Taurus
Apr 20 – May 20
About this sign
Ruled by Venus, Taurus moves through life at its own steady, deliberate pace, savouring every comfort and pleasure the earth has to offer. You are the dependable anchor of any group, someone whose word can be trusted and whose presence feels calm and reassuring. Practical and persistent, you build slowly but solidly, valuing security, good food, beauty and the warmth of a familiar home above fleeting excitement.
Your devotion runs deep, and once you commit to a person or a goal you rarely waver. That same fixity, however, can harden into stubbornness when change is forced upon you. You resist being rushed and dislike upheaval. By learning to bend a little and to release your grip on what you cannot control, you keep your remarkable loyalty and your gift for creating lasting, beautiful things at their best.
Strengths
Challenges
How Taurus works
Earth is the element of substance. Earth signs trust what can be counted, touched or repeated, and are correspondingly slow to be talked into things — a frustrating trait in someone selling you something and a reassuring one in someone building it. Fixed signs hold the middle of each season, and they hold positions in the same way. That is where their reliability comes from, and also their difficulty — a fixed sign changing its mind is a genuine event. Put those together and Taurus is the fixed face of earth — the specific combination only one sign in the zodiac has.
Taurus is ruled by Venus, which is the body to watch if you want to know how a Taurus is doing. When Venus is well placed, the sign's better qualities are easy to reach; when it is retrograde or under pressure, the same qualities turn brittle in a recognisable way.
Across the zodiac sits Scorpio, Taurus's opposite sign. Opposites are not enemies in astrology — they are the missing half. Most of what Taurus struggles to do naturally, Scorpio does without thinking, which is why the pairing is simultaneously the most difficult and the most instructive one on the wheel.
The three decans of Taurus
Each sign covers thirty degrees, and the three ten-degree thirds — the decans — are traditionally governed by the rulers of the three signs sharing its element. Two people born three weeks apart are both Taurus, but not quite the same Taurus. Dates are approximate and shift by about a day between years.
- 1 April 20–29 · ♉ Taurus decan, ruled by Venus
The first decan is the purest expression of Taurus — Venus rules it twice over, so the sign's traits arrive undiluted.
- 2 April 30 – May 9 · ♍ Virgo decan, ruled by Mercury
Mercury adds a second flavour here: still Taurus, but with a noticeable Virgo accent to how it plays out.
- 3 May 10–19 · ♑ Capricorn decan, ruled by Saturn
Saturn adds a second flavour here: still Taurus, but with a noticeable Capricorn accent to how it plays out.
Taurus compatibility at a glance
Every sign scored against Taurus on element, angle and modality. These are sun-sign scores — a starting point for a conversation, not a verdict on a particular relationship. Follow any row for the full pairing.
- Cancer 5/5
- Capricorn 5/5
- Pisces 5/5
- Scorpio 5/5
- Virgo 5/5
- Taurus 4/5
- Aries 2/5
- Gemini 2/5
- Leo 2/5
- Libra 2/5
- Sagittarius 2/5
- Aquarius 1/5
Taurus questions
What are the Taurus dates?
Taurus runs from April 20 to May 20. The exact boundary shifts by up to a day between years, because the Sun does not enter a sign at the same clock time every year — if you were born within a day of either end, a birth chart is the only way to be certain.
Who is Taurus most compatible with?
On sun-sign scoring alone, Cancer comes out highest, and the rest of the ranking is on this page. That said, a sun-sign score compares two twelfths of the population; it describes a tendency, not a verdict on a particular relationship.
Which sign is hardest for Taurus?
Aquarius scores lowest here, mostly because of the element mismatch and the angle between the two signs. Difficult pairings are not doomed ones — they simply need the differences named out loud rather than assumed away.
What planet rules Taurus?
Venus. In practice that means its movements — the sign it is in, and whether it is retrograde — track the periods when a Taurus feels most and least like themselves.