“There are some days when I think I am going to die from an overdose of satisfaction.”
Salvador Dali, Spanish artist, Taurus, b. 11 May 1904 – d. 23 January 1989
The Sun travels through the astrological sign of Taurus each year from ~21 April until ~ 21 May. In the Northern Hemisphere, we find the power of springtime courses through the world, as light grows greater, the air becomes ever warmer, and nature quivers with fecundity. Go into a garden on a late spring day, preferably sunny, and make sure it’s a day after a thorough, drenching rain. Get down onto the ground, with a little shovel (or even better, bare-handed) and dig deep into the soft, warming soil. Inhale deeply and smell the scent of fertile Earth. Feel the texture of the soil, dense and lush, and observe the little creatures going about their business all around. You will find the wonders of the Earth in that moment, warm, rich and soft, bursting with life, fertile and steady. If you are not interested in gardening, and consider yourself more of a city mouse, then take the afternoon and spend it at a museum or art gallery, and top off your day with a fine meal at a posh bistro or restaurant, ensuring that you have all the courses available, including drinks and dessert. This is Taurus.
Sun in Taurus expresses the essence of Fixed Earth. Taurus people are Venus ruled, sensual creatures of comfort, pleasure and dependability. They prefer to know where their next meal is coming from, when they are going to have it, exactly how it will be prepared, how it will be paid for, and by whom. They do not like deviation from routine, preferring to cultivate a sense of security and foreknowledge in their everyday lives. Venus ensures that Taurus people are typically quite pleasant and refined; these folks do not like anything vulgar or upsetting rocking the course of their placid days. At their best, Taurus is sophisticated, elegant, pampered and urbane, appreciative of fine art and all things of beauty and comfort. They know which are the best restaurants, and which dessert is worth the calories . Scheduled pleasure is the best pleasure, as far as they are concerned, and if you want to understand your Taurus friends, just see what happens when you try changing plans on the fly. It won’t go over well, and you will slowly be edged out of their social graces, which, given how seriously they take the cultivation of pleasure, won’t be a very comfortable position for very long. At their worst, Taurus can be jealous, possessive, selfish, belligerent, lascivious, hedonistic, obstinate, petty and crude, and while it takes a lot for Taurus to degenerate to a negative state, the Venus-ruled are not completely innocent of succumbing to debauchery every now and again.
Taurus people like to feel loved and admired, they want to smell good, taste delightful things, touch things that are soft and secure, and ultimately, always know that there is money in the bank to keep the good times rolling for as long as possible. Taurus rules money, art, and wealth, and they expend their energies ensuring that they have enough of everything. Not quick to get upset, they will put up with a lot just to keep the peace, because peace is pleasant and why bother expending any of their carefully stored resources in a fight, when deep down they know that things rarely change. Get a Taurus upset, and you will be very sorry. They will explode, and all the strength of that finely honed patience will come crashing down in a blow out that will at the least, be memorable, at the worst, a complete deal-breaker. Getting angry is a large energy expenditure, and a Taurus is grudging with any expenditure, energetic or otherwise. When Taurus gets to a place of anger, you had better believe that they mean it and if you are on the receiving end, like it or not, you will surely remember the thrashing you receive, Taurus outbursts often becoming the stuff of legend: “Remember when Uncle Steve got SO MAD…” If anyone can teach a lesson so that it will stick, it’s a Taurus native. Some of the very best lessons they teach, though, are of generosity, patience, dependability, and loyalty. If you are looking for a true, blue friend who will help you out when you really need it, Taurus is a great bet, as they are, at heart, gentle, sensitive, caring souls who truly believe in the power of love and friendship.
While great lovers of all things fine and placid, Taurus has its polarity point as well, which is embodied in the sign of Scorpio. If Taurus finds themselves getting a little too predictable, things are a bit too easy going (read boring), let them look to their Scorpio alter-ego to shake things down a bit. Taurus would do well to remember that it’s not all sweetness and light, and that while they are enjoying their stable, pleasant existence, there is a whole world festering and seething deep on the down-low. Scorpio can teach Taurus what power, ownership and dominance of the material really means, for they have travelled all the darkest paths to get to the very bottom of things. For true security, Taurus sometimes has to explore and remember the depths as well.
- Key words: loyal, dependable, generous, patient, reliable, calm, gentle, elegant, lascivious, hedonistic, jealous, obstinate, belligerent, self-indulgent, resentful, greedy, petty, intractable
- Rulership: Venus, the Planet of Love
- Modality: Fixed Earth
- Polarity: negative feminine
- Gemstone: emerald, agate, coral, topaz
- Metal: copper, all coins and rings, metal jewelry
- Tarot: The Hierophant
- Color: pastels, soft creamy colors, rich dark brown, deep olive green, deep indigo
- Deities: Hathor, Venus, Osiris, Hera, Shiva as sacred bull
- Flora: daisies, wheat, flax, larkspur, lilies, spinach, grapes, artichoke, asparagus, apple, violet, poppy, rose sugarcane
- Fauna: bull, cattle of all types
- Famous Taurus personalities: Queen Elizabeth II, Salvador Dali, The Rock, Adele, Tina Fey, David Beckham, Henry Cavill, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Jerry Seinfeld, Bono, Adolf Hitler, Karl Marx, Gal Godot, George Clooney, Sid Vicious, Malcolm X, Liberace, Daniel Day Lewis, Nicolo Machiavelli, Vladimir Lenin, Marcus Aurelius, Ho Chi Minh, William Randolph Hearst, Stephen Harper, abolitionist John Brown.
