Exploring the Chinese Lunar New Year and the Year of the Wood Dragon w/ Christopher Renstrom

hello my name is Christopher renstrom and this week I would like to talk to you about the Chinese Lunar New Year taking place on February 10th I like so many other people are so fascinated by Chinese astrology it's such a wonderful reminder that there are so many astrolog that are out there in the world of course where you to the Western astrology with its 12 signs of the zodiac which are associated to 12 constellations those signs are Aries Taurus Gemini cancer Leo Virgo Libra Scorpio Sagittarius Capricorn Aquarius and finally Pisces and then it begins the circle again so those are the characters of our Western zodiac of our Western astrology but there's a Chinese astrology there's a Mesoamerican astrology there's an Indian astrology and these are just the astrology we know about every major civilization on the planet created some sort of form of astrology and that was in order to tell time astrology is the world's first calendar but as interpreted as symbolized in all of these different cultures but when I say something like the major civilizations created their own astrology what is kind of lacking from that remark is all of the astrolog that were created by other civilizations other societies other astrology that didn't survive either because they fell out of practice there weren't proper records the civilization may have been wiped out or assimilated by a larger civilization so the astrology that we know of Western astrology Indian astrology Chinese astrology Mesoamerican astrology these are just the ones we know about and it sort of staggers the imagination to think of all the ones we don't know about but Chinese astrology goes back a very long time in the Chinese civilization which is one of the oldest if not perhaps the oldest continuing civilization from the time of its Inception and what I mean by civilization is presiding civilization that you that you can almost see a through line that goes from ancient ch civilization to modern day the memory and the history is that rich but as I said every civilization every society had some form of astrology it was in order to tell time they would look at the rising and the setting of the Sun that began the day that began the night there were the changing of the seasons and so what they would do is that they would follow the star patterns in the sky or they would follow the planets like we do in the west along the ecliptic in order to tell time now in Chinese astrology in China coordination of human activity with the sun moon and stars can be traced back to the Neolithic cultures of the fifth millennium BCE there are artifacts of coordination of human activity with the sun and the moon and stars that go back to the Neolithic cultures uh this isn't exclusive to China itself we've also seen this in different parts of Europe and we've also seen it in different parts of Africa this idea of tracing the patterns goes back to fifth millennium BCE then it was SEMA sha China's first great historian who observed quote ever since the people have existed when have successive rulers not systematically calendared the movements of the sun moon stars and asterisms I love that uh seaan uses calendar C uses the word calendar as a verb you know since people have existed when have rulers not calendared you know the events of their civilization their society according to the sun moon stars and asterisms uh Stars he's probably referring to as the planets the wandering stars and asterisms are collection of stars sometimes they're constellation sometimes they're not so he's basically saying this uh uh uh very early in China's history now by the end of the third millennium BCE a tension in uh Chinese civilization had already begun to focus on the circumpolar region as the Abode of their Sky God D and from this time on the North Celestial pole became the locus of spiritual significance this is taken from astrology and cosmology in early China by David W penar what they're saying here is that beginning in the third millennium BCE before the Common Era the focus had been towards the North Pole and what they saw as being important was the relationship of the stars as they revolved around the North Pole so that's where the focus was in Chinese astrology just as cheap pose here in Western astrology we look to the ecliptic that's the circle that goes around the middle of the world and kind of sort of around the equator and holds the world together like a belt and actually our zodiac comes from the idea of a circle or belt of animals or a belt of creatures which also refers to the ecliptic this is the path that the Sun and Moon travel across the sky but in ancient Chinese civilization that's not where they were looking they were looking up towards the pole star and and basically where they were looking was the Big Dipper to find the poar Now what's fascinating about this is that this becomes systemized in China in third millennium BC e which is around the same time that Western astrology is becoming systemized in Sumeria Western astrology becomes systemized in Sumeria in the third millennium bcee so this is one of those synchronous events they just happen to be happening at the same time now it's not really quite a coincidence because we're talking about entire Millennium here but um but but this is when these are becoming more systemized this is when they're becoming recorded whether it's on tablets Scrolls whatever have you so in Western astrology as I said we track the sun moon and planets as they travel along the ecliptic where the 12 signs of our zodiac are to be found the ones that I already mentioned but in Chinese astrology the focus was on the handle of Ursa Major which is what we called the Big Dipper when you think of the symbol of the Big Dipper what is it it's a Rudder okay so it's like a handle and so it was also known as is a handle in Chinese astrology or in Chinese star Maps Okay so the north star or peris is in the Ursa Major constellation that's the Great Bear uh constellation and the Ursa Major could be used to locate Polaris as Polaris is the brightest star of Ursa Major that that collection of stars so from this Northern Point remember we're looking out kind of like on the ecliptic um in in in China they're looking to the northern Point that's the PO poar from this Northern point the Chinese divided the Cardinal asterisms that's a star group into four groups to be associated with the Four Seasons so these four star groups which revolved around the PO Stars the northernmost point these were associated like I just said with the Four Seasons now one star group was called the blue green dragon and that was associated with the spring another star group The Vermilion bird was associated with the summer this was followed by the White Tiger uh star Group which was associated with the Autumn and finally there was the dark warrior a nefarious mysterious figure an encircling of turtle and snake and this was said to be winter so by the late Zhao Dynasty which was 1046 to 256 BCE Shan uh which means Sky pattern Reading had taken as its frame of reference the 28 lunar lodges into which the sky was divided from this Northern point the 28 lodges governed over the 12 provinces of the Chinese Empire and the handle of the Dipper the Big Dipper was regarded as seconding them so in other words the 28 lodges the lunar mansions in which uh planets would pass beneath um these were set up in the sky dividing up the sky as a kind of municipality and they were associated to the 12 provinces in China proper below and then the handle of the Dipper was seen to endorse the governance of the 28 lunar Mansions itself okay so you have these 28 different Governors and then the handle the Big Dipper would say yes I decree that no I don't decree that and you know it had basically yes and veto power over the um 28 Mansions which lur below and this is what tied the sky to Earth although in ancient China Sky and Earth were seen as the same there was no real division it was all one idea it was all one governing entity now the Chinese zodiac when we talk about the Year of the Dragon for instance the Chinese zodiac has 12 animals it has 12 animal characters this is not the same as Chinese astrology okay and that's a very important distinction in Western astrology the planets are moving in front of the zodiacal symbols okay which are correlated to the constellations along the ecliptic in Chinese astrology there is this Focus about the star groups around the northernmost star and their impact on the provinces of China itself below the 12 Chinese zodiac animals had nothing to do with star groups all right nothing to do with star groups whatsoever um now the Chinese uh zodiac consists of 12 animals that first appeared in the zanga period which is fifth century BCE and the Chinese zodiac right away became a popular way to determine one's birth year so in the west we'll talk about our birthday our birth time our birth place with the Chinese zodiac because it wasn't really Associated to the emperor I mean the emperor did chart the governance of his State based on the star maps that were going up around that Northern Star that pole star that I was talking about but when it came to the Chinese zodiac figures themselves these were used to figure out what year you were born so there was no um birthday there was no uh birth birth time and who cared about the birth place so it was really the year I was born in the year of the dragon or I was born in the year of the snake or I was born in the year of the ox so when you referred to a Chinese zedal figure a Chinese zodiacal animal you were referring to your birth year someone could say oh you were born you know like eight years ago or oh you were born let's see if I can count 42 years ago they would they would able to determine what year that you were born and this is the first association with the uh Chinese zodiac animal and how they came became so popular now what follows from this is a counting system remember that the 12 zodiac animals are not connected to constellations they are not connected to stars at all they are on a fixed Circle one follows the other but this is used more to count so each of the 12 animals in the Chinese Zodiac stands for a year in a 12year cycle we're used to thinking of our zodiac as the 12 signs within a year cycle in the Chinese Zodiac each of the 12 animals stands for a year in a 12year cycle they will also stand for a day in a 12-day cycle and finally they will stand for every two hours in a 24-hour day so you can be born in the year of the rooster on the day of the pig in the hour of the snake Okay so it's it's a cting schematic okay you almost imagine like a clock but it's a clock within a clock within a clock one clock is cataloging the years one clock is cataloging the day and the other clock is cataloging what hour of the day okay and these are each connected to where the animal on the circle is turning it's very elaborate um it's very simple um and it's it's analogous to our planetary hour and our planetary days but that's a conversation for another time but anyway that's just to show that we have actually an analogy of that there's a correlation that exists there okay so essentially the 12 Zodiac signs or the 12 zodiac animals were used for counting measures of time rather than being connected to the constellations in the sky so what are the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac well arranged in clockwise appearance they are the rat the ox tiger hair dragon snake horse Ram monkey rooster dog and bore okay so these are the characters of the Chinese zodiac each of them rules a year and then if you break it down even further each of them was going to rule over a day and a time of day in Chinese cosmology these symbols correspond to the 12 divisions of the celestial equator known as the Earthly branches DZ Each of which also corresponds to a Direction so this is what's Happening Here we talked about the North and like Star groups that that that follow the the North Star now with the Chinese zodiac animals they are being associated to the equator okay uh and and when they're being associated to the equator which is uh think of a compass actually they're being associated to a compass that's the best way to think of it each of the animals corresponds to a direction on a compass we're going to go with compass compass is a really really good example okay or illustration so that rat was Associated to the north Ox was Associated to North Northeast tiger was East Northeast hair or rabbit was the east Dragon was east Southeast snake South Southeast horse the south after the horse which is the direction of the South comes the ram which is South Southwest the monkey which is west southwest rooster which is the West after that is the dog which was West Northwest and finally the boar which was West Northwest and then you repeat so where we have uh where we have a a cycle of months which is associated to a calendar this is being associated to a compus which is set up with directions which has a tremendous significance in ancient Chinese culture and Daoism but we're also not going to get into that today I'm just using that as a reference point and to really make the point that the Chinese zodiac animals the Chinese Zodiac signs are not connected to Star group they are a means of counting and measuring time but they are connected to directions directions that you would find on a compass now this whole thing of 12 signs okay that sounds familiar we can think of our signs and Chinese Chinese zodiac signs um and say okay that's that's a that that makes sense but this thing of like of of of each Chinese zodiac sign ruling a year ruling for a year think of it as being in the ascendancy for a year some of you astrologers out there might be like H 12 years what goes around in 12 years and you're going to see where I'm going next with this okay these were connected these 12 signs of the zodiac were connected to the 12 Celestial Stations of the planet Jupiter okay rather than the sun as it traveled along the ecliptic so here in Chinese zodiac we are using the ecliptic they are not connected to Star groups they are connected to segments of a circle that have been divided into 12 that have been associated with an animal of the zodiac and that the planet Jupiter is going to move it from one from one section that's assigned to an animal of the zodiac to another section that's assigned to the animal of a zodiac that sounds we're used to think of that in terms of the Sun going from sign a sign going through all 12 signs in one year but in the Chinese Zodiac it is Jupiter so uh where the sun takes a month to go through all 12 months to make a year Jupiter is going to take a year and so um this in Chinese um with with the Chinese zodiac uh it's Jupiter which is the planet of good fortune and higher purpose that moves through the 12 sections of the ecliptic that are governed by a sign of the zodiac this is why when we say we are now in the year of the dragon everyone gets really excited and happy because Jupiter who we know from the West is the planet of good fortune and higher purpose is now blessing everyone who was born in the year of the dragon Jupiter spends one year in each sign which is why we will say that 2024 is the year of the dragon this is the year that the dragon is is prominent people born in the year of the dragon will be favored this year our version of it is oh Jupiter's entering my sign yay but the Chinese have set this up so that it's the beginning of every year no no switching signs halfway through the year or at some other point it's not connected to the movement of the planet it's connected to when Chinese zodiac sign when the wheel turns in its direction what is the dragon it's one of the 12 zodiac animals in Chinese astrology the dragon in Chinese zodiac is a yang symbol meaning that it is masculine that is the thing that we know about the dragon it is a yang symbol if you're familiar with yin and yang is the masculine part and and Yin is the feminine part and they're combined together in a in sort of like two koi swimming around one another in a pond one follows the other follows the other follows the other um so the dragon is a yang symbol meaning that is masculine what I found interesting in some research that I did is that the tiger and the dragon who were the primary symbols of Yin and Yang the two Cosmic forces that direct the movement and transformation of she of G uh which is the vital energy that makes up all things the tiger was Yin and the dragon was Yang and what was even more fascinating is that these symbols predate the Tai diagram which is the well-known Diest diagram of yinyang which portrays the light half of the circle dovetailing into the dark half of a circle well that didn't appear until the beginning of the Song Dynasty which was 960 to 1279 ad okay so before the common error era um you know for for millennium it was the tiger and the dragon that symbolized Yin and Yang now most Chinese dragons pictures uh in in ancient uh Chinese culture and art have long bodies like snakes and sharp claws like Hawks they rarely have wings or breathe fire like the Western version Chinese dragons live at the bottom of rivers lakes or anywhere with water so they're they're they're very strongly connected to water dragons symbolize Imperial power Good Fortune power over weather and a pioneering Spirit what's kind of fascinating there is that you can sort of hear some of the qualities or characteristics of Jupiter coming in Jupiter in Western astrology is the planet of Emperors and so in China uh dragons symbolize Imperial uh Power they symbolize the emperor um now what we have to remember is that in ancient China people lived mainly on agriculture the rain and wind played an important role in people's lives they believed that there was something powerful controlling the rain and the Thunder and in Chinese mythology the dragon was such a powerful Beast that as I said it lived in rivers lakes and seas the dragon was used as a symbol of great power a ruler even of the emperor himself according to Chinese Legend the yellow Emperor hang D who was a legendary tribal leader launched a series of wars against nine tribes in the Yellow River Valley when he won these wars he Incorporated the other tribes totems into his Dragon totem this explains why the dragon has attributes belonging to nine other creatures the dragon in China has eyes like a shrimp or carp antlers like a deer a big mouth like a bow a nose like a dog whiskers like a cat catfish a lion's man a long body like a snake scales like a fish and Claws like a hawk dragons in Chinese mythology could control the weather and Seasons although they were wingless you know wingless they were without wings they could fly and they could change the rain patterns in Chinese mythology dragons often aided the human race when natural disasters struck one such Legend the Jade Emperor and the four dragons exemplifies the relationship between humans and Dragons now according to myth there were four powerful dragons witnessing a devastating drought taking place on Mainland China now these four dragons spoke on behalf of the human race to convince the deity the Jade Emperor to send reain okay uh they were basically like you know please uh Jade Emperor send rign to these provinces in China they're suffering from a drought and they're in misery and the deity agreed but being a bureaucratic figure um and if you kind of think of deities of the sky that rule over the cosmos they are sort of bureaucratic figures they have other deities that govern for them because they're occupied with the order of the universe so this uh Jade emperor in the sky was he was like yes let me get to that but like any sort of CEO or something like that they had other things that were going on at the same time and so the Jade Emperor got distracted got absorbed other things that were taking place in the different corners of the Empire and so um he had agreed but he didn't follow through he didn't follow through with the promise as a result many people died the land became cracked and dry the drought was so severe and the dragons were so distressed they were distressed on the part of the people and so what the dragons decided to do was to act on their own and what they did is that they took to the air they took to The Rivers they took to the Seas and the streams and they brought rain to this part of mainland China that was suffering the Jade emperor when he found out was Furious because they had stepped out of line they had gone out of their bureaucratic functions they had taken the rule law and Authority upon them elves even though he was distracted and this might have seen as an assistance I mean he did initially give his word the dragons had stepped out of line and and defied him he was so angry that he ordered the mountain God to seal the dragons up inside of it um for all time okay so this Emperor was not like you know wasn't like for a couple of months or a year or two or a decade or three he ordered the mountain God he was so angry at these dragons to seal up the dragons inside the mountain for all time for for all for for the rest of of existence but from this mountain sprang Four Rivers and these were the dragons they sprang rivers from their Mountain Prison and these Rivers continuously work to protect China these rivers are known today as the Yellow River the Yi River the Pearl River and the Amore River so this is such a fascinating image you know that they're encapsulated but then the dragons merge with Earth to create rivers that still perform benevolence that still protect that still bring life and so this is why the ancient Chinese peoples didn't blame dragons for natural catastrophes and other disasters but instead they saw dragons as benevolent wise and powerful and if I dare say maybe a little bit more benevolent and wise than the ruling Emperor but that's anyway between you and me so so so here we have the figure of the Dragon this benevolent figure this collage of different animals you know it's not just a reptilian dinosaur with wings breathing fire and sporting dragon breath you know no it's this collage and again there's a kind of jupiterian flavor because Jupiter gathers and weaves together all the different aspects of all the different planets Jupiter is an astrology ultimately an integrator and the dragon itself is ecliptic in its nature it's a symbol of Empire because it takes in that original conquest of the other provinces it takes their totems and unites them together in one overriding totem which is the totem of the Dragon now let's talk about the elements in Chinese astrology in the west we have four elements that's water earth air and fire but in Chinese astrology there are five it's wood it's fire it's metal it's Earth and it's water okay I'm not saying that that's the proper order but that's the order of things so in Chinese astrology there's no air element um and then they have the element of metal and the element of wood which are curious and infinitely intriguing ideas um in uh DST symbolism Meadow was symbolized as the incense burner you know the container that held the incense wood with symbolized by a tree fire was symbolized by flames and water was symbolized by the Lotus and um the Lotus leaf and then Earth was seldom symbolized it was actually seen as the center of the four elements because Earth is the center of the universe and Earth is where we live and we live on land but when and if Earth was symbolized it was often symbolized by pheasants or by other birds that chose not to fly but to live close to to the Earth and that was the symbol for earth and its facundity so let's talk about wood why are we talking about wood because uh this year is the year of the dragon but this year is the year of the wood Dragon okay so so each of the Chinese zodiac animals can appear or align with an element all right and they can be in any of the elements you can have a metal dragon you can have a fire dragon you can have a Earth Dragon you can have water dragon this year is a wood Dragon so if you're thinking of you know one uh I don't know Wheel of Fortune spinning it goes click click click click click and it hits on dragon and then an an inner wheel goes click click click and hits on wood this is the time of the wood Dragon so wood as I mentioned before was symbolized by a tree it's intriguing because when you look at tarot cards which originate in Italy and which was on the other side of the Silk Roads that were going back and forth between the mid East and China but then it also goes into uh Venice and Italy where where uh culture and things are being exchanged along with tea and jewelry and metals and all these sorts of things what's interesting about these five elements in Chinese astrology where you have metal and wood which we wouldn't really think of as being an element um and then you've got uh water fire and Earth what's kind of fascinating is when you think of the tarot okay the tarot you've got the major Arcana and then you've got the minor Arcana the minor Arcana are known as suits and each of the suits are associated to an element um water Earth Fire and Air but what's fascinating is that when you look at the symbolism in the tarot is two things one you have wood show up in Tarot if you're familiar with tarot and the suit of Wands or CL clubs you know that that's wood these are wooden clubs you know or or they are wands they are the idea of things growing up out of the ground it's Associated to fire but it's definitely the object is wood in the Tau and it's actually the only um object of the for suits that's a living organism okay and that's wood and I find that curious that that connects to the Chinese elements but it kind of makes sense when you remember that too comes out of Italy and Italy uh shared the Silk Roads route uh into Asia where ideas and and trade and goods and spices were being brought back and forth remember Marco Polo comes from Italy and goes and resides and becomes a governor in in in China um so so that's interesting you know that in the tarot that the element of fire which is rods and rods is associated to Wood and so you have that sort of showing up there but but then what's also fascinating is swords which are associated with air is metal cups in the tarot is metal okay it's from a metal um and uh coins in the tarot which is Pentacles uh which is Earth uh cups is water Pentacles is Earth that's metal and so you have this really fascinating overlay of the Chinese elements on the western elements appearing in the Tarot deck anyway just had to do that as a quick aside so wood the element of wood in Chinese astrology was symbolized as a tree it symbolizes growth it can be flexible like bamboo or it can be Majestic and long lived like a Cyprus Tree and Cypress trees in in China symbolize longevity and the strong heart of a virtuous people who never surrenders um wood as an element also stands for the springtime the East where the sun rises it's connected to Jupiter it's connected to the color green windy weather and it is connected to the azour dragon which is the dragon of the spring wood attributes are strength and flexibility warmth generosity cooperation and idealism negative expressions of a wood element is anger and hopelessness okay like a feeling of I've lost all Faith I've lost all Direction and then the positive attributes of wood are optimism courage patience and you recognize the jupiterian characteristic benevolence wood rules the liver in Chinese medicine I know I'm like making these correlations but in Western astrology you know that Jupiter is also connected to the liver so you're getting these connections to Jupiter uh that are very strong so wood is born from water okay in the elemental cycle it feeds fire okay so w wood Springs with water water to become a tree and grow it feeds fire if you start a forest fire the trees go up wood controls the element of Earth because the roots of the trees hold Earth together okay so trees anchor themselves into Earth and we also know after fires um which devastate trees you have mudslides because there's nothing holding the Earth in place anymore wood has control has Supremacy over Earth and then finally wood can be destroyed by metal because if you take an axe you can chop down a tree so so this is this idea kind of sounds a little bit like you know rock scissors paper you know which element you know goes over the other and they can all do this but in that description that I gave you you can see the elements that wood works with versus the elements that W doesn't really uh work with or isn't perhaps that compatible all right so what is a wood Dragon right because we're in the year of the wood dragon dragons were believed to preside over the seasons and the directions of the world okay so you've got uh East uh South West North okay and then those are going to be connected to the seasons as well so the green dragon was identified with the East and the spring the white dragon ruled the west and was identified with the season of autumn white is traditionally connected to death and mourning in Chinese culture however white Chinese dragon also symbolized Purity and virtue the black dragons ruled the North and were associated with winter black Chinese dragons are often related to Vengeance in ancient China the black dragon is often linked to catastrophes like storms and floods and if you think of winter when do you have storms and floods okay in in in a country like China you have them in in the winter and so that's associated to a black dragon and the south in China the South actually got two dragons Okay I don't know how they locked out the with that but the South got two dragons they got the red dragon and the yellow dragon Red Dragons are associated to luck and prosperity yellow dragons were a symbol of the Imperial Dynasty it was regarded as a royal color it was the symbol of the emperor the yellow dragon and it represented wisdom good fortune and power so by being in the year of the wood Dragon were basically in the year of the blue green dragon in Chinese culture blue green are the colors representing Nature Health healing peace and growth a blue green dragon symbolizes the approach of Spring New Life and plant growth what we could almost regard this year as being a year of spring of things beginning of newness of springing forth that there being the enthusiasm of moving forward into our life the East is the direction that the green dragon rules over and the East is ruled by the wood sire Mong gong the ancient name was dong Wong gong who was Lord King of the East Wood covers the dragon so people born in the year of the dragon will do exceptionally well this year people born in the year of the monkey and the rat will also do well and people born in the years of the dog ox and sheep may find them struggling a bit themselves struggling a bit so I want to close this with a wonderful medieval um story that is told the title of it is the dragon and the Pearl during the Han Dynasty in the the city of laang there was a cave and this cave was very dark and its depth was unfathomable no one had ever been to the bottom of this cave um and a woman who harbored murderous intention towards her husband suggested one day why don't we go see this cave I've never seen this dark cave and the husband was likew that's a dangerous place that cave is bottomless if you fall why are you so curious and she's like I'm just curious husband so let's go see the cave and the husband was like okay let's and so they go you know maybe it's an afternoon stroll or something like this anyway they go to this cave um and of course as soon as they arrive they enter the cave and it's very dark you can't see anything and she you know says husband you go in front of me you're braver you have more courage he's peering around the dark and you know she pushes him over and he falls into into the bottomless pit of this cave you know he falls down um a great height you hear him go he goes on down she doesn't hear him anymore he's disappeared into the void and she's brought some um she's brought some uh sacrifice with her and she throws it um after him into the void so asking the blessing of The Departed spirit so not only is she you know pushed her husband to his death but she's offered a sacrifice to his ghost all at the same time she turns around and she leaves the cave and uh she also happens to uh leave the story um what was in the sacrifice the sacrifice was food that she had thrown down to feed the hungry ghost that would emerge from her husband's body well her husband didn't die he fell down this cave and he kind of and he lost Consciousness and he fell a great distance uh but for some reason he regained Consciousness at the bottom of the cave and it was very very dark and his bones weren't broken he was fine but he was desperately hungry um at the bottom of this cave and it was dark and he didn't know how to get out and he called and of course his voice echoed and nobody answered and and and there he was so he began to look for a path out of this deep dark forbidding cave and he followed this this path um you know after eating the food that his wife had thrown him and and that felt good that you know he was hungry and so he ate some food that his wife had thrown his Hungry Ghost but he didn't die it's him so he's eating the food and he follows this path and he walks for a very long time he walks for several miles on cannibal miles um and and this path was rugged it zigzagged it went up and down it veered to the left and the right after walking several miles he noticed that the light in the cave became brighter and it was more than just his eyes adjusting to it he could actually see uh his his hand he could see the sides of the cave um and the ground the ground beneath his feet felt like dust you know they didn't feel like rocks they had changed it wasn't those sharp rocks those rugged terrain it was now like dust in a way and he began to smell wafting through these dark Caverns that were gradually becoming brighter he began to smell the fragrance of rice so he followed the fragrance of rice and and and he followed it to its source which was rice um which he delighted in and he ate his fill and he kind of you know stuffed or put you know maybe used part of his tonic or whatever maybe the sock that is wife had th you know to to to store more rice you know as he you know kind of like you know eating popcorn in a movie eating the rice uh continued through the dark passages of this cave again for miles and miles miles um finally when he had eaten all that he had eaten of the rice and he was wondering about what was going to come next He Came Upon a huge enormous Splendid City now this city well the walls of the city were tall and the Palaces of the city the Palaces of the city were magnificent and The Terraces and The Pavilions and the residences of the city were all decorated ated with gold though there was no sun or moon or stars in the sky that he could see the city was greater than those sources of light including the Sun the moon and the stars it was more golden it was more luminescent and there were people in the city who came out to greet him that he shrunk away from because they were 30 feet tall they were enormous people and he was like maybe five six feet or whatever and they're 30 feet tall um and they wore resplendant silk garments and played unique music which was never heard in this world then the man pleaded for food and as the uh medieval author writes here sadly okay so he he didn't just like you know hey do you have something to eat you know he pleaded for food sadly with longing with Melancholy he was so hungry um and a tall man came forward and asked him to to walk in this direction and the man said yes he he obeyed and following the order of the tall 30-foot man the husband walked past nine palaces that were exactly the same nine palaces that were gorgeous nine palaces that were aromatic nine palaces that were more Splendid than than this world could possibly offer in in their colors and in their architecture and in their Serenity and in their beauty so he walked past these last these nine palaces and when he reached the last Palace he was even more hungry than when he had begun the journey his his his stomach he he just was so starving with hunger and The Tall Man pointed to a huge cypress tree and under the tree was a goat all right and The Tall Man directed the husband to the goat and he uh told the husband to stroke the goat's beard and when the husband stroked the goat's beard out of the beard and into the palm of his hand fell a pearl and the husband was like what's this and the tall 30-foot man immediately grabbed that Pearl and took it out of the husband's hand and the husband looked inquir inquisitively curiously why did you do this and the tall 3 fo man said stroke the goat's beard again and so he did and he stroked the goat's beard again and again out of the goat's beard dropped a pearl and he was like this and The Tall Man immediately seized that Pearl too and took it away from him and he said stroke one more time and the husband did and out of the uh goat's beard fell a pearl and this time this time when the Pearl fell into his hand the tall 30-foot man said eat it and the man was like eat it eat what he said eat the Pearl he's like eat the Pearl no eats pearls and he's like eat the Pearl you can eat this one and so the man took the Pearl and he bit into it and he could eat it it wasn't hard like a pearl he could eat the Pearl and he swallowed the Pearl and immediately his hunger abated it disappeared his stomach was full this Pearl this Pearl had completely satisfied his appetite at that point the husband asked The Tall Man what are the names of the Palaces you know and the tall man said I cannot tell you and the husband said can I stay here can I stay here in this beautiful resplendant realm with you and the tall man said no no you cannot and he's like well what's what's to become of me and the tall man said you need to go back home you cannot stay here you need to go back home but you can take these with you and he presented the husband with the two other pearls and he said our ruler has already said that you cannot stay but when you return home you are to ask the wise man Zang Hong who is familiar with this place where you have been and so the husband agreed and he returned home now it took the husband a long time to return home I think it took him like 6 to7 years to return home to find his way out of this and to find his way back to his home but he did and seven years later when he returned home he visited zanga and he showed him the two pearls that had been given to him and he told him his story and asked him to explain where he had been zanga said the substance like dust that we walked on was the saliva of the Yellow River Dragon it's like oh remember the dragons that were like Bound in that mountain it was the the dust was the saliva of the Yellow River dragon and the mud the mud was from the cool Mountain The Immortal who guarded the nine palaces who came out to greet you the 30 foot tall man he is called The Grandmaster of the nine palaces and the Goat the goat was a dimwitted dragon I'm afraid and he's like a dimwitted dragon and he said yes he gave you three pearls and he said yes and he said the first Pearl you got he saides this this first Pearl enables one to live as long as Heaven and Earth if the person can eat it oh but but it but I can't eat it and this second Pearl that you have he said yes the second Pearl is able to prolong one's lifespan it is yes if you can eat it but I can't eat this Pearl and he said and the third Pearl that you were given he saides the third Pearl may be eaten just as food but that's what I did I ate it just as food and the wise man said and what did you feel afterwards and he said my stomach was full and he said exactly what I love about this story that's the end of the story um which when I reached the end of it I laughed I was because it's very funny but it's also very telling and it's also very revealing about this year where Pluto is entering the Zodiac side of Aquarius these are literally Pearls of Wisdom okay which have been given to this husband who is not a very wise or smart person he doesn't suspect his wife for a moment when his wife says let's go visit this cave he walks ahead of her it looks over the edge and she pushes him to what was supposed to be his depth um he wakes up at the bottom of this pit which is going to lead into this land of immortality he's frightened and he's hungry and he eats the first thing he is is is Mortal food which as we all know from pan and Deiter bound binds him to the mortal world and then he travels through the cavern and he smells the rice and he finds the rice and he eats the rice but what's happening here is that he's eating he's consuming all he cares about is how hungry he is as he goes through this now at first we can be like well come on Christopher he he he survived a bottomless pit drop what do you want from this guy you know yeah it's true and and and and no broken bones and and he's hungry and he but but he's hungering for things of this world he's hungering for the things of this world that we live in he's hungering for something that will Sate his appetite he wants to be full okay and then he comes to this beautiful city and he's shown this goat this dimwitted goat who produces three pearls okay so even though though the goat is dimwitted it can produce wisdom and in my interpretation of it I see the dimwitted groat as actually being his double the dimwitted goat is as dimwitted as he is and the immortal takes the pearls you know that he produces out and he holds them apart and he says the third one's the one you're looking for the third one will satiate your appetite and he eats it he can eat a ptle and he's like m I feel so good afterwards and then the immortal which is what Immortals do gives him the two other pearls one that can bring life as long as Heaven and Earth okay which is obviously a reference to Transcendence and the spiritual realm and the other which can bring long life but he can't eat them that's not what his intention was that's not where his Focus was and the immortal already knows this because the immortal says you know what when you get back to to your land and when your city ask this wise man where you have been he'll be able to explain it all to you he'll be able to basically tell you the moral of the tale and he does and the man is left with two pearls that he cannot eat they are the gifts which are the most tremendous gifts that one should ever hope or long for but he cannot take them in and it's a beautiful parable beautiful story about wisdom you know um and about our bellies and about our spirit you know when we are wise according to our bellies we're very good at getting the next thing you know to satiate our ravenous appetite you know we are confronted with a mystery we're confronted with an enigma and we want the answer we want the solution to it um and once we get the answer or the solution to it or the moral to the tale or the explanation of why things happened the way they did we go we're satisfied and we go on to the next bright shiny object we go on to the next riddle we go on to the next question you know and that's a wisdom that can be perhaps smart um it's a curiosity that can be satisfied it's an attention span that can be wandering or a sense of discovery that doesn't go beyond the satiated belly one can become very inventive one can be very resourceful one can invent marvelous things like our civilization has doesn't make us wise and this is how it plays into Pluto entering into the zodiac sign of Aquarius we can create things that are technologically Superior to life before we can uh create things that harness that supposedly harness nature you know that harness the dragons um and but yet fall short you know as as I mean I'm not going to tell you you already know about climate change and global warming and all these sorts of things we inherited this this Majestic world and what are we doing with it in our um pursuit of technology and gain and we're following that third Pearl that could from that could be easily um eaten and that fulfills the appetite but leaves us hungry or yearning for more the other two pearls prolonged life living as long as Earth and Heaven basically becoming an immortal we cannot embibe we cannot eat we cannot digest you know uh because we are so bound to the Pearl that wants a immediate gratification that wants immediate satisfaction so like the husband in the story we carry these Pearls of Wisdom we can show them to people we can ask people what they think people could admire them people can interpret them people can say this is what it means we can own them but we can't embi them we can't digest them we can't take them into our being they always remain outside as gifts as gifts that also cannot be opened and the beauty of this story which combines with Pluto entering Aquarius in this year is what do you do with something that you have but you cannot take in instead of that becoming something that's frustrating it's bewildering or something that we even get angry at these pearls these two other Pearls of Wisdom can be S can be things that guide us through our life our pursuit of the wisdom our pursuit of understanding by asking questions or marveling at Miracle or being open to the experience of mysticism uh being open to whatever connections we have with the invisible Realms that lie Beyond this world this place where dragons can go to and come back from this is the sort of wisdom that I pray and hope that we can acquire eventually and that we may in our dark scrambling walks through the rugged uh zigzagging passages of the dark and hopefully hopefully we'll come to a place of Illumination and Light

Channel: ASTROLOGY HUB Podcast

Views: 21,054

Keywords: astrology, astrologer, astrology hub, zodiac, horoscope, amanda pua walsh

Id: 3GEdjzqHMOM

Length: 55min 57sec (3357 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 04 2024