All the fixed signs possess exceptional strength, for they express the element to which they belong at its most powerful. This is neither the fresh surge of youth nor the fading fire of advancing years, but the power of maturity at its zenith. There is an energy for beginning, and another for persevering and bringing things to completion. All the fixed signs possess that great quality of endurance.
Although Taurus represents the least active of the elements, and its planetary influences, Venus and the Moon, are passive, the fixed nature of the sign is strong enough to give these influences a decidedly active expression in the native’s character. For example, the influence of earth in Taurus makes the native intensely conservative. Yet this is not the conservatism of idleness or comfortable indolence, but a firm conviction that things are as they are and ought not to be changed. Those with Taurus rising are therefore always wary of influences that encourage so-called reforms.
Their outlook resembles that of landowners or farmers in older civilisations who, feeling that things have gone reasonably well for centuries, are determined to resist radical change, fearing that even a desirable reform might set a destructive sequence in motion. For this reason, those with Taurus rising are often considered stupid, especially by Gemini, which sees nothing but pure logic in every situation.
The degraded Taurean type is exceedingly lazy, sensual and self-indulgent. The tendency of those with Taurus rising to eat to excess is also connected with the sign’s rulership over the throat. Even the sensual excesses sometimes characteristic of the lower expression of this sign are most often the result of too much food and drink. With the more aggressive type, matters are quite different. These natives enjoy working for their pleasures. They delight in conquest, and their other pleasures are of secondary importance. People of this type therefore make very good workers: once their interest is engaged, nothing can frighten them or divert them from their chosen goals. Obstacles merely spur them to greater effort. This makes them good servants or employees.
The great difficulty for those with Taurus rising, however, is getting started. Neither the planets, the element nor the nature of the sign gives them any initiative. They always need training and must be shown exactly what to do; once this is done, they can carry on indefinitely. A new task may meet with difficulties arising from their stubbornness. There is also a wilfulness that makes them still harder to persuade. Loyalty and fidelity are especially characteristic of Taurus. Their devotion is almost dog-like.
These people are also highly constructive, but exceedingly cautious. They always take care that a superstructure, however elegant, does not compromise the building or structure on which it rests. Their chief concern is the stability of the foundations. They have a fine sense of beauty, but care little for decoration that serves no useful purpose. Their aspirations are strong, yet they insist on gradual progress, never skipping a step. They never gamble, preferring to do their work and reap its rewards in due course, and adversity can very rarely throw them entirely off balance. Even when their life’s work has been all but destroyed, they carry on calmly, almost as though nothing had happened, and this attitude is very often rewarded with eventual success. In this way, Taureans earn the respect even of those naturally inclined to despise their dullness.
In matters of money, those with Taurus rising are trusting and honest. They are not spendthrifts, but rather what we might call sensible, conservative financiers.
In the management of household affairs, all these qualities are particularly constructive. These natives are often quite ineffectual, however, when dealing with the vulgar and immoral intrigues so often dignified by the name of diplomacy, whether in business or politics. They have no particular gift for speaking or writing. They find it difficult to express themselves, although they feel things very deeply.
They are deeply attached to their home and birthplace, further evidence of their generally conservative nature. Their domestic life should be peaceful and, on the whole, happy. Indeed, they make ideal marriage partners, being far more inclined towards a conventional sexual life than towards alternative arrangements, and they are also very fond of children.
Those with Taurus rising are loyal and good-natured in friendship. They are patient and self-controlled, but persistent provocation can bring them to breaking point, when they erupt in the most violent and dangerous manner. They seem so pleasant and gentle that it is hard to imagine making them angry. Thoughtless people often take these qualities for granted and stretch their patience to its utmost limit, only to find themselves swept away by a fury that, at the time, invariably strikes them as irrational.