The wise are able to learn from everything around them, even if there are no books or teachers. Nature is our teacher, and we learn from her cycles by observation.
Ancient astronomers and astrologers have done just that and seen a pattern in the cycles of the planets in the solar system around us.
One such cycle that has been observed by the ancient Maya civilization, as well as the medieval and even more ancient astronomers and priests, is that of the planet Venus.
Venus Retrograde 2026 We are about to enter this year's Venus retrograde phase, which occurs from October 3 until November 13 2026. I've done some research and found some interesting info on the myth and legend of this Venus retrograde theme, which I present here. My opinion is that correlation is not causation, yet these planets have gravitational affect.
The Maya of Central America used the Venus cycle in their mythology as a central theme upon which their entire calendar is built. The ancient medieval and classical and Arabic astrologers also built a mythology around Venus, quite different from the Maya, who were at a different time and place in history.
Thus, my conclusion is that the cycle exists, yet - as with all religions - we place our subjective interpretation upon grand natural cosmic cycles and events. We give them meaning according to our circumstance and ability to measure or feel their effect on our lives.
The Gods, like Venus or Mars, are archetypes; the planets and their gravity are real, and their dance is measurable and predictable like clockwork.
Astrological symbolic themes This year's Venus retrograde travels between 22° Libra and 8° Scorpio in the Western our tropical zodiac system.
Venus retrograde encourages introspection about your love life and the things you value. Venus is the goddess associated with love and art, (yet also war in some myths). Your love life may be affected by fated events and karmic encounters.
Venus retrograde 2026 is favorable for self-love, intimate relationships, making friends and dating. But globally, it portends war and chaos, according to some astrologers.
Transiting Venus retrograde occurs every 19 months for six weeks (42 days). This means Venus retrogrades only 7% of the time, the least amount of any planet. Mars is retrograde 9% of the time, followed by Mercury at 19%. Therefore, Venus retrograde is the most potent of all planetary retrogrades.
Venus also disappears for 8-10 days when it passes directly between Earth and the Sun (the inferior conjunction). Its unlit side faces us, and the Sun’s glare makes it invisible. Venus then reappears, changing from the evening star to the morning star.
2026 Event and Degree Aug 31 Venus enters retrograde zone 22♎51 Oct 03 Venus stations retrograde 08♏29 Oct 19 Last day evening visibility 03♏23 Oct 24 Sun conjunct Venus ℞ 00♏45 Oct 29 First day morning visibility 27♎36 Nov 14 Venus stations direct 22♎51 Dec 15 Venus leaves retrograde zone 08♏29
Venus retrograde can make giving and receiving love and affection more difficult. It encourages introspection about your love life and the things you value. You may become interested in someone or something of value that would please you.
During this fated period for love, old friends or lovers may reappear, or you may relive past life experiences to sort out karmic issues. Destiny encounters and feelings of inevitability or familiarity are possible. You could even meet your soulmate.
Use Venus retrograde 2026 to feel better about yourself and love yourself more. Think about what truly pleases you. Discovering the reasons behind relationship problems can help you clear away the past and make room for new relationships. Even reminiscing about old partners will help to remove your karmic baggage and lighten the load.
Venus retrograde has traditionally been seen as unfortunate for love and not the best time to marry, invest or buy luxury items. However, each retrograde phase is different, and much depends on Venus retrograde aspects in your chart.
Venus Retrograde: Astronomy, Myth, and the Descent Below the Sun
The astronomy
Venus's synodic cycle is about 584 days. Its retrograde lasts roughly 40 to 43 days, about 7% of the cycle, as you say. Retrograde motion is apparent: it's an effect of Earth and Venus overtaking each other on their orbits.
The cycle has a clear shape:
- Superior conjunction: Venus passes behind the Sun and is invisible for weeks.
- Evening star (about 8-9 months): Venus climbs higher in the western dusk sky and reaches its greatest brightness.
- Station retrograde: Venus appears to slow, turn, and sink back toward the Sun.
- Inferior conjunction: Venus passes between Earth and Sun, at the midpoint of the retrograde, and vanishes for about 8 days.
- Morning star (about 8-9 months): Venus reappears in the pre-dawn sky.
Venus's inferior conjunctions also trace a pentagram across the zodiac. Five conjunctions fall in eight years, roughly 72° apart, and the ratio 8:5 is close to the golden ratio. Astrologers such as Arielle Guttman and Nick Dagan Best call these "Venus Star Points." Ancient Mesoamerican, Mesopotamian, and Greek sky-watchers seem to have noticed the pattern.
The mythology of the two stars
The Greeks gave the evening star and morning star different names, Hesperos and Phosphoros ("light-bringer"; in Latin, Lucifer). Tradition credits Pythagoras or Parmenides with recognizing that they were one body. Many cultures saw this doubling as sacred.
Inanna/Ishtar is the central myth. The Sumerian goddess of love and war descends through seven gates into the underworld, ruled by her sister Ereshkigal. At each gate she surrenders a piece of her adornment, until she arrives naked and is killed. Her body hangs on a hook for three days, then she is revived and returns. Many scholars link this to Venus's brief disappearance at inferior conjunction, though the connection is interpretive. The Babylonian Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa records these disappearances. Mesopotamian tradition also split her nature: the evening star was Ishtar of love, and the morning star was Ishtar of war.
Quetzalcoatl in Aztec tradition descends to Mictlan, the underworld, gathers the bones of the dead, and rises as the morning star. Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, the "Lord of the Dawn," is his radiant aspect. The Maya tracked the cycle carefully in the Dresden Codex, and appear to have timed rituals and warfare to Venus's appearances.
Other echoes include the dying-and-rising motifs of Persephone and Adonis. In Christian symbolism, Christ is called the "bright morning star" (Revelation 22:16), and Lucifer, the fallen light-bringer, comes from the same star through a different story.
What astrologers say
Modern Western astrology treats Venus as the planet of love, values, beauty, money, and self-worth. A retrograde is a time to revisit rather than initiate. The common themes:
- Old lovers, or old wounds, resurface.
- People reassess relationships, spending, and what they truly value.
- Aesthetic and financial decisions are second-guessed.
- Traditional electional advice is to avoid weddings, major cosmetic changes, and big purchases, and to review and repair instead.
The sign matters. Venus retrograde in Scorpio (as in 2026) turns toward power, jealousy, and intimacy. The next one, in summer 2027 in Leo, should center on pride, creative self-expression, and being seen. I'd verify exact dates closer to the time.
Because Venus rules Taurus and Libra, some astrologers read the two zodiac signs of each retrograde as a story about the relationship between "what I have" (Taurus) and "how I relate" (Libra).
Medieval and traditional astrology viewed this period differently. Venus was the "lesser benefic," cool and moist, a planet of harmony, and it was strong at night. The traditional authors (Ptolemy, Dorotheus, Abu Ma'shar, Bonatti, Lilly) counted retrograde motion as an accidental weakness, since the planet is moving backward against the natural order of the signs. In horary, a retrograde Venus suggests reversals, things returning, matters undone, or a person changing their mind.
They also paid attention to a planet's position relative to the Sun. When Venus is close to the Sun it is "under the beams" or combust, weakened and hidden. But at the exact degree of conjunction, a planet is cazimi, "in the heart of the Sun." Then it is considered strengthened and enthroned. Venus retrograde has its inferior conjunction here, which fits the mythic pattern of death and resurrection at the moment of deepest darkness.
The alchemical reading
Venus corresponds to copper, and to green, the color of verdigris and living things. The alchemical operations were a sequence of transformations: nigredo (blackening, putrefaction), albedo (whitening), citrinitas, rubedo (reddening). Modern writers often map Venus's inferior conjunction onto the nigredo/mortificatio phase. The evening star's brilliance is spent, the goddess is stripped of her adornments, and something dissolves so that a new value can emerge. The reappearance as morning star corresponds to the albedo, the dawn after the dark night. Note that this mapping is interpretive and comes from modern esoteric authors, not from classical alchemical texts. Venus's five-petaled rose and pentagram also carry the Hermetic idea of "as above, so below," and the golden-ratio geometry appealed to Pythagorean and Renaissance thinkers.
The psychological and esoteric meaning
Depth-psychological readers, following Jung, treat the descent as an introversion of libido. The outer pursuit of pleasure, attraction, and approval pauses so that the psyche can reckon with its own underworld. Demetra George has written on the Inanna parallel. The themes people name:
- Shedding the adornments. What are you when you stop performing attractiveness, worth, or charm?
- Ereshkigal, the shadow sister. Confronting the grief, need, and rage you have exiled from the "pleasant" self.
- Revaluing. Venus is fundamentally about what we value. The retrograde asks whether those values are yours or inherited.
- Coniunctio. Venus meeting the Sun is a sacred marriage of heart and will, of what you love and who you are becoming.
- Rebirth as morning star. You return with a different way of loving and valuing, sometimes bolder and more assertive, as in the warrior aspect of the morning Ishtar.
Astronomically, nothing physical happens to Earth during a Venus retrograde. The tradition is best understood as a symbolic and contemplative framework, a way of using a real, rhythmic, visible sky cycle to prompt reflection. Many people find that valuable, but it stands on meaning, not on measurable causation.
References: https://astrologyking.com/venus-retrograde/
Claude AI chatbot used for research in this post.
Image: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/ai-generated-woman-venus-planets-8892855/
