Taurus, The Bull
April 21st - May 20th
Mode: Fixed ~ Element: Earth ~ Ruler: Venus Mythic Archetypes: Europa ~ King Minos & the Minotaur ~ Ishtar ~ Midas ~ The Moon & all Moon Goddesses ~Dionysus (Bacchus) ~ Hephaestus (Vulcan)

The age of Taurus extended from about 4000 to 2000 BC about the time that Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations began to take shape in the Near East. It was during this period that the Minoan Civilization of Crete reached its first peak and Stonehenge was being built in England. (Taurus loves to build). The Taurean Age has been characterized as a matriarchal era in which the worship of the bull was paramount. It was during this time that the simple farming villages of the Cancerian Age (8000 - 6000 BC) were transformed into more sophisticated civilizations. The star Aldebaran, in the middle of Taurus, was called "the bull's eye" and was instrumental in fixing the starting point of the zodiacal circle. (Taurus was once the beginning of the zodiac).

The glyph or symbol that astrologers use to denote Taurus is a bull's head with its horns prominently displayed, analogous to the crescent moon (the Moon is exalted in Taurus) and represented the principle of growth and generation. Since the Great Goddess (Moon) was the source of all growth, all generation, the fertile bull was imaged as her consort. Goddess, moon, and bull were inseparable symbols of the seasonal round. And so, all over Crete, one finds stone images of the bull's horns, called bucrania.

Taurus rules the neck and throat in astrology even though the ancient Egyptians linked the sign with the genitals to which Scorpio, the opposite sign and polarity of Taurus, is presently assigned. Taurus is ruled by the planet Venus, symbol of love, beauty, wealth, and artistic abilities. Especially noteworthy is the fact that so many Taureans are gifted with fine speaking and singing voices.

Modern astrology equates Taurus with fixity, fertility, fruitfulness, and security - all energies that relate in some way to things that grow in the earth.