Venus Retrograde 2026: Dates, Shadow Period, All 12 Signs

Venus stations retrograde on Saturday, October 3, 2026, at 3:16 AM Eastern (07:16 UT), standing at 8°29’ Scorpio. It turns direct on Friday, November 13 at 7:28 PM Eastern, at 22°52’ Libra. That is about 41 days of backward motion, and the only Venus retrograde of 2026. Every date and degree on this page comes from a Swiss Ephemeris calculation, not a recycled calendar.

Venus is the planet of love, relationships, money and what you value. When it turns retrograde, those subjects stop pushing forward and come back up for a second look. People from the past, old prices and old promises tend to resurface, asking for a second answer. Below you’ll find the exact timing, the stretch of sky involved, and where it falls for your sign.

When is Venus retrograde in 2026? Every date in one place

	UT	US Eastern	Degree
Pre-shadow begins	Aug 31, ~15:00	Aug 31	22°52’ Libra
Venus stations retrograde	Oct 3, 07:16	Sat Oct 3, 3:16 AM	8°29’ Scorpio
Venus meets the Sun (midpoint)	Oct 24, 03:44	Fri Oct 23, 11:44 PM	0°45’ Scorpio
Mercury stations retrograde	Oct 24, 07:13	Sat Oct 24, 3:13 AM	20°58’ Scorpio
Venus backs into Libra	Oct 25, 09:10	Sun Oct 25, 5:10 AM	Scorpio to Libra
Mercury stations direct	Nov 13, 15:54	Fri Nov 13, 10:54 AM	5°02’ Scorpio
Venus stations direct	Nov 14, 00:28	Fri Nov 13, 7:28 PM	22°52’ Libra
Post-shadow ends	Dec 15, ~18:00	Dec 15	8°29’ Scorpio

Eastern times are daylight time until November 1 and standard time after. On the West Coast, the retrograde station falls at 12:16 AM Pacific on October 3, and the direct station at 4:28 PM Pacific on November 13.

One date trips people up. Venus turns direct at 00:28 UT on November 14. Anywhere in the Americas, that moment lands on the evening of Friday, November 13. In the UK, Europe and Asia it is already Saturday the 14th. It’s one moment with two calendar dates, so a calendar showing either is right for its own time zone.

What does Venus retrograde mean?

Venus rules what you are drawn to: the people you love, the money you spend and keep, and the standards behind both, meaning what you think is worth it. While Venus moves forward, those areas move with it. New attractions, new purchases, new agreements.

The retrograde turns that around. The tradition reads these weeks as a season for reviewing and reopening, not starting, and three themes tend to come up:

• People come back into view. An old flame, a friendship that went quiet, a relationship you thought was settled. Whether they turn up in person or only in your thoughts, the subject reopens.
• Prices get a second look. What you pay, what you charge, what something is worth to you. Spending you did on autopilot tends to look different on the second pass.
• Promises get re-read. The terms of a relationship, a shared money arrangement, a commitment made in a hurry. Underneath sits one question: does the deal still match what you value now?

So the traditional guidance favors finishing over launching. Hold the brand-new commitment, the dramatic makeover and the big luxury purchase until Venus is moving forward again, and use the weeks to settle what is already open. Treat it as a scheduled second draft rather than a stop sign.

Why Venus appears to move backward

No planet reverses. Retrograde is a viewing angle.

Venus orbits closer to the Sun than Earth does, and faster. About every year and a half it catches up with us and passes between Earth and the Sun, and while it laps us on that inside track it appears to slide backward against the stars. A Venus retrograde runs about six weeks.

The midpoint has a visible marker. On the night of October 23 (Eastern), Venus lines up with the Sun on the near side, at 0°45’ Scorpio. Astronomers call this the inferior conjunction. Venus has been the bright evening star after sunset; around this date it drops into the Sun’s glare and leaves the evening sky, later rising again before dawn as the morning star. Astrologers read that switch as the turning point of the whole retrograde, where one Venus chapter closes and the next begins.

The Venus retrograde 2026 shadow period

The retrograde lasts 41 days, but the stretch of sky it covers stays in play for over three months.

Venus first crossed 22°52’ Libra moving forward around August 31. It carried on to 8°29’ Scorpio, turns back there on October 3, and retraces the same ground until it stops at 22°52’ Libra on November 13. Then it walks forward over it a third time, finally clearing 8°29’ Scorpio around December 15.

That gives the band from 22°52’ Libra to 8°29’ Scorpio, 15°37’ of the zodiac, three passes: forward, backward, forward. The first pass is the pre-shadow and the last is the post-shadow. Read it as one story told three times. Whatever began stirring in love or money from late August is a natural candidate for October’s review, and it tends to settle as Venus clears the band in mid-December.

Venus retrograde in Scorpio and Libra

Is this retrograde in Scorpio or Libra? Both, in two halves.

October 3 to 24: Scorpio. Venus backs from 8°29’ Scorpio toward the start of the sign. Scorpio’s register is depth, trust, intimacy and money held jointly. Questions in this stretch tend to run below the surface: who you trust, what you share, what you have kept to yourself.

October 25 to November 13: Libra. Venus crosses back into Libra early on October 25 and finishes its retreat at 22°52’. Libra is one of the two signs Venus rules, so here the planet is on home ground. The themes turn to partnership, fairness and the terms of an agreement, and whether the give and take in a relationship still balances.

After the direct station, Venus walks forward through late Libra and back into Scorpio. That is the post-shadow pass described above.

Venus and Mercury retrograde together in 2026

For the second half of the Venus retrograde, Mercury joins in. Mercury stations retrograde at 3:13 AM Eastern on October 24, at 20°58’ Scorpio, about three and a half hours after Venus meets the Sun. It retreats to 5°02’ Scorpio and turns direct at 10:54 AM Eastern on November 13. The whole Mercury retrograde stays inside Scorpio.

Venus covers what you value. Mercury covers words, messages and paperwork. With both moving backward, the overlap from October 24 to November 13 is when conversations about love and money tend to reopen, and agreements about either get read a second time. The Mercury retrograde guide covers the Mercury side in detail.

November 13 is a double station. Mercury turns direct that morning and Venus turns direct that evening, on the same calendar day in the Americas. A station is the moment a planet sits nearly still before changing direction, and the tradition gives station degrees extra weight. Two in one day make November 13 the date to circle: the point where both reviews stop running backward.

The 8-year echo: think back to October 2018

Venus traces nearly the same pattern in the sky every eight years. The five retrogrades inside each eight-year loop fall at five points around the zodiac, and joining those points draws a five-pointed star, which is why astrologers call it the Venus pentagram. The upshot for you: this retrograde has a twin.

	2018	2026
Stations retrograde	October 5, 2018 at 10°50’ Scorpio	October 3, 2026 at 8°29’ Scorpio
Stations direct	November 16, 2018 at 25°14’ Libra	November 13, 2026 at 22°52’ Libra

Same season, same two signs, degrees within about two and a half. The tradition reads an eight-year Venus repeat as the same subject coming round again, with eight years more experience behind it.

So try this. Think back to October and November 2018. Who was in your life then? What were you spending on or saving for, and what were you deciding about a relationship? The themes that surfaced then are a good first guess at what this retrograde reopens. You are not reliving 2018. You are giving the same question a second answer from further down the road.

Venus retrograde 2026 for all 12 signs

Each sign below is counted from the sun sign, using whole-sign houses, where the sign Venus occupies becomes one house of your chart. The first room is where the Scorpio half lands (October 3 to 24). The second is where the Libra half lands (October 25 to November 13).

If you know your rising sign, read that entry too, because counting from the rising sign is the sharper map. The exact house depends on your birth time and place, the two facts that set the twelve houses of your chart.

Aries: 8th house, then 7th

The retrograde opens in your house of shared money and trust: joint accounts, debts, what you owe and are owed, and how much of yourself you let someone see. Once Venus backs into Libra it moves into your partnership house, and the spotlight turns to the partner directly. An old agreement, financial or personal, tends to come up for new terms.

Taurus: 7th house, then 6th

Venus rules your sign, so its retrograde reaches you more personally than most. It first reverses through your relationship house, putting partners, close collaborators and the terms between you under review. In the Libra half it moves to your house of daily routine and health habits, and the scrutiny falls on how you spend ordinary days and what you put up with in them.

Gemini: 6th house, then 5th

First comes your working life at its most everyday: habits, schedules, the systems you run on without thinking. Then the retrograde moves into romance, creative work and play. An abandoned creative project or an old attraction is the classic thing to resurface here.

Cancer: 5th house, then 4th

Romance and creative work open this one: what you make, who you flirt with, what you do for the pleasure of it. After the 25th the attention moves home, to the house itself, the people under its roof, and any family arrangement around money that needs another conversation.

Leo: 4th house, then 3rd

Home sits at the start of yours: where you live, what it costs, how it feels to walk back into. The Libra half shifts the focus to conversations, messages and siblings. A talk you left unfinished, often with someone close by, has a way of picking up again.

Virgo: 3rd house, then 2nd

The opening stretch runs through your house of words and messages: what you said, what you held back, and the people you talk to every day. Then it moves to income and what you value, prompting a second look at what you earn, what you charge and where it goes. Mercury, your ruling planet, is retrograde too from October 24, so the second half carries double weight for you.

Libra: 2nd house, then 1st

Venus is your ruling planet, and it finishes its retreat in your own sign. The Scorpio half runs through your money house: income, possessions, and what you will and won’t pay for. When it crosses into Libra on the 25th it reaches your 1st house, and the review turns to you: your image, your style, how you come across. The traditional advice to hold the dramatic makeover until after November 13 applies to you first.

Scorpio: 1st house, then 12th

The retrograde opens in your own sign: self-image, how you come across, what you want from the people around you. Mercury’s retrograde from October 24 also runs entirely through Scorpio. Once Venus leaves your sign it backs into your 12th house, the private, behind-the-scenes part of the chart, and the focus turns inward: feelings you haven’t voiced, attachments you keep out of view.

Sagittarius: 12th house, then 11th

Your first half runs through the 12th house, the private and behind-the-scenes, so it starts in what you think about rather than what you say. From October 25 it moves into your house of friends and groups, where a friendship or a circle you drifted away from tends to reappear.

Capricorn: 11th house, then 10th

Friends and networks first: who you spend your time with, which groups still fit. In the Libra half it moves to career and reputation. An old professional contact, a past offer, or the question of what your work is worth gets reopened.

Aquarius: 10th house, then 9th

Career opens this one: your public role, your standing, a working relationship with someone senior. After the 25th the focus moves to travel, study and belief, so a trip you shelved or a course you half finished is likely to resurface.

Pisces: 9th house, then 8th

You start with the far view: travel, study, what you believe. Then Venus backs into your house of shared money and trust, where joint finances, debts and the deeper bonds come up for another look. If someone owes you, or you owe them, this is the stretch when that conversation tends to reopen.

Same weekend: Jupiter reaches the eclipse degree

The day Venus stations, October 3, Jupiter reaches 20°02’ Leo, the exact degree of the total solar eclipse of August 12. If the eclipse fell on something in your chart, the area it lit up in August gets a return visit from the traditional planet of growth that same weekend. Two separate threads land together: Venus turning back, and Jupiter arriving at the eclipse point.

How to find where Venus retrograde lands for you

Three steps:

1. Cast your chart from your birth date, exact birth time and birth place. The time sets your houses, and the houses are the whole question here.
2. Find which house holds 22° Libra to 8° Scorpio. Because the band crosses a sign boundary, it often spans two houses, which is the split the sign list above approximates.
3. Check for anything of yours inside the band. A planet, your Ascendant (the rising degree), your Midheaven (the top of the chart). Watch most closely anything near the two station degrees, 8°29’ Scorpio and 22°52’ Libra, where Venus lingers longest.

In MysticAlmanac, your chart is cast from your exact birth details with every placement given to the degree, so you can see straight away which of your houses holds this band and whether Venus is about to sit on something of yours.

Saturn retrograde is still running underneath all of this in early Aries until December 11, so this autumn carries two reviews at once, on two different clocks. Venus has the shorter one. Use the six weeks to answer what it reopens, and give those answers until mid-December to settle.