A shop in China, rather than a china shop, but either way, no bulls in sight. Photo from ‘Through China with a Camera’
中文（繁體）‎: 位於香港的中國古玩店。
Date 1868~1872
By John Thomson {{PD}}

You may spend a lot of time this Solar year, through to your next birthday, dear Taurus, trying to figure out what’s wise, what’s the smart move or choice, and how being practical can also serve Self-expression–there seems to be a lot of conflict within you, as to how to proceed. At this point, you’re the thinking man or woman’s bull: thoughtful, looking for the spiritual and emotional underpinnings to everyday life, considering your next play carefully–and that could put you at a distinct disadvantage, making you a target of sorts for more aggressive, jealousy, or less resourceful individuals. There is a way to beat this, and that’s to be willing to form a clear idea of what you want, and then to go after it, with no apologies to others, no hanging back for permission or the sake of politeness, and no fears of being called a bull in a china shop–which is the way some have tamped down your assertive energies, and so kept you much too far from achieving your dreams. No more–this year, Taurus, it all changes. Happy Birthday, and good luck!

Louis Léopold Boilly – ‘Conversation Dans un Parc’ Before 1912 {{PD}}

You don’t know it yet, dear Taurus, but by the time you reach your next birthday, you’ll have achieved an emotional completeness, a total emotional and intuitive understanding and acceptance of who you are, that offers you a fresh start at a new, higher level–but before that happens, you’ll meet every dark and mysterious corner of your life, every thing ignored, denied, or suppressed, every bit of anger over abuse and injustice that you carry, and you must resolve these, in order to reach that pinnacle of emotional success. On your side: one or more close family members, most especially the father or a paternal figure; empowerment through the social order or through educational or religious means; a strong sense of instinct; creativity or idealism that pays off. Not so much working for you: a communication state that is stuck in only one mode, which has and expresses strength and has superior negotiative abilities but that also may suffer inflexible attitudes and thinking and have difficulty perceiving nuance in the communications of others. You’re on the way to big change–make sure that your choices and actions bring you the kinds of changes you want–indications are that this coming Solar year, if you are conscientious, they will. Happy Birthday, Taurus, and good luck!

‘Hymne à la femme (Bezeichnung auf dem Rahmen)’ Auguste Levêque 1909 {{PD}}

This coming Solar year, through to your next birthday, dear Taurus, you decide which way you want to go, and with whom you want to travel that life Path. The good news is that you’ll be able to choose on instinct; you recognize the ‘right’ person(s) and Path immediately. The bad news, if you want to call it that, is that you’ll walk that Path and learn about every little thing you hold in your ‘blind spot’, every quality of personality, inclination, belief, and quirk that others see but that you are totally unaware of, and you may feel by the end of the year that the whole thing’s been completely unfair–but it won’t be. It’s time for you to look in a mirror that shows the entire picture in 3 dimensions–and once you have you’ll quite literally get whatever you want–not everything you’ve ever desired, but something that comes from the ideal and that offers you Love, Reward, Companionship, or Health–and that doesn’t sound so bad, does it? Happy Birthday, Taurus, and good luck!

John William Waterhouse – Pandora, 1896 {{PD}}

You have two core obligations (for want of a better term) to fulfill this coming Solar year, through to your next birthday, dear Taurus: you must learn to totally, completely trust and honor your instincts, and you must discover the contents of your ‘blind spot’ (things you can’t see but that all those around you can), excavate it, and so make yourself as Self-aware as humanly possible. Notice I said, “humanly possible”–no one is expecting you to be perfect, but this is the year when you can develop your sense of Self, your identity, and put into action your Soul’s intent, so that you become centered and secure in your sense of who you are. That’s a tall order, but one we all come here to fill–and right now the Universe is out to help you do that. Strengths include the ability, after a little adjustment, to embrace more of your own natural power and personal authority than you ever have before, and this will have the bonus effect of drawing in Love and/ or Money. You’ll also be able to effectively relate that sense of empowerment and what you have to offer to the masses–or just to your social circle, whatever’s appropriate for you. Happy Birthday, Taurus, and good luck!

Lovis Corinth ‘Mädchen mit Stier’ 1902 {{PD}}

This coming Solar year, through to your next birthday, dear Taurus, you may find instincts and assumptions crowding out rational thought or reasoned response. This isn’t the norm for you at all, but you may find repeatedly that you are acting or choosing on impulse, which may expose those ‘blind spot’ areas others see clearly in you and of which you are unaware–and that may be very scary for the normally placid bull. Here’s whatcha do: hook up with someone who can offer opportunity or who has authority that can help with your empowerment options–getting as firm a footing as possible will be important right now; recognize when something is bigger than you can handle, and stay out of its way–you’re not up to the battering ram method of getting what you want, no matter how feasible it seems (and it will seem possible); and try to enjoy the ironic way those matters you’ve ignored, been in denial about, or have been enraged by, resolve–and these may have (mostly positive) impact on your career, reputation, and/ or that element in life we call ‘luck’. Happy Birthday, Taurus, and good luck!

I don’t pretend to know what will happen next. Woman holding Scissors and Winged Child’ c1900 {{PD}} Photoprint by Fritz W. Guerin

You’ve got a Solar year ahead, dear Taurus, that drives your fate and tests your strength–are you ready? You’ll get divine guidance, or spiritual aid of some kind, and what occurs will leave you feeling like a true child of the Cosmos, and both of these factors should help you navigate some unusual material issues–and put you in the way of some bigger and better-than-expected opportunities. Should you take them? Only if you’re comfortable traveling on a wing and a prayer–if you’re married to the earth (and what Taurus isn’t?) then this might be tough on you–but then again, this year you are exceptionally attuned to the unseen, the ephemeral, the imaginative, the creative, and to making circumstances such that you’ll see the ideals enter reality–which means chances are very good that sooner or later that is exactly what will happen. Happy Birthday, Taurus, and good luck!

Those shadows are trying to tell you something, Taurus. Emile Friant 1891 {{PD}}

The shadow world you’ve been experiencing lately, where everything has taken on dark proportions or strange new meanings, and where nothing is as it was, is simply an indication that the Universe is trying to tell you something–specifically, something about the way you think and the actions that drives. Dear Taurus, you need to refresh the attitude, reassess thought processes and reconsider your behavior–because soon these matters will have major impact on your reality picture–and you need to be as able as possible to let instinct and automatic reflexes guide you. That means everything has to be coordinated and in good working order. Yes, I know this is cryptic–it has to apply to everyone born on this day–at the same time, if you refuse to play coy, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about–at least, you’ll understand the part about needing to modify behavior and get thinking on the right track. You’ve got unique and imaginative gifts at your disposal this year, Taurus–use them for all they’re worth. Happy Birthday, and good luck!

Maksymilian Gierymski ‘Landscape at Sunrise’ 1868 {{PD}}

You have a major opportunity this coming Solar year, dear Taurus, through to your next birthday, to heal and offer expression to what is most unique in you. That may seem a wee bit vague, until you consider that you’ve been fighting a long time to get to this position. You’ve been through the dark, and now that you’ve reached the light, you might be a little stunned–you may have expected the dark to go on forever. What you’re really ready to do is honor yourself and your abilities, to create a statement about who you are–and to take it public. Strengths this year include the ability to communicate creatively or to share ‘the Vision’; being flexible enough to accept Love and/ or Money from unusual sources; and showing exceptional competence that brings opportunity. Cautions involve not taking the wounds too seriously, and staying away from tall tales or exaggerations–what starts out as a harmless stretching of the truth could end up anything but. Happy Birthday, Taurus, and good luck!

Günther Meltzer ‘Die Cyklopeninseln 1898’ {{PD}}

You may be preoccupied with matters of hurt this coming Solar year, through to your next birthday, dear Taurus–in fact, you may be treating those wounds as sacred–and so could miss one or more major opportunities to share yourself and your truly original creations and gifts with the group. It may be that you are so intent on intellectualizing your emotional issues that you don’t actually face them, but instead turn them into mini-dramas starring you as the wronged party. That’s not as bad as it sounds, though; in a way, you are in need of giving yourself some intense attention and consideration, and it may be that you think parading your wounds is the only way to acceptably do that. You are uniquely sensitive at this time to issues of identity and to making highest values a vital part of your life, which means that if you want to, you can remake yourself into the image of your ideal You–so, your best course of action may be to concentrate on yourself, on who you really want to be–along the way you’ll define your gifts so specifically and with such elegant simplicity that you can’t help but use them wisely. Happy Birthday, Taurus, and good luck!

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes – ‘Sacred Grove’ 1883 {{PD}}

Dear Taurus, you are SO OVER keeping secrets, ignoring important matters, denying reality, throwing tantrums–you KNOW how destructive those choices can be–and yet here you are, the honest, trustworthy bull, and you have to decide: will you embrace a passion that requires you deny what you find sacred, or will you honor the values in place and mourn the passion that could’ve been? That’s a lousy choice to have to make–so don’t make it. You have the option of openly recognizing the conflict your passion engenders (remember, no more secrets!) and then finding avenues to healing those places where the values are at odds with what you desire. This isn’t nearly as impossible as it may at first sound, simply because you’ve been seeing the world far too much in ‘either/ or’ terms–that’s the way you sorted things out successfully before, but this time you have to take it to the next level, the one that allows you to honor two seemingly contradictory energies in your mind and life by finding the common denominators between them–and one of those is You. Happy Birthday, Taurus, and good luck!