Western · sign 2 of 12 · natural 2nd house
Taurus
19 April – 20 May, 2025
2 claims about Taurus can be traced to antiquity and are still made today. Everything else on this page arrived later, and each entry says when.
When Taurus actually begins
Computed from the Sun’s true ecliptic longitude for this year, not read from a fixed table. If you were born within a day of either boundary, a site using a table may put you in a different sign — and it is the table that is wrong.
What survives from antiquity
These are the only claims on this page that may honestly be introduced with “tradition holds”. Each is attested by an ancient or early-modern source and by a contemporary one.
- luxury-lovingattested antiquity → present4 of 12 core sources
Julius Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis VIII.7.1 · The AstroTwins (Astrostyle) · Refinery29 editorial staff · PsychicSource editorial staff · Cafe Astrology · and 1 more
Marcus Manilius (trans. Thomas Creech, 1697), Astronomica IV.11 (Creech, 'Of Taurus') · Julius Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis VIII.20.3 · Raphael (house pseudonym; title page reads "The Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century, Author of the 'Prophetic Messenger'"), p.13 · Cafe Astrology
What arrived with the popularisers
Claims that reach us through Alan Leo, Raphael and Sepharial — the Edwardian writers who turned astrology into a mass-market genre — with no ancient source behind them. These are usually the most familiar things said about Taurus, and the page reference for each is below it.
Alan Leo (William Frederick Allan, 1860-1917), HTJN, p.87 · Raphael (house pseudonym; title page reads "The Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century, Author of the 'Prophetic Messenger'"), p.13 · The AstroTwins (Astrostyle) · Horoscope.com editorial staff · Bee Wolf-Ray, LoveToKnow · and 7 more
Alan Leo (William Frederick Allan, 1860-1917), p.14 · The AstroTwins (Astrostyle) · Horoscope.com editorial staff · Karma & Luck editorial staff · PsychicSource editorial staff · and 3 more
Alan Leo (William Frederick Allan, 1860-1917), Astrology for All, p.14 · Horoscope.com editorial staff · PrepScholar Blog · PsychicSource editorial staff · Cafe Astrology · and 2 more
Alan Leo (William Frederick Allan, 1860-1917), How to Judge a Nativity, 'Nature of the Twelve Signs' essay, p.24 — "most characteristic feature ... its instinct for finance" · Horoscope.com editorial staff · Bee Wolf-Ray, LoveToKnow · PsychicSource editorial staff
What the tradition said and we stopped saying
Attested in antiquity, and repeated by no contemporary source in this corpus.
Marcus Manilius (trans. Thomas Creech, 1697), Astronomica IV.11 (Creech, 'Of Taurus')
Julius Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis VIII.7.2
Julius Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis VIII.7.2
Julius Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis VIII.7.2
Julius Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis VIII.20.1
Marcus Manilius (trans. Thomas Creech, 1697), Astronomica IV.11 (Creech, 'Of Taurus')
The work
Occupations are the one part of this tradition that demonstrably reaches the present. Character claims mostly do not, and physiognomy does not at all — but the trades the classical texts assigned to Taurus are still being assigned to it.
- money and bankingfirst attested 19th c. · no ancient source2 of 12 core sourcesAlan Leo (William Frederick Allan, 1860-1917), p.16 · Horoscope.com editorial staff · Karma & Luck editorial staff · PsychicSource editorial staff
- food and hospitalitymodern only · no pre-1929 source1 of 12 core sourcesHoroscope.com editorial staff · Karma & Luck editorial staff
- farmingantiquity only · no modern source1 of 12 core sourcesMarcus Manilius (trans. Thomas Creech, 1697), Astronomica IV.11 (Creech, 'Of Taurus')
- trade and brokerage19th c. only · no modern source1 of 12 core sourcesSepharial (Walter Gorn Old), p.74
- divination and the occultantiquity only · no modern source1 of 12 core sourcesJulius Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis VIII.20.1
- command and leadershipantiquity only · no modern source1 of 12 core sourcesJulius Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis VIII.20.9
- medicine and healing19th c. only · no modern source1 of 12 core sourcesAlan Leo (William Frederick Allan, 1860-1917), p.16
- soldieringantiquity only · no modern source1 of 12 core sourcesJulius Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis VIII.20.9
- priesthoodantiquity only · no modern source1 of 12 core sourcesJulius Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis VIII.20.1
- the seaantiquity only · no modern source1 of 12 core sourcesJulius Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis VIII.20.9
Rulership
The classical scheme gave every sign one of the seven visible planets. The outer planets were discovered between 1781 and 1930 and reassigned later, so where a sign has two rulers, both are real claims from different centuries. Neither is the correction of the other.
modern
none assigned
No outer planet was ever assigned to this sign. That is the answer, not a gap in the data.
Correspondences
Grouped by what kind of claim each is. Element and modality are agreed by every source in every century; the lucky numbers are agreed by almost nobody. Both appear on every astrology site in the same table, in the same type, which is how one borrows the other’s authority.
structural
Agreed by every source in every century.
classical
Classical taxonomy. Largely dropped by modern astrology.
dignity
Classical doctrine. Stable, but the outer planets are a modern addition.
mythic
The sign's image. Phrasings vary; the figure does not.
body
Melothesia — the sign's part of the body. Ancient, and not medical.
accretion
Modern accretion. Sources rarely agree with each other.
- day
- Friday
contested Monday — one source disagrees.
- modern only · no pre-1929 source1 of 12 core sources
The body the old books describe
William Lilly, Raphael and Sepharial all told you what a Taurus looked like. Modern astrology dropped this entirely: across the whole corpus, not one physical description is repeated by a contemporary source. It is reproduced here as what those writers said, in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, and for no other reason.
- stature
- short 3middle 1
- build
- strong 5stout 4ill-formed 1square 1
- hair colour
- dark 4
- hair texture
- curling 3coarse 1
- eye colour
- dark 3
- eyes
- large 2
- complexion
- dark 1
- face shape
- broad 1full 1square 1
- head
- round 1
- forehead
- broad 1full 1
- nose
- long 2
- lips
- full 2
- mouth
- wide 2
- jaw
- heavy 1
- neck
- short 2thick 1
- shoulders
- broad 2
- limbs
- strong 1
- hands
- coarse 1short 1
- gait
- stooping 1
- aspect
- handsome 1