Venus in motion
Venus retrograde: dates and a new perspective.
She is not going away. She is coming between us and the Sun.
About every nineteen months, Venus appears to slow, stop, and travel backward across the sky for around six weeks. You may have been told to brace for it. Not here.
Nothing is reversing. Venus orbits inside the Earth’s orbit and moves faster than the Earth, so every so often she catches up with us and overtakes us on the inside, passing between the Earth and the Sun. While she overtakes, she appears to slide backward against the stars, and from here that looks like retreat. It is the opposite. This is the nearest she comes to us in her whole cycle.
So the question this page holds is not what will happen to you. It is what you will look at again while she is this close.
The dates of this passage
Four moments, all of them calculated, none of them predictions. She begins this passage in Scorpio and walks back into Libra.
- 3 October 2026She slows to a stop and turns
- 24 October 2026She passes between us and the Sun
- 14 November 2026She stops again and turns forward
- 15 December 2026She returns to where she began
She walks back across 16° of sky, and takes 42 days to do it.
Dates are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Where you live, a moment close to midnight can fall on the day before or the day after.
The key moments, in UTC and US Eastern time
Venus first reaches the degree she will later return to. The review quietly begins.
Aug 31, 2026 UTC · Aug 31, 2026 ET (to the hour)
Venus stations retrograde.
Oct 3, 2026, 7:15 AM UTC · Oct 3, 2026, 3:15 AM ET
The inferior conjunction: Venus passes between Earth and the Sun, the heart of the passage.
Oct 24, 2026 UTC · Oct 23, 2026 ET (to the hour)
Venus moves back into Libra.
Oct 25, 2026, 9:09 AM UTC · Oct 25, 2026, 5:09 AM ET
Venus stations direct.
Nov 14, 2026, 12:28 AM UTC · Nov 13, 2026, 7:28 PM ET
Venus is back at the degree where the retrograde began. The shadow closes.
Dec 15, 2026 UTC · Dec 15, 2026 ET (to the hour)
Why two dates for the direct station? It is one moment. In UTC, and in European time, it falls on Nov 14, 2026. In New York it is still the evening of Nov 13, 2026. Calendars written in UTC say one day, American calendars the other.
Venus retrograde cycles, past and future
| Retrograde | Signs | Shadow |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 4, 2017 to Apr 15, 2017 | Aries to Pisces | Jan 30, 2017 to May 18, 2017 |
| Oct 5, 2018 to Nov 16, 2018 | Scorpio to Libra | Sep 3, 2018 to Dec 18, 2018 |
| May 13, 2020 to Jun 25, 2020 | Gemini | Apr 9, 2020 to Jul 29, 2020 |
| Dec 19, 2021 to Jan 29, 2022 | Capricorn | Nov 17, 2021 to Mar 2, 2022 |
| Jul 23, 2023 to Sep 4, 2023 | Leo | Jun 19, 2023 to Oct 7, 2023 |
| Mar 2, 2025 to Apr 13, 2025 | Aries to Pisces | Jan 28, 2025 to May 16, 2025 |
| Oct 3, 2026 to Nov 14, 2026now | Scorpio to Libra | Aug 31, 2026 to Dec 15, 2026 |
| May 10, 2028 to Jun 22, 2028 | Gemini | Apr 7, 2028 to Jul 26, 2028 |
| Dec 16, 2029 to Jan 26, 2030 | Capricorn | Nov 15, 2029 to Feb 27, 2030 |
| Jul 20, 2031 to Sep 1, 2031 | Leo | Jun 16, 2031 to Oct 5, 2031 |
| Feb 27, 2033 to Apr 10, 2033 | Aries to Pisces | Jan 26, 2033 to May 13, 2033 |
Someone from the past on your mind?
A retrograde is when old attractions ask to be looked at again. See what draws you to them, and what you need to feel safe with them, from your birth date and theirs.
See how your Venus and Moon meet theirsThe Complete Daily Love Report, for this passage
Today’s Complete Daily Love Report by email: where Venus and the Moon are, and the question they raise for your heart. Free.
In the sky
What actually happens in the sky
Backward is a trick of where we stand
Picture two runners on a circular track. The one on the inside lane is faster, and every so often catches up with the one outside and passes. Watched from the outer lane, against the far side of the stadium, the inside runner seems for a moment to drift the wrong way, although both are still running forward.
Venus does the same thing, on a scale of weeks instead of seconds. She travels on the inside ring, closer to the Sun and faster than the Earth. When she overtakes us on the inside, she appears to go the other way against the stars for a while.
The apparent motion is real as an appearance and false as an event. Both halves of that sentence matter. Something genuinely is happening in the sky, and it is not happening to you.
She goes back over ground she has already covered
Venus does not wander off into new sky during a retrograde. She retraces a stretch she has already crossed, the same degrees, in the other direction.
The closest point is the middle, not the end
Halfway through the passage, Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun, usually a little above or below the Sun as we see it. Astronomers call it the inferior conjunction. At no other point in her cycle is she nearer to us, and at the same time she is lost in the Sun’s glare, hard to see at all.
The reflection
A new perspective for these weeks
A second pass is a rereading
This is the part worth sitting with. You have already lived the weeks she is walking back through. Whatever was happening in your life then, she is passing over it a second time, and a second pass is not a repetition. It is a rereading.
Think of opening a message you sent weeks ago and seeing what you were actually asking for underneath the words you used. Nothing in the message changed. You did.
Nearest and least visible
Nearest and least visible, at the same instant. That pairing is the whole shape of this passage, and you do not need any astrology to find it useful.
The thing closest to your heart during these weeks may be the thing you can describe least well. Not because it is hidden from you. Because you are standing inside it.
This is a review, not a verdict
Retrograde has a reputation it did not earn. It is not a season to avoid decisions, cancel plans, or treat your own life as a hazard. Nothing in the sky can decide anything for you.
What it offers is a slower angle on things you may have decided quickly: what you find beautiful, what you are drawn to, what you accept, what you call enough. Those answers were formed sometime, often early, often by someone else. They are allowed to be looked at again.
And then she turns forward. She always does, on a schedule you can calculate to the minute, which is more than most things in a life offer.
One thing to actually do
Tonight, before you sleep, find one thing you said yes to in the last two months that you would not say yes to now. Do not undo it. Do not tell anyone. Write it on paper, put your hand flat over the words, and read it back once.
That is the whole practice. You are the source of love here. Venus is only the mirror, and for these few weeks she is holding it closer than usual.
Bring the question into today
Complete Daily Love Report is a shared daily reflection on Venus, the Moon and the lunar phase, with one question to carry into your day. To read today’s Venus beside your own birth chart, the Natal Love Reports begin with a free one.
Frequently asked questions
Should I avoid making decisions during Venus retrograde?
No. LoveSigns does not read the sky as a set of instructions, and no position of any planet removes your judgment or your agency. What this passage suits is looking again at decisions already made, particularly the ones made quickly.
Is Venus actually moving backward?
No. Venus continues her orbit unchanged. She travels inside the Earth’s orbit and faster, and when she overtakes the Earth on the inside, the change in our line of sight makes her appear to travel backward against the stars for several weeks. The appearance is real; the reversal is not.
Why do people say retrograde is a bad time for love?
Because Venus is associated with attraction and worth, and anything associated with those gets treated as a risk. The association is old and the fear is not required by it. The same passage reads perfectly well as a review of what you find beautiful and what you accept.
How often does Venus go retrograde?
About once every nineteen months, for roughly six weeks. That means Venus is retrograde only about 7 percent of the time.
What happens after she turns forward again?
She crosses the same stretch of sky a third time, forward, and returns to the degree where she first stopped. That closing passage is on the dates above. Many people find it the quietest and most useful part.
Text last edited . Sky dates calculated with the Swiss Ephemeris.