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Apr 24 2020

Artstrology: Taurus 2020, In the Realm of the Senses

by Pamela Wong

Illustration by Renee Li for ArtAsiaPacific.

We should all be ready for Taurus season, now that we have spent the whole spring at home practicing the sign’s life philosophy: gardening, cooking, and chilling. The Bull, which comes second in the zodiac, understands how best to experience living on Earth. Taurus’s groundedness and emphasis on the physical senses—taste, smell, hearing, sight, and touch—grants this sign the most sophisticated tastes when it comes to food, art, music, and design. They are experts on the best restaurants in town, the perfect recipe for a chocolate lava cake, the most elegant perfume, and the trendiest furniture for a comfy home. 

Ruled by Venus, the goddess of beauty, Taurus perceives the world most ably through images. People with heavy placements in Taurus are naturally talented in the use of color and composition. Many poets, painters, filmmakers, and photographers were born under this sign, such as director Wes Anderson, known for his vibrant color palettes and symmetrical arrangements. Another famous Taurus is the self-taught cinematographer Christopher Doyle, whose ingenious manipulation of color symbols is widely recognized as a signature of his frequent collaborator Wong Kar-wai’s films. In an interview with VICE, Doyle explained: “Like an athlete’s muscle memory, visual memory is something that just has to be tapped . . . the visual experience of a place like India stays with me, or I remember the color of the light in Israel or the fog in Bruges.”

Because Taurus takes its time to experience things fully, it is slow to act and respond to emotions. The energy of the season sometimes feels stuck, as if putting out the fire of Aries. Taurus is often characterized as being stubborn, but as a stable Earth sign, it also knows how to persevere and be devoted to work in a sustainable and patient way. Taurus reminds us how to take one step at a time, moving steadily and practically toward our goals. As the beginning of Taurus season is also when the first lightning strikes and thunderstorms water the soil, it is a nurturing period for us to slow down and gradually change our inspiration into action.

Since 2018, Uranus (symbolizing change and revolutions) has been messing with stability-loving Taurus, forcing deeper self-reflection and a major change of course in life. People born under this sign (or with any major Taurus placements) will continue on their journeys of transformation until they become fully aware of who they want to become, which might not be a comfortable process. On the socio-political level, as Taurus also symbolizes money and material possessions, the energy of Uranus in Taurus triggered the trade war between China and the United States, bringing transformation to the financial world in the past year. Furthermore, with Venus, ruler of love and finance, going in retrograde on May 11, be prepared to experience more earthquakes as we recover globally from economic troubles and personally from past failed romances.

This article is written for entertainment purposes only.

Pamela Wong is ArtAsiaPacific’s assistant editor.

To read more of ArtAsiaPacific’s articles, visit our Digital Library.

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