We’re now into the Taurus month and, thinking of all things Taurus, I wanted to take a look at Taurus rising. I’m currently writing the next book in my Real Life Astrology series, The Cross of Matter, and this has really made me appreciate the fact that in astrology, as in life, all things are connected. That certainly applies to the angles – or cardinal points – in your natal chart.
The cardinal points fall at either end of the horizon and the meridian – the great lines that form the ‘Cross of Matter’ that divides your birth chart into its hemispheres and quadrants. Most of us, however, tend to focus on only one or two of the points themselves – the Ascendant and Midheaven, and of those two, I suspect more of you are familiar with your Ascendant than anything else.
However, the Ascendant is always connected to the Descendant, the point on the other side of your chart by that invisible line. Together they form the the ‘Axis of Awareness’, so when you look at your Ascendant, you really need to be looking at your Descendant too. What you give out to the world, needs to be balanced by what you take into your life. So, as it’s Taurus month, I’m going to show you what I mean by taking a closer look at how the Taurus -Scorpio ‘Axis of Awareness’ works. This is for all you Taurus rising people out there.
The Taurus – Scorpio Axis
I have always had the feeling that if you asked someone with Taurus rising how they defined their sense of self, the answer would be a long time coming. That in itself, would tell me most of what I needed to know. So, for those of you who are expecting to read a few more words in this post, I’ll elaborate on that.
Taurus rising gives you a steady, earthy, grounded personality that is not given to either (a) flights of fancy or (b) inner ruminations. No matter what your sun sign is – even if it’s one of the flakier ones – Taurus rising gives the impression of stability and life lived firmly in the present. That is the first impression you make. One of solidity and stability, yet often physically attractive too.
Taurus rising gives you an appearance that is often sensual and alluring in some way, be that handsome, beautiful, elegant or simply well-presented in a traditional manner. You know how to make the best of yourself, as Taurus is a Venus-ruled sign after all. You’re also stubborn, set in your ways and materially oriented. So, if you were to define yourself, I would suggest you start by looking at what you think you are worth. Taurus is the sign associated with value and ‘values’ (in all senses of the word) and there will be many Taurus rising subjects who define themselves by what they own.
This emphasis on the material side of life often leads to an involvement in the world of business, property and finance. Of course, Taurus rising isn’t necessarily born into this world, but you enter it because your orientation is tilted towards material security. The ability to be realistic about your prospects coupled with a traditional approach to life, means you are unlikely to take unnecessary risks, unless other factors in your natal chart determine otherwise.
Even then, you try to arrange your life so that it contains as few shocks or surprises as possible. That may turn you into a creature of habit, as you prefer to follow a well worn path rather than strike out in an unknown direction. However, if the unexpected happens? You are usually able to take such eventualities in your stride.
You’re a difficult person to wrong-foot because you appear to be so well held together, but how accurate an assessment is that? When Taurus is your rising sign, your mask is unlikely to reveal any sign of the emotional responses that may be burning under a surface that remains calm in almost all situations. You are not without emotional reflexes, but someone has to push you long and hard before they get that Taurus-style ‘bullish’, bellowing response.
So far, I’ve made you out to be a grasping unemotional social conservative who is also shrewd and drives a hard bargain. That much may be true but it’s far from the complete picture of Taurus on the Ascendant. Sure, your instinct is to monetise and hold on to what you have, but it’s also in your nature to conserve in the best sense. You often find the best expression of your outer personality in this way.
Taurus is one of the nurturing signs and it’s not unusual for those with a Taurus rising to approach life in that spirit. Growing and tending to the things that you value are the keywords here – and that may be a literal expression where you identify with the natural world in pursuits such as gardening or caring for the environment, to caring for animals, your family or satisfying your physical needs.
Taurus rising likes to be comfortable so one of the first things you will do – in all circumstances – will be to arrange your environment so you are comfortably situated within it. By doing so, it enables you to project yourself with much more solidity and genuine warmth than would otherwise be the case. There is always a personal, comforting and feminine touch when you have the Ascendant placed in this sign and it counters the somewhat functional and materialistic associations that would otherwise prevail.
So, what defines those of you with the Ascendant in this sign? Down to earth practicality coupled with a strong desire nature that finds satisfaction in all things Venus-related as you would expect with Taurus rising. So, personal satisfaction comes from beauty and value – and preferably a combination of both.
Appearances matter so Taurus rising people will leave you in no doubt about how much they value themselves. They may appear unemotional but they are invested in what they have – and that’s the impression they want to make on the world. Calm, capable and dependable; you are patient and will always do things at your own, unhurried pace – even if your sun sign is in one of the more ‘rushed’ signs.
Taurus rising will lend a great deal of grounded ‘earthiness’ in a natal chart that that would otherwise lack a sense of anchorage, and it also gives staying power and bullish determination to your personality. It makes you stubborn and determined to see things through. Taurus rising does not give in easily – if at all. If something is worthwhile, then you will move heaven and earth for it, but if not? It won’t get you out of bed in the morning, that’s for sure.
And speaking of bed… When you have Taurus rising, over-sexed Scorpio is found on the Descendant. Is that blessing or a curse? Let’s drill down into the Scorpio depths to find out. Intense, prone to jealousy, suspicious, vengeful, controlling, manipulative and vindictive are some of the less than kind things that have been said about Scorpio.
You would be perfectly within your rights to wonder what would attract stable, sensible Taurus rising to go within a country mile of, let alone partner up with, someone with a drop of Scorpio blood in their veins. Of course, the answer to that is that it goes way back to the socialisation process that you, with Taurus on your Ascendant, experienced in your early years.
There you were playing with your building blocks. You had just finished building a beautiful house when this Scorpio-type kid came over and knocked it down. I can imagine how that felt. The towering rage you felt at such wilful destruction. The release of primeval emotions that shocked you to the core. They may even have stirred something in the soul of your nemesis, who stood there, silently, savouring the power he or she had over you. Yet, fresh from that Scorpio induced rubble, you picked up your blocks and re-built your house and made it better than it was before.
Now that’s a hypothetical scenario, but what it demonstrates is the reality of having Scorpio on the Descendant. To build something worthwhile – a personal relationship or a business relationship – you need to feel that intensity and passion. Depth of feeling is something you often find difficult to access, yet it’s through your relationships that you either discover that it’s okay to express how you feel about things or you import that function into your life by projecting it onto someone who can handle the transformational trauma that you would prefer to ignore.
Scorpio on the Descendant enables you to become socialised by recognising that sometimes you need to be blasted out of your rut – and though you may not (at first) enjoy shaking the dust out of your hair, joining with other people gives you the opportunity to bring about transformational and constructive creative change. There’s an implicit recognition, with a Scorpio Descendant, that coming together with someone enables that process to take place but, importantly, it can only occur if it’s built on trust – as that’s the most important building block of all.
When you have a Scorpio Descendant, trust is your keystone. You need to know that whatever you build isn’t going to be kicked over by anyone anytime soon. Preferably ever. So, you look for a partner who knows, intuitively, how important the relationship is to you. Permanence. Trust. Fidelity. Emotional security.
These are huge issues when you have Scorpio here, largely because you know how easily such things can be broken. However, acknowledging that can be a big issue for Taurus rising. You cannot admit it to yourself, but you have a great fear of losing ‘ownership’ of anything – and anyone – so your Scorpio Descendant projects that not only by seeking those traits in your ‘other half’ but by seeking to exercise control over your relationships too.
You need to connect at a deep emotional level but without those emotions being used in a power-play against you. This instinctive and intense awareness of how fragile human relationships can be, combined with your ascending sign’s need for ownership, can make you overly possessive in relationships. It’s a classic Scorpio trait – and it’s a destructive one if it becomes a dominant factor. Trying to maintain that balance and learning to understand your deeper relationship needs – rather than projecting them – will be the challenge you need to meet.
So, you’re going to need a strong partner who enhances your personal power through being aware of your relationship needs – emotional, sexual and material – without any of those matters being a subject of debate, and for whom trust is as important as it is for you. That person may literally be a Sun Scorpio or they may have Scorpio emphasised in their primal triad. They may also have a prominent Pluto (conjunct an angle, for example) or a heavily tenanted eighth house. Those are the astrological markers but, in reality, your partner will be someone who carries those Scorpio-type traits or someone who triggers those Scorpio-type relationship responses in you.
Whichever relationship scenario ensues (and it could be both of them across a wide range of one-to-one relationships) there will be a combination of attributes in play that are characteristic of the ways in which you relate. Dependability mixed with private passions. Duty with unwavering commitment. Strong yet vulnerable. Stubborn, but knows the value of compromise. This is a powerful combination of signs to have on your ‘Axis of Awareness’. The thing is, it doesn’t take an astrologer to tell you that. You’ve known it forever.
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© Sara Shipman
Picture credit: Image by Philippe Ramakers from Pixabay
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