Verse 6

" The spirit that never dies is called the mysterious feminine.

Although she becomes the whole universe,

her immaculate purity is never lost.

Although she assumes countless forms,

her true identity remains intact.

The gateway to the mysterious female is

called the root of creation.

Listen to her voice, hear it echo through creation.

Without fail, she reveals her presence.

Without fail, she brings us to our own perfection.

Although it is invisible, it endures;

it will never end."

  The God or Goddess of creation? To some, the idea of worshiping a female goes against everything they know and believe. Women are the weaker sex according to many western and eastern thoughts. Both physically and mentally perhaps even spiritually women have been seen as lacking. It can even be left to question just how much of the Bible was configured to lead people into believing that women were not on the same level as men. Please don't misunderstand what I am saying. I believe that the Bible is full of wisdom and following it to the T would ensure a happy prosperous life. However, it was man that decided what to put in and what to leave out. So it isn't hard to believe that certain texts which could have shed a different light on things could have been omitted in the interest of swaying minds in the preferred direction. 

  Perhaps it is wise then to consider just which traits are characteristic of men and which are characteristic of women before we continue on this age old discussion. Most people have heard of the Yin Yang. However this is merely a western name for the half white half black image. Yin and Yang are actually the names given to express, in simple terms, exact opposite but complimentary sides. Most think of opposites as a clash or figurative head butting, but this is not what the taijitu (the correct name for this symbol) is referring to. As one can't help noticing, the two exact halves, even distorted make a perfect circle or "whole". In fact, the name taijitu literally means "diagram of the supreme ultimate". I take that as meaning whole in every sense. Taoism embraces this symbol as it depicts the perfection of unity. Furthermore, Taoism places upon the Yin all the feminine attributes and upon the Yang all the masculine attributes.

  Perhaps I have digressed a bit but this concept in not for naught. Over the coarse of the 81 verses that are the Tao Te Ching this will be a central point of focus. So better to start early on our awareness campaign. 

  Anywho, back to verse 6, the Goddess. Why portray God, or the Toa in a feminine light here? Well, if it isn't obvious by now, my digression has been for naught. Or perhaps I am just that bad at writing out the jumbled thoughts in my head. That's probably it. If we look at the yin attributes we see that they tend to be more accurately portray the attributes in this verse than the male's. Soft, passive, intuitive. Truly a mothers Love. In fact, that is the first thing that comes to my mind when I read this verse. I interpret paragraph one in a number of ways. First the creative "side" of the Tao is like a mother, birthing all things. In this process, the Tao becomes the creator and the created (another example for the taijitu). Although the Tao is capable of expressing itself, it is also expressed through all things in the universe to a less perfect degree. A perfect example are humans. So here she spreads herself out but the central "core" of this creative spirit remain pure. The third sentence could be a bit puzzling. It almost seems redundant, but I think that perhaps this statement is relating to the actions of this creative spirit. A mother may not always appear to be responding perfectly to a dilemma, however, the outcome proves that the action was the correct one even if it seems uncharacteristic of her. This does not mean that she is less of a mother, just that she must sometimes do what it takes, even if it's down and dirty. We tend to call this tough love. I see it as doing what is needed for the greater good. When dealing with imperfect humans, one must do what is necessary to make things right. This does not make this mother of creation less of who she is. If anything, it just proves more so of it's unconditional Love.

  Ahh paragraph two. Cryptic. Mysterious. The gateway to the mysterious female. Who is this mysterious female? I think we can all surmise at this point we are talking about the Creative Source. So the way to the creative source then is through the root of creation. the root of creation.....think, think, think. Ah, the superhighway which ushered in such an enormous amount of energy and in so doing  birthed the physical into existence. Maybe that's to disco for some. I do believe that everything created on the physical plane has a root to the spiritual plane and without it we could not exist. Is it coincidental that the word root was chosen for this statement? If we think of a plant, the root is what feeds it. It is the first thing the grows out of the seed and if we cut the root from the plant, it dies. So here we can deduce that the way to the great and powerful Creator is through ourselves. That "gate" is in us all.

So in paragraph three once again we feel the care of a mother's love. Think about times when you were unsure of yourself. Possibly your first dance recital or baseball game. You were nervous, unsure of yourself. Your mom gives you some words of encouragement and then sends you off, telling you that she will be right there watching you. Any time she senses your uncertainty or embarrassment, her voice is heard saying, "You're doing good. Keep going." As time goes by she helps build on our strengths and manage our weaknesses. Making us ready for adulthood. And once we venture out to create our own space in the world, we take everything that she taught with us. I also believe that we take a piece of our mother with us spiritually. It is a fact that mother's have a close bond with children in many ways. Even on the vibratory level mothers have a close bond with their children as the frequencies are similar. This is what mother's intuition is all about. A true Yin attribute.

  So at this point we can see why Lao-tzu chose to represent the Tao from a more feminine aspect in this verse. It will not be the last time. What we do see with the crash coarse in Yin Yang theory is that both the yin and yang carry the attributes of God in different ways. So in simple terms, the "whole" or taijitu or Tao, Source, (you get the picture) is both Yin and Yang. And as we see in the taijitu, yin and yang are perfectly equal (but also different). So man is not superior to woman. It's funny to me because for as long as I can remember, which dates back way before my awareness of the yin and yang concept, I have seen the union of man and woman as two halves to a better whole. In my eyes, I saw the differences in men and women and believed that together, they could be utilized to formulate better decisions.  Not completely logically based, not completely emotionally based but balanced and more perfect. This is possibly an oversimplification of the whole idea but I think it goes along the same process of thought. 

  And so it seems that we find ourselves at the end of yet another exciting journey through space, time and the Tao. All that is left to say in closing then is that I look forward to a world where not only ethnic groups embrace each other and religions stop fighting for first place but also a world that sees both men and women as necessary equals both bringing their gifts to the table in the interests of peace, harmony and unity.

 Namaste