Aries and Taurus Season

Perfect Courage, Perfect Peace, and the Different Ways We Learn to Live

This is a photo of me with the incredible Steven Forrest (swoon!) at his Sacred Moon Retreat in San Diego last month.

It also serves as my excuse for why this became a combined Aries/Taurus post. We were travelling throughout April and I did not exactly get my sh*t together to finish an Aries newsletter on the road.

But I do come bearing gifts: a few lovely astrological insights, including some fresh ones from Steven, about these two side-by-side signs that kick off the zodiac wheel.

Aries: Perfect Courage

Steven said something at the retreat that genuinely bowled me over.

He described Aries as always learning Perfect Courage.

People with strong Aries influence - Aries Sun, Moon or Rising - are perceptually biased to notice competitors, obstacles and threats. Aries develops courage by identifying the challenge and facing it directly. To properly care for themselves, Aries people actually need to do things that scare them because that stress feeds them.

Steven used himself as an example.

His Aries Moon is nourished by challenge and risk. He admitted he was nervous about teaching at the conference because his voice has been unreliable lately and he has also been dealing with other health struggles, including the recent loss of vision in one eye. But after teaching six hours that first day, he said he slept like a baby because the stress had fed him.

That immediately made me think of the quote:

Do one thing every day that scares you.

And how Aries people might actually be the true beneficiaries of that advice.

I thought of two women I know well who both have Aries Moons: my sister and my mother.

My sister Starr absolutely comes alive when competition enters the room. Growing up, my nickname for her was “Rose Nylon” from The Golden Girls. Rose was the sweetest and most naive character on the show, but the second competition appeared, she transformed into a ruthless little gladiator.

My sister is deeply generous and kind, but introduce a competitive edge into anything and she kicks into high gear fast. The funniest part is that she can laugh at herself about it. But wow, does that woman rise to a challenge. Honestly, I think that instinct helps make her as successful as she is on the world stage.

Another Aries Moon in my life was my mother, but unfortunately her competitiveness had nowhere healthy to go.

She saw threats where there sometimes were none, even from the people closest to her, and it could make her deeply reactive and unhappy. Looking back, I sometimes think she would have been better served if she'd been encouraged to compete out in the world instead of containing all that Aries fire inside the walls of a home.

But those times were different.

My mother was a housewife, as so many women of her generation were, and all that striving energy narrowed itself into domestic perfection. She vacuumed the carpet up to five times a day, dusted constantly, emptied cupboards to scrub the shelves clean. She was always ready for a white glove inspection.

I can still remember her slowly driving past other women's houses, studying the curtains in the windows, quietly tsk'ing at hems that hung unevenly or colours she deemed questionable. One day she spotted bedsheets hung as curtains in someone's window and practically shrieked in horror. Then she turned the car around for a second pass and drove by so slowly I slumped down in my seat.

And underneath it all now, I can almost feel something sad in it.

A natural competitive instinct with nowhere large enough to live.

Which brings us back to Steven's point about Aries and courage.

Aries people need challenges. They need risk. They need something worthy to push themselves against. Otherwise all that fiery perceptiveness can turn inward and start hunting for threats in places where they don't belong.

But when Aries energy is healthily engaged?

It becomes courage. Leadership. Aliveness.

The willingness to meet life head on.

Taurus: Perfect Peace

Steven explained that the Taurean archetype is seeking something quite different in the world:

Perfect Peace.

A Taurus might very well have written the anti-inspirational meme I saw recently:

“They say you should do one thing every day that scares you. I did that today and now I am just scared.”

Yet another reminder to be discerning about the advice you take in.

People with strong Taurus influence - Taurus Sun, Moon or Rising - are seeking groundedness, stability and security. Unlike Aries energy, which grows through challenge and competition, Taurus wants to build a life that feels sustainable, predictable and peaceful.

These are the settlers of the zodiac.
The gardeners.
The people trying to create something lasting.

But Taurus energy also has to be careful about how it achieves peace and security, and what parts of itself it might sacrifice along the way.

I have two close friends who are highly Taurean: one with a Taurus Sun and one with a Taurus Moon.

My Taurus Sun friend has tolerated an unfulfilling relationship for a very long time. This is an old Taurus story. Taurus is the only Fixed Earth sign and when they commit, they tend to take that commitment incredibly seriously.

People sometimes mistake Taurus patience for endless tolerance.

But though Taurus has a long wick, once they reach the end of it, that is usually it.

The thing is, this friend also has children, a home and material security tied up in that relationship, and that peace matters deeply to her. Even if it isn't a happy peace. It is familiar. Predictable. Safe.

My Taurus Moon friend expresses the archetype very differently.

Like many Taurus Moon people I know, she has beautiful things, works hard, and has built substantial material security for herself and her family. Yet emotionally she always seems to feel one step away from the poor house, so she is constantly looking for new ways to build even more security.

Interestingly, she never actually wanted to run the family business. She had a successful career of her own, but her partner asked her to come help him and once she stepped inside the operation, she quickly realized somebody needed to manage things and occasionally play bad cop.

Her relationships with her partner and children are warm and loving, but also exhausting because she is forever trying to maintain harmony - smoothing conflicts, talking her kids through their troubles, managing tensions, helping her partner recover from the occasional questionable decision.

All she wants is peace, but she works incredibly hard to create it for everyone else.

I recently told her I wish I could whisk her away to an all-inclusive resort and throw her phone off the plane on the way there.

She laughed.

But I meant it.

And I think that's maybe the great Taurus lesson:

Peace is not always the same thing as stillness, endurance or control.

Sometimes real peace requires change. Rest. Boundaries.

Or finally allowing other people to carry themselves for a while.

Always here for your thoughts and questions. You can leave a comment below or get in touch any time.

xoxo,
Shannon