Taurus Emoji

The zodiac symbol for Taurus, the second astrological sign (April 20 – May 20). The glyph is a circle topped with curved horns, representing the head of a bull). Latin for "bull." Taurus is an earth sign ruled by Venus, which ties it to sensuality, comfort, money, food, and beauty.

In the stereotype, Taureans are reliable, patient, and deeply committed to their routines, which is a polite way of saying stubborn. They're the friend who refuses to try a new restaurant because the old one is fine. The sign's reputation online skews either "loyal partner who will actually remember your birthday" or "immovable rock who would rather die than change plans."

The constellation itself is ancient. Taurus dates to the Early Bronze Age), when it marked the sun's position at the spring equinox, and some researchers argue a 15,000-year-old cave painting at Lascaux already depicts it with the Pleiades drawn over the bull's back. If true, that makes Taurus one of humanity's oldest continuously recognized shapes in the sky.

♉ shows up in bios, birthday posts, and astrology content. People born April 20 through May 20 put it next to their usernames to signal zodiac identity, and it spikes every year during Taurus season. It pairs naturally with 🐂, 🌹, 💰, and 🍷 because the aesthetic is "slow luxury, sensory pleasure, refusing to be rushed."

On TikTok and Instagram, ♉ rides the broader astrology content boom. The Co-Star app grew from 7.5 million to 30 million users between 2020 and 2023, and a 2024 study found 63% of Gen Z say astrology has positively impacted their careers. Taurus content is specifically about stubbornness memes, food obsession, and "earth sign energy" bragging.

One real-world Taurus trigger: the Met Gala falls on the first Monday in May, smack in the middle of Taurus season. Astrology accounts love pointing this out because Taurus is ruled by Venus, the planet of beauty and luxury. A Venus-ruled, material-obsessed sign hosting fashion's most lavish night is on-brand to the point of parody.

Taurus is one of the oldest symbols humans have kept. The earliest candidate is the Hall of the Bulls at Lascaux, a cave painting roughly 15,000 to 17,000 years old that shows a long-horned bull with six dots arranged above its back. Researcher Michael Rappenglück argues those dots are the Pleiades and the bull is Taurus, which would make it the oldest star map on earth. Mainstream scholarship is cautious about the claim, but it's popular for a reason.

By the Bronze Age the identification was solid. In Babylonian astronomy the constellation was called GU4.AN.NA, "The Bull of Heaven," and this is the same bull that dies in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The goddess Ishtar (Sumerian Inanna), humiliated after Gilgamesh refuses her advances, demands the Bull of Heaven from her father Anu and sends it to destroy Uruk. Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill it together. Enkidu then hurls the bull's severed right thigh at Ishtar as a taunt. Assyriologists Jeremy Black and Anthony Green suggest this detail explains why the Taurus constellation appears to be missing its hindquarters in Greek depictions.

The Greek version replaces war with seduction. Zeus transforms into a magnificent white bull to abduct Europa, a Phoenician princess, carrying her across the sea to Crete where she becomes the namesake of Europe. That's why Taurus is typically drawn as just the front half of a bull emerging from water. Ancient Egyptians worshipped Apis), a living sacred bull with a sun disk between its horns, which also fed into the zodiac tradition.

The glyph itself, ♉, is late. It represents the bull's face and horns and became standardized with the Hellenistic astrological tradition around the 2nd century BCE.

1. -15000Hall of the Bulls at Lascaux: cave painting showing a bull with six dots (possibly the Pleiades) on its back, the oldest candidate for a Taurus depiction↗
2. -4000Spring equinox sun rises in Taurus, making it the most important constellation for ancient agricultural calendars across Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Levant
3. -2100Bull of Heaven appears in the Epic of Gilgamesh; Enkidu throws its thigh at Ishtar, explaining why the constellation is missing its hind quarters↗
4. -200Hellenistic astrologers standardize the bull's-head glyph ♉ that still appears on charts today
5. 1993Taurus symbol added to Unicode 1.1 as U+2649
6. 2015Included in Emoji 1.0, becoming standard across platforms↗

• •The Bull of Heaven in the Epic of Gilgamesh was the Taurus constellation. When Enkidu threw its severed thigh at the goddess Ishtar, Mesopotamian storytellers may have been explaining why Taurus appears to be missing its hindquarters in the sky.
• •The Hall of the Bulls at Lascaux shows a bull with six dots above its back. Researcher Michael Rappenglück argues those dots are the Pleiades star cluster, which would make the painting a 15,000-year-old star map.
• •Taurus contains Aldebaran, the "bull's eye," an orange giant star 65 light-years away. Its name comes from Arabic "al-dabarān," meaning "the follower," because it chases the Pleiades across the sky each night.
• •The astrology app market hit $4.75 billion in 2025, growing 20% year over year. Co-Star alone went from 7.5 million to 30 million users between 2020 and 2023, driving massive zodiac emoji usage.
• •Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has a tattoo of a bull on his bicep, explicitly because he's a Taurus (May 2). He's talked about his "Taurus roots" on social media multiple times.
• •Taurus is the only zodiac sign ruled by Venus that's masculine-coded in traditional astrology. Venus also rules Libra, but where Libra gets the social/aesthetic side, Taurus gets the sensual/material side.
• •The Met Gala (first Monday of May) has fallen inside Taurus season every single year since its founding. A Venus-ruled sign hosting the world's most lavish fashion event is either cosmic coincidence or proof astrology works.

• •The most common misread: using ♉ as a general "bull" or "beef" symbol. It's the zodiac sign, not a livestock emoji. For a real bull there's 🐂, and for the stock market there's the phrase "bull market" (no standard emoji for that).
• •Some people confuse ♉ with the male symbol ♂ or the ankh ☥ because of the circle-with-horns shape. The horns on Taurus curl up like actual bull horns; the male symbol has a straight arrow.

• •Adele (May 5, 1988): The textbook Taurus artist. Slow, deliberate album cycles (25, 30), perfectionist pace, emotionally anchored around home and heartbreak. Critics and fans both describe her as "grounded," which is the Taurus word for Taurus.
• •Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (May 2, 1972): Has a bull tattoo on his bicep and openly identifies with his Taurus sign on social media. Built an empire on discipline, routine, and stubborn refusal to skip leg day. Peak Taurus work ethic.
• •The Met Gala: Falls on the first Monday of May every year, landing in Taurus season. Taurus is ruled by Venus, the planet of beauty and luxury, so astrology accounts treat Met Monday as a Taurus high holiday.
• •Karl Marx (May 5, 1818): Born on the same day as Adele, which is funny and also the kind of coincidence astrology TikTok will run with. Immovable opinions, obsession with material conditions, famous for not budging: a very Taurus intellectual style.
• •"It's not stubborn, it's consistent": The most-posted Taurus meme format. Runs on TikTok, Tumblr, and Twitter throughout Taurus season. Usually paired with a photo of someone refusing to move off a couch.

• •U+2649U+2649. Part of Unicode 1.1 (1993), made emoji in Emoji 1.0 (2015). Same age as most of the other zodiac symbols.
• •Has both text (U+2649 U+FE0EU+2649 U+FE0E) and emoji (U+2649 U+FE0FU+2649 U+FE0F) presentation variants. Some platforms default to text-style glyphs on desktop and emoji-style on mobile.
• •Shortcode: :taurus::taurus: on Slack, Discord, and GitHub. No major name collision, the word "Taurus" is almost exclusively used for the zodiac sign, the constellation, or the Ford Taurus (discontinued in 2019).

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