Taurus: excerpts from Esoteric Astrology by Master DK and Alice Bailey

“The penetrating Light of the Path.” pg. 329

Taurus – The desire to overcome desire. The longing for liberation. Transmutation of desire into Love. pg. 152

Taurus opens the door into the Hierarchy when the significance of Gemini and Leo is understood and the first two initiations can therefore be taken. pg. 158

Taurus – Guards the secret of light and confers illumination upon the initiate. pg. 165

Taurus governs desire and carries the test into the emotional or astral plane, and carries desire-sensitivity up from the form side of life into that world of sensitive perception which we call the intuitional plane. pg. 205

Taurus – Incentive behind evolution (Impulse). Desire for experience, for satisfaction. pg. 259

… the light of knowledge of which Taurus is the custodian gives place to the light of wisdom of which Virgo is the guardian, and yields finally to the light of initiation in Capricorn. All this, however, takes place and must take place upon what is esoterically called “the radiant surface of the earth,” … pg. 260

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These excerpts emphasize Taurus’s role in the spiritual Path. Taurus seems to hold the energetic of desire as it is experienced within form. Yet, because this (the engaging of form) is the bodhisattva reason that humanity exists within form, then desire is the mother-energetic of both immersion within form as well as the source of aspiration to liberation from self-created limitation as the perception of form. Form is not the limitation – as Taurus reveals. But, instead, in slowing down the vibration of Awareness-Being such that the Law of Sacrifice and Giving can result, we also slowed down the Awareness of Reality and Awareness of Being. This created the illusion of duality and density. In a sense, as monads or pure Awareness-Being, we domesticated “ourselves”  through the experience of limitation. We became like oxen or bulls yoked to pull a plow. Forgetting that we chose to engage the long process of Awareness living through Experience (sensations, Taurus, appetites, gratification, beauty), human beings became dull (like cows). Yet, Master DK offers that Taurus holds the secret of illumination and therefore of liberation – not from form since that is actually not the issue – but from the human perception of form as limitation.

“The secret of Taurus is revealed at the second initiation by the sudden removal or disappearance of world glamor in the blinding energy of light. This constitutes the final radiant activity which consummates the play of the Taurian force upon humanity during the long and cyclic journey to which man is committed. The individual enacts on a tiny scale what humanity – as a whole – will enact when it takes initiation in Taurus.”    EA pg. 388

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Aries is related to the Fool card in the Tarot. However, though the Fool is ready, one questions if he/she has actually embarked on his journey. The rest of the Tarot symbolizes that journey. Similarly, Taurus represents the engaging of this journey with the rest of the zodiac representing the step by step experience of immersion, challenge, realization, and liberation. Taurus then offers the experience of re-engaging Existence as the journey of Awareness that it is – that of Compassion (relatedness) and its Wisdom of limitless expressions.

The second initiation mentioned in these quotes is a significant juncture on the spiritual Path. It is the point of just enough awareness as to feel guilt, remorse, unquenchable aspiration, and dutiful motivation. It is the stage of the Path when nothing is good enough – no service, no kindness, no giving, no dedication is enough. The Sixth Ray governs this part of the Path and its tendency to measure, compare and contrast. This is why those of spiritual motivation usually feel that they come up short. This measuring is born from the both the Idealism and Devotion energy of the Sixth Ray. Yet, this ongoing process clarifies, directs, orients and reorients the person on the Path. One experiences that one can do and be more, one can sacrifice or give more consistently, and that one needs to in order to feel alive. Essentially, the second initiation and its path are about relatedness.

The glamour that is dissipated is that of separateness. The undoing of this fallacious idea about other or things makes further realizations possible. First, however, interconnectedness, interdependence, and inter-being must be realized and lived. This is an aspect of the “secret light” which “confers illumination.” Ultimately, this expands to the experience of enlightenment.

Human beings are bodhisattva: beings (sattva) who are the expression of the light of wisdom and compassion (bodhi). We live the clues of this daily through ongoing cognition and relation. Add to that the esoteric information that the Soul of collective humanity resides (a limiting word) on the buddhic plane and we have another clue. Illumination is not a mental process but a buddhic one. It is the Path revealing the nature of our Nature as well as the nature of Existence. Existence is Awareness-Being, we are Awareness-Being (bodhisattva again), awareness is existence, and emptiness-openness is a word given to try to describe this understanding. The Master phrases it this way, “the light of knowledge of which Taurus is the custodian gives place to the light of wisdom of which Virgo is the guardian, and yields finally to the light of initiation in Capricorn.” He also states it, “Taurus governs desire and carries the test into the emotional or astral plane, and carries desire-sensitivity up from the form side of life into that world of sensitive perception which we call the intuitional plane.”

see quotes above for page references