Yesterday, 11.40am, a charity shop just off Broadway Market that smells of fabric conditioner and old wool. Ruby, 23, has been holding a camel trench coat priced at £30 between her thumb and forefinger for six minutes. She's turned out the lining, tested every buttonhole, read the label (cotton gabardine, made in Portugal). Then she does the maths under her breath: "If I keep it three years, that's less than a pound a month." She puts it back. She does a lap of the knitwear. She comes back.
The trench is still there. She picks it up, pays — and turns down a bag, "because it'll split before I get home". At the till, she tells the volunteer she's a textiles student and turns 24 on 3 May. She probably has no idea, but she's just summed up Taurus in a single purchase: take your time, touch, count, then never let go.
Taurus usually gets reduced to three words — greedy, stubborn, materialistic — and left there. Which is a shame (and a bit unfair). Behind the cliché is a sign that knows exactly what it wants, builds slowly and keeps its word. Taurus season started on the evening of Saturday 19 April. Already read the quick profile in our guide to the 12 zodiac signs and their personalities? Here's the full portrait — decans, money, love, work, properly argued compatibility, and what astronomy has to say about it all.
Taurus at a glance: dates, element, ruling planet, symbol
Taurus is the second sign of the zodiac — an earth sign, a fixed sign, ruled by Venus. The Sun enters it on 19 or 20 April and leaves on 20 or 21 May, depending on the year. In 2025, according to NASA JPL's Horizons ephemeris, it reached the 30 degrees that open the sign at 8.56pm UK time on Saturday 19 April. It follows Aries, which kicks off spring, and does the exact opposite: where Aries starts things, Taurus settles them.
| Key fact | Taurus | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Dates | 19 or 20 April to 20 or 21 May | the heart of spring |
| Element | Earth | the tangible, the senses, the material (like Virgo and Capricorn) |
| Modality | Fixed | the one who steadies things and makes them last |
| Ruling planet | Venus | pleasure, beauty, attachment |
| Opposite sign | Scorpio | the "what I have / what I share" axis |
Why a bull? In Greek myth, Zeus takes the form of a white bull to approach the princess Europa, then carries her off from Phoenicia to Crete. A god who chooses to arrive as a magnificent, calm animal rather than in a crash of thunder — you couldn't design a better metaphor for the sign. Taurus wins people over by being there: it turns up, it stays, people notice.
And Venus? In astrology, it rules two signs: Libra, the relationship side, and Taurus, the sensory side — taste, touch, scent, the comfort of a jumper that's already lived a bit. Taurus loves beautiful things to enjoy them, for a very long time.
Taurus in the real sky: Aldebaran, the Pleiades and a month's delay
The constellation of Taurus exists in the astronomers' sky too, and it's one of the loveliest sights of winter. Its eye is Aldebaran, a reddish giant star roughly 65 light-years away. Next to it sit the Pleiades, a little bluish cluster you can spot with the naked eye. The Royal Observatory Greenwich's guide to the Pleiades puts them about 440 light years from Earth, with over 1,000 stars in the cluster. Most people can see only six of them unaided. (In Japan they're called Subaru, yes, like the car brand, whose logo shows six stars.)
The catch? During your season, the Sun isn't in front of those stars. Blame the precession of the equinoxes: the Earth's axis wobbles slowly, over a cycle of roughly 26,000 years, and the reference points drift. Encyclopaedia Britannica's entry on the zodiac spells out the consequence: the constellations have shifted so that "the dates of the zodiac signs no longer correspond to the astronomical constellations in which the Sun actually appears". In practice, NASA JPL's Horizons ephemeris shows the Sun crossing into the constellation of Taurus on 14 May 2025, a good three weeks into your season, and staying there until 21 June.
Does that make your sign wrong? Not for Western (tropical) astrologers — for them, a sign is a 30-degree slice of the seasonal cycle, pinned to the spring equinox rather than to the stars. For astronomers, it simply proves the astrological zodiac is a convention.
Taurus personality: slow to start, impossible to stop
Taurus never rushes, and that's a strategy. The seed Aries planted, Taurus grows, waters and protects. Its strength is consistency. Its risk is confusing consistency with standing still.
How do you spot a Taurus? She's ordered the same dish at her favourite restaurant for three years, and she's right to (it's perfect). She takes a week to reply to a weekend-away suggestion — but once she's said yes, she's already booked the train, found the good bakery and packed a blanket. She won't change her mind to please you. She'll change it when you give her a good reason. And only then.
What's true (and rather wonderful)
- Reliability — when a Taurus says "I'll be there", she's there — ten minutes early, with snacks.
- Calm — in a crisis, she doesn't flap. She watches, weighs things up and acts at the right moment: often after everyone else, rarely wrongly.
- Senses switched on — she notices the texture of a fabric, the smell of coffee, the light in a room.
- Loyalty — fifteen-year friendships, a signature scent, the same hairdresser for years: what she's chosen, she keeps.
What's cliché (or needs nuance)
- "Taurus is lazy." No. Taurus saves its energy for what's worth it. Watch one on a project she loves: she won't let go for months.
- "Taurus only thinks about food." Taurus loves good things, which isn't the same. She'd rather have one croissant from a proper bakery than three pastries in a plastic tray.
I'll admit I understand that relationship with things very well. I've worn Shalimar since I was 22, and my mum's cashmere jumper still lives in my wardrobe (it has more history than most of my furniture). You don't need to be a Taurus for that. But this sign has turned it into a way of life.
The three Taurus decans: Venus, Mercury, Saturn
Each Taurus decan covers 10 of the sign's 30 degrees (ten days or so, since the Sun moves about one degree a day) and gets its own planet: Venus, Mercury, then Saturn. In the most widely used system, those three planets are the rulers of the earth signs: Venus (Taurus), Mercury (Virgo) and Saturn (Capricorn).
| Decan | Rough dates | Planet | In a word | The trap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 19–20 to 29–30 April | Venus | pleasure, softness | the cocoon that closes in |
| 2nd | 30 April to 9–10 May | Mercury | practical sense, negotiation | over-calculating |
| 3rd | 10 to 20 May | Saturn | building, the long game | rigidity |
First decan: the Venus Taurus
Venus, twice over. This is the most sensual, most indulgent Taurus, the one most attached to beautiful things. She can turn a box room in a student house into a cocoon with fairy lights, a plant and a very soft throw. She gives perfect presents, because she remembered what you said six months ago. Her challenge: not mistaking comfort for retreat.
Second decan: the Mercury Taurus
Mercury adds a Virgo flavour: this Taurus thinks, compares, negotiates. She knows the price per kilo, finds the best SIM-only deal and sells her clothes on Vinted with immaculate photos. Her trap: calculating for so long the chance slips away (Ruby's trench — second decan through and through: six minutes of maths, a lap of the knitwear, and it could have gone).
Third decan: the Saturn Taurus
Saturn brings a Capricorn tone: ambition, patience, a strong sense of responsibility. This is the Taurus who opens a savings account at 19, plans a career ten years ahead and sticks to it. You can count on her for anything — except improvising. Her risk: turning down a change simply because it wasn't in the plan.
An older system, the "faces", assigns the Taurus decans to Mercury, the Moon and Saturn instead, and both schools are still in use.
Taurus, money and comfort: luxury, but costed
Taurus has a relationship with money that's both tender and serious. Tender, because money buys what Taurus loves: a good dinner, a beautiful coat, a night's sleep in linen sheets. Serious, because for Taurus, money is first and foremost security. A Taurus with no savings cushion sleeps badly. A Taurus who knows she's covered becomes the most generous person in the group.
The "tight Taurus" cliché misses the point: Taurus spends with method. It would rather have one thing that lasts ten years than ten things that last one — exactly Ruby's reasoning in front of that trench.
My 1940s Art Deco chest of drawers, found for £25 on Facebook Marketplace, is the perfect example: beautiful, sturdy, cheap — and very likely to outlive me (the kind of find that makes a Taurus's eyes light up).
A student Taurus budget
If you're a Taurus on a tight budget (or just want to borrow the method), three habits make all the difference:
- A cushion before the wish list — even small monthly amounts add up. For the cushion itself, an easy-access savings account or an easy-access cash ISA does the job: the government's ISA guidance confirms you pay no tax on the interest from cash in an ISA. If you're thinking long term — a first flat, say — the government's Lifetime ISA guidance explains that you can open one between 18 and 39. You pay in up to £4,000 a year. The government adds a 25% bonus, up to £1,000 a year.
- Cost per wear — before any purchase over £30, divide the price by the number of times you'll genuinely use it. If the result makes you smile, buy it. If it makes you wince, wait a week.
- A budgeted treat — the Taurus who denies herself everything ends up cracking all at once. Build a small "treat" line into every month: flowers, a wedge of cheese from the market, a cinema ticket. It's what makes the rest bearable.
For the bigger picture (budgeting, saving, pensions), our guide to women, money and the path to financial independence sets out the basics step by step.
Taurus in love: slow off the mark, loyal at the finish
A Taurus in love doesn't play games. No pretending to be unavailable, no strategically timed texts at 1am. That said, Taurus takes its time — sometimes far too much, from the other person's point of view. A Taurus can quietly like someone for weeks before suggesting a proper date. She watches. She checks it's solid.
Once she commits, she means it. Taurus loves through the senses: dinners cooked together, Sundays under the duvet, the hand that finds yours in the cinema.
What Taurus wants (without always saying so)
Taurus wants regularity first: a message that arrives when promised, a date that isn't cancelled at the last minute. Substance matters too, and "I picked up that cheese you like" beats "you're the love of my life" sent as a voice note at 2am. Taurus also needs time, because a Taurus who feels pushed plants her hooves.
The sore spot: possessiveness
Venus attaches, and a fixed sign holds on. The flip side of the loyal Taurus is a Taurus who can turn possessive when feeling insecure. A bit of jealousy can be talked through. But if it tips into control (checking your phone, monitoring your nights out, edging your friends away), it's no longer a personality trait. It's a relationship problem, and no star sign excuses it. In England and Wales, section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 makes controlling or coercive behaviour in an intimate or family relationship a criminal offence. If this sounds like your relationship, the government's domestic abuse guidance points to Refuge's National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247, free, confidential and open 24 hours a day; in an emergency, call 999.
The best prevention is talking: saying early and calmly what's worrying you. For having those conversations without blame, our couple communication techniques that actually work make a good toolkit — and Taurus loves a concrete method.
Taurus compatibility: sign by sign, with reasons
In astrology, compatibility is worked out through elements and angles. The table below follows that logic without claiming to predict anything: a relationship gets built day by day, whatever the grid says.
| Sign | What works | What grates | In short |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aries | Aries gets Taurus moving | speed versus slowness | creative friction |
| Taurus | same pace, same love of comfort | two stubborn souls, zero compromise | the cocoon — beware of stagnation |
| Gemini | curiosity wakes Taurus up | too much change, too fast | stimulating but exhausting |
| Cancer | tenderness, home, loyalty | sulky silences on both sides | very sweet |
| Leo | loyalty, a taste for beautiful things | two fixed signs who both want to be right | a glamorous tug of war |
| Virgo | shared practicality, trust | a little too sensible | the natural fit |
| Libra | Venus in common, aesthetics | Libra dithers, Taurus gets impatient | pretty but uneven |
| Scorpio | magnetic attraction, loyalty | jealousy squared | intense (opposite sign) |
| Sagittarius | makes Taurus laugh | freedom versus stability | needs negotiating |
| Capricorn | shared ambitions and values | work comes before tenderness | solid as a rock |
| Aquarius | its originality fascinates | runs from the routine Taurus adores | the big stretch |
| Pisces | gentleness, imagination, sensuality | Pisces' vagueness unsettles Taurus | romantic |
The easiest pairings: Virgo, Capricorn, Cancer and Pisces
Earth signs understand each other without words: Taurus and Capricorn build (a flat, savings, five-year plans), Taurus and Virgo polish. With Cancer and Pisces, the water signs, tenderness takes over: water nourishes earth, and earth gives it a shape.
Taurus and Scorpio: the axis that fascinates
Scorpio is the sign opposite Taurus. What one owns, the other wants to transform; what one keeps to itself, the other wants to share to the bottom. That often makes for the most magnetic couples in the zodiac — and the stormiest. It's the axis that speaks to me most. With my Moon in Scorpio, I know what it's like to want to feel everything at full volume — and why a Taurus's calm can be both restful and maddening.
The pairings that take work: Leo and Aquarius
These are the other two fixed signs, sitting at right angles to Taurus on the zodiac wheel (astrologers call it a square). Three stubborn signs, three ways of being stubborn. With Leo, the tug of war is about who takes centre stage; with Aquarius, it's about freedom. Far from impossible — but nobody will give way just to be nice.
Taurus at work: consistency as a superpower
At work, Taurus is the one who finishes. Taurus doesn't necessarily launch projects, but sees them through to the end, neatly, without losing sight of the budget. In our round-up of the jobs that suit each sign, Taurus gets the nickname "The Builder" — and it's well earned.
Strengths and pitfalls
Taurus at work is reliable (deadlines met, files complete, promises kept) and patient, happy to stick with long projects others drop after three weeks, and practical enough to turn a vague idea into a schedule, a budget, a prototype.
The pitfalls are the flip side of those strengths: a new system or a restructure, and Taurus digs its heels in; a comfy role, and it sometimes stays too long.
Where Taurus thrives
Finance and accounting (for the security), cooking, baking or wine (for the senses), interior design, textile design, ceramics, garden design (for the materials), project management (for the staying power). What Taurus really wants is a job where you can see the result of your work — a cake, a renovated room, accounts that balance to the penny.
The Taurus weak spot at appraisal time is negotiation: Taurus knows its worth but waits for the work to be noticed instead of asking for the pay rise it deserves. If that's you, our salary negotiation guide for women gives you ready-to-use phrases. A well-prepared Taurus is formidable — she doesn't back down. One more thing: if a recruiter ever asks for your star sign, treat it as information about how that company makes decisions.
Taurus stubbornness: a user's guide
"Stubborn as a bull": the phrase sticks to the sign like chewing gum to a shoe. It isn't wrong. But Taurus doesn't dig in for the fun of it. It resists because change threatens what it has built, or because nobody gave it time to digest. The more you pull on the rope, the more it plants its hooves. The two levers that work are time and facts.
If you're a Taurus
- Spot the phrase that gives you away — "well, we've always done it this way". When it comes out, ask yourself what you're really protecting.
- Give yourself a 48-hour rule — faced with something new, you're allowed to say "let me think" instead of "no". Two days later, some of those refusals have turned into "why not".
- Test small — a week with the new method, then take stock. You accept things far more easily when they're reversible.
If you live or work with a Taurus
- Flag changes early — surprises are the enemy.
- Argue with specifics — a number, an example, a trial run. Grand principles leave Taurus cold.
- Don't win the argument — leave an honourable way out. A Taurus who's been allowed to change her mind "on her own" will defend the new position as firmly as the old one.
What science says about the Taurus portrait
My view, plainly: astrology hasn't passed scientific testing, and the Taurus portrait is no exception. I still love it as a language for talking about ourselves. But you deserve to know what it rests on.
Plenty of people see themselves in it
Britannica's zodiac entry is blunt: astrology "is not supported by science". It also notes that in a 2022 poll, 27 per cent of Americans said they believed in astrology, rising to 37 per cent among the under-30s. If this portrait feels like you, you're in large company.
The double-blind test
In 1985, the physicist Shawn Carlson published a double-blind test of astrology in the journal Nature. Twenty-eight astrologers had to match the birth charts of 116 volunteers to one of three personality profiles. They predicted they'd get at least half right. They got one in three — exactly what chance would give.
So do we bin it?
No. Saying "I'm very Taurus about this" when you refuse to change hairdresser is a funny, affectionate way of talking about yourself. Choosing a job, a mortgage or a break-up based on your sign is something else: it's handing the keys to a symbol. Keep astrology for Sunday-afternoon conversations, and base your decisions on facts.
Taurus season 2025: the 27 April new moon and the dates that matter
Taurus season 2025 comes down to five dates. Moon phase times are converted to UK time from the US Naval Observatory's moon phase tables; perigee and constellations come from NASA JPL's Horizons ephemeris; the readings are the astrologers'.
- Sunday 27 April, just after 5pm — the Moon reaches perigee, its closest point to Earth this month.
- Sunday 27 April, 8.31pm — new moon. For astrologers, it's the new moon in Taurus, the traditional moment to start something meant to last. Astronomically, the Moon is in front of the stars of Aries at that point — precession again.
- Monday 12 May, 5.56pm — full moon — the Flower Moon, as May's full moon is known according to Royal Museums Greenwich's guide to full moon names. Opposite the Sun, it sits in Scorpio for astrologers: the "have / share" axis lights up.
- Wednesday 14 May — the Sun finally crosses into the constellation of Taurus.
- Around 20 May — the astrological season ends and the Sun moves into Gemini.
The 27 April new moon is a good excuse for a very Taurus gesture: choosing one single thing to grow until summer, and sticking with it.
Frequently asked questions
What are the exact dates of the Taurus star sign?
From 19 or 20 April to 20 or 21 May, depending on the year; in 2025, the Sun entered Taurus on the evening of Saturday 19 April. Taurus begins when the Sun reaches 30 degrees past the spring equinox point. Born on a changeover day? Only a chart calculated with your time and place of birth can settle it, and the same chart gives you your rising sign, which our guide to the rising sign and its influence helps you read.
What is the ruling planet and element of Taurus?
Taurus is ruled by Venus, the planet of pleasure, beauty and attachment. It's an earth sign (like Virgo and Capricorn) and a fixed sign, the one that steadies what Aries has started.
How do I know which Taurus decan I am?
Look at your Sun's position in degrees: 0 to 9, first decan; 10 to 19, second; 20 to 29, third; the dates are in the three-decan table.
Which signs is Taurus most compatible with?
Mostly the earth and water signs, according to astrological logic. The reasons for each pairing are in the sign-by-sign compatibility table, to be read as symbols. In the double-blind test published in Nature in 1985, astrologers did no better than chance.
Is the Sun really in Taurus in late April and May?
In the astrological sign, yes. In the constellation, no: because of the precession of the equinoxes, the Sun only passes in front of the stars of Taurus from 14 May to 21 June in 2025, according to NASA JPL's Horizons ephemeris.
What's a good present for a Taurus?
Something she can touch, taste or smell, and that lasts: a good wool scarf, a quality candle, a cookbook, dinner somewhere she hasn't tried yet. Skip the funny gadget that ends up in a drawer: she'll keep it to be polite, but she won't use it.
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Zodiac: signs, dates, precession and astrology
- NASA JPL — Horizons ephemeris: the Sun's ecliptic longitude on 19 April 2025
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Aldebaran
- Royal Museums Greenwich — What are the Pleiades?
- Royal Museums Greenwich — What are the names of the full moons throughout the year?
- US Naval Observatory — Phases of the Moon
- Nature — Shawn Carlson, A double-blind test of astrology (1985)
- GOV.UK — Lifetime ISA
- NASA JPL — Horizons ephemeris: the Sun's constellation, 13 May to 23 June 2025
- NASA JPL — Horizons ephemeris: the Moon's distance and constellation on 27 April 2025
- GOV.UK — Individual Savings Accounts: how ISAs work
- legislation.gov.uk — Serious Crime Act 2015, section 76
- GOV.UK — Domestic abuse: how to get help