken leg means that your son can't go off to war, because he needs the horse to go off to war. What great fortune that that happened, maybe, and then it just keeps going like that.

And that's really the astrology. After a while, if you do it long enough, you'll realize that, you know, it's just as dangerous to get attached and wrapped up in the high points as it is the low points. It's not that you're supposed to stay neutral. It's that there's a way of riding the highs and lows without becoming attached to them. So you can enjoy the experience, the aesthetic of the multi-dimensionality, the emotions, and you can feel that it's spiritually valuable, but you're not getting attached in it, so that when it changes and it inevitably will, that you lose all composure. Even if you have to get sad after being really happy, you know that sadness and happiness are, you know, move along like a river in and out of each other. There's something about that that astrology has always been teaching us. Read all of the ancient astrologers. They're saying the same thing. They say exactly that this is what astrology teaches us. One day your loss may be your fortune; one day, your fortune may be your loss. And then be aware of the last teaching as you plant, so you reap as you live. So your die or choices feed into the stream of these cosmic influences, and though the cosmic influences have a hold on our lives as the presence of fate as a larger karmic law in the universe, Our actions are always feeding into them. The chessboard is always moving. And so we have to stay aware of that.

This is the art of living, and astrology is giving us one piece. But without some spiritual context, my experience has been that people actually end up using astrology is kind of like that middle rung; once in a while, I think about spiritual things. Well, if you're like that, and then you just take in astrology content, it's like you're sort of satisfying the spiritual itch, but mostly just doing it to bring that spiritual itch back into the service of all of the things about the world that are probably creating more stress and anxiety for you than anything else, which is why we have to reflect on this over and over as a practice, not as one of scolding ourselves or, you know, degrading the world or something like that, but just a just gentle reminders that we need to come back. Come back from our wanderings and forgettings. Remember, the planets were called the wanderers. We wander, and wandering is beautiful, but wandering without some remembering is just forgetfulness.

So I hope that this has been helpful. Don't forget to like and subscribe, and share some of your insights. I'd love to hear from you guys and what you're learning from this series. Really appreciate it. Don't forget to go to nightlightastrology.com and register for the new class Ancient Astrology for the Modern Mystic starts November 12. I'd love to see some of you there. Don't forget to check out the need-based tuition option. If you want to take one of my classes but can't afford it. We do have a limited number of those available. So I'm trying to really make sure that everyone gets signed up nice and early to be sure that you get one of those spots if you need it. Alright, that's what I've got for today. Have a good one, everyone. Bye