Venus and Mercury retrograde 2026: dates and meaning

Venus turns retrograde on 3 October 2026 at 8°29′ Scorpio and turns direct on 13–14 November at 22°52′ Libra. Mercury turns retrograde on 24 October at 20°59′ Scorpio and turns direct on 13 November at 5°02′ Scorpio.

Retrograde (the planet seems to move backwards when seen from Earth) is an optical effect of two orbits passing each other. Nothing breaks in the sky. What changes is the direction of attention: forward for most of the year, backward for a few weeks.

The dates at a glance

• Venus retrograde: 3 October to 13/14 November 2026, from 8°29′ Scorpio back to 22°52′ Libra.
• Mercury retrograde: 24 October to 13 November 2026, from 20°59′ Scorpio back to 5°02′ Scorpio.
• Both at the same time: 24 October to 13 November, about three weeks.
• The date of 13 or 14 November for Venus depends on your time zone: it turns in the early hours of 14 November in Europe, on the evening of 13 November in the Americas.

Venus retrograde: looking back at what you value

Venus stands for what draws you, what you value and how you show affection. When it walks backwards, attention turns to old attachments: a person you still think about, a taste you outgrew, a promise you made to yourself and dropped.

Read through C. G. Jung, an old love that resurfaces in these weeks is often less about that person and more about a part of you that went quiet when the relationship ended. Someone may really get in touch. The more useful question is what their return wakes up in you.

Mercury retrograde: the words that come back

Mercury stands for how you think and speak. In retrograde weeks conversations tend to return: the thing you meant to say, a message you would phrase differently now, a plan that needs checking twice.

Practically: re-read before you send, confirm times, and leave a message written in a heated moment until the morning. None of this is a reason to freeze. It is a good season for editing, going over things again and finishing what was left half done.

Through Scorpio and back into Libra

Both retrogrades pass through Scorpio, the sign of depth and of what stays hidden, and Venus slides back into Libra, the sign of partnership and balance. So the themes lean toward closeness: what you share, what you keep to yourself, and whether the give and take between you and another person is still fair.

Where it falls in your own chart

The same retrograde touches everyone in a different place. For one person Scorpio is the house of work, for another the house of home or of love. Enter your birth date, time and place and the app draws your chart with its houses, so you can see which part of your life these weeks move through.

Is there something from the past you have been meaning to look at again, and have kept postponing?