Theos-Talk Archives (June 1994 Message tl00041)

This is by Brenda Tucker.  It is part three of a several part
speech from 1991.

(From Robert Carter's THE TAO OF MOTHER GOOSE)

THE TRUTH OF AN IDEA CANNOT BE CONFINED TO THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF ITS
ORIGIN.  OCCASIONALLY WE ALL SPEAK MORE THAN WE KNOW, AND SO IT MAY
MATTER LESS WHERE THE RHYMES COME FROM AND WHAT WAS THEIR INTENT
THAN WHAT WE MAY GAIN FROM CONSIDERING THEM.

THE TRUTH OR FALSITY OF ANY THEORY IS SUBJECT TO CONFIRMATION OR
REJECTION BY YOU, THE LISTENER, AT A PURELY INTUITIVE AND
EXPERIENTIAL LEVEL.

WE TEND TO LEARN ONLY WHAT WE KNOW, AND CANNOT LEARN WHAT WE DO NOT
KNOW.  WHEN A FAMILIAR SPARK OF RECOGNITION IS LIT WITHIN US, WE
CANNOT BE DISSUADED FROM ITS TRUTH.  OUR MINDS MAY BE TURNED AWAY
BY ARGUMENT, BUT NEVER AT THE DEEPER INNER LEVEL WHERE WE LIVE.

BOTH SETS OF VERSES SEEM TO BE ADDRESSED TO THAT DEEPER LEVEL.

Hush a by Baby - The tree is symbolical of the Tree of Life and
Death. The tree becomes a cross.  If you remember, it was where
Adam was buried that Seth planted a twig from the tree of Paradise,
which became Christ's Cross.  In this rhyme we traverse life from
being tucked into a cradle to being tucked into a coffin.  The
particular becomes the universal, the universal is rooted in the
particular - Not Two and Not One, not separate and not the same.
This lesson is also a lesson of the Tao. (See verse 2 found later
in part 3.)  Most people can't explain the message, but at an
unconscious level and within the symbols, the message is present.
Within the rhyme is security but at the disturbance of the wind
there is a fall.  This rhyme covers the years from 0-20.

Humpty Dumpty - The egg is a biological form, etc. to symbolize
wholeness, dome of sky, dome of Church (Freud said this first). The
world comes from a cosmic egg, according to traditions of Egyptian,
Hinduism, Buddhism, Plato, Greek and Roman myths, and according to
this symbol of birth at Easter.  All of humanity's collective and
social efforts, their group efforts, are not enough to restore us
to union with God.  The forces seeking restoration are of two
kinds, both powers of the king.  These are the horses and the men,
symbolizing the intuitive and rational energy.  (The horse could
actually be either.)  We are experiencing that there are "not two"
just as the Knight of Faith does when he becomes no one separate.
All our efforts fail and we cannot restore Humpty, so put no faith
in these.  Present with this rhyme is an underlying mention of the
gifts of intellect and emotion.  The Knight of Resignation on the
other hand is irreversibly and irreconcilably split apart.

Verses 64, 2, and 7 (Wise Man) from the TAO TE CHING:

Verse 64

Peace is easily maintained;
Trouble is easily overcome before it starts.
The brittle is easily shattered;
The small is easily scattered.

Deal with it before it happens.
Set things in order before there is confusion.

A tree as great as a man's embrace springs from a small shoot;
A terrace nine stories high begins with a pile of earth;
A journey of a thousand miles starts under one's feet.

He who acts defeats his own purpose;
He who grasps loses.
The sage does not act, and so is not defeated.
He does not grasp and therefore does not lose.

People usually fail when they are on the verge of success.
So give as much care to the end as to the beginning;
Then there will be no failure.

Therefore the sage seeks freedom from desire.
He does not collect precious things.
He learns not to hold on to ideas.
He brings men back to what they have lost.
He helps the ten thousand things find their own nature,
But refrains from action.


Verse 2

Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty only because there is
   ugliness.
All can know good as good only because there is evil.

Therefore having and not having arise together.
Difficult and easy complement each other.
Long and short contrast each other;
High and low rest upon each other;
Voice and sound harmonize each other;
Front and back follow one another.

Therefore the sage goes about doing nothing, teaching no-talking.
The ten thousand things rise and fall without cease,
Creating, yet not possessing,
Working, yet not taking credit.
Work is done, then forgotten.
Therefore it lasts forever.


Verse 7

Heaven and earth last forever.
Why do heaven and earth last forever?
They are unborn,
So ever living.
The sage stays behind, thus he is ahead.
He is detached, thus at one with all.
Through selfless action, he attains fulfillment.


Mary had a Little Lamb

Mary had a little lamb,
Its fleece was white as snow;
And everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go.

It followed her to school one day,
That was against the rule;
It made the children laugh and play,
To see a lamb in school.

And so the teacher turned it out,
But still it lingered near,
And waited patiently about
Till Mary did appear.

Why does the lamb love Mary so?
The eager children cry;
Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know,
The teacher did reply.


Mary had a Little Lamb manifests gentleness, trustfulness and other
Christian virtues.  The lamb is either accompanied by or embodied
by the purity of the essence of oneness - in humans this is
portrayed as humility, holy simplicity, and patience.  Mary
maintains her purity and innocence until she is ready to go to
school and then the children are amazed at this unstained condition
and the teacher helps to toss it out.  The moral being that school
seldom nurtures our souls.  It discourages daydreaming which may be
meditation.  Fortunately, our "lambs" too may be waiting when we
finish school.

Little Bo Peep

Little Bo-peep has lost her sheep,
  And can't tell where to find them:
Let them alone, and they'll come home,
  And bring their tails behind them.

Little Bo-peep fell fast asleep,
  And dreamt she heard them bleating:
But when she awoke, she found it a joke,
  For they were still all fleeting.

Then up she took her little crook,
  Determin'd for to find them;
She found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed,
  For they'd left their tails behind 'em.

It happen'd one day, as Bo-peep did stray,
  Into a meadow hard by;
That she espy'd their tails side by side,
  All hung on a tree to dry.

She heav'd a sigh and wip'd her eye,
  And over the hills went stump-o
And tried what she cou'd, as a shepherdess shou'd,
  To tack each again to its rump-o.

Little Bo Peep has been found printed in 1810, and a game of that
name: bopeep was played in 1364.  (Also you may be reminded of peek
a boo or hide and go seek.) Bo-peep is older and more responsible
than a young child.  The advice we find here is renunciation, in
order to allow the motion of the Tao to flow through Little Bo
Peep.  Since she is so conscious, she ignores her dream and ignores
the advice and just sets out to DO it.  She succeeds, but they are
mutilated.  But Bo Peep upon wandering sees upon a tree what it is
the sheep are missing.  She returns with them and tries to restore
the sheep (or to repair her neglected and abused soul.)  If you
refer to verse 64 given above, you will see how "care given to the
end" is an important step on the road to completion.

Verses 37, 63, 57, and 48 are relevant.

Verse 37

Tao abides in non-action,
Yet nothing is left undone.
If kings and lords observed this,
The ten thousand things would develop naturally.
If they still desired to act,
They would return to the simplicity of formless substance.
Without form there is no desire.
Without desire there is tranquility.
And in this way all things would be at peace.


Verse 63

Practice non-action.
Work without doing.
Taste the tasteless.
Magnify the small, increase the few.
Reward bitterness with care.

See simplicity in the complicated.
Achieve greatness in little things.

In the universe the difficult things are done as if they are easy.
In the universe great acts are made up of small deeds.
The sage does not attempt anything very big,
And thus achieves greatness.

Easy promises make for little trust.
Taking things lightly results in great difficulty.
Because the sage always confronts difficulties,
He never experiences them.


Verse 57

Rule a nation with justice.
Wage war with surprise moves.
Become master of the universe without striving.
How do I know that this is so?
Because of this!

The more laws and restrictions there are,
The poorer people become.
The sharper men's weapons,
The more trouble in the land.
The more ingenious and clever men are,
The more strange things happen.
The more rules and regulations,
The more thieves and robbers.

Therefore the sage says:
  I take no action and people are reformed.
  I enjoy peace and people become honest.
  I do nothing and people become rich.
  I have no desires and people return to the good and simple life.


Verse 48

In the pursuit of learning, every day something is acquired.
In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped.

Less and less is done
Until non-action is achieved.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.

The world is ruled by letting things take their course.
It cannot be ruled by interfering.


Little Boy Blue - This rhyme refers to Cardinal Thomas (1475-1530),
and it may have been taken from King Lear.  The symbols are a male
shepherd, the color blue, a horn, and sleeping under a haystack.
Christianly, blue is the color of devotion.  A haystack or cosmic
mountain, like the tree, unites the heavenly and the earthly.
Whatever lies underneath it is hidden.  In this case, a divine
child is buried and hidden within the unconscious.  He has let his
conscious activity go for a time in order that he may study the
divine in the unconscious.  He has entered a higher state, the all
embracing nature of psychic wholeness, according to Jung.  The
eternal child - boy blue - is all that is exposed and abandoned and
divinely powerful.  The author calls the eternal child in man an
indescribable experience, one with incongruity, handicap, and
divine prerogative.  This experience is how we determine the
ultimate worth or worthlessness of a personality.  He won't be
awakened and it is out of fear - a warning about psychic dangers
which may become involved in awakening the Divine Child within.
The rhyme is a description of the sleeping savior, his function as
shepherd of the instinctive forces within the soul, and a
description of his secret location - buried within the unconscious.
There is a gentle warning of the difficulties that may be
encountered in awakening him.

Little Boy Blue

Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn,
The cow's in the meadow, the sheep in the corn:
But where is the little boy tending the sheep?
He's under the hay-cock fast asleep.
Will you wake him?  No, not I,
For if I do, he's sure to cry.

Children see a search for a special child, the only one who can
take charge of the animals, and he has extraordinary powers!!  A
child they can find, too, if they only look "under the haystack".

Peter and the Pumpkin - Here we have two figures, a pair, and they
are two wives.  The wives are aspects of Peter.  The first wife is
elusive until she is confined.  The second is not loved, until
Peter has learned to read and spell.  The pumpkin is a friendly
symbol which frightens away evil.  It is used in Cinderella, a
story from the ninth Century Chinese, which is associated with tiny
foot size.  The pumpkin is vegetal, though not tree, or animal when
seen as a symbol of the Great Mother (nature).  Peter eats nature
(or through this act is linked with a portion of his own
unconscious), but then his first wife is an aspect of the
unconscious which proves elusive.  When he rightfully places her,
he is then able to deal with her.  His second wife represents
budding, but undeveloped consciousness.  Peter is partially
unconscious and pre-conscious.  He finds the conscious mind
alluring as is also the unconscious.

Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater

Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater,
Had a wife and couldn't keep her;
He put her in a pumpkin shell
And there he kept her very well.

Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater,
Had another, and didn't lover her;
Peter learned to read and spell,
And then he loved her very well.


Jack and Jill

Jack and Gill
Went up the Hill,
  To fetch a Pail of Water;
Jack fell down
And broke his Crown,
  And Gill came tumbling after.

Up Jack got, and home did trot,
  As fast as he could caper,
To old Dame Dob, who patched his nob,
  With vinegar and brown paper.

When Gill came in, how she did grin,
  To see Jack's paper plaster;
Dame Dob, vexed, did whip her next
  For causing Jack's disaster.

Jack and Jill - These rhymes may not be modern, but they are accurate
symbolically.  There is an ancient Scandinavian story about Hjuki - to
increase and Bil - to dissolve.  These represent phases of the moon as
these were performed by the man in the moon - Mani.  Carrying water
relates to the tides connection with the moon and this must have been
known from very early times.  What would a myth of the tides be in
terms of conscious and unconscious? Water on top of a hill must be
special.  Water sometimes represents the Tao or the unconscious as
found in Verses 4 and 78.  Well in fairy tales water is a gate to the
underworld and the domain of earth mother.  The hill is a link or path
between heaven and earth.  Two opposite forces, Yin and Yang, exist
within a sea of the unconscious.  At any rate the two fail in gathering
the unconscious or water, Jack breaks his crown - the highest center of
consciousness, and Jill tumbles after.  Jack is taken care of, and Jill
for teasing him is whipped by old woman.  Are the two women competing
for Jack? Should he fail in journey to the Tao, the solace of a mother
is awaiting his return.  Should Jill fare better than her friend, it
won't be for long as Dame Dobb is out to even the score.

Verse 4

The Tao is an empty vessel; it is used, but never filled.
Oh, unfathomable source of ten thousand things!
Blunt the sharpness,
Untangle the knot,
Soften the glare,
Merge with dust.
Oh, hidden deep but ever present!
I do not know from whence it comes.
It is the forefather of the emperors.

Verse 78

Under heaven nothing is more soft and yielding than water.
Yet for attacking the solid and strong, nothing is better;
It has no equal.
The weak can overcome the strong;
The supple can overcome the stiff.
Under heaven everyone knows this,
Yet no one puts it into practice.
Therefore the sage says:
  He who takes upon himself the humiliation of the people is fit to
      rule them.
  He who takes upon himself the country's disasters deserves to be
      king of the universe.
The truth often sounds paradoxical.

As nursery rhymes contain heros and monsters, so these become Gods
and Devils.  In childhood, God is unnecessary.  Where there is
sufficient inner richness, the barest and simplest external symbol
will do its work.  Where there is inner poverty, as in some adults,
an outward symbol needs to be flamboyant, emboldened, and magnified
to make itself felt.  An adult may not even notice symbols that are
fully evident to children in nursery rhymes.  A favorite symbol
like the tree, while living, timeless, and complete within the
psyche, requires only a bare outward form to make the inner
emblazoned tree spring to life.  When our inner tree is shriveled
and dying, then we require all the richness of visual detail, and
all the accurately observed texture, color, number of leaves,
twigs, branches, and trunk reproduced faithfully for us to once
again experience something of the tree we have lost or never had.

Next time, we look at some information on monsters.

Robert Carter, in most cases, uses the earliest printed version of
the rhyme.  I did find a book in the bookstore which contains
frequently the same version (with only slight differences) of the
rhymes as he prefers them, which sometimes just means additional
verses.  It is Eric Kincaid's MOTHER GOOSE CLASSIC NURSERY RHYMES,
published by Brimax Books, England, 1988, and beautifully
illustrated, if anyone is interested.

The TAO TE CHING verses are not Robert Carter's versions.  They are
the translation mentioned earlier by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English,
Vintage Books (Random House), 1972.