“The Bull Modality”:

 

The Bull 

Modality: Fixed
Element: Earth
Ruler: Venus
Season: Spring
2nd Sign of Zodiac 

Metal: Copper
Stone: Emerald
Colour: Green, pink & light blue. 
Anatomy: Neck, throat

Keywords: persevering, down-to-earth, stable, stubborn, possessive, prosperous, dependable, physical, sensual

Sun in Taurus

“(The Sun is in Taurus from approximately April 20 to May 20, depending on the year).  There is something very solid about Taurus natives, no matter what the rest of their charts say about them. Though they are dependable most of the time, this generally shows itself more in habit than in outright helpfulness.Taurus natives are sensual folk–and this includes sex, but extends to pleasures in all areas: they delight in the sensual pleasures of food, a comfortable blanket, the smell of flowers or spring rain, pleasing melodies coming from their stereos, and so forth. Some might even say they live through their senses more than most. When Taurus natives work, they work hard. They do it with a steadiness that may rarely be considered quick–rather it’s a dependable, plodding, and steady effort that has its payoffs. Security is immensely important to Taurus–some of them actively seek wealth, while others are content to be “comfortable”. The Taurus definition of “comfortable” may not be exactly the same as the rest of the signs, but comfort is definitely a driving force.Although hard-working, their fixed and comfort-loving nature sometimes makes them appear lazy. This is only because they separate work and leisure so well. When they work, they work hard, and when they play, they don’t really “play” as such…they relax. A Solar Taurus who has kicked his or her feet up is rooted there–you’d be hard-pressed to get them to move. On a mental level, you’ll likely have the same problem. Taureans stick with things and ideas, and therein lies one of the reasons why they are known for their stubbornness. Taurus is a fixed sign, and they have a fair measure of tradition and steadiness in their make-up that keeps them rooted.The possessiveness associated with Taurus shows up in all areas of life in some way. Taurus likes to own things (and sometimes people). A nice home, a piece of land (this can be modest), a paid-off car, that aquarium mentioned earlier, a couple pets, maybe a solid business…In love and relationship, there is an earthy kind of possessiveness that may be considered jealousy by some, but there is actually quite a difference between being possessive and being jealous. Taurus natives are rarely jealous and petty. They do, however, think of the people they love as theirs–it adds to their sense of security.

Taurus Zodiac

You just can’t remove the sheen of the good earth on them.

Ferdinand the Bull, in the famous children’s story, is a lovable creature. He amuses himself by smelling the flowers, listening to the birdsong, enjoying the summer breezes. He doesn’t do very much, our Ferdinand; but he’s easily contented, and at home in his pasture. Then one day he sits on a flower, and on the flower is a bee… Well, you can work out the rest. Ferdinand the Bull is a perfect Taurean. And the story of many Taureans’ lives run along those lines – the contentment of the field and the flowers; but there is always that damned bee.

Taurus, the Bull, is ruled by the planet Venus. In mythology, Venus is the goddess of love and beauty. She’s also the most indolent of all the Olympian deities, preferring her considerable pleasures to the nuisance of hard work. All this describes very nicely one side of the Taurean nature. A few words encapsulate it; peace, serenity, pleasure, calm, stability, placidity. The famous patience of the Bull isn’t so much patience built upon discipline and cynicism, as is Capricorn’s. It’s the patience of nature, of the earth itself, serene and living each day for the pleasures it holds, while tomorrow – so long as it can be guaranteed that tomorrow will be the same as today – is forgotten.

There are other sides to Taurus, of course. In a sense, you can place Taureans at one of two phases in their lives: before and after that most dreaded aspect of life to Taurus, the thing that goes innately against the grain – change.

Among the traditional associations to Taurus is the realm of material stability and security. And there’s no doubt about it, Taurus likes his security in tangible, unchangeable forms – like gold bullion, or valuable antique furniture, or a really superb Ferrari. Abstract wealth, tied up in investments, or wealth of a non-corporal kind (like knowledge, self-understanding, friends, and other less graspable commodities) is not really wealth to a Taurus. Security is what you can trust. What you can trust is what doesn’t change, corrode, leave you, disappear, or depend upon others for its value. Once he has it, he can relax. Often he relaxes so much that he barely moves again.

There’s another aspect to this security-building impulse in Taurus. This has to do with Taurus’ way of looking at life. When we discuss the element of earth in general, we mentioned that it had to do with dealing with reality – concrete, tangible reality. Taurus, the first of the earthy signs, excels at this ‘realistic’ viewpoint. Taurus is never foolishly idealistic. Never naïve about the requirements and demands of ordinary life. A true Taurus always has one eye cocked toward how he can sustain and preserve himself in life. He’s always realistic in his goals, always setting them where he can fulfill them. Taken by itself, Taurus isn’t an ambitious sign. He can quite happily remain the unseen power behind the scenes: the investor, the accountant, the one who keeps the business running without getting the public laurels. Taurus is realistic enough to know that you can’t eat laurels, and they won’t fix a leaky roof.

The other side of the coin with this great realism is that Taurus often misses what’s not visible to his earthy eye. He values simplicity and basic facts; but many aspects of life are neither simple nor reducible to formulae. We might call this the Boring Pragmatist syndrome. He’s boring largely because, if he can’t hold it in the palm of his hand, he has nothing to say about the matter, let alone any appreciation for its nuances. Never mind all those hyacinths for the soul. 

Taureans lack  understanding of the symbolic, the romantic, the dramatic. Taurus likes his meat and potatoes plain, without sauce. They must, of course, be of the absolutely best quality; but he doesn’t appreciate frills. He also doesn’t appreciate possibilities. For something to be real to Taurus, it must be more than possible. It must be definite.

This pragmatism about things which might be foggy, woolly, charlatan, or false, works to Taurus’ advantage as well. It keeps him out of mischief, and helps him to establish the absolute reliability of anything he allows into his life. This applies to relationships as well. Taurus is the kind of person who prefers to know a lot about you, to ‘check your references’ in a bizarre sort of way, before he makes any commitment. After all, that’s the sensible, realistic thing to do. Although he has a sentimental, gentle, romantic streak, it’s backed up by healthy cynicism. In the midst of the bouquets of roses, he might quietly have a peek at your bank balance and inquire about your family. It’s not that he expects you to provide the riches for him. He just likes to know that everything is stable, secure and reliable. Including you.

Let’s consider the famous sensuality of Taurus. The true Taurean is an undeniably sensuous creature. This means not only in the sexual realm, but in anything that pleases the senses. Colour: Taurus often has a real flair for design, for colour, perhaps for painting or photography. Sound: Taurus is well-known for its love of music, and many Taureans have become famous singers or composers (like Tchaikovsky). Touch: this means not only responsiveness to physical touch, but a love of texture; silk, velvet, satin, fur. Yes, of course, it costs money, but Taurus isn’t interested in anything cheap. Taste: well, that can be a problem. Love of good food leads many a Taurean into weight problems. Lots of Taureans have a sleek well-fed look – not floppy fat, but solid flesh, the sign of the person who eats not only what tastes good but is also good quality. ……Perhaps a little too much good quality. Your Taurus friend is bound to know all the best restaurants – not the fashionable ones, necessarily (that’s where the Geminis and Sagittarians go) but the really reliable ones with excellent food.  Smell: Taureans are terribly sensitive to smell, and usually have a great affinity for luxurious scents to various kinds, from flowers to priceless perfume, Taurus likes to surround himself with good smells. Often the senses of the Taurus are so acute and intense that he finds it unbearable to be around anything that looks, smells, or feels sordid or cheap or ugly. Taurus has a strong instinct for harmony.

Taste is another quality often to be found in Taurus. Taurus’ tastes tend toward the conventional, rather than the startling; if you want shocking taste, try the fire signs, or perhaps the air signs. Earth, being more realistic and conscious of the demands of society, tends toward things of good quality which are not likely to suddenly go out of style in six months. Taurus is not a ‘fad’ person, but within the confines of his more solid, almost bourgeois palate, his taste is usually impeccable and never obtrusive. Maybe a really good car, like a Bentley or a Rolls Royce (never something as flashy and unreliable as a Lamborghini, which always has to be in the shop to be tuned). …..Something reliable that speaks not fashion, but solid wealth. Taurus has strong roots in tradition and often there’s a love of the old and the antique; antique furniture, antique lace, antique shawls and jewelry, old masters’ paintings. Solid, ageless, valuable.

With Taurus’ love of beauty, he’s bound to create an environment that has as much beauty and pleasing atmosphere as possible, on the other hand, he’s often so occupied with physical beauty that he may miss what lies underneath! Taurus is the original sucker for a pretty face, he can value beauty so much, in objects and people, that he overlooks and underestimates qualities such as perceptiveness, wit, intelligence, and character. It isn’t that difficult to fool a Taurean if you are beautiful. Sad to say, many Taureans are hopelessly ensnared by appearances…..It’s one of their great failings.

Taurus is also a collector of objects, money, and people. What he collects must have value to him. He will treasure it, take care of it, shower attention on it, and hang on with both tough fists tightly encircling it. This is why Taurus is often the partner people seek when they seek the real security of a stable, unchanging relationship. No matter what happens or what you do, Taurus will stand by you. He may not always understand your motives, but he’ll remain loyal regardless.

Because the gods seem to resent complacency, there is usually a bee in the flowers, it seems to be a necessary part of the life pattern. Often the Taurus himself courts this bee without realizing it, unconsciously setting up the situation,  he is shocked thinking it happened by chance or was someone else’s fault, but without the sting, he remains charming and childlike. Many adult Taureans are so childlike that it’s astonishing. Life is terribly simple to them, black and white, with no shades of grey in between. They have it all worked out, logically, systematically, and simply. Good people are good and go to heaven; bad people are bad and go to hell. Childlike and trusting. What the bee offers is a capacity to take this precious childlike simplicity and combine it with a little earthly realism. It’s a lovely combination, once achieved. For you have a person who not only knows the realities of life and can deal with them, but who can also live happily and contentedly in the moment, capable of abandoning himself to his pleasures in the wholehearted way that children have before it’s pounded out of them. Remember the goddess Venus, she is, in many ways, the eternal child.

Taurus Woman

As the bull is a supremely masculine creature, the cow is supremely female.  Sometimes, in modern usage, cowlike is considered to mean dull, slow, boring.  But the Greeks saw the cow differently; they named the goddess of love and desire, Venus, the Cow-Eyed.  And the Egyptians also had a cow-goddess, Hathor, a symbol of the fertility of the earth and of woman.  The female Taurus is often the epitome of the instinctual feminine – the dream-image of many men, and with all the softness, strength, wisdom, patience and passion of her goddess antecedents.

There seem to be two distinct types of Taurus woman.  The first is the real Venusian Taurus.  These are the lovely ones, with perfect complexions, surrounded by beautiful scent, dressed in sensuous, expensive clothes.  Janet Reger probably does a thriving business in glamorous pure silk, underclothes for the Taurus women of this world.  Pampered, indolent, sensuous, and very concerned both with their own attractiveness and their capacity to please a man, they owe a lot to the old temple priestesses in the days when the power of the earth goddess represented the power of life itself.  This kind of Taurus woman is the ideal feminine for men.  Her problem is that she often doesn’t do much, or think much, of anything else.

The Venus Taurean woman is devoted, and usually loyal – provided you give her security, and take care of her, and pamper her.  She will offer everything of herself, and her tenacity and faithfulness is admirable.  Sometimes it’s too admirable; try to release yourself from a relationship with a Taurean woman like this, and you have to be either very callous or give up, since she’ll hang on with that incredible Taurean tenacity until you give up and come back out of sheer exhaustion.  Taurus women can wait; and they often do wait, and wait, and wait, for the commitment or the promise.  As we mentioned earlier, Taurus is attracted to fire.  Many Taurus women are fascinated by the fiery types – unfortunately, the least reliable of all the men of the zodiac.  They love glamour and success and a little dash, a little fleet-of-foot unpredictability.  They themselves are willing and ready to play earth mother.  Be sure you want an earth mother.  Flirtatious at the beginning, Taurus settles into stability very easily and quickly.  The benefits of the care and love of a Taurus woman are inestimable.  If you prize your freedom, however, try another sign, like Gemini or Aquarius.

The other type of Taurus woman is the ‘natural’ type.  She is still an earth-mother and her qualities of devotion, gentleness, steadfastness and strength are as much present here, perhaps more so.  But these are the women who eschew make-up, eat healthily, live in the country, despise cigarette smoke, and want to go back to the old ways of life.  If you have that secret fantasy of the cottage in the country covered with climbing roses with your own horse stabled in the field behind, and the lovely smell of fresh-baked bread wafting out from the kitchen, this kind of Taurus woman is for you.  Be careful, though, if you get fidgety easily.   If you like to travel, give her at least three months’ notice.  And don’t, for God’s sake, change plans at the last minute.

Taurus women are often very literal.  That is, they believe what you say, and hold you to it the next day.  If you’re one of those people who change their mind a lot, be careful.  Taurus is capable at hurling at you, ‘But you said you loved me.’  ‘But that was a year ago,’ you reply.  So what?’ retorts Taurus.  ‘You promised.’  And so it goes.  If you promise, mean it.  She simply doesn’t understand, otherwise.  And you get cast in the role of the bastard.

No matter which of the two types of Taurus woman, there is an innate naïveté and wholesomeness, a naturalness, that experience doesn’t seem to be able to quench.  Even the Taurus woman, whose practical abilities and business acumen and persistence have led her to build a career for herself in the world, possesses this naïveté.  Simplicity is perhaps a kinder word.  It can be both – charming ingenuousness or infuriating literalness.  But the great gift of the Taurus woman is her ability to keep things within the realm of common sense, whether it’s in a domestic environment or at a job.  Her eye for the realistic, the stable, the reliable, is inerringly accurate, but she’s a poor judge of people, because people are more complex and have layers.  Her eye for facts of a tangible kind is fantastically accurate and her common sense is a wonderful elixir for the jaded visionary who has seen so many possibilities, and dissipated so many talents, that he can’t see the point any longer.  Taurus brings things down to earth.  And because it’s a gentle sign, it’s likely to be a soft landing. 

Taurus Horoscope 22-23 degrees –

This degree gives a real sense of mission. A sense of destiny presided over by a guardian angel. Domestic and home loving, one also takes a place in the world. Ability to develop skill with crafts and handwork of all kinds. She attracts the help of others by inspiring confidence and showing consideration for their situation. Even though there is a sense of destiny the native here is presented with sufficient challenge, which she meets admirably, to attract the recognition and help to spur her on. Here is a beautiful balance of strenuous effort recognized and rewarded. There have been instances where hard work and devotion to an ideal were lost or seemingly lost under this influence. However a job well done here is its own reward even when it has not received the expected recognition. There have been times when it was the world’s loss rather than that of the individual putting forth the effort. There will be a measure of recognition, however; if the native raises her expectations too high, she may be disappointed because what she expected was impossible to accomplish. Jupiter here could easily contribute to such inflated expectations. Uranus also could result in a surprising turn in either direction. Magnetic healing ability.

Imaginative, irascible: a symbol of individual freedom in motion – Sagittarian wanderings brought down to earth long enough to establish turf and be noticed. Master of human and animal nature. Desire for self-expression and talent to do so. Humorous, optimistic, spiritual, passionate character, which might lead to light mindedness and dangerous risks at times. May make bad choice of partners, but generally fortunate in career”
http://www.cafeastrology.com/zodiactaurus.html.