Mercury in Taurus - Postcards from a Deliberating Mind

Cornish portrait & historical painter 'the Cornish Wonder' John Opie has Mercury in Taurus Showing his precocious talent for drawing and mathematics at 12 he opened a school for poor children teaching them the 3 R's reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic. Not encouraged by his father he was apprenticed to his fathers trade of carpentry. However he attracted a mentor and began to attract commissions.
Here depicting the warrior Queen of the Iceni in 'Boadicea Haranguing the Britons' rebelling against Roman occupation, ostensibly to avenge her own flogging and the rape of her daughters but galvanising a whole nation of tribes. Etymologists point out that Boudicca is old welsh for Queen Victoria, who was likened to her and it has also been suggested she may have been lesbian or bi-sexual, to the imagined horror of ex-UK minister in Margaret Thatchers cabinet, Norman Tebbitt 'thus was sown the wind and we are reaping the whirlwind..' who warned in 2013 that if gay marriage was legalised, Britain may be ruled by a lesbian queen!. It may well have happened already. 

Mercury moved country on 1st May 2013 from the flash-fire terrain of Aries and began to chew over the facts on the grassy slopes of Taurus for just a few weeks moving out all too soon on the 15th May 2013. Although brief, Mercury’s stay in the earth sign of Taurus the Bull carried deep degrees of impact that we can still chew over and perhaps digest, in retrospect.

Spanish Poet & Playwright Federico Garcia Lorca has Mercury in Taurus
Openly gay and left wing he was murdered by fascist dictator General Franco's men during the Spanish Civil War. Also part of Generation '27, a group of influential Spanish literati working with avant-garde expression, 
free verse and visionary images. He was said to have acknowledged a premonition image of his death.

Mercury in Taurus can bring, carry or trade in very tangible and overt expressions of the earth’s bounty, riches and booty from the depths are transported to the surface for all to see and utilise.

French fashion designer entrepreneur Christian Audigier has Mercury in Taurus
Living in the United states in 2010 his fortune was estimated at 250 million dollars he helped to populise the brand Von dutch and to distribute brands such as Converse & New Balance, designer wines and perfumes.

The roads in this land may sometimes seem meandering or heavy going, urging us to plod and plough rather than skip or race who has ever heard of a skipping bull! 

Famous Spanish Bullfighter & writer Ignacio Sanchez Mejias has Mercury in Taurus
He loved literature and music and became critical of his own 'faenas' job, suffering several serious 'gorings' he left the profession becoming a member of the influential Spanish literary group Generation 27. He returned to the bullring, perhaps for financial reasons and died of gangrene, delirious from pain.
His death was immortalised in his friends Federico Garcia Lorca's famous elegy Llanto por la muerte de Ignacio Sánchez Mejías - Weeping for the Death of Ignacio Sánchez Mejías

This drawing in quality, this quietening and easing tasks us to delve deeper and ever deeper. What is missed in the rush or fly past is clocked in the evening constitutional and where Aries the Ram has a gambol, Taurus the Bull has an amble. This is a time that generated more questions than answers or at least this is what it seem now looking back.

Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage has Mercury in Taurus
Farage was confronted by protestors in Edinburgh on the 16th May 2013, he had to take refuge in a pub but was asked to leave by the landlord but the taxi driver refused to take him. He had to be escorted away by the police as Scottish protesters declared him to be a racist. 'Farage came up to Scotland to spread his racism and bigotry here we showed he's not welcome'. He has also been accused by the Scottish National Party Leader Alex Salmond of 'touting obnoxious polices'  Unphased Farage, an ex-Conservative Party member has also just invited disgruntled ultra-right, grass root members of the Conservative Party, who have apparently been called 'swivel-eyed loons' by their own Party Chairman, to join UKIP.

However, rusher-on-beware, the answers are indeed there but to sense them we still may need to wait and be patient for the calf will share its goodies, just in its own sweet time. Just as the Midas bull was a mere disguise, a tempting tease, Mercury in Taurus time will spill the beans but not in any way that is expected and its effect may be potent. 

UK TV Newsreader & Presenter Fiona Bruce has Mercury in Taurus
She is a patron of domestic violence charity Refuge and has upset the founder of Fathers4justice for suggesting that violent men can use that organisation as an umbrella.

This is the earth space and territory of Taurus we occupied and it is to this language we tried to acclimatised. Whenever Mercury changes sign, we need to learn this new language and adapt to different and adjust to the unfamiliar. Mercury affects the way we process and deal with information, in other words: how we talk, think, chat, twitter, blog, text, write, read, listen and learn. Taurus is a stubborn sign, uncompromising, it can become very perverse, stubborn and entrenched, at its worst and at its best very compassionate and kind. Sometimes the two combine.

When given the facts Taurus becomes more comfortable and relaxed, shake the bottle and swivel the jigsaw pieces around however and Taurus can appear to stare into space, much like a cow chewing the cud. Eventually what emerges of course is a complex yet simple, easily digestible mixture – it just takes a while or 'its own sweet time'.

Philosopher, writer & mathematician/logician Bertrand Russell has Mercury in Taurus
'Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time..the whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves and wiser people are so full of doubts'

When Mercury passes through such a slowly seductive sign as Taurus it realizes that something nourishing, productive and useful must emerge and be transported, something stable and sustaining must be the cargo. Milk from the Taurus cow flows forth to nourish and protect the young and youthful spirit, symbolised by Aries the proceeding sign. Our impetus, our brave, wild and naïve ideas needed to be nurtured and grounded. We can’t run off and do our very important business whilst suckling, this was our time to rest, take in our nourishment and bask in blissful loving contentment. Now there is time to rush off with our mates and play as Mercury has already sped into the sign of its rulership, 'mercurial' and curious Gemini! Whilst Mercury was in impulsive, direct Aries we will have noticed that we had to be much more clear and decisive in our thinking. Passion may have gripped us as we felt motivated to press on and pursue our goals. Under Aries we had to get active and get going with ways to move forward with our lives. Mercury, after all is about travel, trade, exchange, communication and busy, busy activity but when it was with ‘hang on a great big minute’ Taurus it can often appear to have ground to a complete standstill, more than ready to ease into a  l o n g.... hiatus, just, you know.... idling in the scenery, resting in the background..but not forever. 

Writer Daphne du Maurier has Mercury in Taurus
'Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind...more spectacular than the small inland mines are the chimneys and engine-houses of those built above the sea, perched like the nests of eagles......the beauty and the mystery beckon still' Vanishing Cornwall

Taurus being an earth sign also means that its idea of getting down to business usually means MONEY. Sure it can be about love, art and compassion, but make no mistake, physical exchange is what Mercury in Taurus excels at, whether that is in coin, touch, goods or heart song.

Irish Singer/writer for U2, venture capitalist and humanitarian Paul Hewson 'Bono' has Mercury in Taurus
Taking his nickname from a hearing aid shop Bono Vox (good voice) he was motivativation to become involved in social and political causes as an activist but has also been criticised.
 'I saw 'The Secret Policeman’s Ball' and it became a part of me. It sowed a seed...' 

However, just as we have got halfway used to this style of speaking and thinking we will suddenly found ourselves in what appeared to be a foreign country where everyone asked us to speak more slowly and literally, to think carefully before letting the words drop from our tongues, to draw a breath before pressing ‘Send’.
As it eased its way through Taurus, Mercury urged us to be kind, sensual and practical. Being adaptable is usually Mercury's middle name, it will always try to adjust to new terrain so we too will have tried to adjust and find the new angle. It may well be that with Mercury in Taurus things slow down but that is just how we may have wanted it for the time being. You will have noticed the difference and responded to the change from Mercury in Aries to Mercury in Taurus, as well as you know the difference between earth and fire, hearth and flame.

Chief of Bomber Command Sir Arthur Harris 'Bomber Harris' has Mercury in Taurus

He was the man who ordered the controversial blanket bombing in World War II from 1942 to 1945 of German cities like Cologne and Dresden, killing around 25,000 civilians in that city and reducing the landscape to apocalyptic rubble. To his critics it was 'a city too far'. A Ministry of Defence interview with an unrepentant Harris interviewed in 1977 was only aired in 2013. 'I lived in a shower of directives... The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind'

The Bomber command memorial in London was vandalised with the word ISLAM in May 2013

You and others around you, remember that we have all been involved in being that much more intransigent, determined, practical and realistic. However, there has also a high chance that we are all holding the results of our effort, our product and from that Mercury in Taurus time. Something was ‘made’ then, at some level, whether it was a simple vow, a painting, a special quilt, plans for a special occasion or a sumptuous meal or some quantum leaps. 
                 
Autistic child protégé Jacob Barnett has Mercury in Taurus. Diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome he did not say anything until he was 2 but learned algebra, geometry and trigonometry in a week. he visualises equations 'Behind every equation is a picture' and he is studying for his Masters in Quantum Physics. His mother Kristine began taking Jake out under the stars at night, listening to jazz music and his fascination began. 
'Under the stars is actually where I found what Jacob is truly good at' 
BBC presenter John Soper also has Mercury in Taurus.
Your children, friends, partners, teachers, bosses, neighbours, heads of state, the person sitting next to you right now, will have been more thoughtful and ruminative during this last period but now as a result of those efforts perhaps something long lasting may emerge. With this last Mercury in Taurus contact our communications, even with ourselves, may have had to get that much more real, for good or bad.

Self Help Guru Dr Wayne Dyer has Mercury in Taurus
'My beliefs are that the truth is a truth until you organise it, and then becomes a lie. I don't think that Jesus was teaching Christianity, Jesus was teaching kindness, love, concern, and peace. What I tell people is don't be Christian, be Christ-like. Don't be Buddhist, be Buddha-like. Religion is orthodoxy, rules and historical scriptures maintained by people over long periods of time. Generally people are raised to obey the customs and practices of that religion without question. These are customs and expectations from outside the person and do not fit my definition of spiritual.'He was sued for plagiarism by celebrated translator of ancient texts/spiritual writer Stephen Mitchell, who is married to and co-writes with another self help guru Byron Katie. Mitchell claimed that Dyer has 'copied verbatim a significant portion' -  200 lines, of his unique interpretation of the Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching.
Whilst we all must have felt this change, this mental shift how did it affect us more specifically? Taurus sits somewhere in our birth charts, even if we do not have any planets in the sign we always have this Taurus Countryside somewhere in our psyches. It is this Taurus zone which has had Mercury as a house guest. This is where we would all have had to be more accommodating, where we would have been wise to shake out the duvet and put out a vase of fresh flowers and make this energy feel welcome and feel at home so it could work on doing what it needed to do in relative comfort and security.
Lets hope we were able to make the most of this facility to think things through things deeply and thoroughly and to apply our deepest compassion and sweetness of heart as we did last year. Mercury in Taurus - Postcards from a Sensuous Mind. We are now being taken to some very different looking lands within the Air space of Gemini, where things will change, quite literally, as quickly as needing a ‘change of air' and looking back lets 'End it Like Beckham' on a high and then move forward.

           
Football Icon/Fashion Icon David Beckham has Mercury in Taurus
A devoted fan of the English football club Manchester United he won Bobby Charlton's Soccer Skills Award at age 11 and made his dream come true by playing for the team, where he also met his wife Victoria and became one half of 'Posh & Becks and the brand Beckham began.

His personal fortune is at least $267 million plus - he donated his Paris Saint Germaine salary to charity some MP's say to avoid paying the top rate of French tax and a surtax. A PSG shirt with his name/number was £100.

credits: facebook & famemagazine & u2 interface & BBC & miranda aldhouse-green
posted by pippa ponton & jphibbs