The bull, and its female counterpart, the cow, have long been symbols of fertility. While the cow is predominantly a symbol of motherhood and nourishment through non-injury (it's an animal able to furnish food without being slaughtered) the bull is an animal which brought nourishment through slaughtering and so came to be known as an animal symbolizing fertility through sacrifice.

While the cow usually embodied lunar aspects, and goddesses sometimes wore horns of the cown, the bull was a symbol of the sun. To the Assyrians, the bull was born of the sun. The Hindu devine being Indra [also Shiva] is often depicted riding on a bull, while Brahma is depicted upon a cow.

Bull worship was a part of Egypt and Greece. The Egyptian god Osiris is often depicted with the head of a bull. In Roman and Greek mythology are serveral powerful legends of the bull. Probably the most familiar is the tale of the Minotaur....

The bull is, of course, associated with the astrological sign of Taurus, an earth sign. It is a sign that has to do with possessions. It is a sign that has links to making the mundane and earthly life more fertile. The sign of Taurus should be studied for further insight.

The bull is masculine and implies a fertilizing of the Earth, a feminine planet in traditional astrology. In the bull then we have the union of the male and female. The bull is sometimes depicted as lunar (female) and sometimes as solar (male). The horns of the bull resemble the lunar crescent, giving it the link with the feminine. Anytime male and female come together there is opportunity for fertility. [from "Animal Speak" by Ted Andrews]

Seladang bulls from Malaysia.
Males often reach 6 foot height at the shoulder.

THE SIGN OF TAURUS

The Greek myth of the 'birth' of the constellation Taurus in the sky has to do with the god Zeus. Having fallen in lust with the maiden Europa, he appeared to her as a white bull and carried her on his back. When he changed back to his normal form, he placed the constellation Taurus in the sky to commemorate the event. [No wonder Hera was such a bitch! Nothing like rubbing it in.]

Taurus is a fixed, feminine earth sign, whose ruling planet is Venus.

Positive Taurean traits are: practicality, reliability, patience, adept in business matters, strong powers of endurance, firm sense of values, love of luxury and good food, persistence, strong-will, solidarity, trustworthiness, and affectionate.

Negative Taurean traits are: possessiveness, lazy, self-indulgence, potentially boring and unimaginative, stubborn, greedy, lacking flexibility in opinions, resentful and anal retentive.

This sign rules from April 21 to May 21.

The Brahma bull - vehicle of the Hindu gods Indra/Shiva

NANDI THE BULL OF SHIVA

The vehicle (vimana) of Shiva is a bull, white as snow, with a huge body and soft brown eyes. Its neck is thick; its horns are hard as diamonds. With their sharp red points it tears up the earth.

According to the Mahabharata, this bull was given to Shiva by Daksha, who is sometimes spoken of as the Creator Daksha-Brahma. The bull appears as the emblem on Shiva's banner.

The bull which wanders about, anxious to find a mate, is taken as the embodiment of the sex impulse. Most living creatures are governed by their instints; they are 'ridden over by the bull'. They are merely an appendage of their reproductive powers. But Shiva is the master of the bull. He rides it. With one glance of his third eye, the eye of higher perception, he reduces to ashes the Seducer of the Mind, Kama or Madana, the god of love, who disturbs his meditations. Only those who have attained true knowledge are the masters of their impulses, and can ride the bull. They use their sexual powers for other ends - magic.

The sex energy is the very energy that man can utilize for the conquest of his own self. The sexually powerful man, if he controls himself, can attain any form of power, even conquer the celestial worlds. One the other hand, men of weak temprament are unqualified for great adventures, physical or mental. The man of strong powers is the vehicle of Shiva.

The bull of Shiva is called Nandi, which means 'joyful'. He is also called the Wanderer. He is the embodiment of justice and virtue, the qualities of the strong. Nandi is most commonly shown in the form of a bull lying down before the image of Shiva. Worshipers touch his testicles before entering the temple. They are considered to be the source of life.

THE BULL IN MIDDLE EASTERN MYTHOLOGY

The bull has also been associated with the Mesopotamian moon god Nanna/Suen/Shin and the Caananite gods Baal and El.

The Mesopotamian Gugalanna or Bull of Heaven was a creature created by Anu at Ishtar's request, to kill Enkidu and Gilgamesh. Ishtar is angry at Gilgamesh for refusing to be her lover. At it's snorting, a hole opened up and 200 men fell into it. When it fights Enkidu and Gilgamesh, it throws excrement and spittle at them. It is killed and set as an offering to Shamash, the sun god. Enkidu falls ill soon after the battle and dies, causing Gilgamesh to go wandering in search of Utnapishtim (Noah/Ziusudra), his ancestor, who is immortal. It is very likely that the Bull of Heaven is also a volcanic god or volcano and that the snorting, excrement and spittle were the sound of the eruption, lava bombs and volcanic mud/ash.

Gugalanna was also said to be the first husband of Ereshkigal, the Lady of the Underworld. Some have equated Gugalanna to the sun, but I do not hold with this theory, as Shamash is the sun god. The reason for this is most likely because they believed that the sun went into the underworld at the end of the day and stayed there until dawn, when he resumed his journey across the heavens. This makes sense but Ereshkigal's second husband Nergal or Erra is plainly equated with the 'black sun', whereas Gugalanna is not. My line of thinking goes along with my belief that the Underworld is in fact the portion of the world that lies beneath the equator and that these tales originated in the Ring of Fire - volcano-land. Kur is the name of the Underworld. It is the area which either contained or was contained by the Abzu, the Underworld fresh-water ocean. In the prelude to 'Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld' it is mentioned that Enki/Ea struggled with Kur. Samuel Noah Kramer, the prominent mythologian, suggests that Enki's struggle may have been with instruments of the land of Kur - its stones or its creatures hurling stones. Kur is also a word for 'mountain' in Sumerian.