Skip to content
AstrumFree

Taurus

Taurus is the second sign of the tropical zodiac, covering the 30°–60° sector starting at the March equinox, between April 20 and May 20. It is an Earth sign, Fixed in modality, ruled by the planet Venus.

Last reviewed: 2026-07-21

Historical fact

In ancient Babylonian astronomy (recorded in the MUL.APIN compendium, around the 7th century BCE), the sky sector now known as Taurus was already called GU4.AN.NA, 'the Bull of Heaven' — an association tied to the Mesopotamian myth of the Bull of Heaven (Gugalanna), later echoed in the Epic of Gilgamesh, where the goddess Ishtar sends the Bull of Heaven to attack Gilgamesh. Taurus is therefore one of the few zodiac symbols that is genuinely ancient and Mesopotamian in origin, rather than a later Greek overlay — the Greeks kept the bull imagery but reattributed it to their own myth of Zeus transforming into a bull to abduct Europa. Ptolemy systematized the order of the twelve signs, including Taurus as the second, in the Tetrabiblos, around 150 CE.

Interpretation — Western Astrology (Tropical)

In modern Western astrology, Taurus is read as the sign of stability and material pleasure: Fixed energy (which consolidates and persists) combined with the element Earth (concreteness, practicality) under the rulership of Venus, the planet associated with beauty, affection and sensory pleasure. Commonly associated traits: patience, loyalty, an appreciation for physical comfort and material security, and a strong aesthetic sense. The shadow side commonly includes stubbornness, resistance to change, and excessive attachment to possessions or routines.

Interpretation — Vedic Astrology (Sidereal)

In the Vedic system (Jyotish), the corresponding sign is Vrishabha, also ruled by Venus (Shukra) and likewise the second of the twelve rashis. Because it uses the sidereal zodiac, which accounts for the precession of the equinoxes, Vrishabha's date window is currently shifted relative to tropical Taurus — today falling roughly from mid-May to mid-June, varying by the ayanamsa (calculation method) used. Classical texts such as the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra describe Vrishabha natives as patient, steady in temperament, and oriented toward material comfort and sensory pleasures — a characterization broadly convergent with the Western reading, despite the two systems developing independently. Vrishabha is also associated with the second Bhava (house) of the natural horoscope, tied to resources, speech and accumulated values.

Curiosities

  • The constellation Taurus hosts two of the star clusters most observed by the naked eye since antiquity, the Pleiades and the Hyades, both referenced by cultures worldwide independently of the zodiac tradition.
  • Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri), Taurus's brightest star, was one of the four 'Royal Stars' of ancient Persian astrology, associated with the eastern cardinal point.
  • In Ptolemy's doctrine of planetary dignities, the Moon is considered 'exalted' in Taurus.
  • Within the boundaries of the constellation Taurus lies the Crab Nebula (M1), the remnant of a supernova recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054 CE — a landmark in the history of observational astronomy, unrelated to the sign's zodiacal symbolism.

For researchers

A notable historiographical debate, associated chiefly with orientalist Willy Hartner (1965), asks whether Taurus — not Aries — was effectively the zodiac's 'starting' sign in earlier periods: due to the precession of the equinoxes, the vernal point sat within the constellation Taurus for much of the Bronze Age (roughly 4000 to 1700 BCE), leading Hartner to propose that Mesopotamian iconographic motifs such as the bull-and-lion combat scene encoded seasonal astronomical relationships from that era. The hypothesis is discussed but not a consensus among historians of astronomy, partly because it depends on reading religious iconography as deliberate astronomical record-keeping — an inference other specialists consider too speculative to treat as established fact.

This section presents one tradition's interpretation, not a verifiable fact.

Frequently asked questions

Why is the Taurus symbol so old?
Because unlike other signs whose symbols were reattributed by later Greek myths, the bull already appeared in 7th-century BCE Babylonian astronomy as GU4.AN.NA, the Bull of Heaven, tied to the Mesopotamian myth of the Bull of Heaven found in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
What is the Greek myth associated with Taurus?
The Greeks reattributed the bull imagery to the myth of Zeus, who transformed into a bull to abduct the princess Europa. The bull figure itself, however, already existed in the Babylonian tradition long before that myth.
Are Taurus and Vrishabha (Vedic) the same sign?
They correspond to the same position in the sequence (second sign, ruled by Venus), but occupy different date windows, because the Vedic zodiac is sidereal (aligned to the constellations) while the Western zodiac is tropical (aligned to the seasons) — the gap today is roughly 24 degrees.
What is Taurus's element and modality?
Taurus is an Earth sign (an element associated with concreteness and practicality) of Fixed modality (a modality associated with consolidation and resistance to change), ruled by the planet Venus.
Was Taurus ever considered the first sign of the zodiac?
Some historians of astronomy, such as Willy Hartner, propose that the vernal point sat within the constellation Taurus for much of the Bronze Age, before precessing into Aries — but this is a hypothesis about ancient astronomical symbolism, not a consensus about the traditional sign order used today.

Sources

  1. Nicholas Campion. A History of Western Astrology (2009).
  2. Claudius Ptolemy. Tetrabiblos (c. 150).
  3. Maharishi Parashara (trans. R. Santhanam). Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (1984).
  4. David Pingree. From Astral Omens to Astrology: From Babylon to Bīkāner (1997).
  5. Hermann Hunger, David Pingree. MUL.APIN: An Astronomical Compendium in Cuneiform (1989).

Related content