The star sign Taurus

Taurus is the second sign of the zodiac, from 21 April to about 20 May.

The classification

• Element: earth — cold and dry, on the side of matter
• Mode: fixed — in the middle of the season, holding it
• Ruler: Venus
• Exaltation: the Moon, at three degrees
• Detriment: Mars · Fall: none

Venus as ruler and the Moon in exaltation: two moist, receptive factors in a dry, retentive sign. The picture follows from that better than from any description — something that enjoys and keeps.

That Mars is in detriment here is part of it: what separates and what hurries have a hard time in a sign whose business is preservation.

What has been handed down

Steadiness, a feel for the tangible, patience, a capacity for enjoyment — and the other side: immobility, possessiveness, trouble with change and with letting go.

The assignment to the neck and the throat belongs to the oldest layer of astrology (see melothesia) and explains the link with voice and taste that turns up in many accounts.

The Moon's exaltation at three degrees

A detail that popular accounts always leave out and that counts in practice: exaltations have a degree. The Moon is exalted in Taurus, but most strongly on the third degree. A Moon at three degrees of Taurus stands differently from one at 28 — both are exalted, the first one exactly so.

The sun sign alone

It is the position of one planet out of seven. The ascendant and the houses belong with it — and Venus, ruler of this sign, stands somewhere else for every Taurus. What the sign can do at all depends on her condition.

See also: all twelve signs, the planets.