Rulership of Venus
Blavatsky relates some ideas
of Kabbalist J. Ralston Skinner on Venus as ruler of Taurus:
'The author's idea is to show
the mystic blending by the Gospel writers of Jehovah, Cain, Abel, etc.,
with Jesus (in accordance with Jewish kabalistic numeration); the better
he succeeds, the more clearly he shows that it was a forced blending, and
that we have not a record of the real events of the life of
Jesus, narrated by eyewitnesses or the Apostles. The narrative is all
based on the signs of the Zodiac: Each a double sign or male-female [ in
ancient astrological Magic] - viz.: it was Taurus-Eve, and Scorpio was
Mars-Lupa, or Mars with the female wolf [ in relation to Romulus]. (Page 154) So, as these signs
were opposites of each other, yet met in the centre, they were
connected; and so in fact it was, and in a double sense, the conception of
the year was in Taurus, as the conception of Eve by Mars, her opposite, in
Scorpio. The birth would be at the winter solstice, or Christmas.
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| 1-Venus, Ruler of Taurus & Libra |
Blavatsky adds: ‘Isis was sometimes called Muth, which word means mother .
. . (Issa, אשח woman). (Isis, p.372). Moreover: ‘Isis, he says is that part of
Nature, which, as feminine,contains in herself, as (nutrix) nurse, all things
to be born. . . “Certainly the moon, “ speaking astronomically, “chiefly
exercises this function in Taurus, Venus being the house (in opposition to
Mars, generator, in Scorpio), because the sign is luna, hypsoma. (Secret
Doctrine 3, 127-28)
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| 2-Europa & Zeus as white bull |
In
Greek tradition, the sign is customarily related to the myth of Europa. Europa was the
daughter of Argiope
and Agenor, a
Sidonian. Jupiter,
changing his form to that of a bull, carried her from Sidon
to Crete, and begat by her Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthus. Her
father Agenor
sent his sons to bring their sister back, or else not to return to his sight. Phoenix set out
for Africa, and there remained. From this the
Africans are called Phoenicians. Cilix from his own name gave the name to Cilicia.
Cadmus in his
wanderings came to Delphi. There the oracle
told him to buy from farmers an ox which had a moon-shaped mark on its side, and to drive
it before him. Where it lay down it was fated that he found a town and rule.
When Cadmus heard the oracle, he did as he was told. While seeking water he
came to the fountain of Castalia, which a dragon, the offspring of Mars, was guarding.
It killed the comrades of Cadmus, but was killed by Cadmus with a stone.
Under Minerva's
instructions he sowed the teeth and ploughed them under. From them sprang the Sparti. These
fought themselves, but from them five survived, namely, Chthonius, Udaeus, Hyperenor, Pelorus, and Echion. Moreover, Boeotia was named from the ox Cadmus followed. (Hyginus,
Fabulae, § 178 EUROPA)
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| 3-Hyades saving Alcmena |
The face of
Taurus is marked by the V-shaped group of stars called the Hyades (Ὑάδες in Greek). Ovid in his Fasti asserts that the name comes from
the old Greek word hyein, meaning ‘to rain’, so that Hyades
means ‘rainy ones’, because their rising at certain times of year was said to
be a sign of rain. In mythology the Hyades were the daughters of Atlas and
Aethra the Oceanid. Their eldest brother was Hyas, a bold hunter who one day
was killed by a lioness. His sisters wept inconsolably – Hyginus says they died
of grief – and for this they were placed in the sky. Hence it seems equally
likely that their name comes from their brother Hyas. In another story, the
Hyades were nymphs who nursed the infant Dionysus in their cave on Mount Nysa,
feeding him on milk and honey. The Romans had a different name: they called the
Hyades suculae meaning ‘piglets’. (Ian Ridpath, Star Tales)
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| 4- the Pleiades |
In mythology the Pleiades were
the seven daughters of Atlas and the oceanid Pleione, after whom they are
named. One popular derivation is that the name comes from the Greek word plein, meaning ‘to sail’ – so Pleione means ‘sailing queen’
and the Pleiades are the ‘sailing ones’, because in Greek times they were
visible all night during the summer sailing season. When the Pleiades vanished
from the night sky, it was considered prudent to remain ashore. ‘Gales of all
winds rage when the Pleiades, pursued by violent Orion, plunge into the clouded
sea’, wrote Hesiod. Alternatively, and possibly more likely, the name may come
from the old Greek word pleos, ‘full’, which in the
plural meant ‘many’, a suitable reference to the cluster. According to other
authorities, the name comes from the Greek word peleiades,
meaning ‘flock of doves’.
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| 5- Orion |
Rome
Ovid recounts how the feast of Nefastus on April 20: (vv. 713-720) marks the
Sun’s entrance into Taurus:
When
Memnon's saffron(-robed) mother (i.e. Aurora) next comes to view the
broad earth on her rosy steeds, the Sun abandons the leader of the woolly flock
who betrayed Helle (i.e. Aries, the Ram): a greater victim is there in
his path (i.e. the constellation of Taurus): its front is evident, (but)
its hind-parts are hidden. But whether this star-sign is a bull (i.e. the
bull which had carried Europa) or a heifer (i.e. the heifer into which
Io had been transformed), it has its reward for love-making against the
wishes of Juno (Ovid, Fastii, Book 4, April).
Judaism
In
terms of Kabbalistic symbolism, Blavatsky states that: ‘Taurus is under the
asterisk A, which is its figure in the Hebrew alphabet, that of Aleph;
and therefore that constellation is called the “ One ”, the “ First ”, after
the said letter. Hence, the “ First-born” to all of whom it was made sacred.’ (Blavatsky,
Taurus, Theosophical
Glossary)
According
to Shaul Youdkevitch: ‘The symbol of the
astrological sign of Taurus is an ox. In the story of the Merkava, in
the book of Ezekiel, Ch. 1, the Left Column (the desire
to receive for the self alone) is symbolized by the ox. This image of the Left
Column, symbolized by the ox, can be found in many places in the Bible and in
many other writings of Kabbalah.’
Christian |
| 6-Tetramorph, Bull symbol, Luke |
Historically speaking, Rupert
Gleadow gives some basic considerations concerning the origin of the symbol: The Bull on the other hand is not Egyptian. Had it been so, then its ruler, when ruling planets were allotted, should have been Saturn and not Venus, just as Mars would have been the ruler of Leo. The Egyptians called Saturn 'Horus the Bull of Heaven', and bulls are not uncommon in Egyptian astronomy, but they are not attached, like the Babylonian Gud.anna, to this part of the sky (The Origin of the Zodiac, 1968 212-213).
Images References
1-15 c. Lombard manuscript De Sphaera https://fineartamerica.com/featured/venus-ruler-of-taurus-and-libra-photo-researchers.html?product=duvet-cover
3- The Hyades saving Alcmena. Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Göttingen, 1845-
Dresden, 1923), Ausfürliches Lexikon der griechisches und römisches
Mythologie, 1884. https://www.maicar.com/GML/HYADES1.html
4-Greek vase painting https://www.thoughtco.com/recommendations-for-greek-mythology-120539
5- Ceiling Frescoe, Villa Farnese - MAP OF THE HEAVENS - Giovanni Antonio da Varese - 1575 https://www.peoplesguidetothecosmos.com/constellations/orion.htm
6-Tetramorph. Fresco, Meteora. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetramorph#/media/File:Tetramorph_meteora.jpg
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