Issue Number 2: Personal stuff versus the needs of generations

June 20, 9:14 AMAstrology ExaminerMaria Barron

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The second major issue on the wheel of life brings us up against the fact that we die but life continues on. The goods and values needed to sustain our own lives take their place across the wheel from the goods and values of generations that went before or are yet to come. This Issue Number 2 is represented by the opposition of Taurus and Scorpio. 

It’s no surprise that we have a persistent old phrase that asks “whose ox is being gored.” We all face questions on the Taurus-Scorpio axis and we each have a Taurus ox, which is our self-worth, our hard-earned values, our possessions and our means of support. Through these things we try to establish a sense of permanence and reassure ourselves that we will be able to sustain our lives another day. The archetype of Taurus, as the sign following Aries, is less concerned with “me” but much more concerned with “mine.”

At the other end of the axis, the Scorpio archetype shouts, “You can’t take it with you.” Scorpio reminds us that everything we have, including our physical existence, we have received from those who went before us. It also reminds us that we are called to pass along to those who come after us all the resources needed to sustain their lives as well. Scorpio is the sign of regeneration. It is the sign of sex and death, of taxes and inheritance, and of regenerative resources none of us can call “mine.” Volatile and mysterious, Scorpio energy can blow up any given situation or it can coolly detach and leave it all behind.

An axis ruled by Venus and Pluto, but illustrated by Moses

I don’t know a narrative that better illustrates the dynamic of this axis than the story of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. After Moses led the people from captivity, they had almost nothing to call their own. Everything of worldly value was gone during their time in the desert. All the needs and values associated with Venus-ruled Taurus, including even their daily sustenance, were said to be supplied directly by God, through manna that rained down from heaven to feed them and then also through the laws Moses brought down from the mountain to guide them. God even spoke like a Taurus, saying, “You shall be My people.” On the other end of the axis, the population was required to undergo the regeneration of Scorpio before it could leave the desert. The Israelites wandered until the older generation had died and been replaced by a new one before the people could enter the Promised Land.

In our modern lives, we emphatically need to face the questions raised by this axis. When we pursue our daily bread, settle on our basic values and decide what we really need in order to live, we must also consider that the Earth is land that is promised to future generations. Collectively, we face a crisis on this axis. In an era in which no one should go hungry, people still starve. In an era in which humanity’s actions have dramatically altered the environment, we risk passing on to our descendants a planet damaged in its abilities to regenerate the resources needed to sustain life. Posing this opposition as one of the six major issues of life, astrology says each of us has individual responsibility for how this turns out.

Taurus and Scorpio in personalities

Bringing the issue down to personalities, I don’t mean to suggest that either of these signs is more selfish, and in fact both can be very possessive and also very giving. But a Taurus is more likely to be concerned about putting into place solid supports for life here and now, and a Scorpio is more likely to slough those off. Both will be concerned with transformation: Taurus wanting to build it in as a step-by-step process, and Scorpio seeking transformative experiences in impermanent moments. Both are likely to be very affected by times when the ground seems to drop out from under them and they have to start all over again, although we all have those times.

These questions are also known as second- and eighth-house issues, because those are the houses ruled by Taurus and Scorpio in the natural chart. These issues are frequently emphasized for people born under these signs, and that is even truer if the Taurus-Scorpio axis is highlighted by natal planets in opposition.

Where are your sun and moon?

The sun stands for the conscious self and the moon for the subconscious ways of a person. So if, for instance, your sun is in Taurus and your moon in Scorpio or vice versa, then you have an internal opposition and can be your own worst enemy. Your conscious drives and your subconscious habits can set you up for self-sabotage of a perplexing sort. You could be tripping yourself up when it comes to attaining firm footing in the kind of life you’d like to call your own. On the other hand, you could be stifling yourself and cutting yourself off from participating in the grand stream of ever-changing, ongoing life. (If you don’t know your moon sign, you can find it here.)

As in everything, Caterpillar, the key is balance. Keep your Taurean tabs on things and build your cocoon but allow yourself to be changed by your experiences. You have to leave the cocoon behind to earn your wings. Explore your interests in the supernatural and the natural, the mysterious and the practical. And consciously practice putting yourself in the shoes of the most extraordinarily different people.

What about that person you’re crushing on?

Opposites attract in natural astrology because they’re chewing on opposite ends of the same spaghetti noodle. Maintenance and destructive renewal are the yin and yang of the same issue of “form.” Also, every opposition involves compatible natural elements. For Taurus and Scorpio, it’s earth and water. It’s also earth and water for the Cancer-Capricorn opposition and the Virgo-Pisces opposition. The other three oppositions are made of compatible fire and air.

So the attraction and sexual chemistry are there for couples on the axis of an opposition. The person of the opposite sign is intriguingly similar yet so very different. But oppositional relationships require a lot of awareness. These two fixed signs, Taurus and Scorpio, are both very stubborn and their match is likely to be full of power plays and holding out. If angered, they could have a big, screaming blowup or go into withholding mode and not speak to each other for weeks.

For years, classic-film actors Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh had an intense Taurus-Scorpio romance as a hot couple onscreen and off. The 18-year marriage between Olivier the steady Taurus bull and Leigh the emotional, changeable Scorpio apparently lasted 10 years after Leigh told Olivier she no longer loved him, and that sort of staying power, for good or ill, shouldn‘t be discounted in a pairing a fixed signs like these, but the two did divorce in 1958. Now Taurus Tori Spelling and Scorpio Dean McDermott are giving it the old Hollywood try under circumstances similar to the start of the Olivier marriage – where each of them left an existing spouse to marry the other soon after their meeting. Taurus Spelling has a Scorpio moon, which improves their chances.

Societal issues on the Taurus-Scorpio axis

In addition to environmental matters like global climate change, the threat of nuclear proliferation and destruction is on this axis. So are all of the issues regarding new ways of reproducing life, such as in-vitro fertilization, cloning and virtually any issue related to genetics and experimentation with genetics. Money matters fall here, whether related to financial systems, economies, wills, or any matter dealing with distribution of resources. You can strip away some of the spin on all of these issues when you boil them down to questions of how much any one person ought to be able to legitimately lay claim to in a world of many, with untold numbers of others yet to come.

Deadly sins on the Taurus-Scorpio axis

Three of the Seven Deadly Sins – greed, gluttony and lust – occupy this axis, and there are strong admonitions on these matters in every major world religion. As sexual mores change and desires for goods are stirred by commercialism, and as religion in some sense loses its ability to shame us into good behavior, it’s good to remember that in the long view, issues of materialism and sexuality aren’t only about today’s satisfaction and fulfillment. In profound ways, those issues are about the future of life on Earth.