RP Mystic’s Guide to Taurus Season
Taurus Season occurs usually occurs between April 20 and May 20 each year and represents the 2nd zodiac sign of the year. During Taurus season, we’re invited to experience life with our senses and reflect on what stability means for us. In her book, Signs & Skymates: The Ultimate Guide to Astrological Compatibility, author Dossé-Via Trenou writes of this zodiac sign: “As they push past their comfort zone, they break into a new consciousness, and their ability to express their sentimentality becomes abundantly clear…Taurus helps us learn to be blessed by life’s senses and pleasures, and as a result of that awareness and gratitude, everyone’s sensitivity to blessings increases.”
Here, we’ve gathered enchanting correspondences and a cleansing springtime ritual to meaningfully embrace Taurus Season.
The Astrology of Taurus
Since every zodiac season presents an opportunity to dive deep within yourself, let’s start by going over the basic aspects of Taurus from Dossé-Via Trenou’s Signs & Skymates: Astrological Compatability Deck.
Planetary Ruler: Venus, the Planet of Love and Magnetism
“Venus guides us toward knowing how to be in a relationship with ourselves, others, animals, consciousness, our material world, and the things we may not see. It is the planet of magnetism and social connection. It helps us attract money, beauty, luxury, wealth, abundance, and, at times, frivolity, overindulgence, jealousy, possessiveness, and passion.”
Motto: Deconstruction and reconstruction are one and the same.
Modalities and elements help us understand each sign’s behavioral energy and temperament. Taurus is known for having fixed earth-sign energy. To understand what these aspects mean for Taurus season, we turn to Grace Duong’s new Mystic Mondays: The Astro Alignment Deck and Guidebook.
Taurus is a Fixed Sign
Action, Momentum, Dedication
Within each season, we move through three modalities: Cardinal, Fixed, and Mutable. Taurus has Fixed energy, which means they stick to their values and hold strong convictions. This makes them dependable and loyal, but they can sometimes be perceived as stubborn. Fixed signs provide stability, and Taurus signs stabilize through material gains.
Taurus is an Earth Sign
Pragmatic, Grounded, Enduring
All four elements––Fire, Water, Air, and Earth––are represented in each modality. “The element can indicate the temperament and nature of the person with that sign and inform on what other zodiac signs they get along with best,” explains Grace Duong in the Astro Alignment guidebook.
The element of Earth represents Taurus. Earth signs value the tangible and prefer to feel through all five senses. “However, Earth signs are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and get down and dirty to achieve their goals. They have the grit and focus to skillfully manage their resources, grounding themselves in the task at hand.” Rooted in reality and practicality, Taurus signs must learn how to connect with their inner sense of security when faced with moments of uncertainty.
Explore the Tarot Card for Taurus
All zodiac signs are ruled by a tarot card from the Major Arcana. The Hierophant card is associated with Taurus season. Let’s explore the meaning of this card with Queer Tarot: An Inclusive Deck and Guidebook created by Ash + Chess.
The Hierophant, V
TRADITION, INSTITUTIONS, PROCESSES, RELIGION
The Hierophant encourages you to look at age-old practices or seek out the advice of a leader before making your own choices. This card does not tell you to seek outdated traditions that don’t serve you, but rather to search them out and look at them with a critical eye, gleaning what you can from these timeless sources. There is always a new way to look at things, but the Hierophant is here to remind you that adhering to key principles and rules sometimes has a place as well. It’s good to be individualistic, but there is also lots to be learned from tradition––even if that custom comes from a place where you have not felt seen before, like in a church or nuclear family structure. Remember that “tradition” doesn’t always mean being stuck in the past or resistant to change, as many have felt in the queer community. Rather, it can encompass just exploring why people conform to these rules and what you can take from them. This card can also urge you to join something new, like a gym or class, and prompts you to remember that there is value in learning from others. This card is priming you to learn a lesson from someone or something in the future and is a reminder that conventionality can sometimes have its place in leading you down the right path.
REVERSE: When the Hierophant appears in reverse, it reminds you that you are your own first teacher and guide. Understanding this gives you the ability to challenge the conventions that so often do not benefit those who are marginalized. Now is the time to move past the confines of the status quo and create your own structures and visions.
THINGS TO CONSIDER: Often, institutions reject queer people, and it’s important to trust your intuition about where you feel safe and valued (or not). However, consider what morals or lessons you can take from these experiences. We can only learn so much on our own, and sometimes it’s worth it to leave our comfort zones to seek a deeper understanding.
Tap Into Essential Oils For Taurus Season
Lean into the sensory experience of Taurus season by supplementing your self-care rituals with essential oils most beneficial during Taurus season. These recommendations are courtesy of Cerridwen Greenleaf’s Essential Oils: A Little Introduction to Their Uses and Health Benefits.
[Note: No matter how delightfully scented, please remember that you should never ingest any of these oils. Be careful when working with essential oils; use them in conjunction with carrier or base oils so that they do not irritate your skin. Even diluted, we suggest that you wear clean cotton gloves when preparing oils and do not get the oils in your eyes.]
Oakmoss: Just like the Taurus, oakmoss has an earthy energy that can ground you and remind you of your purpose. This uplifting and inspiring essential oil can help to attract abundance.
Rose: Rose oil is mostly used as a fragrance that can relieve tension and elevate your mood. It’s also known to be useful in love spells and energy management rituals. Use it in a diffuser or a homemade room spray to engage your sense of smell in your sacred home space.
Thyme: Thyme has been valued by many ancient cultures, known for its restorative properties for those who have experienced great loss. It has protectant qualities too, making it a great option for diffusing at home.Vanilla: Vanilla has a comforting, heartening, and sweet scent. Embrace your cozy Taurean nature by diffusing vanilla to make your home feel cozy and safe while also helping to raise your personal energy level and sharpen your mental focus.
Harness The Power of Crystals for Taurus Season
Taurus season reminds you that your most loving relationship can be with yourself. Here, we suggest four crystals to promote emotional and mental clarity while keeping your meditations grounded with your body’s needs. These crystals are courtesy of The Crystal Grid Deck: An 80-Card Deck to Charge Your Intentions by Mystic Mondays creator Grace Duong.
Rose Quartz: Love, Nurture, Romance
Rose Quartz has a gentle yet powerful energy intended to nurture and protect your heart, opening you to the beauty within you. Meditate with Rose Quartz to open your heart chakra, helping to heal heartache, grief, or emotions you haven’t been able to express. Rose Quartz is great for those with Taurus placements who tend to feel with all of their senses.
Selenite: Luminous, Cleansing, Protection
Selenite has a moonlike glow that can illuminate your spiritual truth and greater purpose. Meditate with a Selenite crystal to bring clarity to your mind, clear your energy field, and protect your aura.
Rhodonite: Compassion, Yin-Yang, Fertility
Rhodonite is a stone that represents “the shared connection between all of humanity.” Rhodonite can calibrate your emotions and balance yin and yang energies. Meditating with Rhodonite can “bring light to emotional scars from the past, transforming them to foster a stable everyday life.” It helps take the blame away from the situation, making it easier for you to accept it for what it is and forgive yourself with love and compassion.
Septarian: Direction, Fearless, Communication
Septarian, also known as the “dragon stone,” this crystal helps with confidence and self-esteem while also helping to guard your secrets and inner space. “Incredibly grounded and connected to the Earth, Septarian can…focus on listening to the body’s needs by building a strong relationship with it.” Meditate with Septarian to boost confidence and connect with what your body is trying to tell you.
A Ritual for Taurus Season
Smack dab in the middle of spring, Taurus season is a great time to have a spring cleaning ritual. While cleaning doesn’t sound magical, it can be such an empowering practice for modern mystics by transforming a mundane act into something marvelous. Here, we turn to Nikki Van De Car’s latest, Ritual: Magical Celebrations of Nature and Community from Around the World, for a spring cleaning ritual.
What you’ll need:
A broom + dustpan
White Vinegar
Water
Rags or towels
Any other cleaning supplies you like to use
Optional: Lemon, Tea Tree, and Mint essential oils
SWEEP YOUR SPACE
“Start with a sweeping spell. Work from the corners of your room, using your broom to gather dust, hair, and dirt tracked in from outside, as well as energy that has amassed, bringing it all to the center of the room. As you collect the debris into a dustpan, visualize the stagnant energy being swept up with it all…Gather what you can, and when you dispose of it, let everything go––the dirt and detritus that has amassed literally in your home and metaphorically in your life.”
WASH YOUR WINDOWS
Washing your windows allows us to let in light and positivity. Mix equal parts white vinegar and water to scrub away all that is literally and metaphorically blocking you. “In cleansing your space, you are cleansing yourself.”
USE THAT SAME ENERGY FOR OTHER CLEANING TASKS
Just as you swept your room and washed your windows, approach all of your various household chores in the same way, “using your intentions and your energy to unclog, clear, and remove everything that has grown dusty or stagnant, both within and without.”
BE AT PEACE WITH YOUR SPACE
Connect with your sense of smell to breathe deeply and feel at peace with your space by diffusing oils or making your own cleansing spray. Lemon symbolizes light and the sun, the tea tree purifies, and mint provides clarity.
Dive Deeper
Get to know yourself, your partner(s), and your friendships through the full constellation of your astrological self! In Signs & Skymates West African astrologer Dossé-Via Trenou uses her signature whole-chart approach to reveal how your Sun, Moon, Rising, Mercury, Venus, and Mars signs contribute to astrological compatibility—and serve as the basis for romantic and platonic relationships, as well as your all-important relationship with yourself.
Using astrology as a guiding light in her evolutionary approach to compatibility, Dossé-Via invites you to connect to your innermost self, and others, in new and more expansive ways. Through chapters on the role of each chart placement, as well as comprehensive explorations of relationships between different signs, Signs & Skymates dismantles ideas of which signs "go together," encouraging readers to expand their ideas about each sign—including the ones in their own chart. Discover the joys, challenges, and opportunities in your relationships as you deepen your knowledge of Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.
From the artist behind Mystic Mondays comes a deluxe deck and guidebook set, featuring vibrant, celestial illustrations and divine information on 80 astrological signs and phenomena, for practicing Astro Alignment: using the symbolism of astrology to explore the cosmos within yourself
- Designed and written by Grace Duong, founder of Mystic Mondays: Connect to the guiding power of the cosmos through Mystic Mondays: The Astro Alignment Deck, a brand-new set from Grace Duong, founder and designer of Mystic Mondays.
- Features 80 full-color Astro Alignment cards: Discover the insights of each of 80 signs, modalities, planets, cosmic phenomena, and more, rendered in stunning colors and vivid details on these durable divination cards.
- Includes flexibound guidebook: An accompanying 112-page guidebook features astrological profiles and enchanted rituals for using the cards.
- Deluxe keepsake box: Housed in a magnetic-closure keepsake box, with a separate, shrink-wrapped interior travel box for the cards, this one-of-a-kind collection is a must-have for modern mystics.
A note on packaging: In order to help honor our planet and reduce waste, we have only shrink wrapped the interior cosmic creature cards, rather than the keepsake box. Please feel confident that your product is not defective or used, but rather represents a step we are taking to protect our collective home. When you open your deck, you will find that the actual cards inside the box are shrink wrapped for protection and to ensure first use by the buyer.
- AN INCLUSIVE, AFFIRMING DECK: Queer Tarot is a bright, bold interpretation of the tarot that offers inspiration, affirmation, and LGBTQ+ representation. Created by queer and trans artists Ashley Molesso and Chess Needham of Ash + Chess, this reimagining of the classic figures in the Major and Minor Arcana showcases a wide range of gender expressions and sexual orientations, and incorporates queer history and iconography throughout.
- DELUXE SET: This set includes 78 full-color illustrated tarot cards (3 X 5 inches), shrink wrapped in an interior travel case; a 168-page, full-color illustrated flexibind book (4 3/4 X 6 inches); and a keepsake magnetic closure box with metallic foil accents. Cards and travel case are embedded in an interior flocked tray.
- FULLY ILLUSTRATED TAROT GUIDEBOOK: The flexibind guidebook provides an illustrated introduction to the tarot, with LGBTQ+ descriptions and suggested interpretations for each card, as well as instructions for sample readings and a brief history of tarot.
- VIBRANT FULL-COLOR ART FROM ASH + CHESS: Queer Tarot features Ash + Chess's signature colorful, risograph-style illustrations, including retro color palettes and bold, detailed figures.
- ALL CARDS BASED ON REAL, DIVERSE MODELS: Each card in Queer Tarot is based on real LGBTQ+ folx commissioned for this project by Ash + Chess. The deck celebrates a full range of races, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, sizes, and abilities.
- A PERFECT GIFT: This joyful, inclusive, and beautiful tarot deck set is an ideal gift for tarot novices, seasoned readers, queer folx of all ages, and their allies.
Essential oils have been around for thousands of years, but what are they and how do you use them? In this adorably small and fully illustrated A to Z primer, explore 100 of the most popular and common essential oils and how to use them, with descriptions of their origin, uses and purpose, connections to spellwork, and possible health and healing benefits. Also included are topical recipes for stress relief.
Whether it’s lavender, lemongrass, rosemary, frankincense, or ylang ylang, learn everything you need to know about the most commonly used plant-based essential oils, carrier oils, and fruit essences in this full-color, illustrated mini-book.
- Designed and written by Grace Duong, founder of Mystic Mondays
- Deluxe keepsake box with magnetic closure
- 80 full-color hexagonal cards with spot gloss highlight [shrink wrapped inside separate interior box]
- Full-color, 11 X 13″ illustrated foldout poster
A note on packaging: In order to help honor our planet and reduce waste, we have only shrink wrapped the interior crystal grid cards, rather than the keepsake box. Please feel confident that your product is not defective or used, but rather represents a step we are taking to protect our collective home. When you open your deck, you will find that the actual cards inside the box are shrink wrapped for protection and to ensure first use by the buyer.
Nature is what gives us life—it is the source of all magic and power in the world. That is something that humans have understood since the beginning of time, and it is a constant among cultures around the world. However, the ways in which we celebrate it can vary wildly. Bulgarian Baba Marta Day welcomes the arrival of Spring with Martenitsas, little talismans of red and white string, while in Southeast Asia, that same yearly event is celebrated during Holi, a joyful, riotous dance of colors. Yalda, Soyal, Saturnalia, Dong Zhi, and St.Lucia's Day (from Iran, Arizona, Ancient Rome, China, and Scandinavia) are all very different—but they all honor the Winter Solstice.
Each of these celebrations is a ritual, a form of magic created by community and tradition. And while their differences can help us understand their various cultural identities, their similarities can create a bond that reaches across space and time. In this beautifully illustrated book from bestselling magical author Nikki Van De Car readers will learn the history and meaning behind 40 of these ritual celebrations, organized by season. Each ritual will include suggestions for participating in and appreciating these storied rituals, while honoring their origins and the cultures from which they come.
