Taurus, the Bull in the year 2001

The Goddess of Love

Venus, the goddess of love, glitters in the midheaven, enlivening your tenth house of career and public image, as the old year fades and the new millennium is truly born.

You’ll monopolize the attention of others this year by emphasizing those features which are attractive about yourself: physical beauty, artistic talent, or that charming personality... Don’t wait for others to notice you; seize every opportunity to place yourself in their direct line of vision: “If you have it, flaunt it ”. It’s a year for valuable relationships, especially with older family members, senior personnel at work and authority figures. Your partner or spouse may receive recognition or special promotion and an unusual woman will prove most helpful.

After the last few years, you Bulls may be wondering just exactly where you’re going and what you’re doing. There will have been disruption and even complete stoppage in the career department. You may have been blocked in what you want to do, whether it has been a matter of change or one of keeping on the same old track. Or, the perverse reverse may have occurred: you may have been accelerated into unfamiliar work and working circumstances and are now currently wondering what has happened.

Usually with Taurus, such changes are a matter of the irresistible force and the immovable object with the immovable object (you!) triumphing in the end. But even your Bull-headed willpower may have been tested to the limit by this particular brand of irresistible force. All this change or obstruction will have then been followed by creeping uncertainty as to what you want and what your goals really are, especially for the early-born Bulls. If you’re gloating because it hasn’t happened to you yet, then don’t. It will and it’s only a matter of time. The Heavens are at work with your destiny in terms of career and whether you like it or not, you’ll go where you’re led, even if you have no idea what direction you’re pointing in at the moment.

Revolutions and Spirit Magic

At the root of all these ructions are the movements of Uranus, the revolutionary giant, and Neptune, the swirling mystic sea, in the sign of Aquarius and your solar tenth house. The tenth house is that of career, vocation, people in authority and the means by which you take authority yourself in any situation. It’s perhaps one of the balancing forces within the flow of astrology that a stubborn and determined individual born under the sign of Taurus the Bull will have the humanitarian sign of Aquarius ruling vocational development. Thus your working life will always be subject to Aquarian influence. This can bring about sudden or unusual shifts of focus or direction, teamwork with people who have different or unusual ideas and sudden changes of circumstance that change what you do and the way you do it. In other words, the job that you get unexpectedly will often teach you a great deal more about what you’re capable of than you’re the job determined upon by your own desires. An astute juxtaposition such as this is part of the infinitely wise law of cosmic balance. Then, when planets such as Uranus and Neptune also get involved in shaking up the career department, the Aquarian influence is heightened and the unknown lies just ahead of you.

Uranus disrupts patterns, changes and accelerates whereas Neptune softens, even weakens, awakens and brings closer ties with the creative or the spiritual. Thus there is a kind of push/pull energy at work that tends to destabilize even your best Bullish efforts. Year 2000 might have seemed to be the year when it was all going to happen. There would have been potential for advancement, opportunities for investment or work in joint projects and lots of worthwhile ideas ... all of which would have been filled with promise until they hit the wall and bounced back, either fizzling out or being subject to delay.

But wait, what’s this ahead? Another year! Who knows what’ll happen then? Heaven knows! And while Saturn, arbiter and taskmaster says your work here is not done yet, Jupiter, the master of fortune, calls you to a destiny that will seem well earned by the time you reach it but will nonetheless be a worthwhile achievement.

Tasks and Risks: Saturn and Jupiter  

Last May, Saturn and Jupiter came together in your own sign of Taurus and in your solar first house to announce that it was time for the grand design to go into action. “Great!” replies the Bull. “What’s the pay like and when do I get my holidays?” As we all know now (just among us Bulls), it wasn’t as simple as that. Still, the move has begun but with Saturn still in your solar first house as the year starts, it’s you you’re working on, not just the job. While Jupiter flashed through this house last year and tried to sweep up your image, the real work on who you are was being done by Saturn. Sometimes we just have to keep doing the right thing for a bit longer even if it doesn’t seem all that well supported. Your experience and character have been formed through the events of the past and your responses to them. Where you have stood up and put in the effort according to the values you apply, you have done good work on yourself even if you haven’t got the gold star yet. So, what you do can’t just be a matter of money. It must be an expression of everything you have learned is important because of hard won experience. Patient Saturn knows rewards will come if we keep putting in the right kind of effort. Hold off on expecting the big payout until after April 21st and just keep the focus on you and how you respond because of what you deem to be important. Do you value yourself because of what you have or because of what you’ve learned? Perhaps your wisdom is worth more than you think.

While Saturn is shaping you, Jupiter begins the year in the sign of Gemini in your solar second house. He’s out there, networking, contacting, setting up new deals and new lines of information that can link you to the money and resources that you need. Network! Stay in touch! Be versatile! Keep the lines of communication open and don’t throw anything away just yet even if it seems to be passed the ‘use by’. With Jupiter raring to go (but not quite yet), he’s setting himself to make aspects to both Neptune and Uranus, helping with the fulfillment of your dreams and the unexpected twists of fortune that will lay the table for a meal to die for. What Taurus doesn’t love to eat well!

In the Hands of the Goddess  

The year begins with Venus, goddess of love and your ruling planet, in Aquarius and your solar tenth house. Friends can bring you benefit and beneficial connections this year. New and unexpected associations may develop and send career matters off on a tangent (a good one!). An unusual woman in an important position may be one of these friends. Just make sure the friends are in there for the long haul because, with Jupiter in Gemini squaring Venus, you may find that some of them will pack up their toys and go if it all gets too hard. You could lose not only the benefit of valuable effort by such action but also money. Be discerning about the durability of those you choose to trust! But, with Saturn also squaring Venus from Taurus and your first solar house, you might also be reluctant or slow to act in important situations and get left behind. Throw yourself into something new when it comes along. Act fast! You’ll have to maintain a balance between these conflicting forces all year. Later on, with Jupiter moving into your solar third house, an important opportunity or contract may be offered to you, something that could involve looking after others, being concerned for their welfare or well being and with the business of writing or communications.

Be careful how you handle your money this year. There is the potential to make the dollars, but money may come in sudden bursts rather than regular doses. This will bring the danger of the spending spree, especially as you may somehow have to travel or be on the move a lot in what you’re doing. There will still be periods where you will have to manage the pennies carefully. Put a clamp on impulse buying. Don’t be afraid to be a bit of a miser at times (every Bull can) and you could do well this year. Look to putting some of what you earn back into your own ventures. The purchase of land or a house may figure in your financial package later this year, but this may not be a permanent home.

Who Knows When to Stop?  

Love, sex and partnership have some intense but confusing aspects to them for the coming twelve months. The year begins with hard aspects to Mars the warrior as well as Venus the goddess. Mars is in Scorpio and your solar seventh house as you’re making merry with a chorus of auld lang syne. There are intense and powerful attractions around you, but with Mars square to Neptune, you might be uncertain of what to make of all this. Pace yourself with any unease and just stick to doing what you know is right. For the married Bull, spice up your love life with a little fantasy but don’t depart the straight and narrow. Any infidelity or deception where partners are involved will pay a poor dividend. For the single Bull ‘looking for love’, it will be easy to be misled if you mistake lust for love this year. Your desire for someone and what you can actually offer each other may turn out to be two quite different things. Focus on finding the companionship of spirit and like-mind rather than simple physical attraction. This may come from an unexpected quarter, but later in the year rather than earlier.

Just as it’s important not to get taken in by the illusion of lust, so it’s also important to realize that some people that you’re dealing with in positions of authority or in relation to work may simply not be able to deliver what they promise. Beware of being offered the earth. It might just turn out to be a handful of dirt. Go with the more reasonable and down to earth opportunities. They’ll reward you much more in the end. Don’t take any backdoors or shonky deals. If you do, you’ll not only pay but you’ll probably be done out of what you thought you might be getting anyway. With Neptune in Aquarius in your tenth solar house, just keep focused on the ethics of the right spirit of business and activity.

These issues of love and attraction could also flow over into matters of health. Make this a sober and hard-working year and you can do well. Develop an ‘alternating current’ approach to work, with periods of hard application followed by good recreation, enjoyment and pleasure and you’ll get the most from yourself. Don’t indulge with your diet. Keep a firm focus on the healthy option and eat plenty of ‘rabbit’ food. This will serve you well and make the pleasure of that little occasional indulgence all the sweeter. Alcohol and drugs could really hit the constitution and application so keep the epithet ‘sober’ as the first rule at any social gathering. Remember that Venus rules both your first and sixth solar houses so there’s always that temptation to do as others around you are doing. Don’t! This is the year of the made of ‘steel’ Bull in the ethics department. Later in the year with Jupiter in your solar third house, you’ll be able to really take in the social pleasures of just being with other people and enjoying their company. Good, close friends will lift you up, especially those with whom you share business success.

Plotting the Course of the Year  

Keep your celebrations for New Year’s Eve low key and focused on social enjoyment. Gatherings of people with shared ideals will be best. Other than that, just go with the flow of the crowd if you’re out and about but keep away from trouble spots or indulgence. An eclipse of the Full Moon on January 10th might throw communications into a little disarray. There could be news from family members or close associations overseas. Business or finance could suffer because of blockage or developments that create uncertainty. Matters pertaining to movement or travel might suffer. However, with the sympathetic relationship between Sun, Moon and your sign, you might find that a long term communications or business blockage has been shifted allowing you to go ahead later on.

January 25th sees a very important shift in planetary energy as Saturn and Jupiter, the giants of the solar system come out of retrograde (reverse motion) phase and begin to move forward once again. The shackles that have bound you and your efforts for some time now will begin to ease. You can advance business growth and development, but only by degrees at first. Don’t be in too much of a hurry just yet.

Mercury Retrograde: the Backstairs Tango  

February sees Mercury the messenger planet move into his first retrograde (reverse motion) phase for the year. When this busy little traveller turns back on himself, matters of movement, travel, business and communications are subject to confusion and breakdown, often because of some little nagging detail that’s been missed. It’s advisable to put vital decisions and the signing of documents and contracts on hold at such a time. Place all important matters under review and wait to see what occurs. If you act too quickly, some hidden flaw or feature will make its presence felt later on and catch you out. To do too quickly is to have to redo later on. Watch communications here. It is easy to get lost in misunderstandings when everyone thinks they know exactly what’s been said. These are usually ‘more haste, less speed’ periods of time.

This retrograde falls in your solar tenth house, that of career and people or bodies in authority. If there are problems at work or with organizations or businesses, talk matters through. Negotiate! Be inventive. This period is also coloured by the presence of Venus in Aries in your solar twelfth house. Step back from things for a time. Don’t let others take advantage of you by trying to push you into deals or contracts that you don’t want or don’t properly understand. You may have to look after someone or something at this time. Or, perhaps it’s yourself you need to take better care of. Are you heading in the right way? Do you need to make change in what you’re doing or how you’re doing it? Give these some thought but don’t try to decide or implement any changes yet.

Now the Goddess Turns Her Face  

While March returns communications to their former state of clarity, Venus, goddess of love and the blessed dollar herself turns retrograde while still in Aries, your solar twelfth house. Relationships could be up for evaluation here. There could be difficulties or conflict from which you will need to withdraw. Someone from your past could come back into your life. It may just be that you’re wondering what you want from this area of your life. Are you too idealistic? Do you receive and give spiritually so that you feel fulfilled in your emotional life? If not, why not? Whatever occurs here, you will find that you are reflecting a little on the past, on the way of things and on the sense of what you get from both love and money. Are there fears of rejection or failure that are undercurrents in your life that keep holding you back? Take the time to delve deeply if this is so. If you want the time to start a private or creative project then this is a good one. Develop things under wraps for awhile. Otherwise, no loose spending or living. The inclination towards things done or conducted in secret under these auspices is quite beguiling but best avoided. The third week of April sees the goddess moving forward again, preparing you for the upsurge of energy and radiance that will come when she charges your solar first house with her grace in early June. And with Saturn the taskmaster moving into Gemini, if you are wise and careful you can diversify your resources and get something new working for you.

Mars, Chiron and Pluto  

For some years Pluto the transformer has been working his underworld magic in your eighth solar house and the sign of Sagittarius. You will have been going for it, overcoming the irresistible forces -- or being overcome by them. You may have gone out on a limb with freewheeling projects or passionate schemes. You may have gone into debt, got out of it then gone back in again. There may have been a state of intensity in your relationships with powerful encounters, secret liaisons, passionate love or the breakdown of relations through arguments and conflict.

If you have succeeded, it will have been against the odds. If you’ve failed, it will have been because of overwhelming odds or the enemy within, your own self-destruct button. And the conjunction of Chiron and Pluto at the beginning of last year in Sagittarius in your solar eighth house will have pointed the root of the problem out to you over the balance of the last twelve months. Chiron is the wounded healer, the body that draws our attention to the damage we carry. Issues of money, sexuality, intimacy and trust will have been at the centre of any conflicts, problems or obstacles you have had to face. Do you trust your own drives and power? Do you trust those of others? Or at least can you choose trustworthy people to be part of your life? Do you trust life or does it just pull the rug or the plug on whatever you’re doing. Betrayal that leaves you shackled is the core issue. How can you find your freedom of spirit? For the moment, keep going and your continued efforts in the coming year you will teach you the path of liberation.

The Fiery Warrior at Sea  

Mars the warrior, after his moody and intense start to the year in Scorpio, moves on to fiery Sagittarius and the waters of your eighth solar house in February. By the third week of March, he’s made a powerful conjunction with Pluto, leaving us all climbing the walls with our desire to get going. Watch the temperature here. This is bang in the middle of the retrograde Venus. Older relationships could find powerful renewal or go up in smoke (both at once perhaps!). New ones might come then peter out if they can’t survive the intensity. Negotiate the waves of passion though and something new could emerge in you through love and sex.

This could also be a powerful moment for your finances, with big losses or gains depending on how you keep both your head and your courage. Something owed from long ago could be paid! By May though, Mars has also entered a retrograde cycle of his own. This starts on May 12th after a conjunction with retrograde Chiron and it doesn’t end until July 20th. Retrograde Mars can catch us all with a dose of impatience or frustration. Be careful of wheeling and dealing with joint finances or other people’s money at this time. You might think you’ll be lucky but June, July or the early October will catch you out. Take this period step by step. Examine issues about trust, money and intimacy as you go.

June goes off like a fireworks display in your second and eighth solar houses, pushing issues of money, business and communications to the fore. This is not a good time to be under someone else’s control financially unless there is a deep and abiding trust between you. The second phase of Mercury retrograde for the year bobs up, causing glitches and confusion in your second solar house. Make sure arrangements concerning money and the basics of life have been clearly made. Appliances or vehicles may get a touch of the staggers and have to be repaired or replaced. Be clear in communication. Make sure you’ve been understood. Make sure you are where you need to be when you need to be and if you just can’t be then make sure you’ve notified the proper authorities. The second week of June could be filled with bluster, high debate and exaggerated views or reactions, as mighty Mars opposes Jupiter and everyone on opposite sides hits the roof. If you feel inclined to let fly with everything you should’ve said to someone years ago then do, but prepare to wear the consequences, one of which will most likely be regret. Otherwise, stay clear of all of this if you can. Don’t get sucked in!

The Solstice and the Solar Eclipse  

June 21st produces the winter solstice and a solar eclipse right on the cusp of your third solar house. There could be rifts here or endings, especially if family ties are involved and have in some way broken down over matters of communication. Early born Bulls could rocket ahead or go back to square one as the lights go off either for the release of fear or the failure to recognize fear as a problem. Whichever way things go, look around for help and support from those close to you. If you’re a parent, watch out that you’re not treating your own children in just the way you were treated (and you didn’t like it!) and thereby lose contact as a consequence. Overall a congested and excitable time so it would be best to cultivate the peaceable side of the Bull’s nature and be patient and easygoing.

Battle of the Titans  

Giant Jupiter, monarch of the Heavens, moves into the sign of Cancer and your third solar house on July 13th. This will bring a lift to your Bullish spirits with fortunate and loving communications, contact with family, thoughts about property investment and opportunity to advance or upgrade business wise. This may especially suit those Bulls in small business or working concerns that are based in the home. Over the next few months, Jupiter will bring out the best in Bulls born up to May 5th or 6th with confidence, enthusiasm and a great desire to be at the heart of warm feeling and binding emotion. Make the most of what’s on offer.

In August when Saturn and Pluto stage a battle of the titans, Saturn in Gemini in your solar second house and Pluto in Sagittarius in your solar eighth, take on the world and trust to your luck and judgement. Don’t let authority or power overwhelm. Stand your ground and draw support from those who love you and care for your welfare. It could be tough going but the victory will be worth it. Don’t enter the battle if you’re unprepared or concealing any dishonesty, especially if you’re dealing with people or bodies in authority or power. What you haven’t done or what you have done and then concealed will find you out. If you’re in the right though, luck is with you.

Health Concerns  

Once again confusion reigns in October as Mercury turns retrograde in Libra in your solar sixth house. Break your working or daily routines if you’re not well. At the very least, it will be important to vary them if you’re not getting enough time for yourself. Don’t let others take over your life at this point, especially co-workers or partners with whom you work. Saturn has been transiting your solar sixth house since April, bringing benefit in diversity but also asking you to examine just how you look after yourself. Are you a typical Bull, shrugging off any warning signs with the ‘I’m all right, don’t make a fuss!’ banner? If you are then change, just like that! What troubles you health wise in October needs to be worked on and changed, especially if the issue of looking after your body is involved. Learn to care for yourself! This is the big issue in health for this year.

Add to this the normal retrograde Mercury problems with communications, technology and transport, all related to work, and a jolly little month awaits you all. Watch in particular the first week of October when the messenger first turns and Mars in Capricorn and your solar ninth house opposes Jupiter in Cancer in your third. Recreation versus enjoyment, responsibility versus play, business versus pleasure! Try to find a better balance for all of these demands. Don’t fight with people of a different race or with your teacher or your publisher. Most of all, don’t overreact to the little nagging things! Some of you might find yourselves travelling but not enjoying it. Others might find that responsibilities are creating loneliness.

Heading for the Tape  

November brings a period of intensity in relationships through Mercury and the Sun in your solar seventh house while Mars asks you to keep your efforts focused on work with his transit of your tenth house. Learn something new, trust in teamwork and delegate and you just might strike a balance. December sees the run to the finish line hotting up with Venus scalding her way through the underworld house in the sign of Sagittarius before settling in the more sober Capricorn, promising that the benefits of all your hard work will come in the New Year.

A solar eclipse on December 15th may bring some advantage through others and their money or financial interests. This could give a boost to your working life. A lunar eclipse on December 30th could throw a spanner in the works of your plans and see you having to pitch in and contribute somehow to the wider spectrum of people or to your community. With Mars in your solar eleventh house squaring Pluto in Sagittarius in your eighth, expend every effort to do what needs to be done according to the bigger picture. There are powerful forces at work and sometimes it’s best to simply operate according to their behest. You could have something to celebrate if you play your part. If you don’t, you might find that others who needed you are out of sorts and become difficult to deal with. Take the hero’s path and assure yourself of fortune in the New Year.