ChatterLog May 2012

Senses

Greetings everyone and welcome to the May bulletin! We have now sprung from our fiery sign of Aries and landed in our slower and somewhat more grounded sign of Taurus. And in keeping with the element that rules over this sign, we recently celebrated Earth Day on April 22nd, right as we entered in to the Earth sign of Taurus. Last year we talked about gardens and the year before that it was possessions, so this time I decided to go with Senses. Why, you might ask? Well, many of you will be familiar with the sign of Taurus being associated with money, gardens, possessions and working hard, but did you also know that this is the sign connected with our Senses? Taurus, simply put, supports the notion of the pleasure principle.

The subject of “senses” and what that means is an interesting one. For instance, I mentioned before that Taurus is the sign associated with possessions, they like things, nice things, lots of nice things. However, if you think about it, haven’t all of these possessions – especially all of these “electronic” possessions started to actually de-sensitize us, in a way? I cannot tell you how mad and sad it makes me – well yes I can, and I just did! Seriously though, you cannot stroll down a single street these days without having some idiot walking straight towards you, eyes down with fingers and thumbs glued to their mobile hand-held device of choice. And they expect you to get out of their way? These electronic devices, toys, whatever you want to call them can be a serious distraction from what is actually happening right there in front of you. I remember some years ago now experiencing a “sense” of things to come, when at work one day, the person in the cubicle next to me emailed me a question, rather than standing up and actually asking me in person. I knew it would be downhill from there!

Growing up, we barely watched TV (back then there were only 3 channels anyway) and there were no computers or video games, no iPhones or iPads. The only “blackberries” we knew about were the ones we picked from the hedgerows that stained your fingers and ended up with a bunch of apples inside of a nice pie or crumble! Nowadays kids don’t even have to see one another to play – they may as well have “virtual” friends – everything else is. And yes, I have to admit that as with everything, there is always an upside to a downside, and the power of the Internet is undeniable. Skype for example, has connected people in a way that the occasional letter or birthday card could not. But at the end of the day, there is nothing that replaces real human contact and interaction. Again, this ties us back to the senses – humans need to feel, to touch, and be touched.

Taurus is connected with money and finance and something else that has been on my mind for a while now, and that is to abolish the word “freelancer” and replace it with “fee-lancer” instead. As with all independent contractors, just because we work for ourselves doesn’t mean we come for free, okay? We need to be regarded as “paid-lancers,” not “free-lancers” because the “free” really means that we have chosen to work in a freer environment than the one like that blooming cubicle I was telling you about earlier! Another interesting note connecting Taurus to our senses is all Earth signs are grounded and hard-working by nature, so they are practical people, for whom things need to “make sense!”

Last month you may recall I showed you an entertaining illustrated history of the Queen’s hats all the way from the date of her coronation up to the present day. So from Aries and the head, we now begin to travel down the body and with Taurus, we are looking at the neck, which the head needs in order to hold it up. And in keeping with our theme of “attire”, here’s a fun illustration I found that shows us a range of “necklines” for the fashionable lady to choose from.

But taking this a step (or should I say “a neck”) further, I also found another even more interesting illustration on “neck types” taken from a book published back in 1899 entitled, “A Complete and Authentic Treatise on the Laws of Health and Beauty” by Harriet Hubbard Ayer. This is not only perfect since Taurus rules the neck, and our senses, but also because the Planet Venus rules Taurus, and Venus is connected with love, beauty and vanity – knock, knock! http://archive.org/stream/harriethubbarday00ayer#page/412/mode/2up

As you can see by the illustration, according to Harriet, before we even get to the necklines, we have six basic “neck types” (who knew?) and they are: the “swan-like neck,” the “goose neck,” the “neck of the conversationalist” (that would be the one with the sore throat), the “obstinate neck” (now that sounds more like a Taurus as they can be pretty stubborn), then we have the “coquette’s neck” (that would be the one covered in “hickies” or love bites), and last, but by no means least, and the neck we all yearn for, the “perfect neck!” So who on earth (no pun intended) was Harriet Hubbard Ayer and how did she come to propose what kind of behavior our necks reveal and what indeed constitutes a beautiful woman?

 
Harriet Hubbard Ayer 1849 -1903

Harriet Hubbard Ayer was an American beauty authority, newspaper columnist and independent woman of the late Victorian era who, amongst other things pioneered the first cosmetic company owned by a woman in the United States. In fact, she was quite a gal. Born a Chicago socialite in 1849 (and no, she wasn’t a Taurus), she was subsequently forced to go out and fend for herself after a disastrous marriage and her husband’s failed business. This woman endured divorce, kidnapping, madness, seduction, and betrayal, and after all that was able to reinvent herself during the last 17 years of her life as the highest paid newspaper woman in the United States. She was a highly regarded author on the subjects of beauty, health & etiquette, and her book in which I found the neck illustration was essentially a compilation of her essays. Although we associate names such as Helena Rubenstein, Elizabeth Arden and Estée Lauder as being some of the earliest female entrepreneurs in the cosmetics industry, it was in fact Harriet Hubbard Ayer and her company “Recamier Preparations” who made beauty her business before any of these ladies came onto the scene!

And as always, we wish all you beautiful Taurus Happy Birthday!