THE STRENGTH & BEAUTY OF TAURUS

TAURUS

We have entered a time of strength. We have entered Taurus. The Sun is in the sign of Taurus from about April 20 until about May 21, according to Western astrology.

Taurus (Latin for "the Bull") is a large and prominent constellation in the northern hemisphere's winter and spring sky. It was one of the first constellations identified, dating back to at least the Early Bronze Age, as early as 4000 BC, when it marked the location of the Sun during the spring equinox.

Taurus not only resembles the shape of a bull, it is a cosmic bullish power. It is an active center of star formation. It contains two spectacular open clusters, the Pleiades and the Hyades, both visible to the naked eye. The Pleiades, located more than 400 light-years away in the Taurus constellation, was born about 100 million years ago, when dinosaurs reigned.

The red giant Aldebaran is the brightest star in the constellation. The supernova remnant Messier 1, aka the Crab Nebula is expanding at a rate of about 1,500 kilometres per second (930 mi/s), or 0.5% of the speed of light.

In Babylonian astronomy, Taurus was listed in the MUL.APIN as GU4.AN.NA, "The Bull of Heaven."

But Taurus is known as an Earth sign. In Egypt, Taurus was seen as the cow goddess Hathor, the goddess of beauty, love, and happiness --and, of course, nourishment. Roman astrologers considered Taurus to be ruled by Venus, the goddess of beauty, and Earth.

Bulls, the animals for which the constellation was named, are intact (i.e., not castrated) adult males of the species Bos taurus. Bulls are bigger, more muscular, and more aggressive than the female cows.

Their heads are larger, with protective ridges over the eyes, to help in their fights for dominance of their herds. Bulls typically have a hump on their shoulders.

In some species, a full-grown bull can weigh as much as 2,000 pounds.

In horned cattle the horns of bulls tend to be thicker than those of cows.

Bulls appear in cave paintings that are estimated to be up to 17,000 years old. They have have held a place of significance in human culture ever since. The mythic “Bull of the Heavens” can be found in the ancient Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh (circa 2150 BC.)

In Hinduism, a bull named Nandi is worshipped as the vehicle of the god Shiva. Cows are considered sacred to this day in India.

Taurus is one of the 12 zodiac signs that Astrology practitioners have been analyzing for millennia.

Throughout history, bulls have been symbols used to denote heraldry and power. From financial markets to sport teams, bulls are all about the beauty of strength.

Read more about Beautiful Strength in Beautiful Places of Strength, 10 Most Beautiful Gyms, Strong Beautiful Women: Annie Leibovitz and Epitomes of Strength and Beauty: Tony Stromberg.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Mind/Body, Soul/Impact, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Arts/Design, and Place/Time, Daily Fix posts.

Want more stories like this? Sign up for our weekly BN Newsletter, Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr. Join our BeautifulNow Community and connect with the most beautiful things happening in the world right now!

Do you have amazing photos? Enter them in this week’s BN Photo Contest. We run new creative contest every week!

IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: by Diann Bayes. “Texas Longhorns in Bluebonnet Field.”
2. Image: “Nebula IRAS 05437+2502 billows out among the bright stars and dark dust clouds in the constellation of Taurus”. Courtesy of ESA/Hubble and NASA.
3. Image: by Rogelio Bernal Andreo. “The Spaghetti Nebula in the Taurus constellation.”
4. Image: by John Jones, of TotalTools.  “Bull in the Sunset.”
5. Image: by Tony Fischer. “Highland Bull and Calf.”
6. Image: by Adam Foster. “Highland cattle bull close-up.”
7. Image: by Diann Bayes. “Texas Longhorns near Fort Griffin State Historic Site.”
8. Image: “Taurus, as depicted in Urania's Mirror,” a set of constellation cards published in London c.1825, created by Jehoshaphat Aspin.
9. Image: by Lawrence Wright. “Bull.”
10. Image: “The Pleiades in the Taurus constellation.” Courtesy of JPL/NASA.
11. Image: by Bente Jonsson. “Langhornskvæg.”
12. Image: by Bill Higham. “Highland Bull.”