Venus is retrograde in Scorpio, approaching her conjunction with the Sun at 0° Scorpio, on October 23rd, 2026.
Everyone who’s been paying attention knows that Venus retrograde is one of the most intense retrogrades there is.
This is when we make or break relationships, when people from the past come back, and feelings we thought we’d dealt with come up again.
But underneath it all, what’s really happening is that we get more in touch with our heart. When retrograde, Venus is actually at her closest to Earth.
When Venus is literally so close to us, we get infused with this Venusian energy that can also be overwhelming.
Without making sense of it, this whole ‘Venus on steroids’ experience can feel destabilizing.
From this state of overflow, we get triggered. We overreact. We fall back into old wounds or patterns – not necessarily because they express what we’re actually feeling, but because the intensity itself sets off a fight-flight-freeze response.
And this is when we may act out of alignment with what’s true for us, even if it doesn’t feel that way. We think we’re acting on our feelings – but are we expressing them, or reacting to how overwhelming they feel?
We want closeness, but push someone away. We want to be seen, but hide behind indifference. Or we want reassurance and push for an answer before the other person has had a chance to respond.
Then, when things don’t go as we hoped, we tell ourselves: ‘But that’s how I felt.’ ‘I just feel too much.’ ‘I’m too giving.’
“Love Yourself More” Advice – Moon Vs. Venus
One way we rationalize this is through familiar ‘love yourself more’ advice.
–> Not getting what you want? It’s because you’re depleted.
–> You’ve come on too strong? You’ve been giving too much, and others don’t appreciate you.
–> You keep ending up in heartbreak? Love yourself more.
And all this advice sounds good because it offers comfort and an explanation. Sometimes it may even be what we need to hear.
But if we look closer, we may find another reason we’re so ready to believe it: it gives us a story that’s easier to absorb. A story that doesn’t threaten our idea of ourselves as the one who loves deeply, feels everything, and gives too much.
It’s harder to ask: did what I do actually communicate what I felt?
Not that self-love advice isn’t good. Not that there’s no truth to it.
Taking good care of our bodies is great advice. Many of our problems can be solved with a good night’s sleep.
But in astrological terms, self-care, rest, and emotional regulation belong to the Moon – not Venus.
If we’re exhausted, if hormonal changes are affecting how we feel, then yes – address that first.
But that’s not what Venus is about.
And this type of self-love advice won’t help much with the questions that actually belong to Venus: whether the life we’re living reflects what matters to us, whether our relationships are healthy and honest, whether we feel not just ‘good’ and regulated – but alive.
But if ‘loving ourselves more’ were the whole answer, why do we keep finding ourselves in the same relationship dynamics – even after all the work we’ve done on ourselves?
Could it be – maybe, just maybe – that there’s something else here we haven’t understood yet?
Venus Stories – Self-Flattering? Disempowering?
Think of the patterns that keep repeating in your relationships, and pay attention to the story you tell yourself to make sense of them.
–> Because if the story is self-flattering – along the lines of ‘I love too much and people don’t appreciate me’ – it may leave out the very thing you need to see.
–> Pay attention, too, if the story is disempowering: ‘I keep making the same mistake.’ ‘It’s my fault.’ ‘I just can’t seem to do anything about it.’
Both stories give us an explanation, but neither invites us to discover anything new. One tells us there’s nothing to question; the other tells us there’s nothing we can do.
Venus – The Truth Of Our Heart
Both can keep us from digging a layer deeper and asking – not what I need, not what I want, not what I deserve, but what is actually the truth of my heart?
Unlike the Moon, which orbits the Earth – symbolizing our immediate, physiological needs – Venus orbits the Sun. Symbolically, the center of Venus’ existence is not the needs of our body, but the calling of our spirit.
Venus and Mercury are the only planets whose orbits lie between the Earth and the Sun. In this symbolism, Venus translates the light of our highest purpose – the Sun – into something personal. Into what we value. What we love. What feels like us.
That’s the deeper meaning of Venus as the planet of values. She represents what matters to us enough to shape our choices. What gives us that feeling of: yes, this is who I am, and this is the life I want to live.
It’s not the designer outfit that makes Venus happy. It’s not the massage.
The spa session alone ain’t going to do it for Venus. Nor will a women’s retreat, if we come home and go straight back to living a life that doesn’t feel like ours.
What satisfies Venus is the feeling that we live in true alignment with who we are.
That we stay with our feelings long enough to understand what they’re telling us – and make choices that express that truth. If we want closeness, can we express that desire instead of testing whether someone will chase us when we pull away?
Yes – Venus is self-worth, but self-worth isn’t self-soothing, and Venus’s question is whether we’re true to ourselves, not whether we feel nice about ourselves.
If we tell ourselves ‘I don’t care’ when we care deeply, we are not honoring our Venus. If we want to be seen but act as though we need no one, we are not honoring our Venus.
At her core, Venus doesn’t care about outcomes. She isn’t asking us to become whoever we need to be to get someone to love us, or to say the ‘right’ thing to get the response we want.
She cares about being true to ourselves. Recognizing what makes us, us – and living in alignment with that truth.
But how do we recognize it? We can’t find it in someone else’s approval, or wait for another person to confirm it before we trust it.
We have to sit with ourselves long enough to see who we are, beyond who we’ve learned to be for others.
It’s an inside job. Venus’ symbol is the mirror. The Venusian mirror is not about vanity. The mirror isn’t there to tell us whether we’re desirable or worthy of love.
It’s there to show us ourselves.
And this is not easy. We’ve spent a lifetime accumulating layers of conditioning that have blurred that mirror.
We look into it, but we can no longer see our own reflection – only a distorted image that we’ve come to believe is us.
The journey to our hearts – the journey to ourselves – is about removing layers and layers of what’s not true, of clearing that mirror, so that what remains is the truth.
Even the most stubborn part of us may finally admit: whatever we’ve been trying to make work by denying how we feel is no longer working.
And we realize that continuing to do what we’ve been doing means fooling ourselves.
A New Venus Cycle at 0° Scorpio – October 23rd, 2026
With the new Venus cycle beginning mid-retrograde on October 23rd at 0° Scorpio, the pull to uncover that truth feels stronger than ever.
It’s 0° Scorpio. It’s the last cycle in Scorpio in our lifetime. There’s a hunger to get to the bottom of things. To find the truth and nothing else.
A special report about the Venus-Sun conjunction at 0° Scorpio will be released in the next few days. If you haven’t done so already, subscribe to our weekly newsletter to receive the report.
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