THE 12 SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC +|+ Charles Ernest Owen Carter

In my Zodiac And The Soul I have tried to find a basic principle for each sign, a cosmic principle, without which the universe could not be what it is...without which in fact nothing could be what it is.
For Taurus I suggested Cosmic Stability or Certitude.
We know that all phenomena come into existence and pass away. In the natural world everything goes through its cycle of birth, maturity, decay and death. "All things flow" said Heracleitus many centuries ago, and in our day Bergson maintained that the only reality is change itself. "We change without ceasing and the state itself is nothing but change."
But even in writing this, he had to use the pronoun "we" and indeed if there were no such thing as stability, we could have no pronouns or nouns; there would be no sense in naming something that altered into something else before the word had left our mouth. We could neither think nor talk intelligently.
Relatively to ourselves, things have persistence. Some very little; some so much that we think of them as permanent..."the everlasting hills." A geologist, thinking terms of geographical time, would probably not use that phrase; but it is good enough for the most of us.
There can be no denying that some things change less rapidly than others, and this is only the converse of saying that some endure longer than others. In other words, they express the principle of stability more emphatically.
The tendency of Taurus, then, is to make things stay as they are and to resist the eternal flux of which Heracleitus spoke. We shall find some apparent exceptions to this dictum and it will be of interest to examine them. But in the main it is true.
For that reason we shall not find it very easy to make a long list of celebrities with strong Taurus values. The man or woman who labours to keep things as they are performs a useful purpose. We do not all want to be swept off our feet; indeed at the present period in world history quite a number of people are strongly impressed with the desirability of having a rest from the sort of progress that makes it daily easier to get to Australia and more difficult to cross the local High Street. But that same person who tries to put a brake on the wheels of Time's chariot will seldom achieve fame, unless indeed he applies the brakes so violently as to cause a serious skid!
It is because there is a relative stability in things that we can enjoy a measure of Certitude, to recall another keyword.
One may wonder what planetary conditions ushered in those almost fabulous conditions of inflation when in some countries the price of a meal doubled or trebled between one's entry into the restaurant and asking for the bill. That was instability with a vengeance and in respect of that very Taurus commodity, cash.
I named the virtue of Taurus: Reliability. With this we may bracket such like terms as trustworthiness, constancy and integrity.
Taurus usually has to do with money even if it has very little, just as Karl Marx (both Lights in Taurus) had no capital, as his mother lamented, even whilst he was writing Das Kapital.
Certainly I think honesty in money matters can usual be predicated to Taurus.
The Taurean delusion is Staticism, or a worship of what has been simply because "we have always did it like that."
An intense conservatism, in thought and in everything else.
Its chief "fault" is Stubbornness; and there is often a propensity, common to all four fixed signs, towards a despotic attitude, especially in the family. The Taurus father may be generous and even indulgent...so long as his wife and children do not oppose him or his prejudices. He likes others to have a good time, so long as they have the sort of good time he approves of. Of course this paternal attitude has been rather laughed off the stage today.
Naturally one would expect fixed earth to be unchanging, but the thought at the back of the Taurus mind is to alter things until he gets them as he wishes, and then to keep them just so. He will work long and persistently to get a house he really likes and can call his, and be comfortable in, and, having done this, nothing will move him from it.
Thus, I suggest, we see why a very Taurus map can, as in the case of Queen Victoria, who kept her husband's bedroom unaltered, had his dressing gown and razors laid out for him, and so forth.
We must indeed march with the times, even when we dislike
them and to try to relive the past is futile and a dwelling with ghosts. Most natives of Taurus have enough sound sense to see this.
The most Taurean part of England, so far as I know, is undoubtedly Sussex, with its well-known motto: "We won't be druv." To see this sign at its most bull-like, one should visit Sussex marketplaces and see those powerfully built, well-set-up folk, with their strong necks, short white teeth, good complexions, and blue eyes. Not by any means people to be trifled with.
In towns the appearance may vary a lot. I have known lean and even scrawny Taureans. One cannot account for that sort of thing. It is a freak, a joke of Nature. If you want a science that yields exact and uniform results, you had better try something else than astrology.
Why some people recall in appearance their Sun position, others that of the Moon or ruler, and others seem to respond most clearly to some exact aspect to the ascending degree, I cannot say.
Taurus is not an intellectual sign; it is predominantly instinctive. It is, of course, often gifted as an orator or singer, the 16th degree being specially related to voice, though this may not be pleasant, as for instance in the case of Hitler. It is musical and may paint or write poetry,
mainly on rural themes. It is a builder and architect; and here again Hitler, with Sun, Venus, Mars in Taurus, comes into the picture; had he been sufficiently gifted and fortunate to make a success of his early artistic efforts, he might have lived a happy and harmless life.
Apart from its tendency to get into banks and similar places where money is abundant, Taurus is in the main an agriculturalist and stock raiser. He is also fond of a deal in landed property. This is well shown in the case of William Shakespeare, whose very birthday is not known exactly, but who certainly had the Sun in Taurus. After writing the Sonnets and Plays, we are told he retired to his native town and did very well for himself as a corn merchant and what-not, and bought land shrewdly, without troubling, so far as we know, to write another line except a not very inspired or inspiring epitaph, or even have his daughter taught to read! A strange story indeed! At all events, the latter part of his life story agrees well enough with Sun in Taurus; and perhaps he had a double sign rising and lived two very different lives; "one man in his time plays many parts"!
Hardly a word has come down to us of his later years but there is a legend that he, together with some fellow-townsmen, engaged in a drinking contest with the inebriates of a neighboring village and came off winners, but that William himself became so far a casualty of the Bacchanalian warfare that he spent the night in a ditch. And indeed many natives of the Bull do like their eats and their drinks.
Let Leos have the ballroom and supper-tables, their liqueurs and champagne, and give Taurus the country inn and the nut brown ale!
The sign contains no stars of the first magnitude and most of the others have considerable latitude.
There is Hamal, which is the brightest star in the constellation Aries, and is in 6 Taurus. This seems to give a certain amount of celebrity or notoriety, as the case may be.
Then there is the ill-famed Algol, the Skull, in the constellation Perseus and in 25 Taurus; and Alcyone, one of the Pleiades, in 29 Taurus.
The Indian decanates are of course well-known to all of us, but not so the Chaldean, which have rather fallen into disuse, but merit attention.
According to this system, the first decanate of Aries is under Mars and then they go according to the apparent speed of the planets, in reverse order, back to the Moon and beginning again with Saturn.
Therefore the Taurus decans are: Mercury-Moon-Saturn, whilst Gemini goes Jupiter-Mars-Sun, and Cancer continues Venus-Mercury-Moon.
One would expect the 1st of Taurus to indicate one of an intellectual disposition, but whose mind is devoted mainly to practical things. A good decan for a financial journalist or lecturer on economics.
The 2nd would indicate a sturdy patriot, shrewd commonsense, one well qualified to deal with real property.
One would expect much feminine influence in the life.
No doubt it has a very respectable side to it, but it would perhaps be prominent in gigolos and others who make money out of women. It is not surprising that Landru, who murdered them for their money, had his ascendant in this decanate.
The 3rd decan is Saturnian by both systems and this appears to be an unfortunate zodiacal sector. Indeed all of Mars and Saturn decanates, by the Chaldean system, indicate the possibility of misfortune, unless they succeed in in manifesting the better side of these two planets. Even so, they are often unlucky. The contrary, of course, is true when Solar, Jovian, or Venus decans are conspicuous, and the Mercurial decans are also helpful.
To glance for a moment at two illustrations of what I mean:
Mr. Churchill has 2 planets in solar decanates, 2 in those of Venus, 2 in those of Jupiter, the Sun being the one of Mercury. None is in a Mars decanate, but 2 are in Saturn decanates. This is a high score in terms of fortunate decan values. I omit Pluto.
Mr. Bevan, who must certainly be regarded as a successful man "in terms of himself," has 4 bodies in Venus decans, 2 Solar, 1 Luna, 1 Mercurial and 1 Mars, which is a very fortunate score.
So far as I have observed, when Taurus is emphasized at all in well-known maps, it is the 1st decanate that is usually occupied. This may link up with Hamal, which I have mentioned; and likewise the bad repute of the 3rd decan maybe due in part to Algol and Alcyone. This last was one of the Pleiades and my classical dictionary merely adds that she was "beloved of Neptune," so she probably came to no good, and astrologers in general dislike the last degree of Taurus.
Many years ago a Dr. Madler suggested that the solar system revolves around Alcyone, but I do not know if modern astronomers accept this hypothesis.
It is significant that in More Notable Nativities and Famous Nativities I only found eight cases with Taurus rising. Even allowing for short ascension, this is a small number, and of the eight, one is not human; being the figure for the Austrian Republic. Then we have Landru, already mentioned, two politicians, and a professor of moral philosophy.
There are really only two celebrities in the eight.
One is John Napier, the Scotch Astrologer who invented logarithms, a very practical achievement.
The other is George Washington. The time of birth is not particularly well established, but Taurus seems probable. He was by birth and inclination a country gentleman and practised land surveying. As a soldier his chief claim to respect lies in his dogged persistence in the face of adversity and his great power of leadership, which enabled him to keep some sort of an army together through thick and thin, until, with the help of the French and Spanish, he won the day. He died of quinsy, a Taurus ailment.
Ulysses Grant is also attributed to Taurus, and his military career again exemplifies unflinching determination. But the odds were all in his favor.
Americans seem to like Taurus in their presidents and this is not surprising in view of some of their national qualities. Eisenhower is a native of either Aries or Taurus and his appearance suggests Taurus, with his large oxlike eyes.
Harry Truman had the Sun in Taurus and Garfield the Moon. Herbert Hoover is placed under Taurus rising.
Among the few Taurus rising celebrities I found is Mary Queen of Scots. She had 16 Taurus rising, which, as I have said, is often related to the voice, and perhaps with the throat, which in her case was severed by the axe. She had many charming qualities but a setting Saturn was her bane...as it might be anybody's. In fact the more we study her story, the more we do see this cruel opposition at work...a Venus ascendant opposed to Saturn in Scorpio. There seems little question as to the correctness of this figure.
She was the victim of many things, but perhaps most of all of her amorous nature, and indeed, I think Taurus is naturally more passionate than Libra.
Sex is intimately related to the sense of touch, of which smell and taste are specialized forms, and all sensations are strong in Taurus, including the sense of color. Its sense of hearing often verges to actual clairaudience.
It has also much of what anthropologists call "mana," a sort of power of imposing one's will upon nature and so producing so-called magical results.
Taurus rising often seeks the stage or some other place in the world of amusement; and we have two actresses, Vivien Leigh and Lillian Braithwaite.
There are no such things as good and bad signs, but there are such things as square pegs in round holes. Every sign is capable of doing good work if it is given the right job to do, but only a few horoscopes permit the native to thrive in almost any conditions.
Now we turn to Sun in Taurus.
Sun in the 1st decanate seems uncommon. We have, of course, Adolf Hitler and the unfortunate half-crazy Rudolf Hess. Our sidereal friends make play of Hitler's Taurean planets, forgetting that he was devoted to architecture.
The Sun in the 2nd decanate furnishes us with several interesting examples.
Ribbentrop had the Sun in 10 Taurus, opposed to Uranus, and this I mention, because Ribbentrop was not a typical Taurean. This sign, as I have mentioned, is usually honest in money matters and generally. In fact, "my word is my bond" is a very Taurean aphorism. I like to think of the hero of the old Roman Republic, Cincinnatus, who won wars and then went back to the plough, as a Taurus type. He hadn't much property, wrote an old Latin poet, but was "full of good faith." Or, in other words, reliable to the last degree. That is Taurus.
But Uranus is the perverter. Whatever any aspect or other factor may show in normal circumstances, let Uranus lend a hand, and you will probably get the reverse.
Hence, the dishonest Ribbentrop.
He had plenty of other difficult aspects besides Sun opposed to Uranus.
Another exception was H.G.H. Schacht, Hitler's "financial wizard." He had Moon conjunct Neptune in Taurus, square Sun and Mercury but trine Venus.
Wellington is a good instance of the bluff, not to say gruff, Taurus.
One would not expect an eminent jockey to have much in Taurus, but Gordon Richards had Sun, Mars, and Mercury there, and rather curiously, Cromwell had Sun, Mercury, Venus. Curiously, because Cromwell was a great cavalry leader, so the equine element appears in both men. They had the Sun in the same degree...the 14th.
So also Karl Marx, who had the Moon in this sign, and Venus. Here we get the passion for economics and the desire to seek the explanation of all history along economic lines. As Marx had his Sun-Moon conjunction in sextile to Saturn and in trine to Jupiter, one might expect much from him. He could have been a prosperous banker, one would imagine, but presumably Uranus and Neptune in the 11th gave him different aims and objects...the word "ideals" seems out of place in regard to such a hard baked materialist.
Rudolf Valentino and Robespierre had the Sun in 15 Taurus, but I must leave someone cleverer than myself, or at least better acquainted with their respective lives and characters, to try to trace a resemblance. Once again we have, as in the case of Mary Queen of Scots, where this area brought death by beheading.
Harry Truman had the Sun in the 19th degree of Taurus and he will probably be remembered in history as a man of good feeling and sound sense.
So much for the 2nd decanate.
The third is sparsely represented, but we have two philosophers, Mr. Krishnamurti and Socrates. In each case Sun is in 21 Taurus. One can trace similarities here. The former cut himself off from his early associations and sought a path of his own, as sooner or later, most of those who pursue truth must do. "Betake yourselves to no external refuge," said the Buddha, and the Scriptures are but "fingers pointing the way."
Being under Saturn, the 3rd decanate might be unfortunate or it might lead, as in these two cases, to a very serious and profound state of mind. The philosopher Kant had Sun conjunct Mercury in 13 Taurus, and Notable Nativities puts his ascendant in the 3rd decanate of the same sign. But I believe this birth time has been questioned.
Moon in Taurus provides a fair list of celebrities; but I am at a loss to see common features. Presumably it makes for a kindly, common-sense sort of individual, but I suspect one would have to know the native personally in order to see just how it has expressed itself. I do not know, for instance, in what way Moon in Taurus has manifested itself in the case of Chiang Kai Shek.
Dr. Alfred Adler had Moon in 5 Taurus and Jung had it in 14 Taurus, which may indicate a flair for understanding human nature or may be mere coincidence.
I can believe that this position is helpful to the physician. It should make him patient and able to instill confidence in the sick.
Hans Andersen had this position but it seems a little difficult to see how its value was exhibited in this case. I should have thought that this emplacement would save from the hell of ultra-sensitiveness, but this was certainly not the case with him. Jupiter rising in Sagittarius, Sun-Mercury in Aries, Moon in Taurus, Mars in Leo: these ought, one would say, to have produced a strong and resilient character, despite afflictions. In this case they didn't.
George Bernard Shaw had Moon in 21 Taurus.
He was certainly a kindly man, not at all sensitive, and the rather close connection between the sign we are discussing and the theater comes out here.
He was satirical; and so too was Dryden, Moon 23 Taurus.
Swedenborg had Moon in 14 Taurus, with Uranus, and this must complete our list.
Except that Moon in Taurus seems fairly frequent in well known maps, we really cannot see any prominent common feature.
One would not suppose that Mars in Taurus would be a happy position, but actually I find several cases wherein it appears in famous nativities. There let the siderealists prick up their ears, for of those that I shall quote, everyone has Mars in the constellation Aries.
David Lloyd-George...Mars in 1 Taurus, and Jay Gould, the railway king, in the same degree. Both were good at laying their hands upon other people's money, though with different views as to its ultimate destination.
Science gives us three examples: Sir Oliver Lodge with Mars in 6 Taurus, and Sir Isaac Newton and Rudolf Steiner with Mars in 7 Taurus. All three were natural scientists and all three had "occult interests." La Volasfera says that 7 Taurus is a degree of mind-wealth and 6 Taurus of bodily wealth, which agrees with these three men of science, and with N.N. 987 given as "great wealth." This last had Jupiter in 7 Taurus. This area does seem beneficent.
Houdini, the "handcuff king," had Mars in 11 Taurus which is its position in our 1801 horoscope. And perhaps our country, like Houdini, is rather good at getting into entanglements and getting out again.
Though Taurus does not produce many famous people, in the better sense, it is a sign that ranks pretty high among criminal maps, being so early in the zodiac and hence given to crude expression. Despite its Venus rulership, it can be a fierce fellow and in a table of violent criminals in Some Principles of Horoscopic Delineation it scores 35 points against an average of 20, being if fact the highest of the twelve.
I imagine its sins are usually the result of sudden outburst of temper.
Of course our sidereal friends may well seize on these figures as evidence that our sign Taurus people are really constellation Aries. But the sign Aries itself, which by the same reckoning would for the most part be constellation Pisces, scores 32. Thus signs Aries and Taurus together score 67 against an average of 40. The next sign is Gemini and the first three signs yield a total of 95 against an average of 60, so I think the true explanation is that the signs become progressively less individualistic and more gregarious and socially minded. However, we avoid crime from different motives and the little table in the book mentioned exemplifies this. For the three lowest are Leo, Sagittarius and Capricorn. Now I suggest that Leo and Capricorn eschew criminality because they prize their social status and Sagittarius because it is a good fellow, and if it is anyone's enemy, it's usually its own.
I do not propose to trouble you with a long list of Taurus criminals, but some are interesting.
Often the motive is financial, as in the case of Landru.
I have two cases of poisoning for insurance money.
There is Trenkler (Sun, Mercury, ascendant, Neptune, Saturn and Pluto in Taurus) who killed three people in robbing a jeweller's shop in Berlin.
Others seem to have been motivated partly by resentment and vindictiveness, which are really the qualities of the sign in polarity, Scorpio.
The Law of Polarity...if one can call such an uncertain thing a law ...explains many of our anomalies. Its operation, so far as the ascending sign goes, may be connected with the doctrine of the pre-natal epoch, and it would be interesting to see whether the Taurus rising criminal usually has his pre-natal Moon in Scorpio.
We have seen that some of our Taurus criminals were lured into evil by the attractions of "easy money," but the typical Taurus does not seem to me to be avaricious. He likes comfort and security rather than luxury, and is satisfied in his diet with plain British fare. Of course you may get a self-indulgent glutton like George IV. (Moon conjunction Jupiter in Taurus) but in his case these two were opposed by Mars, very closely. Result: extreme obesity, gout, etc.
Poor Taurus! He has had a rough passage during the recent times, his diet depleted by war-time restrictions, his savings mulcted by a hungry exchequer.
Will he ever come into his own again?
Several countries have been placed under this sign.
Firstly, Ireland. This seems fairly well tested. The Southern Irish at any rate have Taurean qualities, mixed with the occasional outburst of destructiveness that recalls Scorpio. They are said to be indolent, fond of song:

          "I'm one of the old sort of O'Gradies;
           Not over fond of hard work;
           But I like my pipe and the ladies
           And I'd make a most illigant Turk!"

This links up well with the Persians, at least if we may take Omar Khayyam as as being at all representative of his race. He lived too soon to enjoy his pipe, but his verses suggest s fondness for "the ladies" and also for

"The Vine that can with logic absolute
The two and seventy jarring sects confute."

But you will notice that his proposed diet included that very Taurean article, a loaf of bread.
Persia, too, is potentially a very wealthy country. In modern jargon it has been "exploited" by the West. Personally, if I possessed what seemed to be a waste of sandy desert and someone came along, discovered oil, took the risk and trouble to develop it without my having to turn a finger, and then paid me half the proceeds, I should not consider myself exploited; I should think Fortune had been remarkably kind to me. Friends, this modern talk about "colonialism" and "exploitation" is the biggest bunk imaginable, and least of all does it behove the Americans to talk such nonsense.
I suppose my Moon in Taurus is getting on its hind legs. For Taurus is plainspoken and doesn't like humbug.
Another region attributed to Taurus is Campania, and that is probable enough. Hannibal's army is said to have gone to pieces in terms of morale after wintering there, and modern Naples, with its gift of song may well be Taurus.
In fact, I am inclined to think that the modern Italians are strongly
Taurus-Leo habits, with their gross indulgence in gluttony and public shows..."bread and circuses."
We often contrast signs with these in quincunx.
Taurus differs sharply from Libra in being inflexible, whereas Libra is notoriously complaisant and given to compromise, generally to its own disadvantage; Taurus is a more sensuous sign, and, as we have seen, can indulge in excess, whereas Libra has an instinct for moderation and the glorious Middle Way.
As for contrasting Taurus and Sagittarius , no two signs could possibly be more unlike excepting for the undoubted fact that, each in its own way, they are pleasure lovers, those of the Jovian sign, being, however, as a rule rather more exotic. Again, Taurus says little and means what it says; Sagittarius says a great deal and usually forgets all about it as it dashes off after some fresh interest.
We will not leave our sign with any compliments or bouquets, for Taurus careth not one jot what we think of him, so long as we do not get in his way or try any tricks on him. If we do, we may find ourselves being tossed sky-high on his horns and trampled under his hooves when we come down to earth.