The Tao Te Ching for Astrologers – Verses 63 & 64

Hey everyone, this is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology, and today we're continuing our series on the Tao Te Ching for astrologers; we are going to be looking at verses 63 and 64 from the Tao Te Ching today. You don't have to have watched any of the previous episodes to get something out of any of the episodes in this series. Each one of the verses in the Tao Te Ching really stands alone and speak for themselves. They're all different; they all have something really unique to say. So it's not as though if you missed previous episodes, you couldn't dive in right here. But also, if you're new to the series, feel free to go back and look at some of the others; I think you'll really enjoy it. In this series, I use the Tao Te Ching translation from Jonathan Star from Tarcher Cornerstone editions.

Now I chose this because torture published my first book, and I really, really appreciate them. And I like these little Tarcher Cornerstone Classic series that they do. So. So yeah, you can pick up a copy on Amazon. And we're going to read through each verse. And then, I will double back and read through them again, and after each, we pause to reflect on some of the connections between this philosophy and the teachings of each first, and you know what we're doing as astrologers.

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All right, on that note, I am excited to get into these two verses; these are longer verses 63, and four are some of the longer verses in the entire Tao Te Ching. We're going to break down we're gonna take pieces of because I don't think we can address every single aspect of these verses. But I'm going to read through them first. And I'm going to put the verses up on the screen so that you can read along if you're on, say, a desktop or you have a screen that's big enough to read. Here we go.

Verse 63
Act without acting
Give without giving
Taste without tasting
Tao alone becomes all things great and all things small
It is the One in many
It is the many in One
Let Tao become all your actions then your wants will become your treasure
your injury will become your blessing
Take on difficulties while they are still easy
Do great things while they are still small
Step by step the world’s burden is lifted
Piece by piece the world’s treasure is amassed
So the Sage stays with his daily task and accomplishes the greatest thing
Beware of those who promise a quick and easy way
for much ease brings many
difficulties
Follow your path to the end
Accept difficulty as an opportunity
This is the sure way to end up with no difficulties at all

Verse 64
A still mind can easily hold the truth
The difficulties yet to come can easily be avoided
The feeble are easily broken
The small are easily scattered
Begin your task before it becomes a burden
Put your things in order before they get out of hand
Remember,
A tree that fills a man’s embrace grows from a single seedling
A tower nine stories high starts with one brick
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step
Act and it’s ruined
Grab and it’s gone
People on the verge of success often lose patience and fail in their undertakings
Be steady from the beginning to the end and you won’t bring on failure
The Sage desires that which has no desires and teaches that which cannot be taught
He does not value the objects held by a few but only that which is held by everyone
He guides men back to their own treasure and helps all things come to know the
truth they have forgotten
All this he does without a stir

It's beautiful advice in a sense for teachers and helps us understand the presence of our own inner teacher in both of these verses. Let's go back to 63. We're going to read this verse again. And we're going to pause and do some reflecting in light of our study of astrology. What is this verse, If anything, has to do with why we study astrology,

Verse 63
Act without acting
Give without giving
Taste without tasting
Tao alone becomes all things great and all things small
It is the One in many
It is the many in One
Let Tao become all your actions then your wants will become your treasure
your injury will become your blessing

Now, I believe that the spirit of this is true; how applicable it is to let our wants become our treasures and our injuries become our blessings is up for debate. And I don't like people who take that too far and become arrogant, boastful, judgmental, or critical of people who are suffering or who somehow deny that there's that people are actually can become victims. This is an empowering opening to the verse. And it has a lot in common with what ancient sages said about astrology and why we practice it. There is a way in which, for example, the Stoics, who had maybe a more faded view than we might today, a lot of us anyway. But there's a way that the stoics taught that I think is very applicable, a lot of stoics practice astrology, which is to understand that everything is happening.

There's a quote from Auden that says we are lived by powers we pretend to understand. And the ancient view of the planets, both in Indian astrology and ancient Western astrology, was that there was a sense in which the forces of the universe are its like, we're, as souls were flowing down this mighty river. And the currents have a lot more to do with it; than our will is part of it. But it's kind of like if you're floating on an inner tube down a river, you can use your hands to kind of adjust your positioning within the flow of the river. But those river currents are undeniably powerful, and you're on them, you know. And astrology helps us to recognize that you know when transits come through your life, and they are very powerful. They're an undeniable part of your experience. I think it's hard. I think it's easier, I should say, I think it's easier when you recognize, oh, look, I am swimming through a cosmos, like just teeming with energies, God's archetypes, patterns, whatever we want to call them, the more that you're able to recognize that and astrology is something that helps and aids in recognition of these cosmic patterns that form and shape and move us along like the currents of a river, then, the easier it is to surrender.

And by surrender, I don't mean give up or lose our agency; it's just it would be a lot more difficult if you're in an inner tube going down a river to try and fight against the currents versus moving intelligently with them. And I like this verse Let Tao become all your actions; your wants will become your treasure, an injury will become your blessing. I mean, if you've ever been through a Pluto transit, a difficult aspect from Uranus or something like that, you come out of it thinking those hardships were energies that I was working with that transformed me.

That's typically how people who get into astrology end up speaking. And I don't think that's because they just drank some crazy Kool-Aid. I think that's because when you live in an astrological universe, you can't help but perceive what's happening around you as an orchestration of the one that the diverse experiences, the many, so to speak, are a part of one greater intelligence and, and so you, you have a way of appreciating that and recognizing the river and the currents that you're flowing on. This is what ancient astrologers literally said about the purpose of astrology was to aid in the recognition of the development of that consciousness.

Take on difficulties while they are still easy, and do great things while they are still small step by step; the world's burden is lifted piece by piece the world's treasure is a mask. That's not an argument for a kind of mindfulness, right? So the stage stays with his daily task and accomplishes the greatest thing, beware of those who promised a quick and easy way for much ease brings many difficulties, follow your path to the end except difficulty as an opportunity, this is The sure way to end up with no difficulties at all.

Now, I can't say that you'll find like some kind of instruction instructional manual on mindfulness in any of the ancient astrological texts. But what you will find are passages from ancient authors saying that when you study the transits, and you start to recognize the world as a turning wheel of fortune, that it's hard to come out of the present moment, it's hard to be shaken by the ups or downs, even though you have to live through them. And not being shaken by them doesn't mean that you don't experience them. It doesn't mean that you deny their existence or somehow act like you're above it all.

But it also means that your soul feels the rightness or alignment of all things that you start to hear a kind of music playing at all times. And who could question that? Where does that even come from? How is it that this music is playing? What am I to do to my split, just supposed to stand here and say, well, it should be some other way? So, you end up developing an appreciation for it, a tolerance at times, a patience, a curiosity, a playfulness; these kinds of things emerge as a bright byproduct of getting in touch with reality through the language of astrology. And it's very similar to what this verse is telling us about accepting things as they are in the moment, step by step, following your journey. And really, astrology is there to help us through the journey of life, accepting every stage and season because we have the promise of its divine meaning mirrored for us in the sky. This is here. And this is beautiful. This is a part of the rhythm and music, and what can I do but find my way to go along with it? It's not also the same as saying that all experiences are easy or good or, you know, or something like that.

Verse 64
A still mind can easily hold the truth
The difficulties yet to come can easily be avoided
The feeble are easily broken
The small are easily scattered
Begin your task before it becomes a burden
Put your things in order before they get out of hand
Remember,
A tree that fills a man’s embrace grows from a single seedling
A tower nine stories high starts with one brick
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

Give you an example of this. My wife and I recently got into an argument that wasn't, you know, pretty petty, actually a pretty stupid argument. And, of course, it happened in the kitchen. And as we were standing there, I realized, oh, Venus is opposite Mars in the sky right now. And for me, it was that single recognition that astrology gave me that being an astrologer gave me that I am being caught up in the astrology of the moment. It didn't change the fact that we still had some arguing to do before we reached a resolution. And we did.

But you know, it helped me pause and realize, what does this moment require? I'm in a sacred moment; this isn't just a fight. This is some pattern of cosmic significance. Just that shift can change our consciousness in the moment. And then, we can find that the way that we handle things changes the outcome. So astrology is like saying, hey, look, if you recognize the way that you're doing something right now, you can see what it will lead to, and the astrology can help you reflect upon that.

If you receive a call from someone trying to get you to, you know, buy something, or, you know, they're trying to get you to come take a job or something, and you don't really like the tone or feel of it, and you look to the heavens, and you see something that can be the heavens can then serve as a reflection of what's happening and what might seem like, you know, just an ordinary situation, maybe one that you were doubting yourself about, but then suddenly you have a cosmic frame of significance, a system of omens and signs that can help you recognize what the fruit of something is likely to be given its seeding point. And that's something astrology is always doing for us. By simply recognizing what's happening at the outset of an argument or at the time we're considering taking an action or something like that.

Act and it’s ruined
Grab and it’s gone
People on the verge of success often lose patience and fail in their undertakings
Be steady from the beginning to the end and you won’t bring on failure
The Sage desires that which has no desires and teaches that which cannot be taught
He does not value the objects held by a few but only that which is held by everyone
He guides men back to their own treasure and helps all things come to know the
truth they have forgotten
All this he does without a stir

Well, first of all, I love this as just a how to recognize maybe what a good or wise person or teacher looks like. But I think we all have an inner teacher to that part of us that has no desires; I am not in touch with that part. Right? That's definitely not where I am. But I think that if there's anything astrology has given me over the years; it is that sense that I don't know what I need. Most of the time. I don't even know what I want. And I am constantly surprised, and my trust in the universe to answer those questions for me, here's what you need right now, here's what you've been wanting, you know, and kind of helping me understand my motivations, what's in the unconscious, helping me understand what I need, that the universe is a trustworthy place. And that the universe teaches what can't be taught. The sage within my heart if I'm capable of listening, surrendering, and trusting the nature of how things are unfolding.

There's something really sacred. The astrology, when I allow it to guide me in life, brings me back to a treasure, the treasure of my own heart. Really, I mean, is there any other way to put it? I know it's cliche, but like, is there any other way to put all the happiness that lives in our own hearts, you know, we can get so far from it. And the journey away from the heart and back to the heart is literally depicted in some of the visual metaphors of ancient astrology, the wandering stars that reflect our wanderings. But that also acts as guides back home. So I think, in part, we like to get lost and to be found again, and there's something beautiful about that process. I don't want to say, Oh, just become wise; follow astrology. And you know, you'll always stay aligned, you'll never get lost, and there might be something that's very beautiful. That is very beautiful about getting lost.

But what I like about this verse, And I'll conclude with this, is that there's a piece of advice that's being given to us. Be patient with the nature of your life and the way it is unfolding. Be steady, trust your experience from beginning to end, and don't grasp and get too anxious about it. And you will find that every experience and every unfolding in every season of your life is a treasure, and astrology mirrors the exact same thing. The ancient sages said that astrology will help you to go beyond the ups and downs in fortune and to come to know the very heart of the mighty sky. That was what Manilius said. So it's a real privilege to be able to study this and to do this for a living. It's, it's, it's a joy, and I'm glad to share this with everyone. It's been another great year of working on astrology and coming down the homestretch of the Tao Te Ching; it'll be fun to see what the last verses have in store for us.

Before we leave for the day, don't forget, if you haven't already, please consider pitching into our annual Kickstarter campaign. We have 1608 backers we're trying to reach by January 1. You can find the link in the description of this video in the comment section below. Choose a reward when you donate. We try to make sure we say thank you by giving you something cool when you pitch in, and hope you guys are having a great weekend. We'll see you again on Monday. Bye, everyone.