The site already has an entry on the planet (Venus in astrology). The focus here is different: the 2026 retrograde cycle, not the general profile of the planet.
What is Venus retrograde?
In astrology, Venus is the planet associated with love, pleasure, beauty, bonds and values — what you desire and what you consider worth it. When a planet is said to be retrograde, it is not moving backwards in space. Seen from Earth, the apparent motion slows, stations and seems to retreat. That turning point is called the retrograde station. When it moves forward again, that is the direct station.
Venus retrograde is rare among the personal planets: it happens about once every eighteen months and lasts a little more than forty days. The traditional invitation is not “do nothing”. It is to review. Typical questions of the cycle: what I call love and what is only attachment; where I accept less than I deserve; which agreement, expense or vanity I keep up out of fear of losing.
In Scorpio, the tone goes deeper: intimacy, jealousy, secrecy, trust, power inside the relationship, desire that does not fit in a polite sentence. Scorpio does not ask for the surface. It asks for the truth.
A calendar caution, for anyone already working the Wheel of the Year in the Southern Hemisphere: Sabbats adapt to the local seasons. Planetary retrogrades do not flip by hemisphere. The date is the same in Brazil and in Europe, because it is a sky event as seen from Earth, not a seasonal festival.
This cycle (2026)
Dates in Brasília time:
- Retrograde station: 3 October 2026, in the early hours (around 4 a.m.), with Venus at about 8°29′ Scorpio.
- Re-entry into Libra: around 25 October. The tone changes: from what is intimate and true to what is fair and reciprocal.
- Direct station: the night of 13 November 2026 (the astronomical turn falls in the early hours of 14 November in UTC), with Venus at about 22°51′ Libra.
- The shadow opens weeks before the station and only closes in mid-December.
Other markers: New Moon in Libra (day 10); Venus–Pluto square (day 20); Sun in Scorpio (day 23) and the Sun–Venus inferior conjunction on day 24. On that same day 24, Mercury retrograde begins in Scorpio.
It is not a guarantee that the ex comes back, nor a ban on living. The useful question is: what do I truly want, and what no longer fits me.
Ritual notes
Materials: a pink, leaf-green or dark-red candle; copper (a coin, wire or bowl); a flower or petal; rose, benzoin or myrrh incense, a little, with the window open; paper and a pen; optionally a mirror, rose quartz, black tourmaline or obsidian; tea, water or a sweet sip.
Altar: the candle in the centre; on one side the bond (flower, copper, a photo of yourself — not of another person); on the other, the limit. This is not an altar to attract someone.
Care: no magic to bend another person’s will. Do not make an irreversible decision only because Venus is retrograde. Keep fire safe. Abuse, persecutory jealousy or a debt at risk need concrete help, not only the rite.
Step by step (25–40 min, alone)
- Prepare the space. Silence notifications. A short incense. Three breaths: I enter the time of Venus retrograde to see clearly, not to force anyone.
- Light the candle: Venus stations in Scorpio. I review desire, value and bond.
- Three questions: what I call love and what is, underneath, fear of being without; where reciprocity is missing; one limit to say out loud this fortnight.
- Mirror, if you use one: do I recognise myself in what I am accepting?
- Offering: read the sentences to the flame, keep the limit, tear up the fear sentence, offer a flower or a sweet sip.
- Libra gesture: I stay if… / I leave if… No threat.
- Close: give thanks, put out the candle, note what the body felt. The following Friday, reread only the limit.
Ten-minute version: a candle, three sentences, one read aloud, gratitude.
Quick answers
- Venus — planet of love, pleasure, beauty and personal values.
- Venus retrograde — a phase in which the apparent motion retreats; review bond and value, do not stop life.
- Retrograde station — 3 October 2026, in Scorpio.
- Direct station — the night of 13 November 2026 (early hours of the 14th in UTC), in Libra.
- Scorpio — intimacy, desire, trust, jealousy and transformation.
- Libra — partnership, justice, agreement and reciprocity; re-entry around 25 October.
- Shadow — the stretch of degrees before and after the retreat.
- Square — a tension of about 90°. On 20 October, Venus squares Pluto.
- Pluto — power, crisis and deep transformation.
- Inferior conjunction — the Sun with Venus retrograde; around 24 October.
- Mercury retrograde — another cycle, communication and contracts; 24 October in Scorpio. It is not Venus retrograde.
- Reciprocity — giving and receiving come into balance.
- Values — what is worthy of time, money and the body.
- Ethics of the rite — one’s own truth; do not manipulate another person’s affection.
May this Venus retrograde serve to name what is true desire and what was already a farewell — with calm, a limit and respect.