The fall and winter of 2026 are complicated.
Colored
by Venus's retrograde in Scorpio (and then Libra) - this will be Venus's
final Venus Starpoint in Scorpio in our lifetime. And I think Mars journey
is the key to understanding what Venus is doing.
The deepest business of this Venus retrograde feels less
like the more standard Venusian questions of “who and what do I love/want now?” and more like - what did I learn I had to do in
order to be loved, safe, chosen, valued or allowed to belong and am I still
willing to pay that price? And then the retrograde asks us to stop
paying it.
Venus begins her retrograde shadow - walking the degrees she/we will re-walk two more times - in her home sign of Libra. Strong here,
but maybe also doing the kind of stuff she does to partner/stay partnered or to
stay in balance. Likely the ways she has been doing it for a very long time. She moves
into Scorpio and starts answering to Mars in Cancer. This is a remarkably
intimate beginning. Venus - the principle of attraction, relationship,
pleasure, value and self-worth - goes down into Scorpio, and the person she has
to answer to (Scorpio's ancient ruler) is Mars sitting in Cancer
answering to the Moon - the space of mother, family, childhood, home,
belonging, protection, memory and emotional survival. Mars has been in Cancer since the
middle of August, but this somehow feels like forever.
With that Mars in Cancer dispositor-ship Venus's first
question probably isn't going to be - what do I
want? It is deeper than this and more rooted in the
past/Cancer. "What do I need to feel safe? or What did I learn to want in order to feel safe? Or maybe
- what did I learn to give away in order to keep the peace at home?"
There is a connection, maybe, to the MATERNAL ECONOMY we inherited - if I am good/loving, useful/quiet,
generous/needed, I will be safe here. And keep in mind Venus is still
direct in September, but she/we - are already walking through the
degrees we will later retrace. This is the excavation before the
excavation. We're encountering the territory in ordinary life before Venus
turns around and pulls us underneath it.
Then Mars leaves Cancer for Leo. The Sun's sign. We go from "How do I protect belonging?" to "How do I become somebody?" That is always part of the Cancer to Leo story. Leo is ruled by the Sun. Mars no longer answers to the Moon and the family system. Now he answers to the sovereign self. Am I allowed to take up space simply because I exist, Mars in Leo asks, which is very different from Cancer's question of - will I still belong if I take up space? We learned to secure love through accommodation - yes, probably we all did. What happens when we stop accommodating and simply become visible?
On October 3rd, Venus in Scorpio will station
retrograde just as Mars in Leo reaches his square to Pluto in Aquarius. So, we
have the modern and ancient rulers of Scorpio in this space of
tension/frustration - the sovereign self/the way we shine vs the collective future - just
as Venus pulls us underneath the story. This should be interesting! Venus in Scorpio is intense, and her rulers are fighting - power struggles, jealousy, compulsion, obsession.
What happens when the part of us that has been performing
goodness, generosity, loyalty or accommodation discovers that it is freaking
furious?
Mars in Leo says - I want to matter.
Pluto in Aquarius says - you don't get to be sovereign
simply by demanding the throne.
And Venus in Scorpio says - fine, then let's find out
what the throne was built on.
That is potentially EXPLOSIVE. Something that has been
manageable becomes impossible to un-know.
Then on October 10th, Venus retrograde is going to
square Mars. And keep in mind Venus is retrograde in Scorpio, answering to Mars
in Leo. But Mars is answering to the Sun in Libra. And the Sun in Libra answers
right back to Venus. So we get this closed loop around which this Venus
retrograde is tied. Venus/what do I value? Mars/what do I want? Sun/who am I?
And Libra - where the Sun is hanging out - asks how do I remain myself while I
am in relationship with YOU? BUT the opposition isn't just a conflict between
two people because Venus is retrograde - this is all about US.
Venus isn't asking how to make this work. She is asking
HERSELF - why have I been making this work this way?? Note - this day is very
important, so PAY ATTENTION. This is a time when we are reclaiming territory
that was surrendered gradually - so everything matters. Again, PAY
ATTENTION to what is coming up/happening now. There is something here about the
actual cost of belonging.
Then we get to October 23rd, and Venus is right in the heart of the Sun and here is what this retrograde is about for us. This is the heart of the underworld journey. This is the REBIRTH. Venus has gone backward into the darkness to meet the Sun. And this is the final Venus/Sun star point in Scorpio for roughly a century! What can we now see that we could not see when we were still trying to preserve the old arrangement? This isn't necessarily the moment something happens. It can be the moment the truth becomes available. And then Mercury turns retrograde in Scorpio only hours later. The conversation changes course.
And even more than that the meaning changes
course. Something we thought was about them becomes about us. Something
we thought was a current problem reveals itself as an old pattern. Something we
thought we had forgiven reveals itself as something we merely stopped talking
about.
Then on October 25th, Venus backs into Libra. Venus has regained jurisdiction. She gets to ask her OWN QUESTIONS. And she has a lot of them.
Who knows what the other person needs without being told? Who is expected to know? Who has learned to ask for less? Who stopped asking altogether? Who has been calling it generosity when it was actually fear? Who has been calling it compromise when it was actually surrender? Who gets to have needs without becoming 'difficult'? Who is keeping this relationship alive? And what happens if they stop? Who checks in first? Who remembers the birthday? Who remembers the appointment? Who makes the reservation? Who makes the plan? Who changes the plan? Who waits? Who gets waited for? Who drives? Who comes to you? Who makes the effort to stay in touch? Who keeps the relationship alive? Who notices when something is wrong? Who asks what happened? Who gets asked? Who gets forgiven? Who has to explain? Who gets the benefit of the doubt? Who gets to be tired? Who gets to say no? Who gets to change their mind? Who gets accommodated? Who accommodates? Who keeps the peace? Who breaks the peace? Who cleans up afterward? Who starts the hard conversation? Who ends it? Who gets heard? Who gets interrupted? Who gets the last word? Who gets to be angry? Who has to make the anger palatable? Who is expected to understand? Who is expected to forgive? Who is expected to forget? Who gets thanked? Who gets rescued? Who does the rescuing? Who gets to fall apart? Who holds everyone else together? Who is always available? Who is never available? Who makes room? Who takes up the room? Who gets invited? Who does the inviting? Who is expected to show up? Who actually shows up? Who gets chosen? Who does the choosing?
Whew! That was crazy
and weird and the longest paragraph/thought-stream ever that blogger is telling me contains no typos, and I am not sure it
actually counts as a paragraph since it's really just a long list of questions.
My brain is mush. My hand is cramped. My elbow hurts. If I smoked, I would
need a cigarette right about now or to roll over and go to sleep :) Note - my
natal Venus is at 29 degrees Sagittarius, so ... I am often arriving at (relationally)
something like, "let's not get bogged down in this". And then Venus
retrograde in Scorpio/Libra says - No. We are absolutely getting bogged
down in this :)
Who would notice if I stopped doing the thing I have always done? (yes, more questions, sorry!) Because that gets right into the invisible labor that maybe Venus has been circling for years. Sometimes we don't discover the imbalance by confronting anyone. We discover it by removing ourselves and seeing what the hell no longer happens. And maybe the most Scorpio question of all, although we are in Libra at this point - what am I giving that nobody actually asked me to give? And what am I getting that I haven't even noticed/appreciated?
Then what else is happening? Venus is going to clash
with Chiron AGAIN on October 28th. The first time Chiron was in Taurus, that was back on September 10th (that was the day with the gazillion aspects and transits) and now Chiron is retrograde in Aries. So, we move from - what am I worth - to
- who am I allowed to be? Or better said - who do I become when I am
partnered with someone else? Do I disappear into the relationship? Do I
become indispensable? Do I become agreeable? Do I become smaller? Do I become
the person who is easiest to love? WTH, yes, more questions!
And I almost forgot Venus and the North Node (and the
South Node and Mars). Because among all this Scorpio excavation and Libra
accounting/tallying up what's FAIR, Venus reaches toward the North Node.
"Where the hell is the relationship in which I don't have to negotiate my
existence?"
The North Node doesn't necessarily promise more people,
but it does point toward a different relational possibility. Maybe with people who meet us halfway and places where we can be ourselves. Is this AI relationships? Please God NO! Relationships where we don't
have to shrink to maintain membership and also where we don't have to run
everything. And really this is us changing so we no longer think/feel we have to. Take
over or shrink, I mean. And once we think we don't, well, WE DON'T.
Another thing the North Node in Aquarius can be talking about in relation to Libra is what our connections to other people bring us because Aquarius is the natural ruler of our collective 11th house and the 11th house is what comes after the 10th house where we are most visible, find our careers and public reputations. The 11th house is what we GAIN from this. It's the house that holds the life built from the 10th. Connections, allies, peripheral pluses and accumulations, opportunities that come from earned (also patriarchal) circumstances. The whole Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon thing. It's likely with Venus back and forth through Libra and making multiple smooth trines to the North Node in Aquarius some of this type of stuff will be happening. FALLING INTO PLACE.
The South Node is also in play BIG TIME this fall/winter because Mars - a major player in the Venus retrograde - is going to hit the South Node in Leo at almost precisely the same time Jupiter does. Jupiter reaches the South Node. Mars follows. Then Jupiter and Mars meet there. And the Sun in Scorpio is squaring the whole thing. This is around the middle of November. And remember where this started. Mars entered Leo triggering situations that conspire to have us asking ourselves and taking action around - "Do I matter?" Now Mars meets the South Node. Which connects to old projects, and our children/what we have birthed, romances, the ways we have SHINED.
And the South Node, like an overflowing trash bin is what needs some emptying. But perhaps the thing being emptied isn't shininess/visibility itself. It's the OLD METHOD OF OBTAINING VISIBILITY.
The need to be applauded. The need to prove importance. The need to be the exceptional one. The need to win recognition. The need to perform a role in order to receive love. Jupiter can enlarge whatever is already there, while Mars can activate it. So there may be a great deal of “Look at me!” energy around this point in time, but the South Node/that overflowing galactic trash bin (not the best analogy or really even a good one, but all I have left after that head-draining list of questions) asks us - YES AND THEN WHAT?
Because the North Node - which is where we are actually going - is elsewhere. The future isn't about becoming more impressive. It's about becoming more connected without surrendering our individuality.
As a kind of side-note to this Venus retrograde, Mars is going to start walking his own 'shadow degrees' starting November 5th when he will hit 20 degrees-Leo - and this is very, very tightly conjunct the Solar Eclipse degree we had back on August 12th. His actual retrograde will be January 10th, 2027 - April 1st, 2027 - but with the shadows will cover now until early June. This will be Leo back to Virgo. This will be another mega-important and rare retrograde ...
Then on November 13th, BOTH Venus and Mercury are going to station direct. Venus will be back at 22-degrees Libra (22 degrees of the cardinal signs especially are MEGA powerful, so are the 21's but in a different way) where she first was on August 31st/September 1st. NOW WE HAVE TO WALK THE SAME ROAD AGAIN, but this time consciously. By December 4th, Venus (as us) will be back in Scorpio.
The retrograde isn't necessarily designed to produce an event. It is designed to change our relationship to the event before it arrives. So, when Venus finally walks forward through the degrees, the external world can catch up with an internal reality that has already SHIFTED. I hope I am making sense.
On December 9th - Venus will square off with Pluto for the last time. The first square September 15th said - look at this. The retrograde square on October 18th said - go into this. And now the final square says - what has changed. This is not three separate events. Even if it looks like it is. This is one story told three times or in three different ways. And December 15, is when Venus finally clears the retrograde territory and gets back to 8-degrees Scorpio where she stationed retrograde on October 3rd.
BOTTOM LINE - Venus starts in Scorpio asking what has been hidden. But the thing she discovers isn't necessarily a secret about someone else although it might look like this at first. It is often a secret about the bargain we ourselves made. I will be lovable if… I will belong if… I will be safe if… I will be chosen if… I won't be abandoned if… And the retrograde asks - What taught me that bargain? What did it protect me from? What did it cost me? Do I still need it?
Cancer - keep belonging
Leo - be somebody
Scorpio - find the hidden price
Libra - count the cost
Chiron in Aries opposite Venus/Libra retro - become yourself inside relationship
North Node - find relationships that can accommodate the real you
South Node Leo - release the performance required to be seen
Scorpio AGAIN - now live differently with what you know
And maybe the deepest Scorpio/Libra sentence of all is something like - I can love you/this without making myself the price of the relationship. That, to me, because this is only one set of eyes looking at this, so keep that in mind, is the nuts-and-bolts business underneath all the archetypes and patterns of this Venus retro - renegotiating emotional labor, money, sex, intimacy, reciprocity, caregiving, time, attention, loyalty, domestic roles, public roles, boundaries, apologies, expectations and the often invisible contracts that tell us who is supposed to give what to whom. And mystically, Venus is taking us into the underworld to retrieve the part of ourselves we once traded away for belonging.
That feels like the real story. And it's a very, very old one (almost certainly older than the life we have had in this body).
I hope something here is helpful.
xo all
And I think I should add that with Scorpio (and the South Node backing echoing this) this Venus retrograde will include LOSSES.
There is something that we have that we don't get to keep. Venus in Scorpio doesn't really do clean, voluntary de-cluttering. She uncovers the attachment and then asks us if we can keep it without continuing to pay for it. And sometimes the answer is no.
And that's where I think Jupiter and Mars meeting the South Node in Leo squaring the Sun in Scorpio becomes so important because Leo is telling us that we need this to prove that we matter, and maybe Mars will be telling us to fight for it. But the South Node there says that this is precisely what we are being asked to put down. Yes, it was once valuable. The thing we are losing really did matter. We may genuinely still love it. We may genuinely wish we could keep it. And Scorpio doesn't ask us to pretend otherwise. Sometimes we don't release something because we've stopped loving it. We release it because loving it has begun to cost us too much. And the North Node is telling us there is somewhere else to belong.
And when Venus gets back into Libra and does her tallying up what she is really figuring out is what is actually worth keeping because Scorpio doesn't say "lose everything" it's just showing us that we need to stop paying for what we already paid for ...
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