The Sword in the Stone ©
by Madeleine Johnson

As I write this on the 25th April [1999], the Sun will have been only a few days in the sign of Taurus the Bull. I am always torn when writing these pieces between the pull of the stars above us at night, and the stars and sign in which the sun is actually travelling, because we never get to see them both at the same time of year. Its fortunate therefore that astrologers need always when interpreting a chart, to consider the concept of Polarity.

The polar opposite of Taurus the Bull is the sign of Scorpio, and I find it interesting that both constellations are marked by a fiery red first magnitude star, directly opposite one another. Aldebaran the eye of the Bull is also known as The Follower, and Antares as The Rival of Mars who can be seen on spring and summer nights low in the southern part of the night skies. Both stars had deep significance for our predecessors across Europe and into the Middle East. Aldebaran and Antares were two of the four Watchers of the Heavens, the Royal Stars of Persia because around 3000 BC era they marked the equinoctial and solstice points. Aldebaran was Watcher of the East and his rising heralded the Spring Equinox as did the whole constellation of the Bull for around 2,000 years. Antares in the opposite part of the skies heralded the Autumn. Both have a strong fiery nature, both bring honours, eloquence, responsibility; but both, and fiery Antares in particular, present us with a dilemma. For power and honour go hand in hand with destructiveness if their influence is not used correctly. As the Beltaine fires burn in the midst of our ceremonies, be aware that Aldebaran will be fixing his fire-red eye on the proceedings during the afternoon sun, and that mention of fire brings me further into the mystery of Taurus the Bull.

A key to understanding the nature of Taurus is the concept of BUILDING. Taureans are builders on all levels, whether it be a house, a landscaped garden, a relationship, a company. Their steady and stoic natures are the corner stones of anything that needs to be built upon, supported, forged. With this comes their ability to create. They have an acute eye for harmony and style, and this makes them good craftspeople in many diverse ways. They are indeed the craftspeople of the zodiac, working usually with their hands they create many beautiful and also practical objects. They are the potters, house builders, woodworkers, metalworkers, painters, jewellery makers and so on. BEAUTY is a key to this desire to build and create. And DESIRE. That deep inner desire for beauty and harmony that drives us on to make better, more perfect and more exquisite whatever we are working on at any time. With a Venus rulership this is not surprising.

All signs of the zodiac have both an outer and an inner ruler. Whilst beautiful Venus/Rhiannon Goddess of Love and Harmony rules on one level, it is the planet Vulcan who rules Taurus at an esoteric level. Vulcan? Well he's not been discovered yet but esotericists have 'known' of this planet's existence for centuries. He is no more than 8 degrees from the Sun, and therefore invisible, held within the Sun's brightness awaiting his time to come into human consciousness. It is well known that the planets Pluto, Uranus and Neptune were recognised by our early ancestors well before they could be detected by telescopes. But at the time of their 'discovery' over the last 200 years, they were ready to be accepted and for their influence to come to the surface of human awareness.

Vulcan is the God of Metalsmiths in Roman Mythology with counterparts in all pantheistic religions. In Greece he is Hephaiston, who incidentally was married to Venus/Aphrodite. In Norse Mythology he is Volund or Volundr or Weyland who is said to guard the Ridgeway on which his ancient Smithy is built. Wayland Smithy incidentally is the most feminine site I have ever experienced, and there are many, myself included, who connect this place to Brighid, the Goddess of the forge fire. To the Celts he was Goibhniu (Irish) - one of the mythical race of the Tuatha de Danaan and he was Govannan in Wales. Whatever the culture the Blacksmith God has a deeply sacred role to play. His skilful crafting of red hot metal into tools of power, war and of the hearth; the alchemy worked within that deep red forge fire followed by the plunge into the hissing waters reminiscient of the serpents of the Underworld, ruled incidentally by Taurus' opposite number, Scorpio, bestowed the Smith with magical powers. "The Blacksmith and the Shaman are of one nest" goes an old Siberian saying. All the Smith gods of varying mythologies have, like Chiron the wounded healer, some kind of disability that will not heal. They are most often lame, and often short of stature, misshapen, swarthy skinned, hairy and (particularly in Norse mythology) dwarf like. Their lameness is often inflicted as a sort of punishment. In their varying adventures, usually closely connected with humankind, they eventually overcome their lameness and imprisonments and escape by growing, or crafting for themselves, wings and taking flight. Back again to Scorpio the polar opposite, for the enlightened Scorpion becomes the Phoenix and the Eagle. Smith Gods are also frequently connected with labyrinths. Volundr for instance, and also Daedalus Daedalus was not a smith but a master architect and he it was who constructed the Cretan labyrinth in which to house the dreaded Minotaur, and who then became entrapped in his own edifice. A fitting lesson for Taureans who can, if they are not too careful, become trapped by their own possessiveness. Daedalus like the Smith Gods before him, escaped by making a pair of wings. Meanwhile the labyrinth continued to house the Minotaur, that awful creature part man and part bull, born of a king's greed and from whom the only escape was to follow the thread of Ariadne/Arianrhod, the weaver and goddess of the cosmic web.

All these stories point to the deeper understanding of the sign Taurus. The Taurean desire for material possessions and for sensual experience is all very well if kept under control, but it can keep them earthbound. The soul lesson of Taurus is to let go of this DESIRE for material things, by replacing it with spiritual aspiration. His/her task is to bring light into matter. The Smith works with his lump of molten metal, his fire and his tools, forging into being a skilled piece of workmanship, often a sword, and likewise the Taurean coming under the higher ray of Vulcan begins to turn towards the Will of the Divine and away from the will of the ego, begins to grow and craft her own wings with which to fly. Taureans are driven by desire, and at a soul level this is the desire for perfection, for beauty, for goddess and god. This is their path and their lesson. To illuminate, to penetrate matter with spirit as the Sword penetrates the Stone, to ground and manifest it in the physical world.

Taurus is the sign connected most to Buddha who is said to have been born, found enlightment and died in the sign of the Bull and for this reason at the Full Moon in Taurus the Buddhist faith celebrates their prophet at the festival of Wesak. Buddha taught the letting go of desire through the use of the third eye which they call the Eye of the Bull. The many figurines of a three horned god found across Europe make me wonder here, was this third central horn like the horn of the Unicorn, symbolic of the fusing of matter and spirit?

Bull Worship and deification became prevalent throughout the Northern Hemisphere from about 4000 BC and lasted for over 2000 years. During this time the constellation of Taurus marked the Spring Equinox, and during this time the energies of Taurus manifested in the building of the great temples, pyramids and stone circles that still cover our landscape from Persia (as it was) to Egypt, Europe and the British Isles. Bull cults prevailed. The Egyptians mummified them, the Cretans danced with them, the Celts fought wars over them. The children of Israel were only left alone by Moses for a couple of weeks while he went up into the mountains, and when he returned they had returned to their old ways and fashioned a golden calf. This time of bull cults is marked not only by ambitious building projects, but was an age when many objects of great beauty were crafted, it was a time of acquisition, of material possession and of desire. Our own Celtic ancestors are renowned for their artistry and particularly with metalworking of which many beautiful objects have come down to us from the past. From exquisitely decorated cooking pots, ornaments, priceless articles of jewellery and lethal weapons of war, all were decorated and beautifuly made. Bronze figurines of bulls have been found in plenty, and the Gundestrup Cauldron has scenes of bull sacrifice worked upon it.

The lesson of course was the same then as it is now. Transmute the material desires into spiritual aspiration, bring Light into Matter and illuinate the world. "When men have grown so much in harmony that humanity as a whole forms a living temple of theSpirit, the whole substance of the Earth will be illumined". (Joan Hodgson in Planetary Harmonies).

Our next Full Moon in Taurus falls on Beltaine Eve [1999]. As the sun moves across the heavens the Eye of the Bull will be upon us, reflected in the fires of our Beltaine Ceremonies. As the builders of nature are evident all about us, in teeming bounteous greenery, as invisible inner hands work with light and beauty to create our beautiful world, reflect upon this inner meaning of the sign of Taurus. The full light of the sun is mirrored in the moon - a perfect representation of the merging of masculine and feminine, the lunar crescent of the bull's horns upon the solar head of the bull) and so as you jump the Beltaine Fires, remember the forge fire and the Smith God's work of alchemy and transformation. This powerful Taurean influence is not to give up worldly possessions, eschew the world and become an ascetic. As druids we are deeply concerned with the material physical plane, with stones and bones, roots and shoots, with nature in all its beauteous forms, we live in the fullness of life, in the here and now whilst acknowledging and at the same time walking every day with in the deep spirituality of all that is around us. That's the beauty of druidry, its groundedness within Spirit. The clarity of vision that sees the light within matter, the sword within the stone.

So jump those fires with joy and reflect - reflect on how we are all here to bring Light into Matter, and Illuminate the World.

Madeleine Johnson is a property lawyer practising in Derbyshire, England where she lives in a small village on the edge of the beautiful Peak District with an indeterminate number of cats. She runs the local Druid Grove which celebrates the eight seasonal festivals, many at a bronze age stone circle on the moors behind Sheffield. She founded The Druid Order of S.O.N.G. (Spirit of the North Gatherings) seven years ago after completing her formal Druidic training. She is also a Polarity Therapy healer and an astrologer and one day she will write lots of books. She can be contacted at maddy@yewgrove.demon.co.uk or via SONG's website at www.yewgrove.demon.co.uk

The Sword in the Stone copyright © 1999 by Madeleine Johnson, all rights reserved. Used with permission.Go Back