The Tao Te Ching for Astrologers – Verses 69 & 70

Hey everyone, this is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology, and today we're going to continue our series on the Tao Te Ching for astrologers, but looking at verses 69 and 70 of the Tao Te Ching, we're coming down the homestretch of the final verses of this classic spiritual text. It's been a really nice series, and we will have some new series coming up after this one is done, which I'm also excited about. And typically, that kind of series is often going to take place on Wednesdays as a kind of midweek reflection on different kinds of questions in astrology, different kinds of spiritual texts, and things like that.

You don't have to have seen any of the previous episodes to jump in and get something out of any of these in the series. They're all they can all act as standalone episodes. Every verse of the Tao Te Ching is filled with timeless, you know, beautiful wisdom. What we're doing is we're reflecting on this text in light of what ancient astrologers said that the spiritual purpose of astrology was. So it's a good time for us to kind of zoom out and go, Why am I here? What am I doing with astrology in my life, and, you know, for your consideration.

So today, we'll continue on the way that I usually do this as I'm reading from the Tarcher Cornerstone edition, which I highly recommend you pick up a copy of so you can follow along. And I'm just reading two verses at a time. And then I read them once, and I read them through a second time. And then, I pause after each one to reflect upon the teachings of the verses in light of our study of astrology. So we're going to continue with that today. Let's go ahead and we're going to take a look at the verses.

Actually, before I say that, I always almost forget, don't forget to like and subscribe to help the channel to grow. And leave some comments in the comment section. Leave your reflections first. I like reading them. I like seeing what you guys are reflecting on, especially in the spiritual kind of more spiritually-themed episodes. It's interesting to hear your reflections and also it helps the channel to grow. You can always find a transcript of any of my daily talks on the website nightlightastrology.com, where you can also go to check out the new classes, Roots and Spheres, the moon circle, where we study herbalism and the cycles of the moon throughout 2023. That starts later this month. And reading some passages and advanced practice and live reading class that is going to be starting this month as well.

So check those programs out. There is need based tuition for both. If you have any questions, email us info at nightlightastrology.com. Okay, let's go ahead and take a look at our verses of the day. All right, I'm going to put it full screen so you can read along if you want.

Verse 69
The great warriors have a saying, “I dare not act as host but would rather be a guest I
dare not advance an inch but would rather retreat a foot”
So advance but do not use your feet
Seize but do not use your arms
Cut but do not use your sword
Fight but do not use your own power
There is no greater misfortune than feeling “I have an enemy”
For when “I” and “enemy” exist together
there is no room left for my treasure
Thus, when two opponents meet
the one without an enemy will surely triumph

Verse 70
My teachings are very easy to understand and very easy to practice
Yet so few in this world understand and so few are able to practice
My words arise from that ancient source
My actions are those of the universe itself
If people do not know these how can they know me?
Those who follow my ways are rare and so I treasure them
Even if they wear the clothes of a beggar
they carry a priceless gem within

Beautiful verses. Let's go back to 69 we're going to read that one again and then pause and offer some reflections in light of our study of astrology.

Verse 69
The great warriors have a saying, "I dare not act as host but would rather be a guest I
dare not advance an inch but would rather retreat a foot"
So advance but do not use your feet
Seize but do not use your arms
Cut but do not use your sword
Fight but do not use your own power
There is no greater misfortune than feeling "I have an enemy"
For when "I" and "enemy" exist together
there is no room left for my treasure
Thus, when two opponents meet
the one without an enemy will surely triumph

Now, this could be advice literally for the sort of like the Tao of military action or the Tao of political leadership. But it's also great personal wisdom, and it shares something in common with what ancient astrologers said about our relationship with the planets.

One of the things that you may notice on my channel that we do is we reflect a lot on the nature of all the transits that are coming through. If so, we might spend a lot of time reflecting on, you know, Venus square Uranus, which is coming up. Or we may spend a lot of time reflecting on Mars turning Direct or Retrograde or whatever the case might be. We do that for a couple of reasons.

You know, one of those reasons is so that we might be, you know, four forewarned is forearmed. It's nice to know what kind of weather is outside, so you know how to dress. And similarly, there is an archetypal psychological kind of weather that the planets describe; it looks and feels differently in each of our lives. But there are some things that are that this, the signatures of the planets, archetypal II will speak consistently across the, all the different varieties of experiences that people have of them.

So we look at the transits from an archetypal view to sort of prepare for them. But the other thing that we do, and one of the main reasons that we want to prepare, is not just so that we can control or manipulate a situation, but rather so that we can trust the nature of a situation. Trusting the nature of a situation doesn't mean that we go into some kind of, you know, phony Zen neutral position where I just don't care what happens. I'm completely open and accepting, you know, most people aren't capable of that. I'm not. But rather, you know, we have, we usually are going to have a set of expectations, and it's going to be hard for us not to try to control different situations as they rise up. But what it does for us to reflect on the planets from an archetypal point of view, and what the ancient astrologer said that one of the purposes of astrology was, was so that we could come to trust that all experiences are divinely arranged.

It's as simple as saying that there are if things go out of your control if they don't turn out the way you want them to. But you can still see the archetypal pattern; you can see the intelligent design within the experience; you go, well, it didn't go how I wanted it to. But that was certainly a Mars Retrograde experience, or that was certainly a Venus square Uranus kind of experience. No one can deny that, even if it wasn't exactly what I wanted. Then what that's doing for us over time is that it is building within us a sense that reality and experience itself is divine and is trustworthy. And so, with that in mind, we start developing an attitude that is very much like the 69th verse of the Tao Te Ching. Let's return to it.

I dare not act as host but would rather be a guest. That is what we are, right? We are sort of; when we take this position of looking at the planets day by day, we become a guest in the cosmos rather than acting like we're the Lord of everything. We're the host of everything. We say, Look, I'm just a visitor here. I'm a traveler. I don't know much; I don't have a lot of power or control. I don't even always know what's best for me; you're exactly what I want. And even if I do it, a lot of times, things don't go my way.

So I don't want to be the host, I don't want to try to advance an inch, I'd rather step back, I'd rather be a guest. Because in that position, there's a way in which I'm I'm ready to receive and accept whatever is given. And that's fundamentally what the planets teach us to do. Now that may seem at first like it kind of feels demeaning or degrading. You're just a guest here; you're not in control. But actually, what it's recognizing is that we're just one part of a huge tapestry. And just learning how to be humble but strong, confident, and unique, but also humble and more interested in participation than domination.

And for most of us, you may think, Well, I'm not a dominator, you know, I'm a nice person. I don't try to dominate people. But domination, like existentially, is so easy to slip into because it basically has to do with trying to say, I'm going to control everything. You know, I'm going to be the one that dominates the way that the experience unfolds, and sometimes it's appropriate to do so. And it actually works out that way. But the more you study the planets and you see the way they manifest, how beautiful it is, how consistent it is, how archetypally predictive it is. I mean, no less so than the weather that a meteorologist can report on.

But it's psychological. It's energetic. It's a divinity story. And so when you realize the multi valence that is inherent in that kind of forecast, thing, you're closer to stepping back and allowing and trusting. And you know, you insert your will a little bit, but you're careful not to move forward more than an inch, which may be a little dramatic, but it's a way of saying, like, you're not trying to assert and control and dominate too much. That's something the planets teach us to do if we're paying attention to them. If they're engendering within us the feeling that I'm just, I'm just one little piece of sand in a great big huge tapestry, like one of those Buddhist sand mandalas. And also, when we try to control things, and we try to dominate things, we tend to then create polarizations. I want this, that is my enemy, that is unlikable, that the undesirable, and so forth. And we all do it. And I'm not saying it's easy to step out, I don't even know if it's possible for me to step out of that pattern. But I know that training my mind with the planets every day helps me to not treat undesirable experiences like enemies. And then there's a weird way in which when that opposing force meets up with me, that I'm in that confrontation, I'm the one without an enemy. And so, somehow, the experience ends up feeling very fortunate. And that's, that's a shift in consciousness that astrology has always been about. And here, we find the same wisdom in the Tao Te Ching. Alright, Verse 70.

Verse 70
My teachings are very easy to understand and very easy to practice
Yet so few in this world understand and so few are able to practice
My words arise from that ancient source
My actions are those of the universe itself
If people do not know these how can they know me?
Those who follow my ways are rare and so I treasure them
Even if they wear the clothes of a beggar
they carry a priceless gem within

Yeah, so I love this because there's a similar verse in the New Testament where Jesus says something along the lines of my burden is light, and my yoke is easy, or my burden is easy. And my yoke is light or something like that. I'm mixing it up a little bit. But actually stepping out of the way, and having this reflective, contemplative planetary lifestyle, a lifestyle that observes the moving archetypal fields that sees the living language of the sky, that breathes it in, and that moves through the world, always with our hands open to receive what the planets are giving, you know, we have a will we, we have desires, we're going to insert those into the situation. But when the universe gives us something back that we weren't expecting, or that we don't want, we go, Oh, okay.

But whatever you're giving, my hands are open. And that's, it's actually easier to be in that kind of practice than it is to be constantly pushing against the grain, trying to assert dominance and control. And yet so few in this world understand, and so few are able to practice. I feel implicated in that, right that because it is hard to understand. And it is hard to practice, which is why I always say that astrology, if you keep it in your life as a daily activity, is something that it's a language that allows you to reflect on the nature of your life and experience in time. This is the kind of understanding that grows because it is a practice that develops and cultivates this kind of understanding. It seems so simple when you're in the flow of it. My words arise from that ancient source; my actions are those of the universe itself. If people do not know these, how can they know me? That's a beautiful thought. I mean, so many times I speak with people who are asking, like, you know, how to get the most out of their birth chart? Or what does their birth chart say they need to do more of or less of, or, and I find that so many times, we're going about it in the wrong way.

You know, there's, there's not like a blueprint in your birth chart that you're either, you know, getting right are getting wrong somehow. The birth chart is different throughout our lives at different times because we approach it with different for different reasons, with different purposes, and with different questions. In that sense, the birth chart is like a wishing pool whose images reflect the nature of the consciousness we bring to it. Birth charts are Mantic devices.

So one of the things that I think can help to shift our view of ourselves in relation to the birth chart and say, am I living a reflective, contemplative, mindful, thoughtful lifestyle that takes in that where I act like the guest, rather than the host, where, I'm always opening up myself to receive from the planets, even as I have desires and live a life in the world trying to assert my will, and so forth. But do I keep my hands open?

If I do, it is much more likely that who I am will naturally just be in alignment with the truth and authenticity of the universe itself. And then people can really know me for who I am. And that's less about whether I'm a Leo or a Cancer or whatever else. It's just when you feel like you really know someone, you feel like you're getting in touch with their authentic nature. I mean, so much of it has to do with, you know, a person giving and sharing from the heart and a person listening and receiving another person from the heart. It's far less about, like, am I balancing my water and earth correctly, you know what I mean?

Those who follow my ways are rare. And so I treasure them, let's see, this is the universe speaking, even if they were the clothes of a beggar, they carry a priceless gem within. There's something so beautiful and so valuable. And I've noticed that, like, I was recently at an appointment, and the person asked what I did for a living. And I said I was an astrologer. And they gave me a really nice compliment. They said, You know, there's something that just has always felt to me very authentic about you. And it makes sense to me now, knowing that you're that you do something spiritual for a living is a really nice compliment.

But what do they mean by that? You know, and I thought, well, they basically, there's something really authentic about you. And I'm not saying that I'm the world's most authentic person; I was glad to receive the compliment. But, like, I don't know if I live up to it or not. But you know, what I thought with there's anything true about that, then it's it is directly due to the fact that the planets have this presence in my life that allows me to be in a receiving reflective and appreciating position. I appreciate this being alive. I appreciate these problems. I appreciate this adventure. And I appreciate the way things turn out even when it's not what I want or it's frustrating. And I think that other people see that they feel that and they go, that's, that's beautiful, I want something like that. And that's a great treasure. And it's something that's available to all of us.

The Tao Te Ching teaches it, but so did ancient astrologers live a life with active reflection upon these archetypes, and you will live a life that is deeply appreciative, and what appreciates just shines with those who appreciate that those who appreciate shine with value. And that's honestly what is so attractive to people. I find that when you're authentically attractive to people, when there's something about who you are, that's attractive to people that there's a lot of good fortune that comes as a byproduct, people always asking how to get better karma. It's like, be attracted to the things that are beautiful, that are their own rewards. And when you become deeply invested in attracted to those things more than what you can get for yourself. It's amazing how accolades get dumped on you; in addition, you're not really looking for me; that's great. It's a great bonus.

If you're someone who's in love with the universe, with God with divinity, if you're someone who's in love with meaning, if you're someone who appreciates things, it's amazing how you come to be appreciated by other people. And in my mind, when that happens, you have to create you it's like a little circle, you have to keep creating, oh, these things are coming in that are so nice, because people appreciate you, and then it's like, well, how can I redistribute those things? And then it grows. And to me that that kind of reciprocal circle of appreciation is present in, you know, the world's most attractive people, you know, like the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, all the people I've always found so deeply, beautifully attractive, seem to have lots of love pouring into them, and then they're, but they're always finding ways of kind of trying to give that back out. Because it's the sharing and circulating of it that is even more attractive than the possessing of it. Not saying I have any of that mastered. It's just a dynamic that I've noticed in people that are, to my mind, anyway, very enlightened and inspiring.

So I hope that this was something that's useful for you today that helps you just reflect a little bit on why you're doing astrology. Hopefully, it affirms for you that this is a sacred path that's worth continuing to invest your heart and soul into that if we've done that through this series, and I think we've been successful well that's what I have for today, hope you guys are having a great middle of your week, and we will see you again more for more tomorrow. Take it easy, everyone, bye.