Taurus Crystals

What crystals are best for Taurus?

Taurus is the second sign of the zodiac, an earth sign ruled by Venus, and those two facts predict the whole stone list. Earth pulls toward the tactile, slow-forming, hold-it-in-your-hand materials. Venus pulls toward pink and green.

1. Rose quartz. The Venus stone, and the largest group in this collection. Ours comes from Brazil, Madagascar and Namibia. The Namibian rough tends to run a deeper, dustier pink, the Brazilian lighter and more translucent, so it's worth looking at both before deciding what you like.
2. Emerald. Green beryl, and the birthstone for most of Taurus season. We carry it in matrix, still sitting in the host rock it grew in, which is a very different object from a cut gem.
3. Rhodonite. Pink with black manganese veining running through it, from Zimbabwe. It polishes to a high shine and it's the second largest group here.
4. Carnelian. The warm end of the earth element. Orange through deep red, and a stone that has been worn as jewelry for at least five thousand years.
5. Green aventurine. Quartz flecked with fuchsite, which is what gives it the faint sparkle when you turn it toward a light.
6. Tiger eye. Golden brown with a band of light that moves across the surface as you tilt it, from South Africa.

What is the Taurus birthstone?

Taurus runs from roughly April 20 to May 20, so it straddles two birthstone months, and that's why you'll see conflicting answers.

• May, which covers most of the sign, is emerald. That's the modern birthstone list, and it's the answer most people are looking for.
• April is diamond, which applies only to the first ten or so days of Taurus.
• Traditional zodiac lists more often name sapphire for Taurus, which is a separate tradition from the birth-month lists and predates them.

If you're buying a gift and the birthday falls in the last third of April, it's worth checking that specific year, since the boundary shifts by a day either way.

Taurus crystals to avoid

Nothing is off-limits, and no stone is going to disagree with anyone's chart. But this question gets asked constantly, so here's what people mean by it.

The usual advice is to go carefully with the fast, disruptive, high-intensity stones, moldavite being the one always named, on the reasoning that Taurus's whole strength is steadiness and those stones work against it. Malachite and some of the more intense reds come up for the same reason.

Two practical notes matter more than the astrological ones. Rhodonite sits at 5.5 to 6.5 on the Mohs scale, soft enough that it will pick up scratches if you carry it loose alongside quartz. And malachite is a copper carbonate that should be kept dry and never put in water you plan to drink.

As it happens we don't carry moldavite at all, for reasons that have nothing to do with astrology. You can read why on our sourcing standards page.

Taurus and the heart chakra

Rose quartz, rhodonite and green aventurine all sit in the heart chakra collection too, which is why so many people search these two together. If you want the fuller earth-element pairing, root chakra covers the carnelian and tiger eye end.

Buying a Taurus birthday gift

Taurus season peaks in spring, and a few things are worth knowing before you pick.

• Tumbled and polished pieces travel better than raw specimens, which can chip at the corners in transit or in a bag.
• Rose quartz at 7 and carnelian at 6.5 to 7 handle daily carrying. Rhodonite is better on a desk than in a pocket.
• Taurus is the sign most associated with liking beautiful things for their own sake. A piece someone enjoys looking at will get picked up. A piece that only matches a chart usually won't.