April 20 – May 20

Taurus · The Bull

Element
earth
Modality
fixed
Ruling Planet
Venus

Taurus is the zodiac's first fixed earth sign, traditionally linked to stability, material security, and a slow, deliberate approach to life shaped by its rulership by Venus.

Core Traits

Taurus decans

Taurus spans 30 degrees, and astrologers traditionally divide every sign into three 10-degree decans. It is where the “April Taurus” versus “May Taurus” distinction comes from. The dates below are approximate: the sun does not move at a perfectly even rate, so a cusp can shift by a day either way from year to year.

  1. FirstApril 20 – April 29
  2. SecondApril 30 – May 10
  3. ThirdMay 11 – May 20

Taurus Man

The Taurus man takes his time. Not because he's slow — because he sees no reason to rush something he hasn't decided to do yet. Fixed earth, ruled by Venus: that combination produces someone who is simultaneously immovable and genuinely pleasure-seeking, which can be a strange thing to sit across from. He'll spend forty minutes choosing a restaurant and then be the most contented person in it. In an argument, he rarely raises his voice. He just doesn't move. He'll hold a position with the patient, bovine stubbornness of someone who has already decided the conversation is over and is simply waiting for you to catch up. Six months into a project, he's still there when everyone else has pivoted. That staying power is the thing people either love or find maddening, often both at once. He is not flashy about any of it. He just keeps showing up, exactly the same.

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Taurus Woman

The Taurus woman knows what she likes, and she has probably known for a while. There's a quality of settled self-possession about her that can read as cool until you're inside her circle, and then it's warmth and good food and the best seat on the sofa. Venus-ruled, fixed earth: she takes real pleasure seriously, whether that's fabric, flavor, a long meal with people she actually wants to see. Contradict her and she listens, or seems to. Then she does what she was going to do anyway. This isn't arrogance so much as a deep distrust of novelty for its own sake. She needs to touch a thing, sit with it, feel its weight before she accepts it. Professionally, she builds slowly and holds what she builds. The Taurus woman at year three of something is formidable in a quiet, non-dramatic way that tends to catch people off guard.

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The earth signs

Taurus shares the earth element with Virgo and Capricorn. Signs of the same element are traditionally read as sharing a basic temperament — the way they take in and give out energy — even where the rest of the chart differs.

The fixed signs

Taurus is fixed, alongside Aquarius, Leo and Scorpio. Modality describes how a sign meets change: cardinal signs start things, fixed signs hold and sustain them, mutable signs adapt and let go.

Traditional compatibility

Earth and water signs are traditionally described as compatible with each other, which puts Taurus alongside the water signs below. Treat this as a starting heuristic rather than a rule — a whole chart has far more to say about two people than their sun signs do.

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