After the intensity of Aries season, and after those bright blissful first warm days of spring, Taurus season — which usually takes place from around April 20 to May 20 — offers us a chance to stabilize, to steady ourselves, to get comfortable again. We’re entering the sweet core of the springtime. This is the time when seeds germinate and sprout, when trees begin to bud, when it starts to seem possible that winter could finally really be over. Taurus is the bull, a sign of strength and tenacity, but also of pleasure, of lounging, luxurious, in sunny fields.
As an earth sign, Taurus has a power that’s not flighty or erratic, but steady, solid, grounded in the real world. This is an energy that’s often very practical, ready to do what needs to be done, even when that work isn’t flashy or thrilling or attention-grabbing. Taurus is unlikely to get carried away by fleeting visions of an imagined future, or swept up in complicated schemes and intrigues. Taurus, instead, knows how to move and build methodically. Taurus is deeply, beautifully stubborn, too — a sign that knows its own mind and will not be swayed. This doesn’t mean that Taurus is incapable of growth, or even of serious, radical change — just that this change won’t be the result of outside pressures.
Taurus season can be a great time for maintaining and deepening work on an ongoing project, a great month for staying committed, for going the distance. It might also just be a great time for stubbornness! Nobody else gets to tell you what to do, or who you are, or what the world is made of. You know who you are and what you’re about, and no one else gets to boss you around! You can resist what you know to be wrong for you, and defend what you know to be right.
Happily for Taurus, though, all this stubborn and hard-working tenacity emphatically does not come at the expense of having a good time. Taurus is a spectacularly, luxuriously sensual sign. All three of the earth signs are rooted in the physicality of the world and the body, but Taurus is ruled by Venus, planet of pleasure, love, and money. Taurus season is not only about the work the body can do, but about the pleasure it can feel, too.
This can, obviously, mean sex, but it’s more than just that — it’s about the whole range of physical pleasures we can experience in our lives. Taurus truly values the satisfaction of eating well, or of wearing fabrics that feel soft against the skin, or of getting a truly great haircut. Taurus really, deeply feels the pleasure of a long hot bath, or a sweet afternoon nap, or a sunny afternoon spent lounging on a blanket in a lush green park. During Taurus season, the people around you might seem suddenly, surprisingly hedonistic. But then you, too, might feel newly alive to the luxuries, large and small, of living in the physical world.
For Taurus season inspiration, think of Adrienne Rich’s decades-long career, with her ever-deepening artistic practice and political consciousness. Think, too, of her firm stubbornness in refusing the National Medal of Arts in 1997: “The very meaning of art, as I understand it, is incompatible with the cynical politics of this administration.” Or think of Janet Jackson’s career, and her steady output of excellent pop. Think about the way she moves onstage, rhythmic and confident and fully alive to the power of her body. Or think about Cher, and all the glitter, all the sequins, all the mesh she’s has ever worn. Think about how much she always seems to be loving her life, how much she always seems to be feeling herself!
If you’re somebody who tends to get stuck in your own thoughts, Taurus season can remind you to pay attention to your body, to the pleasures of your five senses. If you’re someone who tends to get carried away by nostalgia, Taurus season can bring you back to the world that exists in front of you right now. You can work hard and stay true to yourself. But it’s springtime, too, and work isn’t the only thing there is! You’re alive in a world full of color and feeling, and you get to enjoy yourself here, too.