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Venus retrograde: 2026 and 2027 dates, shadow, tradition

Venus retrograde would be read as the moment to reconsider your bonds and your tastes.

  • relationships
  • values
  • apparent retreat
♀︎

Now: retrograde, in Scorpio

The essentials

Venus retrograde at a glance

For you

An apparent step back that tradition associates with revisiting bonds, money, and what you value.

A strength

Six weeks that would be set aside for reconsidering what matters, rather than for acquiring.

Something to watch

Nothing says a relationship will break or a purchase will go wrong: these are customs, not facts.

In the zodiac
From Scorpio into Libra
Length
42 days retrograde
Read more
The 2026 and 2027 periods Calculate my rising sign

By Thomas Guilhot · updated

The dates

The periods 2026 and 2027

Paris time. The shadow begins when Venus reaches the degree where it will turn direct again, and ends when it passes back over the degree where it had stopped.

  1. From October 3 to November 14, 202609 h 10 → 01 h 20 · 42 days · Scorpio → Libra
    Enters the shadow
    August 31
    Stations retrograde
    October 3, 09 h 10
    Stations direct
    November 14, 01 h 20
    Leaves the shadow
    December 15
  2. No period in 2027Venus stays direct all year

What tradition says

Venus bears the name of the Roman goddess of love, the Greeks’ Aphrodite, and in astrology governs bonds, harmony, money, taste, and beauty.

She rules Taurus and Libra. Astrologers therefore see in her retrograde motion a time turned inward: rereading your attachments, reconsidering your spending, reconnecting with an old tie or examining what you put up with. Tradition would advise putting off major commitments, a wedding, a radical change of look, a luxury purchase, and keeping these weeks for what can be revised. The Babylonians were already following Venus, as morning and evening star, on the tablets known as the Venus tablets of Ammisaduqa. None of this advice is verified; relationships do not follow the planets’ calendar.

Class
Personal planet
Nature
Lesser benefic
Cycle
About 1 year
Detriment
Scorpio, Aries
Fall
Virgo
Joy
5th houseHellenistic tradition

A reading of the sky to take as food for thought, not to be followed blindly: the dates are calculated, and what tradition associates with them is reported in the conditional, announcing nothing. Why?

Before and after

Before and after: the shadow

The shadow is not an astronomical phenomenon but an astrologers’ convention.

The other planets

The retrogrades of the planets

The Venus profile →

How is it calculated?

Stations: the moments when Venus’s apparent speed drops to zero, found to the second by the engine.

Frequently asked questions about Venus retrograde

When is Venus retrograde in 2026?

From October 3, 2026 (09 h 10) to November 14, 2026 (01 h 20), from Scorpio into Libra, Paris time. With the shadow, the period runs from August 31, 2026 to December 15, 2026.

When is Venus retrograde in 2027?

No Venus retrograde begins in 2027.

What is the shadow of Venus retrograde?

It is the period, before and after the backward step, when Venus covers the same degrees of the zodiac: three passes over the same spot. The idea comes from astrologers, not from astronomy. It extends the retrograde period by a few weeks on each side, which is why the table gives two sets of dates, those of the retrograde and those of the shadow.

Does Venus really move backward?

No. On its orbit around the Sun, Venus travels at more than thirty kilometers per second without ever slowing to the point of going backward. The backward motion comes from the point of view: the Earth, slower, is overtaken by its neighbor, just as a car passing another on the highway seems to make the other one move backward in the window. What we see is an apparent motion.

What does tradition say about Venus retrograde?

It would read a time of romantic and material stocktaking in it: resentments to look at, tastes to reassess, old ties that come back. Major commitments and prestige purchases would be discouraged. Nothing is demonstrated: this advice is reported, and you are free to follow none of it.