The Tao Te Ching for Astrologers – Verses 79 & 80

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 by looking at verses 79 and 80. Which means that we have only one more episode left after today because the Tao Te Ching goes to verse 81 and is finished.

It's been really fun to go through this text with all of you exploring it and kind of a parallel study with astrology and the philosophy of astrology. Why did early mystics and sages believe that we needed astrology in our lives? And what are the parallels between what they said and what the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching says? So, if you have not listened to the series before, you don't have to have listened to all the episodes in a row; you can jump in, really, at any point in the series; all the verses are standalone.

You can grasp something from really any of these episodes without having had any background in the Tao Te Ching. Of course, if you want to read along with the series, as you know, if you've been watching it, we have been using the Tarcher Cornerstone edition translation by Jonathan Star. I highly recommend picking up a copy of that so you can follow along. I am going to go through each of the verses. The two verses for the day twice, once through and then the second time through; I pause after each verse and offer some reflections in light of our study of astrology. The purpose behind this has been to just pause midweek and refresh ourselves spiritually. Why am I here? What is it? What role does astrology play in my life? I think it's really important to do that. Because, you know, if we just get caught up in the astrology forecasts as a kind of celestial gossip column, and we don't check in with ourselves, I think it's easy to lose something. So something important that keeps our compass pointed toward that North Star, so to speak, toward a spiritual in a spiritual direction.

Anyway, so that's our goal for today; before we get into it, don't forget to like and subscribe. Share your comments in the comment section. I love hearing your insights and wisdom as we've gone through this series. It's been a real delight. You can find transcripts of any of my daily talks at nightlightastrology.com.

If you go over there, you're also going to notice that we have a new class coming up starting on February 17, which is the new Masterclass series; there's one series of four classes per season. And the winter series starts this week. So check that out. There is need-based tuition if people could use some help, and there's also an early bird payment. You can sign up for all four programs or do an ala carte with any of the Masterclasses. So yeah, check it out. If you have any questions, email us at info@nightlightastrology.com. I hope to see some of you in this Friday's class.

All right, let's go ahead and bring up our verses for the day. We are on verses 79 and 80. We're going to read through them twice and then offer some reflections.

Verse 79
After settling a great dispute some resentment is sure to remain
Being content with what you have is always best in the end
The Sage always assumes the debt
as if holding the left side of a contract
He gives and gives and wants nothing in return
One with true virtue always seeks a way to give
One who lacks true virtue always seeks a way to get
To the giver comes the fullness of life
To the taker, just an empty hand
Though the Tao of Heaven has no favorites
it always sides with the one who has a pure heart

Verse 80
Let every state be simple, like a small village with few people
There may be tools to speed things up
ten or a hundred times
yet no one will care to use them
There may be boats and carriages, yet they will remain without riders
There may be armor and weaponry, yet they will sit collecting dust
The people must take death seriously
and not waste their lives in distant lands
Let them return to the knotting of cord
Let them enjoy their food and care for their clothing
Let them be content in their homes and joyful in the way they live
Neighboring villages are within sight of each other
Roosters and dogs can be heard in the distance
Should a man grow old and die without ever leaving his village let him feel as though there was nothing he missed

That is a beautiful verse. Let's go back to 79; we're going to read it again and then pause and offer some reflections, again, in light of our studies of astrology.

Verse 79
After settling a great dispute some resentment is sure to remain
Being content with what you have is always best in the end
The Sage always assumes the debt
as if holding the left side of a contract
He gives and gives and wants nothing in return
One with true virtue always seeks a way to give
One who lacks true virtue always seeks a way to get
To the giver comes the fullness of life
to the taker, just an empty hand
Though the Tao of Heaven has no favorites
it always sides with the one who has a pure heart

There's an interesting question that I sometimes get from students, which is, how much fate is there in astrology, and how much free will is there in astrology? This is a question that I'm actually covering this week in a special talk with a friend of mine and fellow astrologer Chris Brennan of the astrology podcast. He's come on to do an interview with me about fate and free will. And we've already recorded it. But as I was thinking through this first today, I was reflecting on our conversation. And that question that we both get, and actually we get from students all the time about fate and free will, how much fate and how much free will is there in ancient astrology?

I like to respond to that question in the same way, which is to say rather than trying to quantify like, How much control do I have through my freewill versus how much is out of my control through fate, I like to think of fate and free will as two sides of a coin. Or, like the picture of the yin and yang, they're part of an interaction, the dance of life, that is constant. What I like about this verse is that it is pointing to that dance. Look, you have free will. And the best thing to do with your free will is remain open and receptive to the flow of the Tao to the flow of events in our lives.

When you do that, without seeking too much and striving and trying to assert and take and dominate or just trying to get something out of every situation, what's amazing is that you walk around with the equivalent of an empty cup or an open bowl, and then the universe can fill you. In any situation, the trick to feeling fulfilled and to feeling as though you're sort of getting what you want out of a situation is to not have an agenda and instead to be in a position of receptivity.

People think when you say receptivity that, you mean neutral and detached. But that's not what receptive means. Receptivity is a bit more like an appreciating capacity. If you've ever practiced active listening, for example, you'll notice that when you practice active listening, people become so much more interesting. Why is that? It's not because what they're saying has magically become so much more interesting. It's because the quality of consciousness that you're inhabiting is one of being interested; when you're interested, then things become interesting.

Similarly, when we take up a kind of disposition toward the flow of events, which the planets always signify, it's the unfolding of fate. When we take an active position of interest, it's another way of talking about what receptivity is. And we find that the flow of cosmic events are always filling us up. And so, in this way, the life path of astrology is always teaching us how to get the most out of any and every experience by staying open, by staying interested, by staying curious, by staying appreciative. That doesn't mean that you don't experience pleasure or pain. It doesn't mean that you don't have preferences. It doesn't mean that you are passive and neutral, in a detached sense.

No, it's a kind of active, interested, active, curious, active, engaged, but open. That way is the one that Tao Te Ching is describing here, in my humble opinion. It is also the one that ancient astrological sages talked about as the kind of consciousness we're trying to cultivate vis a vi, the study of astrology; the study of astrology is not just the study of your birth chart, although that's part of it. It's also the act of reflection on daily planetary transits and maybe how they interact with your birth chart. But the more you do that, the more that you feel as though the universe is on your side. And the question of whether its fate or free will sort of doesn't; it becomes almost irrelevant. There's a sense in which your will is aligning to always receive fate in a way that is favorable. So hopefully, that makes some sense. Let's go on.

Verse 80
Let every state be simple, like a small village with few people
There may be tools to speed things up ten or a hundred times
yet no one will care to use them
There may be boats and carriages yet they will remain without riders
There may be armor and weaponry yet they will sit collecting dust
The people must take death seriously
and not waste their lives in distant lands
Let them return to the knotting of cord
Let them enjoy their food and care for their clothing
Let them be content in their homes and joyful in the way they live
Neighboring villages are within sight of each other
Roosters and dogs can be heard in the distance
Should a man grow old and die without ever leaving his village let him feel as though there was nothing he missed

Now I read this to be the ultimate statement about just being present and living a life, and being present and engaged in the simple everyday affair of living a life is good enough. I believe that although astrology is filled with the rhetoric of destiny, and so many people use astrology to try to figure out their purpose, over time, what astrology does, if you take it seriously, is to empty your cup of the feeling that life needs to be anything more than what it is, which is glorious, and amazing.

Astrology gives you what I call an appreciating capacity. As you're appreciating capacity expands, experience itself, even the simplest things, not the kinds of things you have to cross the great river for or go to distant lands for, build skyscrapers for, become of infinite value, your life becomes richer because of the presence you cultivate and the appreciation for events. And how can you grow to appreciate them with astrology? You grow to appreciate them because astrology gives you a kind of mirror through which to see the divine and archetypal nature of even the simplest things.

For example, I'll never forget when I helped a farmer find her missing bowl using a horary. And what I got from that was the feeling that not even a missing bowl that had just wandered into a neighboring pasture, which we use the horary to locate very precisely, it was amazing, one of the most fantastic horary I've ever done. And what that did for me was it affirmed within my heart that it doesn't have to be the extraordinary.

It can be the bowl; it can be the cottage; it can be the everyday events, you know, it can be the canceled airplane flight. You know, it can be simple things that astrology utilizes as a way of putting us back in touch with that cosmic sense of home. I'm home here in this body, in this life, and that's good enough. It's perfect. Anyway, that's our reflections for today. We have one last week left; we'll take a look at verse 81. And close our series after this. The next series will be opening up semi-regularly and will be a series on the moon through the 12 signs, continuing on the Planets in Profile Series. I'm really excited, excited to start that. So we'll say more about that before we end the series next week. Hope you guys are having a nice week and that this was a useful pause, breathe, and meditate moment for all of you. Take it easy, everyone; bye.