The Tao Te Ching for Astrologers: Verses 17 & 18

Transcript:

Hey everyone, this is Acyuta-bhava from Nightlight Astrology. Happy Friday everybody. 

Today we are going to continue our exploration of the Tao Te Ching, which is one of the classical texts, sacred spiritual texts that has been inspiring me for over a decade now and plays a role in most of my morning meditation routines and preparation for whatever talk I'm doing. 

The teaching does as well. And I had many people for a long time asking me if we could explore this text together and talk about the connections of this sacred wisdom to our study and practice of astrology. So that is what this series is all about. You do not have to listen to them in order. We're in part nine. We're taking two verses at a time. There are a total of what is 81 verses. So it's like a, you know, a 40-part series, basically. So any of the texts stand alone on their own, although listening to them in order is an option like you don't have to. So that being said, today, we're going to be looking at verses 17 and 18. I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of the Tao Te Ching that I'm using if you want to follow along with the same translation. This is the edition translated by Jonathan Star of the classical text, it is put out by TarcherPerigee Cornerstone editions, whom I love because TarcherPerigee published my book, and I think they have a great collection of spiritual texts. Like if you saw my series I did a few years ago on the Hermetica. That was TarcherPerigee cornerstones texts as well. I really love them. I think they're a great publisher, in case they're listening and also so you guys can go check out their other stuff. 

 

Okay, so today again, we are going to be looking at verses 17 and 18 of the Tao Te Ching. So all right, here we go. So we're going all the way to verse 17. To start with today. And the way this series works is I read the verse, I read both verses, and then I return and read the first verse and then offer some reflections. And then, I read the next verse and offer some reflections. And the purpose, again, is not only to just reap the benefits of reading this classical text that's chock full of amazing wisdom but also to connect this wisdom to our daily practice of astrology. Remember that astrology is a spiritual practice. Ultimately, if you watch this channel, you know that because it's something I say, you know, all the time. But it's important to have the right intention behind why we're studying and what we're studying, and so forth. So this series hopefully helps us deepen our connection to astrology as well. 

So here are verses 17 and 18. 

Verse 17

To know Tao alone, 

    without trace of your own existence, 

    is the highest 

Next come loving and praising it 

Then fearing it 

Then despising it 

    

If one doesn't trust himself 

    how can he trust anyone else? 

    

The great ruler speaks little 

    and his words and priceless 

He works without self-interest 

    and leaves no trace 

When all is finished, the people say, 

    "It happened by itself"

Verse 18

When the greatness of Tao is present 

    action arises from one's own heart 

When the greatness of Tao is absent 

    action comes from the rules 

    of "kindness" and "justice" 

If you need rules to be kind and just, 

    if you act virtuous, 

    this is a sure sign that virtue is absent 

Thus we see the great hypocrisy 

    

Only when the family loses its harmony 

    do we hear of "dutiful sons" 

Only when the state is in chaos 

    do we hear of "loyal ministers" 

Beautiful verses. 

Let's go back up and read 17 again, and then I've got just a few thoughts for us as students of astrology. For 17 to no doubt alone, without a trace of your own existence, is the highest. Next comes loving and praising it, then fearing it, then despising it. If one doesn't trust himself, how can he trust anyone else? The great ruler speaks little. And his words are priceless. He works without self-interest and leaves no trace. When all is finished, the people say it happened by itself. I love this because, first of all, we have like a hierarchy in the sense of what it means to be connected to this special call. I'll just call it a spiritual source. 

Up in my world, the word Tao is like God. But I'm not trying to put that on the Taoist philosophy. Let's just kind of that's how I translate it. So to no doubt alone, without a trace of your own existence as the highest. It's as though one is being so completely absorbed in the bhakti tradition, we might say, in the love of the Divine, that you lose yourself, you forget, not that you don't exist, but that you, there's no thought of yourself. It's like when you're really deeply in love with someone, you know, self-interest goes out the window. And that's what I feel in this verse. 

Next comes one step below it comes loving and praising the Tao. This is where I feel like I reside a lot of the time or the next one down, which is fearing it. As we know, there's a spiritual intelligence behind all things. And at our best, we're in love with it, and we praise it, and we talk about it, we glorify it with our words and thoughts, and we think very high things of it. That's not the same as being absorbed in it. That's not the same as the selflessness that comes at the sort of highest level. 

Then one step down from that is if you're not loving and praising it, then you're fearing it. Okay, well, you know, how many of us feel like our lives are kept in order because we know there's this higher intelligence. And we know that there are consequences for actions, and we know what we should be doing or what we ought to be doing. And fear sort of holds us in check. But there's not yet that love, admiration, devotion, respect, or what to speak of, total absorption. 

Then despising it at last. That's when you're inimical towards it, you resent it, you don't like it? You know, it's real. But you may even you may be very angry toward it. I remember I had a friend when I was younger, and he would say, I know God is real and just mad. And I would be like, well, how can you be mad at God? If you know God is real? Like, how does that help anything? 

And he's like, "I'm sorry. It's just the way I feel. "He is just, "I know God's real. I just don't like God". 

Like, wow, I just couldn't for me, I couldn't fathom that. 

But it is a real experience that there's something about this divine force that we just don't like unless it can be ours unless we can control it, unless it's in our favor. If it's not, or if it, things don't work out the way we want. Or if it feels mysterious, enigmatic, or somehow unfair to us, it's very easy to be in the space of despising it. But as in the bhakti tradition, being inimical toward God would be even something more than being completely indifferent. The similar pecking order of like faith and commitment. 

Now, let's apply that to the planets. If you are studying astrology, astrology at a very low level will cause people to be really like, oh, hate Saturn, right? Despising the divine intelligence for whatever other planet or only liking it if it does something good for you. Then there's fearing it. Okay, I know these planets are real, but they just fricking freak me out. So you respect them, you study them, but fear guides everything. I see a lot of clients that have a lot of fear about the planets. Sometimes, I do too. Next comes loving and praising it, then we start getting into a space, and I feel like a lot of people who watch this channel is in this space, where you actually love and adore the planets. You revere them as teachers. You know that they are instruments of the Divine and its intelligence for your life. And then beyond that, not you know, it's above my paygrade if one doesn't trust himself, how can he trust anyone else? This is interesting. That's a very enigmatic statement to throw in after that little hierarchy, isn't it? I suspect that this means something like we have to be able to develop trust in our in ourselves. And in this Tao, this great spiritual force that's running through everything that guides us that supports us that loves us that we're that is us. You know, we have to find our right alignment with that force, but you can't do so if you don't trust yourself. That's interesting. That's just a really interesting thing to throw there in the middle. And I don't really have anything to say about it other than I, I've, I've sat and meditated on this verse many times, and it's always its placement there right after that sequence to me is deeply enigmatic, and sort of always just draws me, and I would love to hear your reflections on it. What do you guys think about that one? The great ruler speaks Lidl in his words are priceless. He works without self-interest and leaves no trace. When all is finished, the people say it happened by itself. Remember, the Tao Te Ching is advice for rulers and people who have power as well. And in this case, though, it applies to all of us in whatever realm of responsibilities we have. The people who do well with their duties and responsibilities, who rule or lead in whatever little area of life they have, who do so in a good way. Or they don't. They don't have self-interest. They, they work with an intelligent alignment, in serving, you know, whatever they're charged with, it's like I'm serving the family, I'm serving the astrology, I'm serving my job. And you know, there's a sense of being like a helper, this is not mine, it's something I'm just assisting with. And when that kind of person does work, the people around them say that all just it all just happened somehow they don't even it's like leave no trace of yourself as part of is part of what defines a great person. It's, you know, oftentimes, you'll hear sages talk about this to were in different traditions where, you know, if you're a helpful and effective sage, you should be helping people come to their own realization because that's the thing that lasts forever. 

Verse 18. When the greatness of Tao is present, action arises from one's own heart. When the greatness of Tao is absent, the action comes from the rules of kindness and justice. If you need rules to be kind and unjust. If you act virtuous, this is a sure sign that virtue is absent. Thus, we see great hypocrisy. Only when the family loses its harmony. Do we hear of dutiful sons only when the state is in chaos? Do we hear of loyal ministers? I love this verse. Because it's the same thing in yoga philosophy. Goodness, even goodness in this world, is not the thing we're looking for. It's a byproduct of spiritual life that ethical, virtuous deeds and actions flow naturally when we make goodness a goal. When we make a conscious choice, I have to be good. I have to become good. There's something from the very getgo we don't realize the seed desire or intention is coming from a space of, you know, having to act something out, having to conform to an image of something rather than just being an embodying something. 

This is why for example, in bhakti, yoga, similar to this verse, I believe. 

If we absorb ourselves in loving devotional practices like chanting, meditation, and prayer, there's something about those practices that absorb the mind and heart in a kind of loving trance if I am just explaining my own experience of it. But those states and connections to the divine, let's call it the Tao. The overflow of the heart is virtue, kindness, and justice. It comes naturally. Whereas sometimes, people think that being spiritual means conforming to an image of goodness. And that's why so many people don't really like the new age because something about the new age to many people looks very plastic. Even being on YouTube, you know, it's like I have there's like a persona of being like a spiritual astrology teacher or whatever. And there's, it's a business, and I have to try to make, you know, a living doing it. And so it's hard at times for anyone in this world to not have to try to conform themselves to an image of something that's good or helpful or useful or caring or kind or whatever. That's part of this life, you know, so we can't be we can't there's there has to be forgiveness. Compassion is patience and grace for really becoming the things that we're capable of: kind, compassionate, just tolerant, patient, humble, wise, etc. 

But this is a really good point, which is that the goal of spiritual life is not to try to conform to images of kindness or justice or virtue through, you know, strict rules and trying to conform to those rules in order to produce this kind of product image of goodness. 

This is also why people greatly resent political correctness. I really don't think it has anything to do with any of the causes or any of the virtues behind the concerns of the causes. I think the main reason that there's so much dislike of political correctness around is not just in our country in the United States, but all over the world, you know, different areas, people have this issue. And it's not just now; it's been around for a long time. One of the reasons that people don't like it is because there's a kind of moral oddness a moral should ethos to it, and it's like conforming to this principle of goodness; ironically, it starts feeling like there's hypocrisy or self-righteousness or a rigidity behind the demand for virtue. And people are attracted to that people, or people get turned off by that very easily, even if they may agree in principle with a concern or a cause, or even if they may have the exact same moral concerns or ethical convictions. Anyway, that's just a side note. But let's go and apply this to astrology. 

Astrology is something that helps us to understand the movements of the planets in our everyday life. Right? So when the planets are moving in, in our everyday life, there is a sense of like, how we ought to behave, you know, Saturn's in your seventh, and then you get some advice. And there's always like, how do we? How do I? People always ask me this. They'll say, like, how do I get the most out of this planet traveling in this area of my chart? Or how do I get the best result or harness this energy or navigate this transit, or there's always something like that? I want you to imagine that you were going to have a lover over for dinner at your house. Let's say, you know, you have an apartment or something in New York City, and you're going to have someone you really like they're going to come over. And before they visited your house, you called them. And you said, I need you to tell me how to get the most out of your visit. I need you to tell me what to do so that it conforms to a good outcome? How should I make the most of your visit? Well, that person would probably think it was quite strange. And they would probably feel like you were controlling, somewhat rigid, contrived, they would feel objectified, they would feel that something about it was impersonal. And yet we do the same thing to the planets who are gods, right, actual, like living forces that are coming to commune to commune with us? And then we say something like, Well, you know, how do I get the most out of these planets? What do I do and what to get? You know? 

So, the Tao is very clear that when action arises from the heart. Then the byproduct of that is the appropriate responses, the intelligence to navigate situations, the things to say, and not to say the moral right thing to do or not to do justice, compassion, concern, love, empathy, humility, you know, how and when to act and behave when any planet comes into your life because you're practicing alignment. And when that alignment just starts flowing out of the heart. There's no question about thoughts and shoulds around morals. And it's not to say that there are never any problems. It's just that's what we're that's what our spiritual practice is supposed to be taking us to. This is why a byproduct of someone whose study of astrology is having a good impact on their life is that they often care far less about the transits. They often don't look at their birth chart as much, not that they never do and not that it's not a good idea to still look to the planets to understand the weather. I do it all the time. Even though I don't look at my chart as often any longer. I look at the planets every day, but I don't spend time obsessing over my birth chart as much. Because my practice with the planets has moved from a place of like, what's going to happen to me, and what can I hope for or avoid or something like that? It's moved into for me anyway, most of the time, not perfect or anything, but you know, most of the time it's in a space now where I'm just like, okay, these are where the planets are moving. I'm gonna stay aware, alert and if I'm in my daily prayer, practice my meditation practice, then, you know, the chances are that I'm going to respond from the heart when they arrive. And that's where we start finding that alignment with the Tao or, in this case, with the planets. 

So, remember at the end of this verse, only when the family loses its harmony do we hear of dutiful sons, and only when the state is in chaos do we hear of loyal ministers. Thus, we see the great hypocrisy if you need to if you need rules to be kind and just if you act virtuously. This is a sure sign that virtue is absent. Thus, we see great hypocrisy, and that's the same thing when it comes to how we relate to the planets if we're always calling them up before they come to our house for a date, you know. 

So anyway, I hope that you've enjoyed this. Just some of your thoughts and your wisdom are so valuable. So I would love it if you would, leave your comments in the comment section. Have a great weekend, everybody. We'll see you on Monday. Bye for now.