TAURUS
April 21-May 21 Birthdays
- Symbol of the sign: the Bull
- Planetary ruler: Venus
- Birthstone: Emerald
- Best day: Friday Element:
- Earth Type: Fixed
When General Ulysses S. Grant, who was born with the Sun in Taurus, said that he intended to "fight it out on this line if it takes all summer," he was expressing a typically Taurean sentiment. This bulldog determination is both the greatest strength and the greatest weakness of people of this sign. Intelligently exploited, it can lead to eventual success in almost any endeavor; unintelligent-ly used, it can become mere obstinacy and a refusal to give up even an unprofitable enterprise when everyone, including you yourself, know that you would be better off forgetting it and starting something else.
Unlike Aries, the first zodiacal sign, which is always ready to start something new, you of Taurus are never too ready to start anything. You are inclined to have a great love and respect for your parents and the tradi¬tions in which you were brought up, and to feel that what was good enough for your father and mother is good enough for you. This feeling applies both in the realm of thought and in the world of events, and is the reason why many Taurus people do not achieve success until they are middle-aged or older.
You are not a self-starter or an originator, and you have to be careful not to let your placid slowness de¬generate into inertia. On the other hand, you are not too proud to take orders or to get ideas from someone else, and you would be wise to find a person whose activities you admire and get him to show you what he is doing. Once started, once you have grasped what to do and how to do it, you can go on virtually forever. Your en¬ergy is inexhaustible, your endurance magnificent, and your steadiness and practicality are decided assets. Like the old fable of the tortoise and the hare, your start may be slow but your effort is steady, and you often wind up far surpassing the results achieved by the people who taught you and helped you get started.
There is a long list of famous people born under your sign, and if you study their lives you will find that qiute often it is the Taurus quality of steady, practical effort that never admits defeat and never gives up which is re¬sponsible for their success. You are inclined to be mod¬est almost to the point of having an inferiority complex, and perhaps you admire those who go dashing ahead of you at the beginning. But remember, it is the final score that counts, and when it comes to adding that up you may be surprised to notice how often Taurus comes out near or at the top.
Where other people waver and give up when faced with obstacles, you hardly seem to notice them. In fact, it takes difficulties to bring out your best qualities, and parents make a mistake if they try to make things too easy for their Taurus-bom children. Your quiet persist¬ence when faced with real obstacles to overcome can become mere stubbornness if you have nothing worth fight¬ing for. You should watch this tendency in yourself and set yourself goals you will have to work hard to attain. In this way you can be sure of getting ahead, reaching new heights of character development and success, in¬stead of standing still guarding an outworn status quo.
You are stable and practical, not given to emotional¬ism and discouragement even if everything you have worked for suddenly collapses. You share with Aries the ability to start again optimistically. The difference is that Aries will abandon an endeavor that has failed and find something else to do, whereas you will pick up the pieces and start rebuilding toward the same goal you were trying to reach before, almost as if nothing had happened. In this way you are often able to reap the benefits of other people's good ideas which they did not have the patience and determination to bring to fruition.One of the reasons you are able to carry on when oth¬ers have given up is that you hate to let go of anything once you have gotten your hands on it.
Taurus is the Fixed Sign in the Earth group. As an Earth Sign, you always have your feet on the ground, and you are inclined to want something you can sec and touch as a result of your efforts. Where Aquarius, for in¬stance, can fight for an ideal, like freedom or self-reali¬zation, you will fight for better material circumstances for yourself and those close to you. You have a great re¬spect for money and the things it can buy, and you like a nice home, good clothes, jewelry, the latest model car —and, above all, a savings account.
These things, to you, are not so much status symbols as security symbols. Being an Earth Sign, you have no patience with the idea that man does not live by bread alone. The visible evidences of wealth, of having enough and even a little more than enough for your everyday needs, makes you feel happy and.satisfied. This respect for money makes Taurus people excellent bankers, and a great many people of this sign find that an excellent vo cational field.
It also makes them ideal trustees and guardians of other people's money, since Taurus is not apt to dissipate any funds left in their hands in fly-by-night schemes or wildcat investments. If you are given the chance to handle the money, whether for the family, a business, a club or a government, those who have put their trust in you can be sure that you will always have an eye toward using those funds in the best possible way and making them yield the best possible return.
But this trait of respect for money and material pos¬sessions also has its negative side. You can have a tendency to be greedy and selfish, eager to get whatever you can out of anyone else but unwilling to share even your least important possessions. Or you can get so wrapped up in the idea of acquiring and holding on to money that, in extreme cases, you may deny yourself things you want and need because of a reluctance to spend.
We have all heard of people who have starved to death and who, when their possessions were examined later, were found to have thousands of dollars sewn into a mattress or the lining of an old coat. Once Taurus peo¬ple get a conviction firmly fixed in their minds it is al¬most impossible to dislodge it; beware of getting the idea that money is an end in itself and should never be spent except when absolutely necessary. You can miss out on a great many of the joys of life, if you do.
Among your more lovable traits is the fact that you are as retentive of affection as you are of material pos¬sessions. You make an extremely loyal friend or marriage partner, and when you have once given your affection it takes a great deal to make you change your mind. Through all kinds of trials and tribulations you remain faithful, and anyone lucky enough to be your friend finds your steadfast devotion soothing and heart¬warming. In friendship and in love, though, you are as slow a starter as you are in everything else. You have to get to know the other person well before you accept him into the small circle of those for whom you feel affec¬tion.
This docs not mean that you are a snob, or unfriendly. Taurus is Venus ruled, and this rulership by the goddess of love makes you warmhearted and kind to everyone you meet. You are especially fond of children and of your family, and anyone married to a Taurus husband or wife seldom has to worry that he or she is secretly long¬ing for greener pastures or freedom from marital responsibilities.
Here again, though, the Taurus retentiveness can be a danger. You can become as possessive of your marital partner, your children or your close friends as you are of material things. You like their physical presence around you, and would not be happy in the kind of family where everyone rushes around and meets only at the dinner table—if then. You want to share everything with those you love, without the presence of too many extra people.
It can come as a great surprise to you to learn that someone close to you has friends and interests that i do not include you. If you cannot adjust to the idea and are not willing to let go a little, the relationship may end in rebellion on the other person's part and hurt and dis¬appointment on your side. With other people, be sure al¬ways to keep your affectionate, considerate side upper¬most, not your stubborn and possessive side.
At your best, you are tranquil in disposition and sure of your convictions, with a core of inner dignity, and these qualities allow you to be tolerant and gentle to¬ward those around you who are less stable or emotional¬ly confused. Your practicality gives you a quick recogni¬tion of essential values, and this contributes to a very good, down-to-earth sense of humor. Phoniness does not deceive you, and while you are too kind to resort to sar¬casm, you find it easy to laugh at the pretensions of oth¬ers. Fortunately, you are just as quick to spot flaws in yourself, and enjoy a good joke on yourself as much as on anyone else.
In the realm of ideas you are as retentive as in other ways. Taurus people are not the quickest to learn, but once they have grasped a lesson they have it firmly fixed in their minds for a long time to come. This can be excel¬lent for some purposes; unfortunately, it can also make you somewhat inflexible in your thinking, and overcon-servative. You rnay be inclined to believe that the way you learned to do something, or to feel about something, is the best way—or even the only way. New ideas and new methods will have to fight hard to win your accept¬ance, and you run the risk of being left behind because of an inability to adjust to changing conditions.
Where Aries people are pioneers, Taureans are the settlers who follow behind, take possession of the new ground and build on it. Solid constructiveness, starting from a firm foundation meant to last for generations, is the positive side of your tendency to be inflexible and unmoving. Everything you do is slow but sure, steady and not likely to be blown away even by a strong wind. This applies literally to anything Taurus people make, and figuratively to your character and the things you try to achieve.
Fortunately your solid foundation is not likely to be just an ugly pile of rock. Venus is the goddess of beauty as well as of love, and a fondness for beauty is a large part of any Taurean's character. You are especially re¬sponsive to color, to jewelry, to any decoration that is tasteful and attractive. Having built your solid founda¬tion, you will try to make it beautiful as well as useful. This combination of solid practicality and beauty is ex¬cellent for creating inspiring architecture, a field in which many Taureans succeed, Figuratively speaking, it also applies to painting, literature, sculpture or any other art form, and a work of art by a Taurean in any field is likely to have a solid, substantial feeling about it.
When it comes to literature, though, to create a work of art takes more than solidity and a sense of beauty; and most Taureans are neither highly articulate nor orig inal in their ideas. To be a good writer a Taurean must have a touch of the following sign, Gemini, which rules communications and therefore has a natural gift for words.
A combination of the two signs is unbeatable-one example being William Shakespeare, the greatest writer the English language, or perhaps any language, has ever produced. With his Moon in Taurus and his Sun on the Taurus-Gemini cusp (or division between the signs), Shakespeare also typifies the Taurus lack of originality. Every one of his plots was borrowed from history or the literature and legends of his time; but he ornamented them with his own great sense of beauty.
Since Taurus rules the throat, you are likely to be interested in music in general and singing in particular. Many famous singers were born under the sign of Tau¬rus. And finally, the Venus rulership of Taurus often re¬sults in physical beauty for people born under that sign, as evidenced by the exceptionally large number of Tau¬rus people who are actors and actresses.
CAREER POSSIBILITIES
Taurus people are naturally modest and inclined to underrate their abilities; they are also persistent, dogged, uncomplaining and willing to work hard at jobs that other people would consider boring. And in spite of their deep feelings, they have little facility to ex¬press themselves in either speech or writing.
All these qualities would seem to doom you to the most menial, unpromising sort of jobs, except for one thing: your great respect for money makes it impossible for you to take on a job, dull or exciting, menial or high in status, colorful and spiritually rewarding or merely routine, unless it pays well. Other people may get their rewards in other ways; the reward you want is money.
This love for money makes Taurus people excel in the handling of it, in such fields as banker, cashier, money lender or the treasurer of a business or other organi zation. On the other hand, your innate conservatism nakes it unlikely that you will want to handle money in he speculative sense, as a gambler or real estate or stock narket speculator. You like to build your fortune on a ;olid foundation, not take a "double-or-nothing" chance.
You are not inclined toward the more studious profes-;ions as a vocation, the single exception being that you night want to become a throat specialist, since Taurus •ules the throat. If you strike out on your own, away :rom the fields that deal directly with money, you are most likely to go into some branch of the arts—a branch lliat pays well, of course. Commercial artist, interior dec-Drator, architect, landscape gardener, musician or singer might be occupations that could provide you with both monetary rewards and artistic satisfaction.
Because of your doggedness and unwillingness to admit defeat, Taurus men make good professional sol¬diers, policemen or prizefighters. Taurus women can find their vocations in such Venus-ruled fields as cosmetician, beauty shop operator, florist or social secretary.
HEALTH
The adjective "bull-like," sometimes applied to Taurus people, is not necessarily appropriate in other respects but does describe your health. The ordinary Taurean does not suffer from "nerves"; he has a naturally placid disposition, and even long-continued strain does not make him jumpy and restless. This lack of nervousness and imagination makes you feel pain less than other people do and it is sometimes hard for you to under¬stand why others always have some small ailment to complain about.
This lack of complaint is of course a good thing, but it can be carried too far; with you, an illness has to be¬come severe before you will even mention it, by which time it becomes hard to cure. Your powers of recupera¬tion are exceptionally good but they are slow, and once you get really sick you are likely to stay sick longer th most people.
Taurus rules the throat, and you are exceptionally li¬able to problems in that area. Mumps, tonsillitis, diphtheria and glandular swellings of the neck or throat, which present only minor difficulties for other people, in your ca.sc could lead to severe illness. You must always be careful of any symptoms in this area, and get prompt treatment to avoid a long-protracted illness that even your unusual strength will find hard to fight off.
But your main health difficulty is a tendency to excess in all directions, especially in eating and drinking. You are inclined to overeat, or to be overindulgent about such things as candy (Taurus has a real sweet tooth). This could lead at best to making you too fat, and at worst to various kinds of stomach trouble. Drinking too much can have the same effect, and no one can become an alcoholic faster than a Taurean—because once you start going in one direction, you keep going. But the same fixedness that makes you overindulge can also save you; if you decide you have gone too far and want to stop, you can call on the stubborn determination and will power that are a part of your Taurus nature.
LOVE AND MARRIAGE
Venus-ruled Taurus people are naturally rnarriage-minded and often marry young. Besides, it adds to your sense of security to have all questions settled and to know where you stand. You are fond of children and a comfortable, placid home life; the idea of illusive roman¬tic adventures holds no attraction for you.
Your feelings are not easy to express, but they are ex¬ceptionally deep and faithful.
Once you have decided on the object of your devotion, you will pursue him or her with a quiet, nonaggressive persistence that usually wins in the end. Unfortunately, this quiet persistence can sometimes become stubbornness, and any evidence that indicates the one you want is not the right one for you will be ignored—to your eventual detriment. Therefore it is more necessary for you than for most other people that you choose wisely in the first place.
Once you have gotten the right partner—or even the wrong one—you will make a very contented and posses¬sive husband or wife. Even if your choice is wrong you will go on being faithful and devoted far beyonl the bounds of reason. Not being very articulate, you will not argue or bicker—but if the marital partner once angers you too much, that is the end. You can be as stubborn, unforgiving and uncompromising as you were devoted before, and there is no second chance for the erring hus¬band or wife or a Taurean.
An individual horoscope is necessary to determine the proper marriage partner for any particular person, but generally speaking you will find your most suitable mates in the other Earth Signs, Virgo and Capricorn, who will understand your material values and support them, or the Water Signs, Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, who will find your commonsense stability an anchor of safety for their more emotional natures.
The Air Signs, Libra, Aquarius and Gemini, would puzzle you with their light-minded attitude and the orig¬inality and impracticality of their ideas. With the Fire Signs, Aries, Leo and Sagittarius, you might make a more agreeable marriage but one more insidiously debil¬itating to both. You could be tolerant of their enthu¬siasms but dampen them by lack of ability to respond; with their more spiritual values, they could gradually make you ashamed to admit the material aims which are the basis of your sense of solid security.