How’s Aries treating you? Hopefully you get along with the first, cardinal fire sign that pretty much wants everything its own way and is ruling the skies right now (through sun, Venus, Mars and Uranus).

Who doesn’t love that?

Next week Venus will enter Taurus, the following week the sun and Mars, and by the beginning of May, Mercury.

Don’t worry Aries lovers. Uranus will stay in Aries for about five more years. Don’t think impulsiveness has buried itself in the Taurus earth. Uranus will simply have to work harder in May to crack the earth for the energy to be released.

Moving from full throttle Aries to placid Taurus feels a little bit like this: you’re driving on the highway and the flow just isn’t fast enough for you. So you pass the slow drivers (many of whom are just busy on the phone or texting) rush past the bovine horde to find yourself slamming on the breaks. Traffic is stopped for miles due to something you can’t see.

Will you be stopped for minutes or hours?

You’ll be at a halt through the end of May.

You were going so fast and making such good time! What a shame!

But if you like things to slow down, the stop is a good time to catch up on texting (while not driving), find a new station on the radio, pick up the trash that flew all over the dashboard as you hit the brakes and open the window to allow some fresh air in the car. And you might even notice the beautiful sun peeking from behind iridescent clouds.

Sounds lovely, no?

Taurus

Taurus is ruled by Venus although I believe Taurus is ruled by the earth itself. We have too many signs and too few planets (the moon is a “planet” in astrology) so Venus and Mercury get to do double duty.

Taurus is calm and stable, the least emotional of signs. The moon, which rules emotions, is considered in its exaltation in Taurus. In other words, a calm emotional state creates not only peace but the true enjoyment of earth sensation. When we’re bothered by emotional states, we rarely enjoy the environment.

Taurus is the fixed earth sign. Think fixed and think earth and you then think “stubborn.” The fixed signs are all determined in their element: Aquarius is determined about ideas, Leo is determined about expression and Scorpio is determined about feelings. This determination leads fixed signs to positions of leadership.

Taurus, then, is stubborn about earth – habit and material life. Oh, and money.

A good example is the recent debate we had on earth about whether the earth is flat or round.

Standing on the earth, it appears flat. Flat is the sensation and the appearance. Which one of us would have questioned the flatness thousands of years ago?

Looking at the earth from the moon, it’s clearly round. But it takes the vantage point of 239,000 miles away to see this.

How did we figure out the earth was round without the vantage point of thousands of miles?

Those looking into the sky discovered it. They figured it out by watching the sun and moon. They looked at the appearances of things in relation to each other and did some math. They wondered “why?”

Why was a round earth so scary to some, especially those in authority (which is ruled by another earth sign – Capricorn)?

It’s scary to discover that appearances are not the full reality. It’s scary to earth signs and scary to the “earth” in each of us. Earth signs are concerned with practical affairs and often look down or straight, but not up and out.

It’s particularly scary to authority because stability rests on common, unchanging belief. If the people wake up one day and ask, “How does the king have authority?” the kind had better start looking for a new job.

Questioning the earth was questioning the reality of appearance itself.

Taurus Holidays

The two holidays that occur during Taurus are Earth Day (April 22) and Mother’s Day (May 12 this year), which, by the way, OHA recommends combining into “Mother Earth Day.”

Earth Day is clearly a Taurus holiday where we can remind ourselves that in this body at this time we do, truly, live on earth. The earth is our home and our food, all rolled up into one ball. That means, in Taurus logical fashion, if I pollute the water I pollute myself because I have to drink water.

So simple!

Mothers, too, can (and possibly should) provide “nourishment” to the beings that enter the world through their bodies. Mother’s body feeds us, literally, until we enter the world. Then mother continues to feed us through her body until we have some teeth (Capricorn) to bite into the world on our own.

The sign of mothering is actually Cancer, which belongs to July. Cancer is the emotional side of mothering. It’s interesting that we have Mother’s Day in the physical side of mothering.

Rushing to slow down

Now that you’ve been warned about the traffic jam up ahead, go ahead and rush about getting those last-minute Aries ideas in motion. Ideas and inspiration come with Aries.

When Taurus arrives, it’s time to actually go to the store, buy the wood and make that birdhouse.