We are officially in Taurus season, the time of the wild Spring energy of the Bull.

One of the myths connected to Taurus gives the the bull the name Cerus. Cerus roamed the countryside, doing whatever he liked, trampling villages with abandon. He did not seem to care what he did and the local villagers were powerless to stop him. He was not a God but had become Godlike in his rampaging.

It was only Persephone, daughter of Demeter, the princess of Springtime and Queen of the Underworld who was able to tame him. She helped him find how to use his strength and vigor as a force of life rather than destruction.

Persephone, the girl who was kidnapped by Hades and taken to the Underworld, sometimes known as the Queen of Shadows, was able to meet this Bull, this great force, where he was, and help him find a new place in himself, away from just venting his power and making displays of force.

Taurus season is all about pleasure, passion, fertility and fecundity and tremendous creative energy. Inside there may be stomping, running and wildness. What we can bring to ourselves is attention to our own inner Persephone, wisdom, grace, a pacifying, loving, and guiding presence. What a beautiful dance to embrace in Spring.

The overculture of the West teaches us to distrust our passion, and with that distrust we do not learn how to work with it creatively and expressively in the world. Passion without love, support, presence, and expression becomes destructive, to others or to our own psyche. In this way the overculture proves itself right as those who trust their passion do not have support and often flail, suffer, and fall into addiction and illness.

When we listen to the ancients and the beautiful teachings that come to us through myth and story, we find clues about how to trust the great gift of our passion and embrace it; how to enjoy our fire, dancing our lives into being by deeply choosing ourselves and our own particular expression of the great mystery of which we are all an integral part.