Western zodiac
Taurus
Taurus Apr 20 – May 20 (approximate) · Earth · Fixed
You build slowly and keep what matters.
Dates are approximate: sign transitions vary slightly by year and time; your exact sign is calculated astronomically.
Why Taurus is Taurus
Earth + Fixed + Venus
Earth concerns what is tangible and usable; Fixed signs preserve rather than initiate or adapt; Venus traditionally governs attraction, pleasure and value. Together they produce the Taurus emphasis on stability, quality, comfort and holding on to what has proven worthwhile. The stubbornness the sign is famous for is the same instinct, seen from the other side.
Taurus at a glance
- Element
- Earth
- Earth concerns what is tangible and usable: resources, bodies, results.
- Modality
- Fixed
- Fixed signs hold the middle of a season and consolidate; they sustain things.
- Degrees
- 30°–60° tropical zodiac
- Thirty degrees of the ecliptic, measured from the March equinox. Every sign is exactly thirty; the constellations behind them are not.
- Seasonal position
- Mid-spring, Northern Hemisphere
- The tropical zodiac follows the seasons of the Northern Hemisphere. South of the equator the calendar dates are the same and the season is the opposite.
Taurus in detail
Strengths
Steadiness and sensory good taste: the tradition's summary of what the combination above is for.
Shadow / growth edge
Loosening the grip when change is the growth.
Relationships
Taurus is traditionally read as loving loyally and tangibly, through provision and presence. The classical caution is saying it, not only providing it.
Work and ambition
The tradition suits Taurus to long builds, quality and stewardship: work that rewards outlasting rather than outpacing.
Taurus as Sun, Moon and Rising
In modern Western astrology the Sun, Moon and Rising are often called the “Big Three”: the Sun is read through identity and direction, the Moon through emotional needs and instinct, and the Rising through how you enter the world. The same sign plays a different role in each.
- ☉ Taurus Sun
- What it describes: The sign the Sun occupied on your birth date. In modern Western astrology it is read through identity, vitality and direction; traditional astrology read it for the life's honour and the father, and by sect.
- How Taurus tends to express here: A Taurus Sun is traditionally read as identity built on constancy: worth accumulated rather than performed, and a preference for what lasts over what impresses.
- What it does not mean: It does not mean your whole personality is this sign. Nine other bodies and the houses have a say.
- ☽ Taurus Moon
- What it describes: The sign the Moon occupied at your birth. Modern astrology reads it through emotional needs and instinct; traditional astrology read it for the body, the mother, and the fluctuating conditions of a life.
- How Taurus tends to express here: A Taurus Moon is traditionally read as needing physical comfort, routine and time. Rushed feelings may not register as feelings at all until there is room to have them.
- What it does not mean: It does not mean your feelings are fixed. It describes what tends to settle you, not what will happen to you.
- ↗ Taurus Rising
- What it describes: The sign rising on the eastern horizon at your birth, from the exact time and place. Traditionally the sign of the body and of how life meets you; in modern shorthand, presentation and approach.
- How Taurus tends to express here: Taurus Rising is traditionally read as a calm, unhurried presence: people tend to relax around it before they know why, and to assume it cannot be moved.
- What it does not mean: It does not mean your entire personality is this sign. It is the door, not the house.
Taurus’s opposite: Scorpio
Taurus and Scorpio sit 180° apart, and both are Fixed: both hold. Taurus holds what can be touched and kept; Scorpio holds what is shared, hidden or at stake. The axis is about possession and intimacy, and each sign is uneasy with the kind of holding the other does.
Explore Scorpio →The three decans of Taurus
A sign is thirty degrees wide, and the tradition has never treated all thirty as identical. Each splits into three ten-degree decans, roughly the first, middle and last ten days the Sun spends here. Two systems assign a planet to each decan and they disagree, so both are shown and named. Your decan is decided by your degree of Taurus, not your birthday; your natal chart gives it exactly.
Taurus I
0°–10° Taurus
Modern triplicity decan: Taurus · ruled by Venus. In the triplicity system the first third of Taurus emphasises the sign's own qualities, under its own ruler.
Traditional Chaldean face ruler: Mercury. In the older Chaldean face system these same ten degrees are assigned to Mercury.
Taurus II
10°–20° Taurus
Modern triplicity decan: Virgo · ruled by Mercury. In the triplicity system these degrees take a Virgo colouring, the next sign of Earth, and Mercury joins Venus in the reading.
Traditional Chaldean face ruler: Moon. In the older Chaldean face system these same ten degrees are assigned to Moon.
Taurus III
20°–30° Taurus
Modern triplicity decan: Capricorn · ruled by Saturn. In the triplicity system these degrees take a Capricorn colouring, the third sign of Earth, and Saturn joins Venus in the reading.
Traditional Chaldean face ruler: Saturn. In the older Chaldean face system these same ten degrees are assigned to Saturn.
The first is a common modern triplicity scheme: the three signs of the element in order, starting from this one. The second is the Chaldean face system, older and still standard in traditional and tarot work, which runs the seven visible planets in order of apparent speed through all thirty-six faces without regard to sign. Two books can give different decan rulers for the same degree without either being wrong; they are using different systems. AsterNym shows both rather than picking one quietly.
Famous Taurus charts
Public figures whose published birth date puts the Sun in Taurus:
Where does Taurus appear in your chart?
You may carry Taurus as your Sun, your Moon, your Rising, or in none of the three and somewhere else entirely.