When transit Venus turns retrograde (illustrated with The Star Cards above), we are ALL asked to turn inward, especially when it comes to what Venus wants and needs to express This has been on my mind a whole bunch recently since the transit Venus retrograde period will happen in transit from October 3, 2026 through November 13, 2026 in Scorpio & Libra. First, before diving in, here are some dates for ya:

The energy of the planet is turned inward when any planet goes retrograde…meaning it needs to be fleshed out by the individual internally & personally before it “should” be expressed outward (and I put “should” in quotes because obviously y’all can all do whatever the fuck you want). This usually involves a lot of “re” words coming up. Some possible things & themes that might come up for the individual & collective while transit Venus retrograde is going on in the sky:

• re-evaluating your values & self-value
• revising what you love and expressions of love (what you need and what you give)
• reassessing what comfort is for you
• reflecting on your relationships
• rebuilding your resources

You could rearrange (hahaha) any of the combinations above, but basically you’re looking at some kind of “re” word meeting up with a thing (or things) that Venus wants to express.

Transit Venus Retrograde in Scorpio

Values ARE MAJOR themes of this part of transit Venus retrograde. Venus wants to express values anyway, and Scorpio energy express itself in shared values (and even values that are those of other people). Going inward to re-evaluate the values that you have and to purge yourself of those that are actually other people’s (that don’t resonate with you). We all have this or do this to a certain extent (some more than others) – we think that a certain value is something that is ours, or that we share this value with someone else, but when we go inward and consider this value (or these values – might be more than just one value!), we find that we don’t actually hold this as a value at all. Instead, we might find that it has been conditioned or passed down to us (both are VERY Scorpio in nature) and that value isn’t even ours in the first place. To add on to this is the concept of self-value (SUPER important to go inward and consider while Venus is retrograde). Do you feel that you deeply value your own personal self-value & self-worth? It could be that you find some previous held values need to be purged so you can have a greater sense of self-value.

There is a caveat to all of the above: just because you find that you value something or don’t value something or whatever the case may be, that doesn’t mean that everyone has to follow suit or agree with you (just because someone doesn’t value what you value doesn’t mean that they are devaluing you). I bring this up because Venus retrograde can bring up some values which are different from that of other people (and, thus, perhaps not valued by other people in the way you value them). Trying to overpower other people to value what you value, etc. usually doesn’t end well.

Another of the most important things to think about under the course of transit Venus retrograde in Scorpio is what helps you feel comfortable, stable, secure, and safe (all four are things that Venus wants to express since it’s the planetary ruler of Taurus). Now, just because you think about what is needed to feel comfortable, secure, stable, and safe doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s FOUND while Venus Rx is in Scorpio because Scorpio energy doesn’t express itself in ANY of those ways (it’s far too tumultuous for any of that). If you feel like things aren’t as secure and stable as they usually are (maybe feeling like you just aren’t on the most solid of footing whether you usually feel like you’re on solid footing or not, or just feeling chronically uncomfortable), it’s probably the influence of transit Venus retrograde in Scorpio. What you CAN do with this energy is get down to the psychology of why you don’t feel comfortable, secure, and/or stable….so that you can try and get yourself on stable footing and feel more comfortable once this transit ends (just being real here – if this transit impacts you in this particular way, you’re probably not going to find that stable footing until after it’s passed).
The safety piece of this one is very important. Obviously, if you don’t feel safe during Venus Rx in Scorpio, this would not be something to just “wait out.” This feeling would be one to “fix” sooner than later (or whatever is in your power to do about this feeling coming up).

While transit Venus is retrograde in Scorpio, this is a REALLY great time to get in touch with your own personal desires (especially those that you have denied yourself for whatever reason in the past). Whether I’d advise someone to actually go after them depends on what the desires are (not all desires are unilaterally “good” lol). Whether they are desires that are “good” or not isn’t really the point – it’s more about where they stem from in the first place and the (psychological) reasons for why they exist.

Themes of power (empowerment and disempowerment) and transformation are bound to come up while transit Venus retrograde is going on in Scorpio. Are you comfortable with the transformation going on in your life under this transit (I would guess that the answer is “no” for a lot of you)? Do the values you have empower or disempower you, and/or do the values of other people empower or disempower you? If the answer to a question like that is “disempowerment,” then you know there is (probably) something to do about that.

Transit Venus Retrograde in Libra

This period of transit Venus retrograde in Libra feels like the one that is most likely to impact close one-on-one relationships. When I use the term “relationships,” I’m NOT just talking about romantic relationships; Libra energy and Venus tend to get discussed as romantic relationships and only those kinds of relationships more often than not. While associating both energies with romantic relationships isn’t wrong, these aren’t the only close one-on-one relationships that a person can have. It’s during this period that people may come into your life, you may find yourself in situations, etc. that cause you to reflect on the relationships you currently have in your life and the role that you play in them. Themes from relationships (both current relationships and past relationships) may re-emerge, as if popping up from the dead to say “surprise bitch, bet you thought you saw the last of me.”

It’s even possible during this period – especially since transit Mercury will also be Rx during this time – that people from the past try and come back. Now, this is a more dramatic manifestation of transit Venus retrograde at the same time as transit Mercury retrograde (and certainly won’t be the case for everyone lol) but it still needs to be mentioned here. Keep in mind that YOU could end up being the person coming back from the dead in this situation if you are the one to reach out – no one ever seems to consider that 🤣.

Diplomacy & fairness are also expressions of Venus energy and one of the ways that Libra energy might express itself. This doesn’t ALWAYS equate to actual fairness and diplomacy, though. While transit Venus retrograde is in Libra, going inward to ask yourself if you’re actually being fair and diplomatic is very important – both to yourself and to anyone that you might be in ANY kind of relationship. Best to start with yourself first due to the inward nature of retrogrades – questions like “am I being fair to myself?” and “is (insert person, place, thing, situation) being fair to me?”

Venus and Libra energy express things like balance and the lack of balance. While transit Venus retrograde is happening in Libra, it’s great to take an inward approach to the notions of balance and imbalance, and ask yourself the question “do I feel like a balanced person?” For some of you, the answer might surprise you. Keep in mind that you can’t expect other people to make things balanced for you (ideally this needs to come from within you; waiting on someone or something else to help you with this will probably only disappoint you).

Fashion, art, and aesthetics are definitely Venus-coded, so it could be that during transit Venus retrograde in Libra you feel called back to different art, fashion, and other aesthetics that tie to the past (whether that’s YOUR past and/or just the past in general). Maybe you go back to different fashion choices from previous eras of your life, or maybe you get really into some kind of fashion or aesthetic from a decade that has long passed. Same thing could be said about art – Venus is very artistic as is Libra energy, and this could correlate to you going back to creating art (any kind of art) that you used to create. This is actually one of the more “fun” manifestations of this transit and one I’d fully encourage you to go to fucking town as you explore.

Retrograde planets function differently than direct planets – this is their inherent nature. Direct planets quite literally turn the energy OUTWARD, whereas Rx energy turns that planetary energy INWARD. Retrograde planets are a piece of the astrological make-up of people for which I will “ride at dawn” (most people will have at least ONE planet Rx somewhere in their astrology chart). So much so, I recently had a friend of mine mention that I should “market” myself as a “retrograde expert” or “retrograde queen.” Now, anyone who has followed any of my work over the years knows I very rarely consider myself an expert of anything 😂 (and I’m shit at marketing myself 🤣) but! I DEFINITELY know MORE than a thing or two about retrograde planets. Through the process of cleaning up of my website, I realized that a post on retrograde motion in general was lacking, so here we are.

WTF are Retrograde planets in the first place?!

The planets don’t actually turn retrograde, or move backwards, in the sky. What we call retrograde motion is actually apparent retrograde motion….which is when a planet appears to go in the opposite direction from that of other celestial bodies in the same system. Whether you view a planet as retrograde or direct (aka “prograde”) depends on the person’s vantage point (in our case, the vantage point from Earth). So, a planet that appears to go retrograde from the vantage point of the Earth may not appear to go retrograde from the vantage point of Mars (and the same thing could be said about direct or prograde motion).

How does a planet appear to be retrograde (the “mechanics”)?

All of the planets orbit in the same direction around the Sun, but they all orbit at different rates. For instance, Mercury makes it’s way around the Sun every 88-days, whereas it takes the Earth 365-days to go around the Sun, all the way to Pluto which takes roughly 248-years go around the Sun. So, when Mercury in orbit catches up to the Earth, and then “passes” the Earth, Mercury appears to slow down (and even stop or “station” – blog post on that here) and move backwards. Same thing for when the Earth catches up to, and “passes” the planets Mars through Pluto which have a slower orbit than the Earth. Except in those cases, the Earth is the one passing by those planets.

WTF is with Rx being used when talking about retrograde planets?!

I have no idea who the fuck actually started referring to retrograde planets as Rx. Really, it seems that in Medieval Europe many different astrologers referred to retrograde planets with an R and then a slash through the leg of the R rather than this being attributed to one singular old dickhead. What’s interesting is that even though they seemed to have a much gloomier delineation of retrograde planets (gaaaah they were, overall, SO negative about them), the Rx symbol for retrograde DOES look VERY similar to the Rx symbol used in medicine for prescriptions. Knowing what I know about most of the Medievals and how they felt about retrograde planets, it’s rather ironic that they would give retrograde planets this shorthand.
…maybe the old dickheads didn’t like medicine 😆

The retrograde periods of a planet ARE like a prescription medication though, and medicine goes INWARD into a person. Whether a medication is ingested or placed topically on the skin, it does SOMETHING to the internal processes of the body (the Rx symbol comes from the Latin word recipe which means “to take” or “to receive”). This is exactly the way to work with retrograde planetary energy – to take the planetary inward and work with it from the inside before forcing it out into the world. Take the prescription (and wash it down with a spoonful of sugar if necessary 🤣).

WTF do I mean by all of this and what can you do with it?!

Retrograde planets function differently than direct planets – this is their inherent nature. Direct planets quite literally turn the energy OUTWARD, whereas Rx energy turns that planetary energy INWARD. This can be challenging since we live in a world that caters to and expects us to act in a “direct motion” type of way (generally speaking), and a world that typically wants to strip any kind of difference from a person at a young age (or the world that has functioned that way in that past; I do think younger generations aren’t quite as much this way and that gives me hope that things will change as time goes on).

Oh, and another thing to mention in this section – those old dickhead Medievals called retrograde planets an “accidental debility” and thought of them as essentially “slow” (or “slowed-down”) and “backwards.” While yes, the retrograde motion does quite literally mean that the planet appears to slow down and/or go backwards, I don’t equate them to being slow OR backwards. I DO equate them with needing to function in a way that might be different than what general society would expect or approve. This usually points towards a need for the retrograde planet to “slow” enough to go inward and consider the things that the planet wants to express. Mars retrograde in your chart? This could mean that you slowing down before acting on something IS your natural rhythm (or “should be”). Uranus retrograde in your chart? Any kind of change that occurs has to come from within YOU and not forced on you by the outside world; it starts within YOU.
….and as a side note, fuck society and the status quo and what is expected 😂
…..and as another side note, Mars Rx and Uranus Rx in your natal chart can mean MUCH more than those two short examples mentioned above.

ALL retrograde planets also have an affinity for Uranus, the planet that expresses “difference,” among other things. This is an important thing to keep in mind when looking at Rx planets in transit and in a person’s astrology chart. Just to be clear, that doesn’t mean that you read them the same way that you would read Uranus in chart. It just means that you need to consider that, say, Jupiter retrograde is going to function differently than Jupiter direct will function.

Retrograde planets in a personal astrology chart vs in transit

Really, there isn’t that much of a difference. In either case of a planet (any planet) being retrograde, the energy of that planet needs to be expressed and understood from within before expressing that planetary energy outward onto the world (or this is the way they function best). The ONE difference that does exist is that in a natal chart the singular chart holder is the only one working with (or against) the retrograde energy, whereas when a planet goes retrograde in transit the whole WORLD is working with (or against) that retrograde energy. And it’s impossible to tell the whole world to think before speaking during a Mercury retrograde period, or to tell the whole world to go inward and consider mastery & authority before exhibiting such during a Saturn retrograde period. It is much easier to tell this stuff to a singular person in a one-on-one session. It’s for THIS very reason that I read retrograde planets from a slightly more challenging lens when looking at the chart of an event, or a retrograde planet in transit – we are ALL at the mercy of how everyone functions during and reacts to the retrograde planet(s) in transit. So….act accordingly 🤪

Important to add here is the notion of Rx people having an easier time when that planet is Rx in transit. For instance, Mercury Rx natives tend to (not universally, but often enough to mention) have an easier time when transit Mercury turns Rx than those which natal Mercury is direct. This sort of thing is something I’ve found (often enough to mention) to be the case regardless of the Rx planet we’re talking about. Now, that doesn’t mean that when transit Mercury is Rx that the Mercury Rx native doesn’t deal with communication errors or technological fuck-ups. However, they tend to have an “easier” time from an energetic lens dealing with Mercury Rx in transit since they are already FAMILIAR with Mercury Rx energy via their personal astrology chart.

Retrograde planets as a medicine?

Back to the analogy of prescription medications from a few paragraphs up: it has always made me think that retrograde planets in an astrology chart (and even asteroids, etc.) are a sort of “medication” for the chart holder. What does that mean exactly? For you personally, that REALLY depends on your personal astrology chart (if you would like me to read for you, click this text!). But some below you’ll find some general ideas!

• Consider what that planet wants to express and check in with yourself to make sure you are expressing and relating to that planet in the way that feels most authentic to you. Let’s say you have Venus Rx – you might have very different values than the general population and that’s okay (as long as they aren’t incredibly problematic values)! It’s important that even if loved ones don’t share those same values, that they respect your right to them. On the flip side of that, you have to respect that they don’t share those same values, too.
• Coming into this incarnation, there may be something that you wanted to learn about the Rx planet in question from within yourself. Let’s say you have Neptune Rx – you might come into this lifetime (whether from a past life or JUST in terms of starting out in this lifetime without any others to consider) needing to break through illusions and delusions for whatever reason. Neptune Rx is a great medicine for such a thing.
• Retrograde planets INTERNALIZE, PERSONALIZE, and SPIRITUALIZE the planet(s) in question due to them turning inward. Perhaps throughout the course of this life, you wanted to internalize, personalize, and spiritualize what the planet in question wants to express….so voila! You have a retrograde planet (or retrograde planets).

Medicine doesn’t ALWAYS taste good going down, or feel good being put on the skin, but if the prescription is right it WILL eventually help you to feel better. I tend to not think the chart is wrong or random (it ALL serves a purpose). If you have been given a retrograde planet (or retrograde planets) as a prescription, there is something that is aching to feel better and heal.