The Signs and Accomplished People – 12 Part Series – Taurus
Our second sign Taurus is a fixed earth sign. It’s solid like concrete. It represents endurance, consistency, lack of change, and the tendency to fit comfortably into a rut. It approaches chaos with routinization. Chronic illness is associated with fixed signs and practicality is associated with earth signs.
Taurus is symbolized by the bull. This tells us that Taurus is strong, fertile, and potent. In fact, the Taurus image is of a charging bull. Isn’t mass x acceleration = force. This would make Taurus a symbol of tremendous force. Taurus’s body part is the neck and shows Taurus supporting Aries, the head. So Taurus is a support troop for a leader. The throat, ears, and thyroid are also associated with this sign . The ears represent obedience and, according to Jeanne Avery, the throat chakra is powerful because the voice can effect a lot of people.
Taurus is ruled by the beautiful goddess of love, Venus and both rule the heart of spring.
Think of a beautiful meadow with cows and wild flowers in the month of May. Experiencing nature is good for Taurus and they have a natural sense of beauty. Like Venus, Taurus is about sensuous pleasure. Money and the comfort and luxury that it can buy are part of Taurus; think of the bull market and Venus.
Evangeline Adams calls this sign and the other fixed signs cherubic. She associated this group of angels who guard the Ark of the Covenant and the Throne of God with Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius; the bull, the lion, the eagle, and the man. These signs are described in Ezekial’s vision and in Revelations and they are shown on the rendering of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.
Mythological and historical stories associated with Taurus are the Minotaur, the Golden Calf, and Apis the Bull.
The dynamic of Taurus is inertia. Taurus remains at rest or remains on a course unless acted upon. The gift of Taurus is contenment and calm.
Scorpio is the sign opposite Taurus and contrast spring and fall, new life and death, and beauty with rawness that we like to cover. The Bull impregnates, the Scorpion kills.
Here are some insights by other astrologers.
Allen Oken describes Taurus as consistent, loyal, reliable, a preserver of tradition, patient, persistent, purposeful, and having great reserves of power. On the negative side, Taurus can be opinionated, inflexible, fanatical, stuffy, formal, inert, bound by habits, resistent to change, and a hoarder. He says Taurus has a love of inactivity and is stubborn and determined. He describes Aries as Adam and Taurus as the Garden of Eden.
As an aside Oken mentions the quadruplicities as principles of diveristy. And the elements as principles of unity. For example, the fixed signs show Taurus/life, Leo/power, Scorpio/death, and Aquarius/democracy. The earth signs show Taurus/money, Virgo/work, and Capricorn/social standing.
He also divides the seasons into cardinal/creation, fixed/preservation, and mutable/destruction.
Taurus is noted for singers and those with great speaking voices like: Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Barbara Streisand, Lanie Kazan, Ella Fitzgerald, Enzio Pinza, and Liza Menelli. Add Mae West and Orson Wells for their speaking voices.
Kathleen Burt in her Archetypes of the Zodiac reminds us that Taurus contains famous stars, the Pleides and Aldebaran, the eye of the bull. She notes that Taurus is about concentration and that being feminine, it is open to God. The choices for Taurus are routine or indulgence.
Alan Leo says that the conflict in Taurus is between will and desire. He notes that they are great at massage and healing.
For conflicts Jeanne Avery, in The Rising Sign, suggest pleasure vs. disipline and routine vs. fun.
Evangeline Adams cites Taurus as having great mildness and great strength.
C.C.Zain notes that Taurus can accomplish great tasks by taking them step by step.
Kustesky defines Virgo as the engineer, Capricorn as the organizer of industry, and Taurus as the perfector of details and the custodian of wealth. He also notes that psychometry through touch is associated with Taurus.
In Astrology the Divine Science, More and Douglas make a marvelous contrast between Aries and Taurus.
Exaltation Aries Sun Taurus Moon
Ruler Mars Venus
Positive Negative
Outgoing Incoming
Expression Impression
Spirit Matter
Male Female
Additionally they cite a Taurus they know as saying that, “My favorite exercise is rolling in money.”
Max Heindel sums things up by saying that the Sun in Taurus is good with money and strong. That one with the Moon in Taurus is stable and gentle. And that Taurus rising is steadfast in all that he does.
Let’s look at 5 charts as examples of the principles of Taurus.
The first is the meeting of the railroad lines at promintory point. You will note that the chart is Mercury ruled and that Mercury conjuncts the MC in Gemini. This correspondes to the railroad factor. Now look at Taurus. There is a new moon there. New moons represent the ending of an old cycle and the beginning of a new. The beginning of transcontinental transportation was a new beginning in commerce and the ending was the end of the buffalo. People would shoot them from the trains.
Now lets look at Orson Wells. We can associate his fine voice with his Sun and 1st house ruler in Taurus. I’d associate his intelligence with Saturn in Gemini in the 1st and the Moon conjunct Uranus. During his War of the Worlds event, transiting Uranus was near his Mercury, Neptune was square his Ascendant, and Pluto was conjunct his Neptune. These are strange planets associated with a strange event.
Mae West is another example of a Taurus voice with her Ascendant in Taurus. She has Sun in Leo and strikes me as having done whatever she wanted. I think the Leo and Taurus are associated with her sexiness.
The art of Pablo Picasso is synonymous with money. He had Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter, and Pluto in Taurus at the top of the chart. These are impersonal planets but they tied to personal planets in Leo and Scorpio. Incidentally, I associate his art with these planets in Taurus for a sene of beauty, Venus square Mars for creativity, Leo rising for creativity, and the Moon near Antares in the 5th with asteroids Juno, Pallas, and Ceres for additional creativity.
Finally let’s look at Teillard de Chardin, the philosopher, scientist, and Jesuit. He had Saturn, Jupiter, the Sun, Neptune, Venus, and Pluto in Taurus and noted as a child that he loved durable things. He said that in his youth iron was his idol.