IT TOOK A COURAGEOUS, karma-donning Crash Helmet (the Aries head) to baptize us into separate somebody status, but without the downward plunging Taproot (the Taurus neck), this courageous act of “selfing” would devolve into endless ego-hardening assertion, personality strutting and differentiation-through-conflict. Our days would become littered with insecure expressions of ego designed not to overflow a unique expression of the loving vastness that we all are, but to make our provisional me-story feel hard-edged and real. Sound familiar?
Enter the Taurus Taproot: the earth-pointing part of the body that tells the head that the time for punching through incarnational veils is over and what is needed now is the courage to be in the body, on the earth, as it is, and re-aim this incarnating, gladiator consciousness at the day-to-day realization that “Spirit is matter named.” Time to become alpha embodied, says the neck. After all, a mysterious presence is shining through personality’s lampshade: it’s time to nakedly encounter it by nestling down into our five earth-savoring senses.
Taurus rules time-tested values. A conservative in the true “conserving” sense of the word, Taurus is the part of us that responds with a healthy sense of skepticism towards all ways of life that are rogue and untested by tradition, elders and a body of peers to keep our ego and ethics in check. In this context, the 5000 year old tradition of astrology is the epitome of “conservative.” But how does the form and function of the neck prod mankind to honor time-tested Taurean values?
“Time-tested” means “field-tested on the earth:” the day-to-day proving ground that our downward plunging feeding tube incessantly points at. It takes history, the arc of years (and, perhaps, lifetimes) on the earth, to reveal the efficacy of any given value, lifestyle or worldview. For instance, abortion-born vulnerabilities to disease are only now starting to surface in women. To accurately assess the karmic implications of any groovy new social impulse, we need to swallow digestible amounts of change and watch how it ripples out through the collective body. This requires slow, thorough chewing and unhurried observation. Is this not the essence of the Taurus neck?
Consider this: how many degrees can the average human neck rotate the head? Less than you think: 80 degrees. That’s less than half of the 180 degree field in front of us. The somatic scripture here is obvious: we must work with the limited range of possibilities directly in front of us. We must train our attention on the simple fact of what is, accept our immediate karmic lot and learn to rest peacefully as the undistracted, pulsing presence in front of which the outer world parades. Does this not make the neck a kind of zen stick?
Three Names for the Neck
Before listing the common Taproot Kleshas*, best to learn how to behold the stem of the head as a divinely ordained somatic scripture. Once that is straight, compassion for the misuse of our neck-powers arises naturally. Here are three names for the neck designed to help you remember its encoded dharma:
1) Buddha Root
When you behold the human neck, imagine a taproot sucking secret, sensual messages up from the earth that continually entice attention earthward out of our head and into the body and the bare facts on the ground. In this sense, the neck is a symbol of uncomplicated, concept-free contact with each intrinsically manageable moment: the essence of both Zen and Vipassana meditation and the essential means by which the Buddha (Sun in Taurus) woke up.
2) True Values Indicator
Taurus rules what we value. Not what we think we value, but what we actually, daily, routinely value. And how do we know what that is? Simple: By noticing what we put our attention on. Nothing abstract about that, says earthy, empirical Taurus. We are guided by whatever we give our attention to. And what body part actually points and directs our heady attention? The muscles of the neck. The Crash Helmet is filled with all kinds of self-congratulating, abstract ideals, but the attention-pointing habits of the neck is where the spiritual rubber meets the road.
3) Bulldozer
Astonishingly similar to its animal symbol (the bull) the horn-shaped thyroid gland is located in the front of the neck, just below our Adam’s apple. Its primary function is to produce hormones that influence how quickly the body uses energy and regulate our overall rate of growth (metabolism). In an analogous way, the thyroid converts impulsive bursts of heady willpower into grounded acts that are pragmatic, cumulative and sustainable: the essence of Taurean values. In this sense, our thyroid-equipped neck is a symbol of our capacity for sustained, bull-dozing commitment and follow-through.
Taproot Klesha: Soulless Sensuality
“Klesha” is a Buddhist term that means, “states that cloud the mind and manifest in unwholesome actions.” Kleshas are what happens when we claim ownership of personality instead of abiding as the loving vastness in which it arises.
What happens when the embodied emptiness that the Taurus Taproot so steadily and brilliantly directs our attention to is replaced by a desperate, dying, time-bound creature grasping for security, comfort and sensual satisfaction? What happens when Tantra devolves into titillation? In short, soulless sensuality. Here are some common Taproot kleshas:
Possessive, stubborn, stodgy, dogmatic, materialistic, mercenary, superficial, risk-averse, attached to routine/not being rushed, lazy, licentious, gluttonous, hedonistic, greedy.
Know any mismanaged taproots? Want to help? Careful. Zip it until you increase your compassion and insight into the positive intention of the Taurus archetype by meditating on the following:
Taproot Self-Inquiry Practices
1) Tepid Tantra
People are not too materialistic; they are half-heartedly sensual. They are suffering from tepid tantra. If they were to fully, meditatively taste honey, they would become honey. This is what bodies are for. To the extent that we are fully surrendered and alive to the delights of the senses, the burden of the separate self dissolves, replaced by a worshipful awareness of the one Being beckoning to us in all worldly beauties and pleasures.
2) Shivery Sweat Lodge
Imagine sitting naked in a sweat lodge with a pile of unheated stones at the center, waiting for something to happen. Eventually, you start to shiver. That’s what miserliness, greed and possessiveness are: symptoms of an unused crucible. Security, comfort and predictability weaken and sicken us unless we use them as transformational containers in which to heat up some edgy self-inquiry, ego-confession and feeling our way past our conditioned me-stories. That’s called healing intimacy – the currency that makes Taurus truly rich and comfortable.
Ready for more?
Learn about the upcoming Styles of Awakening online training >
Learn about the upcoming online class about the astrological cycles of the moon >
Schedule an astrology reading with Hunter >
Subscribe to Styles of Awakening Newsletter (monthly) >
Subscribe to posts by email >
Like this article? Share it with friends:
Get free newsletter & e-book
