In the 1967 movie Barefoot in the Park, the extroverted young wife (Jane Fonda) becomes angry with her introverted, lawyer husband (Robert Redford) for his reserve, his inability to appreciate “the ridiculous.”

How anyone can get angry with Redford’s face is a different blog.

After an evening of unexpected new food and culture (and a freezing February ferry ride to New York’s Staten Island), Fonda is ready for more spontaneous fun in her eccentric-filled Greenwich Village apartment complex.

Redford is angry and wants to sleep (he has a court case in the morning).

Off the effects of a wild-and-crazy night, Fonda has a wild-and-crazy meltdown seeing that she and her newly betrothed are opposites. She informs him that he is a “watcher” and she is a “doer.”

In 1967, watching and doing occurred in the same physical space. Fifty-plus years later, watching and doing are not so discrete.

Physical Existence

The zodiac has 12 signs yet we have only 10 astral bodies to assign to each (includes the moon and Pluto). Taurus and Virgo – both earth signs – get assigned a planet that is also assigned to air signs.

Taurus gets Venus (ruler of Libra) and Virgo gets Mercury (ruler of Gemini).

As an earth sign, I could complain here that earth signs always get the short shrift, the extra work, the sharing of a ruling planet.

But I won’t.

Personally, I believe Taurus is “ruled” by the earth itself. Virgo, some distant helper planet. Chiron the asteroid is included in some astrological readings as the “wounded healer” and Virgo seems fit for this.

We’ll take a vote on that later.

Taurus is the focus here, the fixed earth sign. Of all zodiac personality types, Taurus is the most present, the most truly involved in physical existence and true enjoyment of physical pleasures (Venus is pleasure but relies on “others” in some way).

Taurus is the “here and now” while the rest of the zodiac is living in relation to others in mind or emotion. Taurus is the stationary mountain while water, air, and fire are in constant motion. (Note that mountains do change but it takes a long, long time.)

Aries competes which requires a “loser.” Gemini explores which requires stimulation. Cancer belongs which requires a family. Leo performs which requires an audience. Virgo serves which requires the helpless or rich. Libra reflects which requires a partner. Scorpio penetrates which requires intimacy. Sagittarius explores which requires foreign people and places. Capricorn controls which requires social infrastructure. Aquarius idealizes which requires cults and conventions. Pisces sacrifices which requires dire situations.

Folks with sun, moon, or lots of planets in Taurus are one of the human personality designs and, of course, need other people. But this sign and those with second house sun (second house ruled by Taurus) are the most self-reliant with focus on material acquisition with enjoyment of those material objects without need for them to represent abstract desires.

Most materialism is for the requirements of the mind or emotions to keep up, to impress, to keep stimulated, etc. We’ve all had these Taurus moments, when a delightful thing – flowers and nature often capture this feeling – enthralls us with its beauty or function.

Mental and Emotional Existence

Visiting any of the Disney parks, I’m always stunned by how little is there. What brings us there, and me as five-year-old, are the mental and emotional images evoked through media. My five-year-old self simply wanted to see the Cinderella ball dresses in real life. No wonder I now subscribe to Vogue.

We bring to Disney to the rest of our lives as well with mental and emotional images. Marriage is a perfect place to see the mental and emotional images clash with the physical reality. Cinderella’s story ends with marriage; it doesn’t begin there.

There is no Taurus reality at Disney. We don’t see Cinderella dealing with the enemies that always want to assassinate the prince. We don’t see how she treats the servants. We don’t see her dealing with the British press . . .

We see the image before the reality.

Pluto-in-Leo to Pluto-in-Aquarius

In 1967 when Barefoot in the Park was released, the Pluto-in-Leo generation were challenging the rules of culture including rebellion from parental control of life. And what started that trend?

Television.

Radio came first bringing the same information at the same time to masses of people. The first World War was a direct result of having a “world” (and a Federal Reserve, I know, I know). At that time, there were still countries and groups of people isolated from “the world.”

Television brought the same images at the same time to masses of people. Early photographs of television show families sitting together in the living room watching the same show.

How often do we do that today?

In the US today, the only messages shared by masses at the same time are sports and politics. The rest is individual.

Is there anyone out there besides me reading an old copy of Marie Brenner articles? Maybe a journalism student somewhere . . .

The Merging of Participant and Observer

Pluto in Leo folks sat in parks, together, sharing experiences. That, of course, still occurs today. Some far away may choose to participate via social or news media.

Is that participant or observer?

Emails and social media posts provide links to one’s senators. Click the link, send the note. And then the politicians have auto-generated responses.

Did anything really occur in physical reality?

Am I really a participant in anything when I do that? Or am I simply an observer of my own desire to impact change?

Many years ago in new age circles, there were predictions of the earth “splitting” into two earths. A crazy thought then, it comes back now as having some odd validity in the merging of participant and observer, something, I hear, quantum physics is exploring.

From a pure Taurus perspective, it’s ironic that some folks have replaced Taurus physical interaction solely with digital interaction and feel it’s an equivalently satisfying experience.

From a non-Taurus perspective, most of our experiences are mental-emotional so the need for an actual energetic being in the experience has been removed – maybe it was never needed in the first place. The fears of Artificial Intelligence (AI), ironically again, created by AI, are nothing new but a reflection of our true nature that we are often not mentally or emotionally present.

Our bodies may be in physical reality but we “live” in our minds and emotions. With hand-held technology, we know the person across from us is no longer paying attention to our story. In the past, it probably was the same but instead of looking at the text they were thinking about what to make for dinner.

Here and now

Much of the here and now – now – is interaction with digital reality. Here, where I am, soon nothing will be done without some digital interference. My apologies to the techies but it was easier (and cheaper) to simply put some coins in the meter.

In the early days of digital, it was sold as convenience and was. Today, digital is a scammer playing field with each interaction a battle of wits – is this a valid website? Am I ordering a plane ticket or a bus tickets? Which portion of all the text is important enough to click on and read?

I’m the participant-observer in an interaction with nobody, and nobody wins.