Venus Retrograde 2026: What Is the Source of Your Power?

Venus is preparing to retrograde through Scorpio and Libra on October 3rd to November 13th, inviting us into a descent beneath the surface of our desires.

Venus is the planet of love, beauty, pleasure, relationship, money, values and self-worth. She speaks to what we are drawn toward, what we find beautiful, what we value… and what we believe makes us valuable.

And when Venus turns retrograde, these themes turn inward. This is an invitation to become more honest about what our desires are illuminating within us. Sometimes the object of our desire isn’t the only thing we are seeking.  At times, we’ve unconsciously made it evidence that we are loveable, desirable or worthy.

Retrograding through Scorpio and Libra, this Venus retrograde asks: What is the source of your power? And are the mirrors in your life reflective of the truth that lives within?

What is a retrograde?

Despite the name, a planet doesn't actually suddenly begin travelling backward through space when it retrogrades. It’s simply that, from our perspective on Earth, it appears to reverse direction because of the changing relationship between our orbit and the orbit of the planet. Because astrology is Earth-centric, and the way the planets’ energy affects us is dependent on what we perceive from our position in the solar system. So, astrologically, retrogrades symbolize a period of return, review and reflection.

During these times, we retrace our steps, revisit what we thought we understood, and encounter old stories from a new perspective. The energy of the planet retrograding turns inward. With Venus, our attention turns toward our relationship with love, desire, pleasure, beauty, money, values, relationships and worth.

Who is Venus?

The glyph for Venus (♀) is interpreted symbolically as a circle of spirit resting above the cross of matter. This quite literally translates into: bringing what we value into form. Our inner values become reflected through the relationships we choose, the things we create, the ways we express ourselves, what we spend our resources on, what we find beautiful and what we allow ourselves to receive or manifest.

Venus takes her name from the Roman goddess of love, beauty and desire. We find similar archetypal threads in the Greek Aphrodite and, much earlier, in the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna. It is Inanna's story that is particularly resonant during Venus retrograde.

The descent of Inanna

In the ancient myth The Descent of Inanna, the Queen of Heaven chooses to descend into the underworld, ruled by her sister Ereshkigal. To enter, she must pass through seven gates, and at each gate, she is asked to remove something. Her crown, jewelry, breastplate, ring, her symbols of authority and her clothing. Piece by piece, Inanna is stripped of the adornments and symbols that identify her as Queen of Heaven until she enters the underworld as nothing.

This feels deeply aligned with Venus beginning her retrograde in Scorpio, because Scorpio takes us beneath appearances. Scorpio wants the soul’s truth… and with Venus here, she takes us into the tangled places where desire meets attachment, sexuality, intimacy, vulnerability, control and power. She asks: Who are you beneath everything you've learned to use as evidence of your worth?

Venus retrograde 2026: What is the source of your power?

As I was tuning into the energy of this retrograde, I pulled a card that spoke about the symbolism of hair and asked the question: What is the source of your power?

Across various mythologies and cultures, hair emerges as an emblem of the psyche and an extension of the soul. It represents who we are and where we come from, and can often be a sign of strength, vitality and self expression. Yet our ideas about hair, particularly for women, have become entangled with the gaze of others.

Long, luxurious locks can genuinely be something you love and cultivate because it’s representative of who you are inside.  However, it can also exist within a culture that has taught women what we’re supposed to look like in order to be desirable, feminine or lovable.

Both things can be true… so the question really is: If nobody were looking, would I still choose this?

Of course, you can see how this question extends far beyond hair… If nobody admired or coveted your body, how would you inhabit it and treat it? If nobody saw your work, what would you still want to create? If nobody was impressed by your achievements, what would success mean to you? If nobody chose you, could you still choose yourself? Not because external validation is inherently bad.  We are relational beings; of course it feels good to be seen, appreciated, desired and loved. But there is a difference between allowing someone to reflect something back to us and giving them the power to determine whether it exists.

Venus retrograde in Scorpio: what lives beneath the desire?

Scorpio asks us to dive beneath the surface. So instead of only asking: What do you desire? This energy asks: Why do you desire it? What do you imagine you will feel when you receive it? What would having it prove? And perhaps most revealingly: What have you decided not having it means about you? Maybe you desire a relationship, but somewhere underneath that desire lives the belief: If someone chooses you, that proves you are loveable or worthy. Maybe you desire abundance, believing that if you earn enough, that proves you are worthy.

The desire itself isn't the problem… but our desires can become powerful mirrors for the places where we've outsourced our worth.  And Scorpio isn’t afraid of letting us see where we’ve done that.

Venus Retrograde + the Mars–Pluto T-Square

Venus will start her 2026 retrograde in a tense aspect to both Mars + Pluto in an aspect called a T-square. As Mars in Leo opposes Pluto in Aquarius, Venus in Scorpio forms a tense square to both planets.

An opposition creates the central axis of tension: two planets facing one another from opposite sides of the zodiac (Mars + Pluto) and then a third planet (Venus) makes a tense square aspect to both ends of the opposition.

Venus’ position is at the apex; the point where the tension of the opposition becomes concentrated and demands expression. So Venus in Scorpio themes become the focus and we may find ourselves drawn deeply inward, questioning where our power lives.

Ironically, both Mars and Pluto rule the planet Scorpio - so the energy of Venus at this time cannot be channeled without tuning into their archetypes. Mars is our will, instinct and the courage to go after our desires. Pluto brings us into much deeper territory: power, control, compulsion, shadow, transformation, death and rebirth; including the unconscious places where we give our power away or attempt to gain power through something outside ourselves.

Across the Leo–Aquarius axis, this opposition brings another layer into the conversation. Leo is concerned with the individual self: my heart, my creativity, my expression, my desire to shine and be seen. Aquarius turns toward the collective: the group, the audience, society, culture and the systems we exist within. So there is a tension here around self-expression and the collective gaze. Who am I when I'm being witnessed? And, what happens when my desire to be seen becomes dependent on how I am received?

With Venus at the apex, questions of power and will become inseparable from questions of value and desire. What do I want? Why do I want it? What am I willing to do to receive it? What power have I given the object of my desire? What have I decided its presence (or absence) says about me?

This is where Venus in Scorpio takes us beneath appearances… Maybe I don't simply want the beautiful body, successful business, money, attention or external marker of achievement. Maybe somewhere underneath it lives the belief: When I finally have this, I will know that I am enough. And that is a very different relationship to desire. Because the moment something outside of us becomes responsible for proving our worth, we have given it power.

In a T-square, the point opposite the apex is the release point, because a planet there would make the configuration a grand cross and balance the energy.  So this brings us to the missing energy in this T-square… Taurus. And Taurus is the other planet ruled by Venus. Because after all of this intensity; Scorpio digging beneath the surface, Pluto confronting us with power, Mars activating desire, Leo asking to be witnessed, Aquarius bringing in the collective gaze… Taurus offers something remarkably simple: Come back to what is here now. To your body. Your breath. Your senses. To what you can touch, taste, smell and feel.  Notice the simple beauty around you. 

Because Taurus asks us to embody value rather than chase proof of it. And this is where astrology almost eerily echoes the card I pulled while sitting with this retrograde energy… Where have you located your power in relation to what you desire? Is your power sourced from within; from your body, your values, your relationship with yourself, your capacity to choose? Or have you placed it somewhere outside of you? In someone's gaze, in being chosen, being desired, in your appearance, money, or achievements? Have you placed your worth in the future version of yourself you imagine you'll finally be able to love?

Taurus doesn't ask us to stop wanting any of those things, just to stop abandoning the present version of ourselves in pursuit of them. So, return to your body, your heart, and to what is here now. Yes, things outside of us may reflect our value, pleasure, beauty or power back to us… but they are not the source of it.

From Scorpio back into Libra

Venus will retrograde from Scorpio back into Libra on October 25th, one of the signs she traditionally rules. Scorpio may bring us beneath the desire, but Libra brings us to the mirror. Relationship, the other, our relating patterns, the gaze, comparison, reciprocity, being witnessed and being chosen.

Libra asks us to notice who we become in relationship with other people… Where do you compromise yourself to remain connected? Where do you perform or edit yourself? Where are you looking in someone else's gaze to tell you that you’re beautiful, lovable or worthy? Where have you projected your own power onto another person?

Sometimes another human being sees something in us that we couldn't yet see ourselves - and that’s one of the gifts of a relationship. But we need to learn to receive the reflection without confusing the mirror for the source of truth.

From Power to the Wound Beneath It

As Venus returns to Libra, she shifts the focus from what lies beneath our desires to what happens when those desires meet the mirror of relationship. As she steps back through Libra, Venus almost immediately opposes Chiron in Aries. Chiron is associated with the wounds that may never simply disappear, but that can become places of profound awareness, healing and wisdom.

Across the Aries–Libra axis, the attention is drawn to the axis of self and the other.

Aries asks: Who am I? What do I want? Can I choose myself? Can I trust my own instincts and desires? Libra asks: Who am I in relationship with you? How do we meet? How do I love and remain connected without abandoning myself?

So this opposition may reveal some of the pain that lives underneath everything the earlier T-square has already brought to the surface. Because if Venus retrograde in Scorpio asks us to notice where we've outsourced our power, Venus opposite Chiron illuminates: Why did we learn to outsource it in the first place? Maybe beneath the need to be chosen is an old wound around not feeling chosen. Beneath the need to be desired is a part of us that learned to question whether we were desirable. Beneath the need for approval is a fear that being fully ourselves might cost us belonging. Beneath people-pleasing or shape-shifting in relationship may be the belief that connection requires us to compromise some essential part of ourselves.

This doesn't mean that needing other people is a wound… Libra reminds us that we are relational beings. We need mirrors, intimacy, and to be witnessed, loved and met. The invitation isn't to become so self-contained that nobody else's love matters. It's to notice the difference between receiving love from another person and requiring their love to establish our worth.

So this Venus retrograde isn't only about taking our power back… It's about becoming curious about the wound that made giving it away feel necessary in the first place. Where did I learn that I needed to be beautiful to be loved? Where did I learn that being wanted meant I was worthy? Where did I learn to measure myself through somebody else's eyes? And can I meet those places now without making them evidence that there is something wrong with me? Because healing the Aries–Libra axis isn't about choosing self or relationship, but learning how to remain ourselves within relationship.

Look back to 2018 + 2010

Venus returns through a retrograde in the same sign roughly every eight years. The last Venus retrogrades through Scorpio and Libra occurred in fall of 2018 and fall of 2010.

So before trying to predict what this retrograde will bring, look backward. Who were you in the fall of 2018? Who were you in the fall of 2010? What was happening in your relationships? What did you desire? What made you feel worthy?

And then come back to now. What do you desire in 2026? Who is the person doing the desiring now? Eight years can change us profoundly. Maybe the desire remains… but your relationship to it doesn't have to.

Working with Venus retrograde

With so much of this retrograde asking us to examine desire, relationship, worth and power, it would be easy to turn it into another problem to solve with the mind. But the missing point of that T-square is Taurus… so the invitation is to come back into the body. So the invitation is to come back to what feels nourishing, pleasurable and beautiful without needing anyone else to witness it.

Venus is associated with the heart chakra; the energetic centre connected with love, relationship, compassion, receptivity and our capacity to give and receive. We can become so focused on whether love is coming toward us that we forget to notice our relationship with the heart it is arriving into. Can I receive love without needing it to prove that I am lovable? Can I experience beauty without comparing myself to it? Can I remain open-hearted without abandoning my boundaries?

Rose + rose quartz

Rose can be a beautiful Venusian ally for this work; associated for centuries with love and beauty, while carrying its own reminder that softness and protection can coexist. The rose opens and also has thorns for protection. An open heart does not require the absence of boundaries.

You might work with rose as tea (find it in our Libra + Taurus Lunar Teas), place petals on an altar, add them to a bath, use rose oil, or simply spend time with the flower itself.

Rose quartz crystal can offer another physical symbol for this practice. Traditionally associated in contemporary crystal traditions with love, tenderness and the heart, you might hold a piece over your heart during meditation or simply keep one somewhere you'll see it as a reminder: My heart can remain open without making someone else's gaze the source of my worth.

Cacao + the heart

Cacao is another plant ally I associate with Venus (and my favourite ceremonial cacao is Seed of Love); sensual, pleasurable, heart-centred and deeply connected to our capacity to receive. Cacao offers a beautiful invitation to move those questions out of the mind and into the heart. Rather than trying to think your way into believing you are worthy, make yourself a cup of cacao and let the experience itself become part of the practice.

So, make yourself a cup. Hold it close. Feel its warmth. Smell it. Taste it. Let this be a Taurus practice in itself: returning to your senses and to what is happening now. Place one hand over your heart and another over your belly. And ask: What do I desire? Where do I feel that desire in my body? What do I believe receiving it would mean about me? What have I made its absence mean about me? Where have I outsourced my worth? What is the source of my power?

Embodying the balance

You can also work with these themes through movement and yoga poses that physically explore balance, grounding, openness and self-support:

Tree Pose (Vrksasana): Rather than trying to become perfectly still, notice all of the tiny movements your body makes to keep bringing you back toward the centre.

Mountain Pose (Tadasana): Feet rooted into the earth. Weight distributed through your own foundation. Nothing to perform or prove.

Goddess Pose (Utkata Konasana): Feet rooted, pelvis grounded, heart lifted. A shape that can invite you to experience power not as dominance, but as something embodied.

Simply lying over a bolster with the chest open: instead of thinking open your heart, try asking, Can I remain open without reaching? Can I receive it without grasping? Can I soften without collapsing? Can I open without abandoning myself?

Desire is not the enemy

I don’t think that the invitation of this Venus retrograde is becoming indifferent to our desires.  It isn’t to convince ourselves that we don’t need anyone or anything outside of ourselves. And it’s definitely not becoming so fiercely independent that needing, loving, wanting or receiving are seen as weaknesses.

Instead, the invitation is to untangle our desire from our worth. To let the things we want reveal us to ourselves without allowing their presence or absence to define us.

To descend beneath the adornments, the mirrors, the achievements, the attention and the stories we've collected about who we need to be. To come back into the body, into the heart, the present, and into a relationship with the self who exists before anyone chooses her.

Because the mirror may reflect your beauty back to you… but it was never the source of it.

P.S. If this retrograde is illuminating something personal for you, a Cosmic Weather Forecast gives us space to look at where Venus is moving through your chart and the larger story unfolding through your current transits.