Last night I looked at the sky and then I don't understand...

[Zhang]

Hi guys, I've been wondering about this for a while; 

What does Taoism have to do with the Big Dipper? 

I don't really find any relevant information on this subject, some contradictory stuff or not really understandable for an amateur like me...!

I understood that there was a relationship with God and the stars but nothing more... 

 

If someone could enlighten me?

Thanks

[sagebrush]

I recognize the Big Dipper.

saw it last evening.

the ox is not far...

 

where is your interest Zhang?

 

 

[Maddie]

16 minutes ago, Zhang said:

Hi guys, I've been wondering about this for a while; 

What does Taoism have to do with the Big Dipper? 

I don't really find any relevant information on this subject, some contradictory stuff or not really understandable for an amateur like me...!

I understood that there was a relationship with God and the stars but nothing more... 

 

If someone could enlighten me?

Thanks

 

In some of the practices and meditations that Mantak Chia teaches you're supposed to channel energy from the big Dipper and the North Star.

 

I guess my analytical and amateur astronomically literate brain always had a problem with that realizing that it's just an arrangement of stars that appear to form a Dipper shape from the Earth but there's not really some Dipper thing out there on a two-dimensional Black felt board.

[Sketch]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugang

[Zhongyongdaoist]

18 hours ago, Zhang said:

Hi guys, I've been wondering about this for a while; 

What does Taoism have to do with the Big Dipper? 

I don't really find any relevant information on this subject, some contradictory stuff or not really understandable for an amateur like me...!

I understood that there was a relationship with God and the stars but nothing more... 

 

If someone could enlighten me?

Thanks

 

The details are complex, but the fundamental principle is simply the idea that human beings are small reflections of the whole cosmos.  This is usually called the microcosm/macrocosm relation and is common to spiritual traditions of East and West.  Some years back I posted this, which while emphasizing Western Quotes is equally true of Daoism:

 

On 11/5/2014 at 9:44 AM, Zhongyongdaoist said:

The notion that all one needs to know is oneself is founded on the Microcosm/Macrocosm analogy, well represented by this quote attributed to Paracelsus:

 

Quote

If I have manna in my constitution, I can attract manna from heaven. Melissa is not only in the garden, but also in the air and in heaven. Saturn is not only in the sky, but also deep in the ocean and Earth. What is Venus but the artemisia that grows in your garden, and what is iron but the planet Mars? That is to say, Venus and Artemisia are both products of the same essence, while Mars and iron are manifestations of the same cause. What is the human body but a constellation of the same powers that formed the stars in the sky? He who knows Mars knows the qualities of iron, and he who knows what iron is knows the attributes of Mars. What would become of your heart if there were no Sun in the Universe? What would be the use of your 'Vasa Spermatica* if there were no Venus? To grasp the invisible elements, to attract them by their material correspondences, to control, purify, and transmute, them by the ever-moving powers of the living spirit—this is true Alchemy." (Burgoyne, Thomas H., The Light of Egypt, H. O. Wagner, Denver, Colorado, USA, 1965, Vol. II, p. 63, I have not been able to otherwise source this quote attributed to Paracelsus)

 

In the West it became fundamental to Metaphysics and Ontology, but originated as an Epistimological theory:

Like is only known by like in Empedocles

 

because it solves a lot of problems created both by Parmenides on the one hand and the early Greek Atomists on the other.

This doctrine was worked out by Plato in a very profound way and continued to influence Western Philosophy up to Hegel.

 

It existed in China as can be seen in this quote from the Confucian, Mencius:

Quote

7A:4
萬物皆備於我矣。反身而誠、樂莫大焉。彊恕而行、求仁莫近焉。
(Mencius at The Chinese Text Project)

I prefer this translation to the one on The Chinese Text Project:

"All the ten thousand things are there in me. There is no greater joy for me than to find, on self-examination, that I am true to myself. Try your best to treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, and you will find that this is the shortest way to benevolence."
(D. C. Lau, Mencius, Penguin Books, 1970, p. 182, Emphasis mine, ZYD)

 

and was also used in Daoism.

In Plato, as becomes very clear in Plotinus, all things, including our own divine being as already there within us, it allows this type of knowledge of God:

Quote

Then, in this way know God; as having all things in Himself as thoughts, the whole Cosmos itself. If, then, thou dost not make thyself like unto God, thou canst not know Him. For like is knowable to like [alone]. Make, [then,] thyself to grow to the same stature as the Greatness which transcends all measure; leap forth from every body; transcend all Time; become Eternity; and [thus] shalt thou know God. Conceiving nothing is impossible unto thyself, think thyself deathless and able to know all,—all arts, all sciences, the way of every life. Become more lofty than all height, and lower than all depth. Collect into thyself all senses of [all] creatures,—of fire, [and] water, dry and moist. Think that thou art at the same time in every place,—in earth, in sea, in sky; not yet begotten, in the womb, young, old, [and] dead, in after-death conditions. And if thou knowest all these things at once,—times, places, doings, qualities, and quantities; thou canst know God. But if thou lockest up thy soul within thy body, and dost debase it, saying: I nothing know; I nothing can; I fear the sea; I cannot scale the sky; I know not who I was, who I shall be;—what is there [then] between [thy] God and thee? For thou canst know naught of things beautiful and good so long as thou dost love thy body and art bad. The greatest bad there is, is not to know God’s Good; but to be able to know [Good], and will, and hope, is a Straight Way, the Good’s own [Path], both leading there and easy. (Corpus Hermeticum XI, "Mind unto Hermes", p. 187-8) (Emphasis mine, ZYD)

as is found in the Corpus Hermeticum. The text which I emphasized above, "If, then, thou dost not make thyself like unto God, thou canst not know Him. For like is knowable to like", emphasizes the epistemological origin of this practice and it is only the Microcosm/Macrocosm analogy that makes it possible. This is a very Western approach approach to God as the fullness of Creation and the unifying One at its root, though the approach to the One as the one itself is also part of Western Philosophy especially in Plotinus.

 

 

In Daoism there are many practices involving the Pole Star, the Dipper, the Twenty-eight Constellations, the five visible Planets and the Sun and the Moon.  These are all related to the human body, for example the Seven Constellations of the East, form the basis of the Green Dragon who is the spirit guardian of the east, he is also summoned for protection, the Planet Jupiter also rules the East and controls the Dragon, it is associated with the element Wood and used to balance and heal the Liver either in oneself or other people.

 

I could go on for pages, but I see no point without knowing if this answers your question and what do you want to do with the answer?

 

ZYD

[Zhang]

Hey thank you guys! @dmattwads @Zhongyongdaoist @Sketch

[awaken]

The lights I see inside are just like the stars, moon, son,  auroras and sky.