Bill Darlison: Roads for Travelling Souls

TAURUS   21 st April – 21 st May     Taurus, by Dan Hodgkin Taurus is an Earth sign, and the Pleiades, a beautiful group of stars in the shoulder of the Bull, which has been called ‘The Hen with her Chickens’ by many cultures throughout history, was used by ancient farmers to mark their seeding time. This section of Mark uses the Greek word for ‘earth’ (translated here variously as earth, ground, soil etc.) nine times, and nowhere else in the Gospel do we find such a wealth of agricultural imagery and vocabulary. In the ancient world Taurus was also associated with light, and was called The Bull of Light by the Egyptians, probably because in and around the constellation are some of the most beautiful sights in the night sky. Orion, one of the decans of Taurus, was called The Light of Heaven by the Babylonians.     Taurus (1): Nurturing the Seed (This sermon was first delivered in Dublin Unitarian Church i

  Casting out the Money Changers (Giotto) There are a number of incidents recorded in the Gospels in which, we are told, Jesus seems to act ‘out of character’. The most famous one, of course, is of Jesus casting out the money changers in the temple, a scene which does not fit our image of him as a passive man of peace. John’s Gospel tells us that he took a whip to them, and even though this might have been more of a symbolic gesture than a frenzied attack, his actions don’t correspond terribly well with his words in the Sermon on the Mount about loving our enemies and turning the other cheek. Another example is the way he treats the gentile woman who begs him to cure her disturbed daughter. ‘It’s not right to give the children’s food to the dogs,’ he says, meaning that he was only prepared to heal the people of his own nation – ‘the dogs’ were all non-Jews. He eventually does heal the girl, but only after her mother has won him over with a smart rejoinder.             Ho