The Taurus sign guide
- Dates
- April 20 – May 20
- Element
- Earth
- Modality
- Fixed
- Ruled by
- Venus
Taurus is the second sign of the zodiac, fixed earth ruled by Venus. Its first day moves between April 19 and April 20 from year to year, and on April 12, 2028 Saturn enters it for the first time since its 1998–2001 stay. Its symbol is the Bull.
The Taurus temperament
Astrology's Taurus is steady and very hard to rush. Venus rules the sign, so comfort, good food, money and beautiful things carry real weight for you. Slow isn't the same as lazy, though. A Taurus wants to know that what it builds will still be standing next year, and it takes its time deciding.
That patience can turn into stubbornness. You're slow to anger and just as slow to forgive. Once you've made up your mind, new information has to work hard to move you, and change that arrives without warning can feel like an insult. People close to you learn that your loyalty and your inflexibility come from the same place. Taurus can also be very generous with the people it trusts, and possessive about them.
At work a Taurus is often the one who finishes. You're slow to take up a new plan and very hard to knock off one you believe in, which suits craft, food, design and money work, where skill builds over years. The trouble starts when a project needs a new approach and you're still loyal to the old one.
Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos gives Taurus to Venus and names it the exaltation of the Moon, the sign where the Moon is at its strongest.
Plenty of Taurus Suns don't seem slow on first meeting, and the rising sign is often why. And because Venus rules Taurus, astrologers pay extra attention to your own Venus sign when they read your taste and how you show affection.
Don't quite see yourself in Taurus? For most people, the Moon or Rising sits in another sign. Find my Moon and Rising free
Why Taurus is a fixed sign
Modern astrology calls Taurus fixed. Ptolemy's word, in the Loeb translation, was "solid", and his reason was the seasons. Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius each follow a season's opening sign, and he said the weather of that season touches us more firmly by then, "not that the weather is naturally any more intemperate at that time, but that we are by then inured to them and for that reason are more sensible of their power."
For Taurus the season is spring. Aries opens it, and Taurus is spring once it has settled in. Astrologers read the same quality into the sign: Taurus keeps going with what has already begun, and it is better at holding ground than breaking it.
Taurus shares the earth element with Virgo and Capricorn. The guide to the earth signs sets the three side by side.
April 19 or April 20? Taurus start times, 2026–2028
Calendars list Taurus from April 20 to May 20, but the line moves. In the tropical zodiac Taurus runs from 30° to 60° of the Sun's ecliptic longitude, and the Sun crosses 30° at a different moment each year. In Eastern time it entered Taurus late on April 19, 2026. In 2027 it gets there in the small hours of April 20, and in 2028 on the morning of April 19.
So an April 20, 2027 baby born in the first three hours of the day, Eastern time, is still an Aries, and a May 20, 2028 baby born after 8:10 a.m. Eastern is already a Gemini. Times are rounded to the nearest minute; inside that minute, the exact second decides it. We computed every instant below on NASA JPL's DE440s ephemeris and checked each against JPL Horizons, within 2 seconds.
How common are Taurus birthdays? In Social Security Administration counts of US births from 2000 to 2014 (published by FiveThirtyEight), 5,161,756 of 62,187,024 births fell on calendar dates between April 20 and May 20. That's 8.30%, sixth of the 12 signs, and a touch under the 8.49% a 31-day range would get if births were spread evenly.
The Sun into Taurus and into Gemini, 2026–2028 (US Eastern, with UT) | Year | Taurus begins | Taurus ends |
|---|
| 2026 | Apr 19, 9:39 p.m. EDT (Apr 20, 01:39 UT) | May 20, 8:37 p.m. EDT (May 21, 00:37 UT) |
| 2027 | Apr 20, 3:18 a.m. EDT (07:18 UT) | May 21, 2:18 a.m. EDT (06:18 UT) |
| 2028 | Apr 19, 9:09 a.m. EDT (13:09 UT) | May 20, 8:10 a.m. EDT (12:10 UT) |
Uranus left Taurus in 2026. Saturn enters in 2028
Uranus spent most of 2018 to 2026 in Taurus. It entered on May 15, 2018, slipped back into Aries for the winter, returned on March 6, 2019, and made a first move into Gemini from July 7 to November 7, 2025. It left for good on April 25, 2026 (8:52 p.m. EDT; April 26, 00:52 UT) and won't be back in Taurus until 2102. Astrologers tied its stay to sudden change in the things Taurus guards, money and possessions first among them.
Saturn enters Taurus on April 12, 2028 (11:40 p.m. EDT; April 13, 03:40 UT), its first time in Taurus since 1998–2001. Astrologers tie Saturn to limits and sustained effort, and in Taurus they usually read it through money and security.