What the date fixes exactly
At noon in every year from 1930 to 2035, the Sun on 2 May sits between eleven point two and twelve point five degrees of Taurus. Rounded, that is twelve degrees, and the rounding costs almost nothing.
The steadiness comes from the leap cycle. A common year falls about a quarter of a day short of the Sun's circuit, so the position on a given date slides forward each year and a leap day pulls it back. Nothing accumulates, and the calendar and the orbit stay in step. The sun sign follows from that with no doubt attached, since the nearest boundary is more than a week away in either direction. There is no cusp to argue about and no time zone caveat to apply.
The decan, which most pages skip
Twelve degrees puts this birthday in the second decan of Taurus, the band from ten to twenty. That is the layer that distinguishes one Taurus birthday from another, and almost no birthday page mentions it.
The Chaldean order of faces, running Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter and repeating from the start of Aries, gives this band to the Moon. The triplicity scheme distributes the earth decans among Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn, so the middle one goes to Virgo. The tradition reads the Moon version as softening a fixed sign towards habit and comfort, and the Virgo version as sharpening it towards method. Both are interpretations laid over the same measured position.
Twelve degrees leaves plenty of room at either end of the band, so unlike a birthday at the edges of the sign this one does not need a calculation to place its decan. The calculation is still worth running for the degree itself.
What the date does not settle at all
The Moon travels about thirteen degrees a day and changes sign every two and a half days or so. A 2 May birth therefore has the Moon in one of two signs, occasionally three if a change falls near the ends of the day, and no amount of staring at the calendar narrows it further. The birth hour does.
The rising sign is entirely unconstrained. All twelve signs pass the eastern horizon in twenty four hours, at speeds that vary with latitude, so the Ascendant for this date could be any of them. In most reading traditions the Ascendant does more work than the Sun, which is a good reason to treat a sun sign as an opening fact rather than a conclusion.
Reading the sign without overreaching
Taurus is fixed earth ruled by Venus. The classical descriptions run to steadiness, attachment to the physical, and a strong dislike of being rushed. That is what the tradition attaches to the sign, and it is offered here as tradition rather than as a claim about anyone born on the date. Venus rulership in that older sense is about attachment and value rather than romance, which is a distinction most short descriptions lose.
The useful thing this page can give you instead is position. The widget above takes your birth year and birthplace, computes the exact solar longitude rather than a rounded one, and reports how far you were born from the nearest sign boundary. On this date that distance is comfortable, which is itself a checkable answer rather than a description you are asked to recognise in yourself.
Questions people ask about this
What sign is 2 May?
Taurus, without qualification. The Sun is about twelve degrees into the sign, well clear of the Aries boundary behind and the Gemini boundary ahead, in every year from 1930 to 2035.
What is the solar degree on 2 May?
Between roughly eleven and twelve and a half degrees of Taurus, depending on the year and hour. The widget above returns the precise figure for your own birth.
Which decan and which ruler?
The second decan of Taurus, ten to twenty degrees. The Chaldean order assigns it to the Moon, while the triplicity scheme assigns it to Virgo. Sources differ because the schemes differ.
Can I work out my Moon sign from the date?
Only to two possibilities. The Moon spends about two and a half days in a sign, so the birth hour is needed to decide between them.
Is the rising sign guessable without a birth time?
Not reliably. Some techniques narrow it using life details, but the date contributes nothing, and all twelve signs remain possible until the time and place are known.
Why does the degree hardly change from year to year?
Because leap years keep the calendar aligned with the orbit. The Sun slips about six hours further along each common year and a leap day pulls it back, so the drift never builds up.