Hi little coven, and happy Taurus season.
Also, SURPRISE! Select instalments of The Shuffle will now be available in podcast format, yay! You can choose your own experience: Listen above or read the essay below.
Join me for Taurean art journaling
I’m a little early to post this — the sun officially moves into Taurus this weekend, but I wanted to post in time to invite you to hang out with me at tarot journaling club this Sunday. (Free trials are available for a very limited time!)
On Sunday, the 20th of April at 7pm UK/2pm Eastern/11am Pacific, I’ll guide you through a Taurus-themed meditation and we’ll make some art together (bring your crayons, your fingerpaints, your clay, your collage materials, you sketchbook, or just your usual journal and ballpoint pen).
I’ll also stick around to answer any questions about The Tarot Artist’s Way programme that’s kicking off next month.
More information about journaling club is here (or grab your free trial here.)
Now, let’s grab the bull by the horns.
Sensuous and stubborn, Taureans are known for their good taste, appreciation of creature comforts, and a committed, clear vision for what they feel is right.
So, Taurus season can be an opportunity to celebrate and luxuriate in what feels good in your creative life. The creative energy Taurus offers is as rich and lush as the sign’s earthy vibes - Tauran energy calls us to appreciate the embodied experience of creating. To prioritise pleasure in our process.
Taurean creatives make an interesting bunch: Adele, Cher, and Barbara Streisand were all born under the Bull — their big talents and big personalities speak to the glamorous, creative richness of the sign. Taurean painter Salvador Dali’s art captures the sensuous, slow-but-smart pace Taureans thrive within. And Stoic philosopher and Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius is a mascot for the Taurean talent for vision and commitment. He knew the power of sticking to his values.
This sign is associated with a Bull for a reason. We may love the softer side of life, but there’s no denying it: Taurus has horns.
The truth is: Taurus season is not going to give you the pleasure it loves for free. The ease and luxury this sign oozes are just the highlight reel: behind the scenes, making the most of this sign is hard work.
This season, your journey is two-pronged: to access the creative gifts under the Taurean sun, you have to know and honour what feels right for you. But, at the same time, you can’t overcommit to what feels good for you at the expense of your compassion and empathy. You musn’t be bull-headed, but bull-hearted.
We can look to two Taurean archetypes to help us understand, accommodate, and make the most of Taurean energy this season: the Zodiac Bull and the Hierophant tarot card.
“Bull-headeness” is a trait often attributed to Taureans, drawing directly on the Zodiac archetype that represents the sign.
But what does that mean? The dictionary chalks it up to stubbornness, but I think it’s something more complex. For me, it’s a particular commitment to routine and values; a precarious fulcrum that balances a short emotional fuse with a deep-seated need for security. The Bull knows what it is, what it wants. It uses its energy when it has it, and sleeps all day whenever it feels like it. It lives by the rules of its own logic.
When the Bull is able to pursue what it pleases, at its own pace, its commitment to its values is lauded as persistence. But, when the peace and order the Bull has instilled for itself are disrupted, the rage and obstinance that result are labelled as stubborn, uncooperative, and — here’s that word again — “bull-headedness.”
Creatively, the qualities of the Bull offer a double-edged sword: there’s something beautiful and necessary about appreciating, cultivating, and committing to what feels right for you. Enriching your creative life by prioritising and protecting your own pleasure is deeply valuable and can not be overlooked. Ignoring your creative pleasure is a crime you shouldn’t commit against yourself. But, at the same time, stubbornly pursuing your creative pleasure at the expense of all other things can make you dangerous.
Like the Bull, the Hierophant straddles honour and over-indulgence.
This elevated spiritual leader in the card represents, in many ways, a fantasy for the Taurean mind: here is someone who knows the way. Someone worth following. Someone who embodies Taurean values: a tastemaker whose clear vision for what is right has granted them physical and spiritual transcendence.
But, the card is complicated by its association with organised religion. And, like religion, the card — and Taurean energy at large — has the capacity to be healing, beautiful, and transcendent alongside the capacity to be self-indulgent, controlling, and rigid.
Originally titled La Pape, or the Pope, in the Tarot de Marseille, the card’s worst affiliations are with the greed, indulgence, and hypocrisy that go hand-in-hand with hierarchical religious systems. Here lies the dark side of the Taurean ideal of the spiritual leader: someone who has put their own comfort, taste, point of view, and pleasure over others. They’ve stubbornly committed to following the rules that suit them, and have lost their compassion — and maybe even their humanity — in the process.
So, I invite you to step into this Taurus season with full awareness of the enormous strength and the tricky temptations the energy of this sign brings to the fore. To lead with your heart, but to check yourself. To meet your needs and give yourself the pleasure you deserve in your creative life, but not to get so wrapped up in indulging your desires that you forget the world you’re rooted into.
To bull-heartedly pursue love and kindness as the ultimate pleasure, and the ultimate creative inspiration.
Creative Prompts for Taurus Season
Use the following prompts as jumping-off points for your own creative exploration of Taurus season. These aren’t homework — try what feels good or interesting to you, and know you have my permission to ignore the rest.
* Journal about the Taurean bull and the Hierophant tarot card.
* How do these images make you feel?
* What memories, desires, and questions, do they bring up for you?
* What similarities and differences do you notice between them?
* Make a list of what gives you creative pleasure
* Think about how you can be generous with that pleasure by inviting a loved one to share in the making process with you, or making something for someone else
* Design a work of art that captures the light and dark sides of the Bull or the Hierophant
* Get as creative and abstract as you want
More creative resources for Taurus season (including Taurean mantras and an exclusive video reading for Taurus season) are available below for paid subscribers.
If you’d like to dig deeper into what creative gifts Taurus season has to offer you, and get access to future creative tools for every Zodiac season, you can become a paid subscriber to The Shuffle for just $1.25 a week (annual subscription rate). Subscriber support means that I can keep regular resources like these coming, and continue to focus on developing quality writing & resources at the intersection of spirituality & creativity.
Collective Reading for Taurus Season
Mantras for Taurus season
Choose one to work with for all season. Write it in your journal, or say it to yourself in the mirror, at the beginning and end of each day.
I seek, create, and luxuriate in moments of love and kindness.
I open myself up to receive the love that makes me feel good.
I value and respect my own autonomy. I value and respect others’ autonomy.
I breathe in pleasure and release judgment.
My heart is open to new experiences that can bring me pleasure and inspiration.
When I create from love and kindness, I feel good.
Here’s the spread I used in this month’s collective reading. Feel free to use it in your own practice for a more personalised reading:
You can use this spread with tarot or oracle cards, or even rune stones. Before drawing cards, I recommend reading through the prompts below the spread image and making some notes. Consider which cards you expect, or want/don’t want to see come up in response to these prompts, and reflect on what your instincts tell you about the wisdom this spread has to offer. When you pull cards, consider how they confirm and challenge your initial thoughts, and how what you learn from this spread can inform your next steps.
1. How can I indulge my creative pleasure this season?
Feel free to chose a card intentionally, or draw one at random - whichever feels right for you.
2. How can I practice compassion this season?
Note down an action this card inspires you to take.
3. Where will persistence serve me this season?
Let this card illuminate how you can leverage Taurean “stubbornness” to make progress in your creative life.
