Astrological Symbolism: Taurus, part 2

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.

1-Venus, Ruler of Taurus & Libra

On the contrary, by conception in Scorpio - viz., of Lupa by Taurus - birth would be in Leo. Scorpio was Chrestos in humiliation, while Leo was Christos in triumph. While Taurus-Eve fulfilled astronomical functions, Mars-Lupa fulfilled spiritual ones by type. [ Op. cit.,296.] The author bases all this on Egyptian correlations and meanings of Gods and Goddesses, but ignores the Aryan, which are far earlier. Mooth or Mouth, was the Egyptian cognomen of Venus, (Eve, mother of all living) [as Vach, mother of all living, a permutation of Aditi, as Eve was one of Sephira] or the moon.' (Isis I, 374).

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)

2-Europa & Zeus as white bull

Greece

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)

3-Hyades saving Alcmena

Graeco Roman myths relate stories pertaining to the Hyades, a major constellation of Taurus.

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)

Another major constellation in Taurus, the Pleiades , is also part of Greek mythical tradition:

4- the Pleiades

Even more famous than the Hyades is another star cluster in Taurus: the Pleiades (Πλειάδες in Greek), commonly known as the Seven Sisters. To a casual glance, the Pleiades cluster appears as a fuzzy patch like a swarm of flies over the back of the bull. According to Hyginus, some ancient astronomers called them the bull’s tail. So distinctive are the Pleiades that the ancient Greeks regarded them as a separate mini-constellation and used them as a calendar marker. Hesiod, in his agricultural poem Works and Days, instructs farmers to begin harvesting when the Pleiades rise at dawn, which in Greek times would have been in May, and to plough when they set at dawn, which would have been in November. 

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’.

5- Orion

A famous myth links the Pleiades with Orion. As Hyginus tells it, Pleione and her daughters were one day walking through Boeotia when Orion tried to ravish her. Pleione and the girls escaped, but Orion pursued them for seven years. Zeus immortalized the chase by placing the Pleiades in the heavens where Orion follows them endlessly.  (Ian Ridpath, Star Tales)

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

The animals associated with the Christian tetramorph originate in the Babylonian symbols of the four fixed signs of the zodiac: the ox representing Taurus; the lion representing Leo; the eagle representing Scorpio; the man or angel representing Aquarius. (Mesocosm, The Tetramorph; The Sumerian Origins of a Christian Symbol)

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

2- Apulian Red Figure Kylix ca 330 - 320 B.C. https://www.theoi.com/Gallery/K1.8.html

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

Part 1