While drawing the cow I noticed the nostrils, snout, and ears were very large in proportion to the head. I noticed an overall peanut shape to the head form with little horns in comparison to the bull/longhorn. When shading this drawing most the textures were lightly colored.
In summary to what is stated on What’s-Your-Sign.com, the cow is symbolic of Mother Earth, fertility, nurturing, and power. Being a female animal, the cow is a lunar symbol associating itself with feminine (yin) energies in Chinese culture and belief. It provides milk and meat. The Celts believe the cow is an earth symbol. I remember once I had an opportunity to view the internal digestive content of a cow. It was stringy, mushed up, wet grass. They eat the earth and in turn cows nurture people milk and meat.
The Egyptian Goddess Nut is sometimes depicted as a cow with four stars on the belly representing the four cosmic-quadrants of the earth. Hathor was another Egyptian deity and often called the Great Mother goddess of joy and nourisher of all things. Hathor was also seen as a protective goddess and an emblem of royalty. She personified the milk that flowed from the udders of a heavenly cow into what we call the Milky Way. I once experienced what it was like to milk a cow using simulated utters and it was fun at first but became hard work later. It takes time and effort and must have been difficult before the development of milking machines.
Three other examples of beliefs about the cow include Norse mythology, Vedic literature, and Buddhists or Hindu religion. The first giant Ymir in Norse mythology drank from one of the four rivers of power that provided nourishment during the time of the First World. The four rivers of power compare to the cow’s udder providing nourishment in the form of milk from four teats. Representing earth and sky the cow is a symbol of abundance in Vedic literature. To Buddhists or Hindu people the cow is a symbol of holiness and patience.
Symbolic meanings of the cow include: Patience, Nourishment, Abundance, Fertility, Female Power, Potential, Possibility, Calming, Grounding,, Provision, Beginnings, and Holiness.
