Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Zodiac Signs

Taurus

Also Known As Taurean The adjectival and member form, used of someone born under the sign.

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

Origin 100 BCE to 200 CE

Taurus is the second sign, fixed earth, ruled by Venus, spanning roughly April 20 to May 20 in the heart of spring. Its symbol is the Bull, echoed in the myth of Zeus taking bull form to carry Europa across the sea, and its glyph shows the bull's head and horns. As fixed earth it embodies stability, sensuality, and patient endurance: the builder and the steward who values comfort, beauty, security, and whatever lasts. Its life themes are material security, pleasure of the senses, loyalty, and the steady accumulation of worth, with stubbornness, possessiveness, and resistance to change as the shadow. A receptive, feminine sign under gentle Venus, it exalts the Moon and holds its ground once rooted. In the body Taurus rules the neck and throat, and its season is mid-spring, the fertile, blossoming earth settling into abundance.

Facts
Origin Period
100 BCE to 200 CE 3Tradition: Hellenistic astrology in Greco-Roman Egypt
Origin Period
475 BCE to 400 BCE 4Tradition: Babylonian celestial omens and horoscopy
Place of Origin
Babylonia, in southern Mesopotamia 4
Language
latin 3
Language
akkadian 4
Attributions
Governs
Taurus governs the neck and throat, in the same head to foot melothesia Manilius sets out in the Astronomica and Ptolemy in the Tetrabiblos. 2
Identity
Position
2 of 12 1
Learn More
Taurus in the Tropical Scheme

Taurus is the second sign, the thirty degrees following Aries, and in the classical doctrine it is fixed, earthy and ruled by Venus, with the Moon exalted in it. Fixed signs fall in the middle of each season, when the weather has settled into its character, and the tradition reads them for stability, persistence and resistance to change; Ptolemy treats the sign as consolidating what Aries begins.

The Venusian rulership gives it the sensory and appetitive side of that planet rather than the social side, so the sign is associated with the body and its comforts, with land, and with things possessed and held. The classical texts also class Taurus among the bicorporeal in some schemes and note its semi-fertile character in agricultural questions, a reminder that much of the sign doctrine was developed for practical use in weather, farming and medical judgment rather than for describing personalities.

The Bull of Heaven, the Pleiades, and the Hyades

The bull is among the oldest recognisable figures in the sky. It is MUL GU-AN-NA, the Bull of Heaven, in the Mesopotamian lists, the same creature Ishtar sends against Gilgamesh, and the constellation carries two of the most conspicuous star clusters visible without a telescope: the Hyades, the V of the bull's face with red Aldebaran at one horn, and the Pleiades, whose heliacal rising was used to set the agricultural year across the ancient Mediterranean and far beyond it. In Greek myth the bull is Zeus in the form he took to carry Europa across the sea to Crete. The prominence of the Pleiades is one reason this stretch of sky is marked in so many independent traditions, and it should not be assumed that all such traditions are related; several arrived at a cluster-based calendar independently, because the cluster is simply very noticeable.

Chou, the Ox's own branch, sits second in the fixed cycle of twelve and belongs, like yin the Tiger and hai the Pig, to no san he triad shared with the Bull-of-Heaven myth discussed above; the Mesopotamian and Chinese bull traditions developed in complete isolation from one another; there is no documented route of transmission between the Bull of Heaven that Ishtar sends against Gilgamesh and the ox that pulls the Chinese farmer's plough, and the resemblance is best read as two agrarian societies independently making a working animal into a major sky figure rather than as evidence of contact.

Glyph and Origin

The glyph shows a circle surmounted by a rising crescent, conventionally read as the bull's head and horns, though like most of the pictorial readings of the zodiac signs this is a traditional gloss rather than an explanation attested in any ancient source. The sign belongs to the Babylonian twelvefold zodiac transmitted through the Hellenistic Greek world, and the myth of Zeus carrying Europa across the sea in bull form was later attached to the same stars.

The written mark survives mainly through the medieval Byzantine copying of Greek horoscopes, the manuscript culture catalogued by Otto Neugebauer and Henry Van Hoesen in Greek Horoscopes, and it was fixed into a stable printed form only with the astronomical almanacs and ephemerides of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Among the earliest and most influential of these was the Kalendarium of Johannes Regiomontanus, printed at his own Nuremberg press from 1474 and notable for pioneering the printing of astronomical diagrams alongside numerical tables. Through precession the tropical sign has since separated from the like named constellation, so the Sun no longer occupies the constellation Taurus while the calendar still marks the sign of that name.

Correspondences & Relations

Detriment Of

Mars is in its detriment in Taurus, where its fire is slowed and made stubborn. Astrologers read a drive that is deliberate rather than quick but immensely persistent - energy applied steadily to the tangible, anger slow to rouse and slow to cool, and a will that pushes with the weight of the fixed earth.

Exaltation Of

The Moon is exalted in Taurus, and the tradition reads the emotional nature at its most settled here - feelings that are steady and slow to disturb, an instinct for comfort, and a deep need for security and the reassurance of the senses. Astrologers describe a calm inner life that is hard to unsettle and equally hard to shift.

Placed Here

A Taurus Ascendant presents a calm, solid and unhurried manner, and astrologers read a presence that reassures by its steadiness. The tradition notes a person slow to rouse and hard to move, drawn to comfort and beauty, who meets the world through the senses and at their own deliberate pace.

Modern astrologers read Lilith in Taurus as an untamed relation to the body, to pleasure and to possession. The tradition describes appetites and attachments that refuse restraint, a sensuality that will not be shamed, and a stubborn refusal to be told what one may want or hold.

Astrologers read Chiron in Taurus as a wound around worth, security and the body - a felt lack of enough, or of the right to enjoy. The modern tradition of this placement describes healing found in patient self-provision and in learning one's own value, and a capacity to steady others who feel unsafe in the material world.

A Taurus Descendant is read as a wish for steady, dependable partners. Astrologers describe an attraction to calm, sensual and loyal others, a bond slow to form and slow to break, and partnership valued for its comfort and constancy.

With Jupiter in Taurus abundance is sought in the tangible, and astrologers read a fortune that grows steadily and a generosity expressed in comfort and material good. The tradition notes faith in the reliable, a talent for increase through patience, and pleasure taken openly in plenty.

With Mercury in Taurus the mind moves deliberately and holds what it learns, and astrologers read a practical intelligence that prefers the concrete and mistrusts what it cannot test. The tradition notes measured speech, sound judgement and opinions slow to form and slower to change.

A Taurus Midheaven is read as a steady, substantial public standing. Astrologers describe a career built slowly and held securely, a reputation for reliability and patience, and vocations tied to the tangible, the financial or the beautiful.

A Taurus Nadir is read as a settled, comfortable base. Astrologers describe a stable early environment, a deep attachment to place, property and physical security, and a private life anchored in the familiar and the sensual.

Astrologers read the North Node in Taurus as a movement toward steadiness and self-worth. The task is described as building one's own resources, trusting simple and durable values, and learning to rest in what is enough rather than being swept along by crisis and other people's intensity.

The Part of Fortune in Taurus is read as well-being found through steadiness and the senses. Astrologers describe fortune that grows from patience, comfort and the building of durable, tangible security.

With Saturn in Taurus discipline settles on the material, and astrologers read a patient, enduring nature that builds security slowly and fears going without. The tradition notes caution with resources, a hard-won stability, and lessons learned about worth, permanence and what can truly be relied upon.

The South Node in Taurus is read as an over-attachment to security and the familiar. Astrologers describe a deep, comfortable hold on possessions and fixed routine, a resistance to change that has hardened into inertia, and a value system that asks to be loosened.

In Taurus the solar will settles into the fixed earth, and astrologers read a character built on constancy - a self that gathers strength slowly, holds its ground, and takes its bearings from the tangible and the enduring. The tradition notes patience and a deep resistance to being hurried.

Astrologers read Uranus in Taurus as upheaval in the settled and material - sudden change in what is valued, in money and in the ways things are held. As a generational placement the tradition marks a period that overturns economic habit, and in the individual an unconventional, stubborn relation to security and worth.

With the Vertex in Taurus, modern astrologers read the fated encounters as forming slowly and through the senses. The turning points gather around security, the body and what is possessed, and the ties they bring are described as durable rather than sudden.

Ruled By

In Taurus Venus rules its own sign, and the tradition reads love and pleasure at their most rooted - affections that are constant, sensual and loyal, and a strong attachment to comfort, beauty and the tangible tokens of devotion. Astrologers note a warm, enduring heart that loves slowly and holds fast.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Age of Taurus, Ages

The Age of Taurus is named for the zodiac sign Taurus, the constellation the spring equinox point occupied during this segment of the Great Year.

Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Asia, Continents

Taurus, of the earth triplicity, in familiarity with the southeast quarter.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy
Source Christian AstrologyWilliam Lilly

Taurus, the fixed earth sign, carries the throat, the voice and the pleasure of having and holding.

Source Christian AstrologyWilliam Lilly
Spring, Seasons

The Western tropical season carries the sign Taurus.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Taurus, one of the four fixed signs.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy
The Hierophant, Tarot

In the Golden Dawn Kabbalistic attribution, The Hierophant is assigned to Taurus by way of its Tree of Life path.

Classification

Fixed, Sign Modes

One of the four solid or fixed signs, held at the heart of a season.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy
Yin, Polarities

One of the six feminine or nocturnal signs, taken by the alternation that begins at Aries.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Contains

Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion

The Egyptian table divides Taurus into five terms of unequal width. This is the fifth of them, running from 27 to 30 degrees of the sign.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

The Egyptian table divides Taurus into five terms of unequal width. This is the first of them, running from 0 to 8 degrees of the sign.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

The Egyptian table divides Taurus into five terms of unequal width. This is the fourth of them, running from 22 to 27 degrees of the sign.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

The Egyptian table divides Taurus into five terms of unequal width. This is the second of them, running from 8 to 14 degrees of the sign.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

The Egyptian table divides Taurus into five terms of unequal width. This is the third of them, running from 14 to 22 degrees of the sign.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Corresponds To

Neck, Body Parts

Taurus governs the neck in the melothesia set out in Manilius's Astronomica and echoed in Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos.

Source AstronomicaMarcus Manilius

Originates in Language

Symbolized By

The symbol's own cited description identifies its glyph as that of this zodiac sign.

Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Sources
1. Tetrabiblos
Claudius Ptolemy, W. Foulsham, 1900Book I, ch. 10-12, on the equinoctial, solstitial, solid and bicorporeal signs
Quote, Book I, ch. 10-12, on the equinoctial, solstitial, solid and bicorporeal signs
Ptolemy reckons the signs from the equinoctial and solstitial points rather than from the fixed stars. This is why Western astrology is tropical, and why precession does not displace the signs on their own terms.
View the Source
2. Astronomica
Marcus Manilius, Harvard University Press, 1977View the Source
3. A History of Western Astrology
Nicholas Campion, Continuum, 2009vol. 1, on the formation of horoscopic astrology in Greco-Roman EgyptView the Source
4. The Heavenly Writing: Divination, Horoscopy, and Astronomy in Mesopotamian Culture
Francesca Rochberg, Cambridge University Press, 2004the Bull of Heaven in the Mesopotamian star listsView the Source
Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning
Richard Hinckley Allen, G. E. Stechert, 1899Taurus, the Hyades and the PleiadesView the Source

Take a Related Quiz

Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.