The Tao Te Ching for Astrologers – Verses 71 & 72

Hi, everyone, this is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology, and today we are continuing our series on the Tao Te Ching for Astrologers by looking at verses 71 and 72 of the Tao Te Ching. If you are new to this series, you can jump in at any point. You don't have to have seen the previous episodes; we're coming down the homestretch of the last verses of the sacred text. The purpose of the series is to explore this text in light of our weekly study of astrology.

On this channel, people come to listen to astrology content every week, and I like to try to pause and do some series and some talks here and there that remind us of why we're here and what the spiritual purpose of astrology was, for the ancient sages that invented or downloaded this entire system. So we just pause to do that. And in this series, we're doing it alongside a study of this famous Taoist text.

I'm not by any means an expert in Taoist philosophy. I'm just a casual reader who loves this text and has been reading it for many years as a way of prepping my creation of astrology content. We're reading from the Jonathan Star translation, which comes from Tarcher Cornerstone editions. It's a publishing house that published my first book, and so I've always really appreciated them. We'll read through each verse twice. And on the second read through, we'll pause and reflect and try to draw some parallels between what the text is saying and what ancient astrologers said.

So let's go ahead, and before I do that, as always, don't forget to like and subscribe and share some comments to help the channel to grow. If you want to find the transcript of any of my daily talks, it's on the website nightlightastrology.com. Our Roots and Spheres program is starting this week. Be sure to check that out on the website that is under the Courses tab. So you're dedicated to the study of the moon cycles alongside dieting plant teachers. So check that out if you feel called to join us.

All right, I'm going to put the translation up on the screen. And here we go. We're going to do verses 71 and 72. And then, on the second read through, we'll pause and offer some reflections.

Verse 71
Knowing what cannot be known – what a lofty aim!
Not knowing what needs to be known – what a terrible result!
Only when your sickness becomes sick will your sickness disappear
The Sage's illness has become ill his renunciation has been renounced
Now he is free
And every place in the world is the perfect place to be

Verse 72
When the people do not fear worldly power, a greater power will arrive
Don't limit the view of yourself
Don't despise the conditions of your birth
Don't resist the natural course of your life
In this way, you will never weary of this world
The Sage knows himself, but not as himself he loves himself,
but not as himself
he honors himself, but not as himself
Thus, he discards the view of his own self and chooses the view of the universe.

A couple of very beautiful verses. I find that some of these verses end up encapsulating a lot of the entire Tao Te Ching. So some of the final verses, to me, are some of the most beautiful, they're all beautiful, of course, but there's just the summarizing effect that some of these seem to have. Let's go back to verse 71. We'll read through, and then we'll pause and offer some reflections.

Verse 71
Knowing what cannot be known – what a lofty aim!
Not knowing what needs to be known – what a terrible result! First of all, I love this portion of the verse because, as an astrologer, it reminds me a lot of what the two aims of astrology were for ancient astrologers. On the one hand, astrology helps you to prepare for and know something about the different seasons of life that you're going through. It's helpful to know what perfection year you are in. It's helpful to know something about a solar return or a zodiacal releasing period changing. It's helpful to know what kinds of outer planets are changing houses or where that Saturn Uranus Square will show up in your birth chart.

With that knowledge, you can more you can walk a more prepared, reflective, and accepting path. And I think that's why most of us love astrology. It prepares us. It doesn't. In my opinion, astrology doesn't tell us exactly what's going to happen. It tells us what kinds of themes at what times are likely to manifest in what areas of life, and most of the time, what that does is it illuminates a part of our psyche that is really not aware of the boundaries of space and time that can already sense and feel these things. When we say, the planets are going to do it. Doing this, it's as if there's a deep part of us that goes, Yes, I know. Right? It's like, Yeah, I know. I know I can; as soon as you say that, you're speaking something that is somehow already there. And we know it's like a fault line that exists. And we're just bringing attention to it.

So there is something about knowing what needs to be known. That is, you know, the goal of astrology. It's about helping us live and walk a more aligned path while we're here. But at the same time, there's not in my experience of reading ancient astrologers, the philosophers and sages that were on the map around the time that astrology appeared and the ones we think we're likely involved with the genesis of astrology, you don't see them suggesting that everything can or should be known. And that astrology is just that.

In other words, by giving us some, you know, glimpse of what's on the other side of you seeing through the veil. We see the outlines of destiny, and we understand something of this karmic science, but really the effect that it has, in addition to giving us some practical advice for, I guess, staying in alignment with our lives, it also makes us more aware of how vast and mysterious the universe is. So it's both illuminating and humbling at the same time. It's like, how insightful is it? How amazing is it to realize how big the universe is and how small you are within it. That realization is one that is profoundly illuminating.

For example, during many Ayahuasca ceremonies, have the experience of saying this universe is so vast you get a glimpse of how big and vast it is. And that feels like illumination. To know how big something is relative to how to like how little you are or to, you know, have this humbling awareness of how small you are and how you can't circumscribe reality with your head.

Astrology is therefore giving us all this practical knowledge. It's a way of walking through the world more mindfully, but at the same time. The more you study astrology, the more it fills you with wonder and appreciation and gratitude for how big and unimaginably you know unimaginably mysterious everything is; you kind of go, there's never a way that I'll arrive at, you know, again, being able to circumscribe everything with my understanding, and astrology amplifies that, that felt a sense of the grandeur and vastness of things, while also giving you very practical, illuminating advice about what's coming next week and your birth chart or this year.

It's interesting that the Tao Te Ching draws the same distinction. You know, don't aim to know things that can't be known, but at the same time, don't be ignorant; know what needs to be known. Astrology teaches us how to walk a path that's just like that; in my experience, it takes time. But that's kind of what we're aiming for. Only when your sickness becomes sick will your sickness disappear; The Sage's illness has become ill, and his renunciation has been renounced. Now he is free, and every place in this world is the perfect place to be. Well, that's incredible. The sages illness has been only when your sickness becomes sick, will your sickness disappear?

I had an experience again; I'll just draw on one of the major time periods of my life for spiritual growth was about ten years or so of working with Ayahuasca regularly. And one of the things that I think happens for a lot of people who work with any kind of plant medicine is you have the experience of getting tired and worn out with your own complexes. It's as though the complex itself has to get sick of itself before it's ready to disappear. I've experienced many transits that way. Saturn transits Pluto transits like they bring me to the limit of a complex or pattern and the complex or pattern seems to become aware and self-conscious, and it goes I'm sick of myself. So and that's like a sign that the complex or pattern is ready to die.

I like that the Sage, the wise person, let's just say doesn't you know, could be anyone that the Sage has to renounce their own renunciation that they have to get their illness has to become ill. I can't draw a direct correlation to something astrological with this part. But what I will say is that when I track transits, What I notice is that the trend This information that we always talk about with astrological transits often boils down to, like, let's just say it's a Saturn transit, that the Saturn transit makes me acutely aware of something, that to the point where the pattern, let's say it's a pattern, it's not so healthy for me, that that, that the Saturn transit will make me aware of the pattern to the point where it's like, it was allowed to continue wreaking havoc in my life, because it existed with not so much awareness around it, then suddenly, you become more aware of it, and the language of astrology helps us to become more aware of it. And with more awareness and illumination, it like it comes up, and it's like, oh, I'm really, I'm sick of that pattern, and I can really name it and see it now. And then, it seems to die or fall apart, and the process of growth and evolution continues. And I don't know how I would be able to make some of those turns or recognize them in the process without the language of astrology; at least, I think it's a brilliant language for being able to do just that. Let's go on.

Verse 72.
When the people do not fear worldly power, a greater power will arrive
Don't limit the view of yourself
Don't despise the conditions of your birth
Don't resist the natural course of your life
In this way, you will never weary of this world

The second part of this verse I really like in terms of its relation to astrology, don't limit the view of yourself. One of the things I tell my students is that you're not your birth chart. Your birth chart is a regular device that is meant to help you explore who you are. But as Heraclitus said, The soul is explored forever to a depth beyond report; who you are is not something that is static. And so it can't be captured or defined by a static image of a moving Cosmos, an artificially frozen moment of the planets in space that never actually stopped moving.

That image that birth chart is used as a way of deepening the relationship you have with yourself. So don't limit the view of yourself through astrology. Don't despise the conditions of your birth.

Those conditions of birth are. They're like the, you know, conditions at the opening of a novel. You know, they set the stage, they tell us about the protagonist, their life circumstances, their desires, their fears, tell us about their character, but the plot has to go on; you have to evolve in relationship to it. And we get to do that throughout life as we continue to relate to the birth chart with our ongoing free will. And with all of the transits that come through, and yes, there is some working through of karma and destiny that has to happen regardless of what we want or don't want. But even then, every Sage in the world seems to say from all traditions that if you accept the conditions of your life, of your destiny, especially in moments where it feels like you don't have a lot of control.

There you have a way of flowing through these experiences much more gracefully, there's much more appreciation, and the experiences tend to bear fruit and give gifts when we try to control our lives because we are defining what is good or bad or what should or shouldn't be because of our limited power in the flow of events. That's a hard path, and we will get tired and exhausted from that path. Don't limit the view of yourself. Don't despise the conditions of your birth; don't resist the natural course of your life. In this way, you'll never weary of this world.

I love this last part;
The Sage knows himself, but not as himself he loves himself,
but not as himself
he honors himself, but not as himself
Thus, he discards the view of his own self and chooses the view of the universe.

You see, when we look at our lives through the lens of astrology, we are coming to know ourselves, but we are coming to know ourselves in relation to the cosmos. When we come to love ourselves through a practice of astrology, we are coming to love ourselves authentically, but not just as ourselves as a part of a cosmos, a well arranged whole. When we learn to honor ourselves by being through the study of astrology, we honor ourselves in relation to the gods and to all of creation.

So astrology is encouraging within us a view of ourselves as part of a universe. And that view is for most people healing. It heals us of the burden of having to feel like we are alone or isolated or separate. Although we are unique and special and individual, it helps us to appreciate that individuality within the tapestry of creation. That's why astrology is so valuable to take in, day in and day out. It's a valuable way to learn to look at our experiences and to deepen our relationship with ourselves.

Well, I hope that you have found today's reflections valuable. And we will continue on. We've got a couple of things coming up over the weekend that are exciting, including a new moon. So we're going to have, let's see here. Yeah, so we have the new moon in Aquarius on Saturday, followed by a conjunction of Venus and Saturn on Sunday.

We're going to be talking about those things here at the end of the week, so stay tuned for those in the meantime, I hope you're having a good midweek moment of pause and reflection here, and we will see you again tomorrow. Take it easy, everyone. Bye