Every month of 2021 we will be sharing a tailored horoscope blog post for the current sun sign plus something a little extra so the rest of us aren’t completely left out!
Spring is full of plenty and connection. It is a time to gather with friends (well, while taking safety and health precautions, of course!) and enjoy the weather before the Virginia summer humidity takes over. Taurus, an earth sign, is connected to the new growth, to this lush season, to living fully, and enjoying having physical bodies. Food to nourish and taste, people to laugh with and love, gardens to cultivate, and clothes to comfort and show off.
A Taurus may be lavish, but they don’t do things in excess of what they can afford. They indulge, but since they are resourceful and reliable, they know just how much money they can spend, vacation days they can take, and decadent truffles they can eat. They may be able to steadily work and show up for their friends, but they also know when it is time to take a break. “Self care” is a huge part of common vernacular now; we’ve all been told how to craft a moment of calm and comfort, but no one is better at doing this than a Taurus. It’s natural for them.
How To Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell is the perfect book for a Taurus. Not only does it talk about disconnecting from the “attention economy” (the persuasive design of social media and advertising), but how giving ourselves back this time and this space to be, think, and breathe is an act of resistance and resilience. “When the technologies we use every day collapse our experiences into 24/7 availability, platforms for personal branding, and products to be monetized, nothing can be quite so radical as… doing nothing.”
It’s not just big pleasures that a Taurus enjoys, but the little ones too. That’s why The Book of Delights by Ross Gay should be on every Taurus’ reading list. This collection of brief essays are perfect to read while sitting outside, listening to birdcall, soaking up the early morning sun, and sipping on a cup of coffee. (I may be biased, since this is just how I chose to read it… but it was marvelous and I highly recommend.) Each essay is short and sweet, but they go deep. You won’t find flippant positivity here. Instead, Ross Gay is earnest and joyful, while never shying away from the moments where delight is hard to find. This book can be gulped down, but I highly recommend that you take your time with it, take a sip or two every day, and really sit with Ross Gay and his wonderful, humorous, potent thoughts.
“Because in trying to articulate what, perhaps, joy is, it has occurred to me that among other things—the trees and the mushrooms have shown me this—joy is the mostly invisible, the underground union between us, you and me, which is, among other things, the great fact of our life and the lives of everyone and thing we love going away. If we sink a spoon into that fact, into the duff between us, we will find it teeming. It will look like all the books ever written. It will look like all the nerves in a body. We might call it sorrow, but we might call it a union, one that, once we notice it, once we bring it into the light, might become flower and food. Might be joy.”
– The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
As I’ve mentioned once or twice already, food, GOOD food, is often very important to a Taurus. Not only because the sign is associated with farmers and plenty, but also for the pleasures of the senses. A Taurus doesn’t just eat to satiate hunger, but to enjoy the whole process. Cooking for others and being cooked for, finding community in the shared ritual, is a beautiful thing.
In With the Fire On High by Elizabeth Acevedo, Emoni Santiago is an aspiring chef who is struggling to balance her culinary dreams with finishing her senior year of high school and her responsibilities to her young daughter and her abuela. Although this is a prose novel, Acevedo’s writing is just as lush, lyrical, and beautiful as any of her novels in verse. This is used well when describing Emoni’s cooking. It’s magical. You can almost imagine tasting the food (which is maybe unfortunate if you don’t have a snack on hand). Emoni puts her heart and soul into her cooking, pulling from her culture, her relationships, her history.
Along with all the other physical pleasures, I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a book for Taurus’ sensuality. Alyssa Cole writes wonderfully fun, sexy, and entertaining romance novels. She balances compelling characters, romantic tension, entertaining plots, all with a splash of humor. And lucky for you (and all of us), she has an impressive list of titles and series out, including How to Catch a Queen, the first in Cole’s newest series, Runaway Royals. In this novel, an arranged marriage leads to unexpected desire… but also turmoil in the kingdom. When Shanti flees, her husband and king of Njaza, Sanyu, “must learn whether he has what it takes to both lead his people and catch his queen.”
Last summer I was given a lovely potted lavender by a lovely friend. I kept the plant outside and watered regularly, but you know what? The Richmond sun still burnt it to a crisp. I’m a fire sign not an earth sign, what can I say?
Unlike me, a Taurus usually has a green thumb. Combine that with being known for having the comfiest, most welcoming abodes, a book about house plants is perfect. In Grow in the Dark: How to Choose and Care for Low-Light Houseplants by Lisa Eldred Steinkopf, you won’t only find really beautiful photographs of thriving plants, but helpful care tips for any houseplant you might pick up, whether you live in a building that gets sunlight or not.
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Books for Each Sign’s Symbol
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Taurus – The Bull
Bull by David Elliott
Gemini – The Twins
The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang
Cancer – The Crab
Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms: the story of the animals and plants that time has left behind by Richard A. Fortey
Leo – The Lion
Alanna: The First Adventure (Song of the Lioness #1) by Tamora Pierce
Virgo – The Maiden
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides (out in June!)
Libra – The Scales
Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone
Scorpio – The Scorpion
House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
Sagittarius – The Archer
Fire by Kristin Cashore
Capricorn – The Goat
The Story of a Goat by Perumal Murugan
Aquarius – The Water-Bearer
The Water Bearer by Tracy Ryan (found on Hoopla)
Pisces – The Fish
The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro
Aries – The Ram
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
As always, I heavily relied on You Were Born for This by Chani Nicholas when researching this blog post but we also have many other titles that talk about astrology. Nicholas’ writing is easily accessible for both astrology newbies (like me) and veteran chart readers alike. If you want to learn more about your birthchart or try a hand at writing your own horoscopes, I highly recommend checking out a copy of this book.
(This post also brought to you by chai lattes and Palehound’s album, Black Friday, on repeat.)
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Next Up: GEMINI!
