Taurus and the Queen's 80th

New Moon in Taurus, 27th April 2006, 8.43pm

As the Sun leaves fiery Aries, the sign which marks the zodiacal New Year and spring, and makes its way into Taurus, we find our thoughts turning to more practical matters such as tidying the garden and doing a spot of DIY. On a broader level, our focus is what we want to build and achieve as spring advances and we move slowly towards the promise of summer. How strong is our base and how can we consolidate it as a support mechanism for the work that lies before us in the year ahead? Practicality, security, consolidation, building - these are all Taurean concepts.

The Energy of Taurus
The energy of Taurus is rooted in stability and constancy. In the history of man's evolution there came a point where he ceased being a hunter/gatherer. Instead of roaming around to find herds of animals which were a primary food source whilst living in makeshift shelters, the need to establish more reliable sources of food and shelter took over in the tribal psyche. At this point in history, man became a farmer. Instead of relying on foraging to find food, farming meant planting crops and raising animals so that the food sources became renewable. Following the rhythms and cycles of the seasons, and learning by hands on experience what worked in various seasonal conditions, human groups learned how to sustain themselves and avoid being at the mercy of the elements. In order for crops to grow year after year, the tried and tested methods were upheld, bringing a resistance to change. If something worked last year and the crop thrived then, why would you want to change it this year and risk starvation? If your knowledge of the prevailing conditions around you, such as weather changes or signs from nature, would bring success, why ignore them? And if you knew certain combinations meant a more difficult time ahead, then wouldn't it be better to have strong walls to shelter you from the storm?

Here we see the key elements of the Taurean psyche. The material world, the tangible, the unchanging patterns of nature: these are the cues this earthy sign relies on in life. What's worked before should work in future - so why change? If you can see it, touch it, feel it, then all is well, it must be real! Often people with strong Taurean energy are the most sceptical about subjects like astrology, which deal with less tangible concepts than the material world. This includes emotion: emotion isn't tangible and therefore for Taurus it's not reliable or trustworthy. That's not to say Taurus is incapable of emotion - just that other signs may be better equipped to deal with the adjustment that emotional situations often demand. Change is what Taurus likes least of all, and once it's dug its heels in, the bull is the most stubborn sign you could wish to find. Following on from its need for security, and because of its difficulty in dealing with intense emotion, Taurus can try to fulfil emotional needs by using material possessions as a substitute. This is described symbolically by the myth of King Minos and the Minotaur. Minos was the guy who, as a result of his greed, created a monster, half man half bull. So terrible was this flesh eating monster and so awful were the consequences Minos had to face for his actions that he built a labyrinth to hide the Minotaur and fed it every year with innocent victims from a rival nation to appease its lust for flesh. The story illustrates the lesson for Taureans of learning to face up to strong emotions and their consequences rather than trying to repress them or to bury them by focussing on accumulation of material possessions.

So far it's sounding quite heavy! All of the signs have lessons to learn, but there are lighter characteristics of each sign too. For instance, Taureans make loyal and constant friends. Need someone to help you out of a jam in a practical, hands on way? Call a Taurus. Being an earth sign, Taureans are sensitive to touch, love luxurious fabric and rich colours, and this can extend to a talent for massage and other physical therapies. They're lovers of peace and harmony, and being ruled by the planet Venus can feel very at home handling money and dealing in financial matters. Having Venus as ruler also means they enjoy the good things in life such as fine wine and rich food. Want to find a good restaurant where the atmosphere is cosy and the food is consistently of a high standard? Ask a Taurus. (It might be an idea to get an Aries type to recommend a gym at the same time, as weight gain can sometimes be an occupational hazard with this love of the good life!) The appreciation of the arts and music is also strong in this sign, and as it rules the throat, we often find singers with Taurus prominent in their birth charts.

When all's said and done, what Taureans really want is for things to go smoothly, for life to be stable and enjoyable, and for everyone to be happy. Trouble is life is rarely that simple, or that black and white. Here are a few celebrity examples which highlight the key components of the sign.

The link between Taurus and the throat and singing is exemplified by pop goddess Kylie Minogue, who has her Midheaven (or point of career and life direction) in Taurus. Elton John shares this chart placement, and also has the Moon in Taurus. Dionne Warwick and Roy Orbison are also singing examples of this sign, both having four planets plus in Taurus. Staying with the musical theme, Liberace has the Sun and Mars in Taurus in the 5th house, exemplifying both the creative musical link via the house placement of these planets, but also the more general Taurean love of material things. Liberace was the original King of Bling! David Beckham, whose Sun is in Taurus, is another example of a man who has consolidated his material security via, amongst other things, his involvement in the world of fashion, ruled by the planet Venus. A love of the good things in life and the more sensual nature of the sign was witnessed in recent years in the rather public escapades of Bill Clinton. The ex-president has a Taurus Moon in the 8th house, and whilst this means in an ideal world he'd like continuity and stability in his emotional relationships, he is more likely to encounter change and crisis via them precisely because of his strong sensual nature. But perhaps the most famous Taurean of all, to us Brits at least, is her majesty Queen Elizabeth the second, who celebrated her 80th birthday on April 21st this year.

The Queen's chart is especially interesting when taken in the context of her position. She has a Taurus Sun, reflecting her identity as part of the centuries old unchanging traditions of the monarchy. It also indicates her material wealth and the background the Windsor line has in farming and landowning. The Sun in the Queen's chart is making a flowing aspect to the planet Neptune in the 7th house of the public, representing the idealism and fantasy most of her subjects project onto her - she's not an ordinary person to most people, she is a figurehead, a representation of a nation and increasingly of a bygone era. Duty and constancy are a strong theme in the royal line, and the queen has both in her chart in bucket loads. With Capricorn rising what we see first is the rather austere and impenetrable front she presents, representing as she does generations of monarchs before her, somewhat aloof from the rest of us. Not only this, we also see her dedication to duty and decorum, demonstrated over many years of service to her country. Saturn on the Midheaven (point of career, life direction or public role) echoes this theme of the establishment, constancy of service over time, and also brings in the importance of the bloodline to the aristocracy via the sign of the Midheaven, Scorpio. Blood is definitely thicker than water for the Windsors, as we saw in the Queen's rather impassive, even dispassionate reaction in the eyes of the public to the whole Charles and Diana scenario.

Interestingly, in the year that Charles and Diana broke up, 1992, all three of the Queen's children were going through some stage of divorce or relationship break up. In addition, her Majesty had to contend with the publication of Andrew Morton's controversial book on the Princess of Wales and yield to demands she should pay income tax. For someone so averse to change and so committed to duty, it's no surprise that she declared it her "annus horribilis" in the midst of all of the chaos her family and situation was causing.

During that year, the Queen had lots of very heavy weather going on in her chart. Pluto, planet of deep transformation, was making a challenging aspect to the Queen's Mars, Neptune and Jupiter. The level of challenge to change at a deep emotional level and abandon many of the standards and tenets by which she had lived for very many years must have truly felt like a journey through the underworld (Pluto) for her. For someone with a chart which is so fixed in its energy and rooted in resistance to change she couldn't fail to have her world shaken. In addition, Saturn was opposing her Moon, challenging her to examine her fixed emotional patterns (the Queen's Moon, representing emotions and instincts, is in the royal sign of Leo) in rather a public way, given that this was happening over the 1st and 7th houses in her chart, representing the world around her (1st) and other people or the public (7th). This combination would also have brought feelings of emotional burden, isolation and deep loneliness. Why was this happening? Because the relationship issues of her children were being highlighted publicly (Jupiter in the 7th house) and her idealistic values surrounding relationships and money were being challenged (opposite Venus in Pisces in the 1st house). Add to this the fact that the progressed Moon was moving through her 12th house, symbolising her personal powerlessness to do anything about the situation she found herself in, and one can indeed appreciate what an "annus horribilis" her Majesty was having. Further change and upheaval carried on well into 1993. How we cope with change in general can affect how well or how badly we cope with the challenges the planets present to us in years where their activity is particularly intense in our birth charts. Given the Queen's iconic status and the fact that she is the representative of such a long history of traditional values and the monarchy, the planets gave her little enough room for manoeuvre that year. However it's also highly likely that her Taurean stubbornness and tendency to avoid emotional change was also a large factor in all of this.

If you're having an annus horribilis of your own, would you like to see the light at the end of the tunnel or understand how the cosmos is challenging you to make changes in your life? If so, contact me via the website or on 01572 822226 for an Initial Consultation. We'll explore your attitudes to life, how you cope with change, and where your strengths and weaknesses lie. We'll also look at the year ahead with a view to understanding how you can best use the energies you're already facing, as well as those coming your way.

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