STARFIRE

June 2011 - FINAL STARFIRE COLUMN!

June 2011 - Jupiter in Taurus: The Year of the Craftsman Click on the image for a larger view. NOTE: Image will come up in a new browser window.

Jupiter in Taurus: The Year of the Craftsman

When I planned this column about Jupiter entering Taurus, I had a simplistic notion that Jupiter (expansion) in Taurus (money and banking) would bring easy money, good crops, a return to good times.  
           
And then I decided to do a quick check on the history of Jupiter in Taurus.  Checking history is always a good move for an astrologer because history so often proves the simple assumptions to be flawed.

Because money is the usual means of exchange in a capitalist system, we tend to think of money and banking when we consider Taurus.   Historically, though, Taurus was the sing of crops and fields and every imaginable tangible asset.  It represents our natural resources, both individually and as a society.

Jupiter represents expansion, and our resources expand whenever Jupiter’s in Taurus.   But adversity, not easy times, is often the cause of the efforts that expand resources and fuel economic improvement.

In 1940, for example, Jupiter in Taurus coincided with the Battle of Britain.  In response to Hitler’s attacks on British airfield, England developed ways to produce new aircraft at unprecedented speed.  

At the same time, British scientists began the serious search for nuclear fission that gravitated to the United States and grew into the Manhattan project, the Hanford project, the TVA and ultimately the first atomic bombs.

Resources developed while Jupiter is in Taurus become public a year later with Jupiter in Gemini.   Gemini disseminates the information–and it seems to be the Gemini energy that turns the new resources into jobs.    

In Taurus, Jupiter favors experiments and the actual development work for new ideas.   Over the long course of history, farmers planted crops when the Moon was in Taurus.  In centuries when personal possessions were, for most people, directly related to agricultural production, Taurus also became associated with personal possessions.

Today we include bank accounts among those personal possessions.   Originally, though, Taurus might have signified good seeds for future crops, abundant food supplies, and the production of tools and weapons by hand.   Taurus products aren’t necessarily artistic or beautiful, but they’re useful resources, nourishment for life.

As I’m writing this column, I’m watching devastation in Joplin, Missouri, and relating the task of rebuilding Joplin to the task of rebuilding England after the Battle of Britain.  If I had a prediction for Jupiter in Taurus, it would be that, in the aftermath of disaster, new ways of rebuilding will develop that will be resources for the future.  

Jupiter, of course, represents expansion of knowledge and wisdom, just as Taurus is grounded and rooted in practical matters.   Since there’s already been a disaster, we can be grateful that Jupiter in Taurus promise some lasting good to come out of the learning that makes continuity possible.
           
But what do we do with Jupiter in Taurus when there’s no disaster?

We expand our knowledge in practical ways.  We dig deeper and more creatively in the fertile fields of our own work, develop our craft.   We sharpen our tools with practice and exercise.  We develop patience and let the work itself teach us.

At the end, Jupiter in Taurus may not bring easy money and windfall cash, but it delivers opportunities to build resources that are both personal and lasting.   Choose work this year that feeds your senses; Taurus thrives on sensory input.   Focus on work that brings its own satisfactions and let the Jupiter-Taurus growth of resources be the bonus for an interesting year.

Mary O’Gara, Ph.D.