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Song of Taurus
It’s a beautiful day – don’t let it get away.
~ Bono (Taurus)
For decades I have found joy and meaning in processing life through the lens of astrology. It continues to amaze, inform, encourage, support, heal, and as well, amuse me, and likely always will, as there are seemingly infinite dimensions to it. And there are always new things to be learned in the realm. In this respect it’s a lot like the natural world. Although I’ve been learning about flowers, plants, and medicinal herbs my whole life—with a mother who specialized in plant propagation and cultivation, as well as protecting native and wild plants—every year I discover at least one (often far more) flower or plant I’ve never seen before. Life on earth, while it may seem finite in our experience, really is endless. This is encouraging, as we go through these times where there are so many dire observations about species loss, and prognoses about what lies ahead. They may very well be true…and yet, here is a new flowering bush I was dazzled by recently at a local botanical garden. Synchronicity had it that the day after, a friend texted me a shot of the very same plant, Weigela, or “Towers of Flowers,” which she’d planted in her own garden, as it had been a beloved companion in her East coast childhood home. |
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Nature's Astonishment
Then there’s this stunning constellation of minute gold spiders that I came across the other day, spun across the leaves of one of my garden plants (Alstromaria). The curious beings resembled a magical star nebula when I first approached them, sparkling and hovering there in the air. As I leaned closer, they instantly scattered like a starburst, as if shot through with light. I watched, jaw hanging. To the naked eye, I saw no legs on these little bead-like orbs, just little gold shinings, and the spreading out as if by magic. Of course, I had never seen anything like that, and right here in my little back yard! Not wanting to further disturb them, after a few photos, I let them be. Two days later I checked back, and they’d gathered even closer together into a small ball, silver dollar-size – following the black hole impulse, perhaps? Clearly they’ve got the expansion-contraction instinct! Who was it that said Earth and Sky aren’t connected? |
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Wondering about their movements, I asked my botanist friend, who suggested perhaps they were ‘huddling’ for warmth now as temps have suddenly cooled again. How positively sensible, and lovely! Would that we humanoids could learn to huddle similarly when times were chilly, instead of firing childish insults left and right through the social and political webs we’ve constructed.
I taught my class on Taurus and its ruling planet Venus last weekend, which has really gotten me thinking about this amazing archetype that seeks to bring the heavenly domain of bliss down to Earth through its capacity for slow and absorptive in-dwelling. Taurus is far more than just ‘the builder’, or the one desirous of physical pleasures and comforts. Its mission is to get us to tune in and go deeply into our interactions with the physical plane in order to infuse our experience with the spiritual essence of the sacred.
Some astrologers tend to be given over to the starry world of abstract ideas about astrology, and the many types of configurations and astral bodies that impart meanings, but not so great on landing these meanings in our ordinary physical plane lives. They appeal to the dizzy excitement we feel about the prospect of their being a ‘higher meaning’ to it all, but forget about the fact that our lives are mostly spent here on earth, in day to day physical reality, dealing with our bodies, our relationships, etc.
Although these days, that’s a bit arguable, as we move deeper into our relationship with technology, and spend increasingly less time in the realm of embodied Earth from which we come. But as I wrote about in my last Journal, Heaven in Earth (see my website for prior journal posts), the transit of Uranus through the sign Taurus is an important one, as it trains the focus of our genius back towards Earth for a few years, and away from its own more astral realm, which is that of the abstracted higher mind. Given as Uranus is the higher octave of the thinking/communicating/learning planet Mercury, the innovations it is known for typically involve technology, or higher order thinking.
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The Story of Our Oneness
Adding heft to this Earth-focused trend of Uranus in Taurus, however, meaning-making planet par excellence, Jupiter, will also enter Taurus on May 16, where it will stay for a year. Jupiter, like Uranus, dwells in big picture realms, such as spiritual teachings, and higher education. So its stay in earthy Taurus will further emphasize the task, and the paradox of joining ‘earth with sky.’
As astrologer Maurice Fernandez says, Jupiter is “the story we adopt as we approach life.” Whatever our story is, that’s what we wind up living into. This is helpful food for thought for our own lives. And it is also good news for the Earth, as with culture influencer planet Jupiter situated in the zodiac’s foundational Earth sign Taurus, perhaps we will turn even moreso for our ‘new stories’ back to the meaning-making practices and teachings from the Earth, as lived into by indigenous peoples who never stopped respecting and taking their guidance from her. (Such as Sherri Mitchell, whom I discussed last time, and whose excellent book, Sacred Instructions I read with my Spiritual Ecology group over the past year.)
Also, as David Hinton writes in his important book on this topic, Wild Mind, Wild Earth, there were of course other ancient civilizations and cultures besides the indigenous who fully embraced human inseparability from Earth and Sky. With Paleolithic hunter-gatherers being of course the progenitors of this way of human being, Taoist and Ch’an Buddhist spiritual practice in 5th-6th century BCE China picked up the threads, aiming to focus on integrating consciousness with “the one being.”
[The] Tao was at the heart of a cultural framework growing out of the Paleolithic worldview that had survived beneath the Shang [Dynasty]’s theocratic power structure. Here, the human was again assumed to be woven into earth and Cosmos, human intelligence (mind/spirit) understood as a wholly natural phenomenon, part of a cosmic “intelligence.”
I sense here a possible seguey to the next up archetype in the Sun sign cycle, Gemini, which I’ll be writing and teaching about later this month, as Gemini is very much of the realm of mind intelligence. But in sticking to the topic at hand, I will share that what really excited me in dwelling on the Taurus archetype as I prepared my class talk and handouts were the multiple realms of ‘embodied bliss’ it covers. I’d suggested that we be on the lookout —in the media and internet, lived experiences, dreams, billboard slogans, wherever—for Taurean themes, as that’s how these archetypes work: they emerge like mushrooms when our lenses of perceptions are primed with the receptivity to take them in! And joining with them can enrich and lend dimension to our lives.
Sure enough, later that very day I had four Taurean realms presented to me. First was out in my front yard, where I found that after a slew of recent warm sunny days, numerous plants were suddenly bursting with an abundance of design genius and shocking colors, in a profusion I hadn’t seen in years, given our massive winter rains following on long-term drought.
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Carried By the Music
Next siting was through music. Taurus rules the throat and voice, and with it, music, so it’s no surprise that many singers have a strong Taurus signature. I’d listed a handful of famous Taurus celebrities in my class notes, among them U2’s lead singer, Bono, and Duke Ellington. I took the latter out of the notes at the last minute to save a line, and the joke was on me, as you’ll see!
After coming in from my garden, I was on the computer doing my usual intake and outtake with the great world of beauty, connection, and meaning afforded there, and noticed a YouTube post for a recent NPR “Tiny Desk” concert featuring Bono and Edge. Minutes earlier, out with the roses, I’d been regretting that I hadn’t specifically mentioned Bono in the class, as I could have explained why he fits the Taurus archetype so well, being both magnetically sexy (good Taurus quality—George Clooney being another such Taurean example) and blessed with an amazing voice and musical sense. So now there Bono is, coming through to me with his recent, pared down concert (just him and Edge with an acoustic guitar), in raw simplicity, Taurus style.
Their first song delivered was, “It’s a Beautiful Day,” which is what Taurus would croon about, as this archetype stands out for celebrating earthly beauty (despite the maelstrom of discontents we navigate amidst, which is what the song also addresses). If the song choice weren’t enough, a chorus then chimed in towards the end, with the camera panning over to the red shirt-clad members of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, who had come to the NPR studio from down the street to join up with the duo. “The Duke” being another famous Taurus, whom I’d struck from my notes for space’s sake! [Note to my Editor: be careful what you strike out!]
For the record, the other musical giants who made it onto my celebrities list were Adele, Stevie Wonder (who wrote a song called Sir Duke), Tchaikovsky, LIzzo (Blame It on My Juice), and David Byrne, all whom I appreciate, but for very different reasons (these folks are more than just Taureans!)—although I prefer Rachmaninoff when it comes to Russian composers. It turns out he too was a Taurus!
Since Uranus is putting its out-of-the-box spin on the Taurus theme, however, I thought it appropriate to share some lesser known music I came across last week that fits the Earth-focused theme. La Jardinera, by Olivia Cheney, dwells on a love-sick heart, soothed only by the tending of flowers (Venus, the archetype of Love, being the ruler of Taurus, and Taurus being a lover of plants and gardens). And for bird lovers, Runner, Messenger, by Tiny Leaves, offers a fascinating dialogue between haunting music and a curlew’s cries.
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Tenaciousness and Style
One of the other Taurean treats that came my way was a magazine tribute to Queen Elizabeth, a consummate Taurus (0°) in many respects, not least for her remarkably steadfast and unwavering dedication to her duty as British Commonwealth monarch, for the vast majority of her long life.
On a floral note, I happened to have seen in an article about her after she died last fall that her favorite flower was Lily of the Valley (a childhood favorite of mine), and later learned in my research that this is considered one of the flowers of Taurus!
Finally, for a completely different Taurus adventure, there was the same night an Architectural Digest video, come my way indirectly through a friend, of 3 interior designers working their luxury design magic on an empty A-frame cabin. Watching some of their step-by-step process, I then scrolled forward to see the end products – a fascinating diversity of designer chique, each with a distinctly unique sense of high style (although not all to my liking)!
Astrological Headlines
Here are a few of the upcoming astrological menu items, not the least of which is a Lunar Eclipse at the Scorpio Full Moon on May 6 at 10:35am, which includes a conjunction from ‘shake it up’ Uranus to the Sun. Never a dull moment these days – there’s also been intensity with Pluto having been stationing and just gone Rx (retrograde) yesterday, heading back into Capricorn on June 12, where it will remain until it reenters Aquarius on Jan. 22. This means some final Capricorn ‘clean-up’ work will be going on, which I’ll talk about whenever I do get around to taking a look at this usually hard to ignore planet!
Furthering the intensity of the month, on May 21 there will be a Grand Fixed Cross involving the Nodes of the Moon, with Jupiter and Mercury conjoining the N. Node in Taurus squared by an exact Mars-Pluto opposition at 0 degrees of Leo and Aquarius respectfully. A Grand Cross in Fixed signs presages power struggle, with the various positions not wanting to budge. It could manifest as deep-seated, hard to dissolve issues emerging that require one’s full attention, often involving will and desire. Mars and Pluto are as well the two signatures of eruptive anger (the lesser and the greater!). Good-natured Jupiter might help balance things out in even keeled Taurus, but could also expand the intensity. Still, we will do well to reign in our impulses, and apply ourself to the work of staying emotionally flexible.
On that ominous note, I leave you with some sonorous Taurean meanderings to calm the nerves and soothe the soul!
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Further Meanderings
Bono and Edge on Tiny Desk Concert: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/17/1163072864/bono-and-the-edge-tiny-desk-concert
La Jardinera, by Olivia Cheney – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSgGdHjrd1M
Runner, Messenger, by Tiny Leaves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sip1TTFDY8M
A-Frame Cabin Redesign : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRcJnPeYjaE
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All photos copyright Diana Badger 2023