You don’t need a Taurus sun, moon, ascendant, aspects, or house placements to be a Taurus. ‘Pure types’ have firm, pink, elastic skin, a dense consistency of the hands, and bulging percussions under the pinkie finger. Large stiff thumbs and stiff fingers embody stubbornness, determination, and tenacity. A full rosy ball of thumb symbolizes love of family, nature, children, comfort, luxury, art, music, and all things beautiful. When the ball of thumb is surrounded by a long clear deep life line, the person is blessed with inherently good health. With a long clear deep fate line there’s strong purpose.

Deep lines and skin ridge patterns are maps that can be navigated by anyone who learns how. Pure Taurus types have few peripheral lines. Taurus loves security and stability. They think and feel in uncomplicated practical ways. A long graceful heart line ending under the index finger is romantic and sentimental. Being ‘old fashioned’ is natural for them. People with long graceful heart lines tend to see others as they want them to be, instead of how they really are. A head line closely intertwined with a life line needs to be appreciated and never taken for granted. Loop and arch fingerprints add adaptability and practicality. Square finger tips reinforce a need for order and stability. Depending on size, second knots are more or less obsessed with having everything organized and in its place. Dominant middle and bottom phalanges confirm a practical and sensual person. The hand pictured above belongs to a Pisces with dominant Taurus character.

Taurus is driven by physical senses. As responsible, practical, pragmatic, objective, dependable, and reliable individuals, they understand how the material world works. They only trust what they can see and feel, not ideas, intuitions, or inspirations. As creatures of habit, they can get addicted to routine and order. They get bogged down with practical and mundane matters that limit their abstract abilities and imagination. They procrastinate at beginnings and endings because they get stuck in their habits and patterns and care too much what other people think.

Taurus is a feminine archetype. Aphrodite’s need for comfort and beauty are powerful. She gives form to visions of wealth and power. She loves her family, friendships, home, food, nature, art, and music. Her need for physical security drives her practical attitudes. Honest, dependable, and trustworthy, she’s valued for her natural warmth and good sense. She won’t bend the truth or perform a song and dance act for anyone. She’s loyal, affectionate, and charming, but can also be controlling, jealous, and possessive. She thrives in real estate, banking, food, and fashion businesses. She’s not the best salesman as she takes rejection personally. Her greatest challenges are to trust her gut, give up control, and let go when it no longer makes sense to hold on. Taurus can be the best bull or the worst Minotaur.

Pope John Paul ll embodied many fine qualities of Taurus. He tried to get the rich to share their wealth with the poor. He was the first Pope to visit a synagogue. He encouraged Catholics and Jews to love one another. He survived one assassination attempt that nearly killed him and still rose to address countless chaotic messes and reforms in the church.

J. Krishnamurti, a spiritual guide, shared good sense with whoever would listen

Leonardo da Vinci was the original hipster and a great artist and inventor

Sigmund Freud was father of modern psychoanalysis

Karl Marx developed the theory of socialism

Martha Graham was mother of modern dance

Katherine Hepburn was Grande Dame of American stage and movies

Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister Tony Blair are anchors for Great Britain

“The great mass of people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than a small one”. The darkest depths of Taurus manifested a monster from 1933 to 1945. Responsible for over thirty million deaths, Adolph Hitler transformed our world by channeling anger, fear, and terror and blending it with the magic of imagery to control and manipulate the masses.

Jim Jones, fanatic cult figure, led 1,000 followers to mass suicide in 1978

Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh showed no remorse for his evil

Saddam Hussein (Iraqi President 79~06) was slain and shamed by US

William Randolph Hearst and Orson Welles (both bulls) battled obstinately over the making and release of ‘Citizen Kane’. Kane was a Midas. Welles immodestly modeled him after Hearst. Despite his natural charisma and brilliant acting and directing, Welles was no match for Hearst’s fortune and resultant ability to influence the masses. Welles was determined and persistent in his righteous defiance of Hearst. Stubborn, acquisitive, possessive, and controlling, Hearst relentlessly tortured Welles with legalities and bludgeoned him with bad publicity until Welles could no longer afford his principles. He became unable to rise to his challenges or control his self-indulgences (perils for Taurus).

‘Values’ are the esoteric correspondence for Taurus. Everything and nothing are of equal value; identical in nature, but different by degree. A billionaire dying of cancer would gladly trade his money for youth and good health. A glamorous celebrity with a brain damaged child will graciously scrub toilets in Grand Central Station for a cure. People often ask, “How long is my life?” It’s about quality, not quantity. Everyone dies.

‘Less is more’ learned King Midas as he yearned for the touch of gold, got it, and turned his beloved daughter and their magical relationship into a hunk of metal. His food transformed to gold as it touched his lips. Midas is a lesson in values. How can we be stable, secure, and happy while letting go of wanting more than we need? Too little or too much of anything raises our awareness of what matters. Aphrodite (Greek) rules Taurus. Venus (Roman) loves and values stability, security, sensuality, and splendor.

Alchemy isn’t about turning lead into gold. It’s the art of transforming Saturn into the Sun. We can all be our own best friends and bull shit detectors. Virtue, honesty, integrity, dignity, nobility, responsibility, discipline, structure, focus, determination, and persistence molds heroes. By cultivating healthy attitudes, thinking constructively, setting realistic goals, and taking action, we can positively transform our inner and outer worlds. Everyone has Taurus in their symbolism. Embrace your best qualities, master your darkness, and manage your life.

The human race has become a race against bad shit happening. Common sense is not necessarily good sense. Unhealthy values point to unwholesome societies that follow unnatural paths of self-destruction. Our major problems are not physical. They’re philosophical, ideological, and spiritual. People apply formulas for success, yet few are truly successful. Success is a state of mind, heart, and spirit. Our health and the health of our world is a reflection of our thoughts and feelings. Why must we be habitually and eternally challenged to learn to value what we have by losing it?

The New York Stock Exchange and Federal Reserve are bulls. Uranus transited Taurus from 1935 to 1942. The USA went off the gold standard. People began focusing on their values and questioning materialism. President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act. Labor organized, forming unions that went on strike and engaged in sit-downs across the nation. President Roosevelt defended the Four Essential Freedoms: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear.

People born between 1935 and 1942 have Uranus in Taurus. Many have experienced sudden and unexpected gains and reversals. After transiting the cosmos for 84 years, in 2019, Uranus returns to Taurus for seven years. While polluted partisan politics prevent and pervert our progress (social and national), expect extreme financial fluctuations.

I hate predicting, but am concerned that if our philosophical and spiritual paradigms don’t shift dramatically by mid-2019, we’ll have another Black Tuesday like Oct. 29, 1929, as Saturn opposes the Stock Exchange’s natal Chiron and squares its natal Moon, Pluto squares natal Jupiter, Uranus conjuncts natal Venus, and Neptune opposes natal Mars! Prepare for Trumpaggedon!