Taurus Season: The Midpoint of Spring
Stopping to smell the flowers and walking the labyrinth
This has been a wet April in the Hudson Valley. Most mornings I awake to water dripping, rushing, or pooling in my low yard. The few days of full sun have been like glittering gifts and promises of warmth to come. But as the saying goes, these April showers also bring forth the beautiful flowers of the season. First to appear here have been Forsythia, Vinca, and Lungwort, filling the space left by violet Crocus with swaths of yellow and periwinkle. Still more plants have put forth shoots, preparing to unfurl their colors later in the spring.
The animals are stirring too. Birdsong is growing louder, more varied, and more frequent as birds find mates and stake out territory for their nests. And when night falls, the spring peeper frogs fill the air with their chorus of mating chirps. No matter the hour, some creature is singing aloud its lust and longing.
For those who have been with me on this journey since this series began last month, we are now moving out of the initiatory fire of Aries season and into the earthy energy of Taurus. The astrological sign of Taurus is represented by the bull, which we often associate with stubbornness and strength. The self-assured swagger of the bull certainly suits the fixed Earth nature of this sign. This season, you are invited to embrace the parts of yourself that know exactly what and who they are. I am reminded of The Story of Ferdinand by Monroe Leaf (later adapted into a short film and spinoff books by Disney), which tells of a bull who confounds his fellows and the world around him by preferring the flower patch to the bullfighting ring. He wants nothing more than to sit under the cork tree, smelling the flowers.
Ferdinand fully embodies the Taurus energy of standing your ground in the name of sensuality and pleasure. Taurus is ruled by Venus after all, and this is the perfect time to luxuriate in all that smells sweet and delights your senses.
Of course, not all bulls are as gentle as Ferdinand, and not all desires are as pure. According to Greek myth, the god Zeus once became enamored with the beautiful Phoenician princess Europa. To seduce her, he hid himself in the form of a white bull among her father’s herd. While gathering flowers in the field, Europa was struck by the bull’s gentleness and climbed onto his back, adorning his neck with garlands. Zeus took this opportunity to abscond with the princess, swimming with her to the island of Crete. There he assumed human form and lay with Europa, naming her queen of Crete. Zeus left Europa there, but placed the white bull in the night sky as the constellation of Taurus in remembrance of their tryst.
After their parting, Europa gave birth to three sons by Zeus, one of whom was Minos. Minos won the throne of Crete by demonstrating his favor with Poseidon. He asked the sea god for a bull to sacrifice, and Poseidon sent a magnificent white bull from the depths of the ocean. However, when Minos saw how beautiful the bull was, he refused to kill it, offering a lesser animal in its stead. In retaliation, Poseidon called upon Aphrodite (Venus) who afflicted Minos’s wife Pasiphaë with uncontrollable lust for the bull. With some engineering trickery involving a hollow wooden cow, Pasiphaë sated her lust and gave birth to the monstrous Minotaur: a beast with the body of a man and the head of a bull.
Here we have two generations of queens seduced by the white bulls of the gods: One the passive recipient of divine lust and the other forced to enact a mockery of her own to atone for her husband’s pride. It is worth considering, this Taurus season, what “white bulls” in our own lives might seduce us from the safe path and set us on the course of legend. What do we lust for and what are willing to do to get it? And how can we best honor our divine gifts, offering them freely in gratitude rather than hoarding them to ourselves?
The beastly Minotaur was granted another name by his mother: Asterion, or starry one, another glimmer of astrological connection. His hunger was uncontrollable and he feasted solely on human flesh. To hide his shame and protect his kingdom, Minos ordered the Minotaur locked away in the center of an elaborate labyrinth (built by Daedalus, the same skilled craftsman who fashioned the wooden cow for Pasiphaë). Each year, the people of Crete (or the inhabitants of the lands they conquered) were forced to send seven male and seven female youths into the labyrinth to keep the Minotaur fed. Finally the hero Theseus, with the help of a ball of thread from Minos’ daughter Ariadne, slew Asterion and returned to win the Cretan princess’s heart. The uncontrolled hunger that devours the joy of youth is a potent symbol for our own untamed passions. Luckily, we can draw upon the courage of our inner hero and the guidance of our inner princess to assist us on our journey.
It is said that Daedalus constructed a labyrinth so intricate that even he could barely escape it when he finished. And yet, the earliest depictions of the Cretan labyrinth show a pattern with a single entrance and exit, which can be easily navigated if one stays on the path. Many churches and parks feature contemplative labyrinths of this nature. There are no walls and no dead ends, but the path often takes one further and further away from the center before suddenly revealing it. I recently walked such a labyrinth in the garden of St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church not far from where I live.
As I followed the labyrinth’s twists and turns, I reflected on the parts of myself I usually banish from my thoughts: anger, shame, and the darkest instincts of my heart. Each step brought me closer to these shadows, but when I arrived at the center I found only myself. There was nothing to vanquish, only accept. As I retraced my path to the start, I felt the significance of my steps, each footfall a commitment to the only path I can possibly follow: my own.
I will conclude this entry in the Traveling the Wheel series with a collage that encapsulates some of the themes I have explored in the above piece.
Further reading:
The Taurus Myth from the book "Astrology for Lovers" by Liz Green: https://songsdomain.tripod.com/taurusmyth/index.html
yesssss amen! Loved this labyrinth into Taurus season