What Venus is asking of you
On the cover · The Perla Set in Dark Moon Black · The Oracle Collection
In this issue
on saturday, venus turns around, and for six weeks she walks backwards across the sky.
Venus retrograde 2026 begins on October 3 in Scorpio and ends on November 13 in Libra. Venus is the planet of love, money, beauty and the things we choose to keep, and when she appears to move backwards she asks one quiet thing of us. Look again at what you already love before you reach for anything new.
This is the whole of it, and the rest of this issue is the detail: the dates, what each sign asks, three questions to carry, how to dress through it, and a small tea practice for the week ahead.
01The Venus retrograde 2026 dates
| August 31 | The shadow begins. Venus first crosses the degrees she will later retrace. Themes that surface now tend to return in October. |
| October 3 | Venus stations retrograde at 8 degrees Scorpio, at 3:16am Eastern. |
| Around October 23 | The Sun meets Venus. Astrologers read this conjunction as the heart of the cycle, the moment the old story ends and a truer one begins to form. |
| October 24 | Mercury stations retrograde in Scorpio and joins her. From here until November 13, two planets walk backwards together. |
| October 25 | Venus slips back into Libra, the sign she rules. |
| November 13 | Venus stations direct at 22 degrees Libra. Mercury turns direct the same day. |
| Mid December | The shadow clears, and what was reviewed can be built on. |
What a retrograde Venus actually means
Nothing in the sky actually reverses. Venus is closer to the Sun than we are, and roughly every eighteen months she overtakes the Earth on the inside of her orbit. For about six weeks, from where we stand, she seems to slide backwards against the stars.
Astrologers have long read that apparent reversal as a review. Venus governs what we are drawn to and what we value: love, pleasure, beauty, money, the objects we bring home and keep. When she is retrograde, those things are not forbidden. They are reconsidered. Old loves return to mind. Old spending patterns become visible. The dress at the back of the wardrobe starts to ask why it is still there.
Venus in Scorpio, October 3 to 25
Scorpio does not do surfaces. The first three weeks of this Venus retrograde turn toward what sits underneath: intimacy, trust, jealousy, shared money, and the things we want but do not say. Expect honesty to arrive where politeness used to be. Mercury joins Venus in Scorpio on September 30, so conversations deepen too.
This is a good season to ask what you are truly attached to, and why. Scorpio is also the sign of transformation, so what ends here usually ends to make room.
04Venus in Libra, October 25 to November 13
On October 25 Venus returns to Libra, her own sign, and the question softens from depth to balance. Libra asks about fairness in partnership, about beauty, about the aesthetics of a life. With Mercury also retrograde from October 24, it is wise to let agreements, contracts and big relationship decisions wait until both planets turn direct on November 13.
05Three questions for six weeks
- In love. Which of your relationships feel like home, and which have you been keeping out of habit?
- In money. Where does your money go that your heart does not follow?
- In what you own. What do you reach for every single week, and what have you been keeping for a woman you are no longer trying to be?
How to dress through Venus retrograde
Astrologers usually say to buy slowly under a retrograde Venus, and I agree. Wear what you already love, often. Mend what has been waiting. Give away what belongs to an older version of you. If something new is truly yours, it will still be yours in a week, so choose the one piece you know you will keep and let the rest wait. Which is, if you think about it, the whole idea of the way we make clothes. For more on dressing with the planets, read what to wear during Venus retrograde.
07The week ahead, September 28 to October 4
The full moon in Aries is behind us, and the moon is waning, which is the time for putting things down. Around Venus, three more movements.
- Early in the week. Mars in Leo opposes Pluto in Aquarius. The pressure around who holds control rises, at work and at home. Let it rise without grabbing for the wheel.
- Wednesday, September 30. Mercury moves into Scorpio to join Venus. Conversations leave the surface and go looking for the motive underneath. Ask the second question, the one you usually swallow.
- Saturday, October 3. Venus stations retrograde.
- Sunday, October 4. The Sun in Libra opposes Saturn in Aries. The old tension between keeping the peace and keeping yourself. This week, both are allowed.
A tea practice for the waning moon
Cha Dao, the way of tea, has very few rules, and every one of them is about attention. You boil the water. You warm the bowl. You pour, and you drink with both hands, and while you are drinking you are not doing anything else. It is the smallest possible form of what Venus is asking.
Once this week, make one cup of tea and do nothing else while you drink it. No phone, no reading, no planning the afternoon. Hold it with both hands. Notice what you want to reach for, and let it wait.
The Perla Set, drawn for tea
When I was preparing for a tea pilgrimage in Taiwan, I realised my clothes were not ready for it. Tea happens on the floor. You kneel, you bow, you lift and pour and reach across a low table, over and over, for hours. So I drew two pieces with a single requirement: that I could sit on a floor in them for three hours, rise without rearranging myself, and still feel properly dressed for ceremony.
Perla White · Dark Moon Black
The Perla Skirt is light silk and cotton with lace woven by hand along the hem, so the pattern never repeats perfectly and no two hems are the same. The Perla Jacket is a front wrap with nothing to fasten: you fold one side over the other and tie it, because a wrap lets you kneel, pour and reach without anything pulling. Both come in Perla White and Dark Moon Black, and together they are the newest chapter of the Oracle Collection.
Frequently asked questions
When is Venus retrograde in 2026?
Venus is retrograde from October 3 to November 13, 2026. It stations retrograde at 8 degrees Scorpio, moves back into Libra on October 25, and stations direct at 22 degrees Libra. The shadow period runs from August 31 to mid December.
What does Venus retrograde in Scorpio mean?
Astrologers read Venus retrograde in Scorpio as a review of intimacy, trust, shared money and hidden desires. It tends to bring honesty to the surface and asks what we are truly attached to.
Is Mercury retrograde at the same time?
Yes, partly. Mercury stations retrograde in Scorpio on October 24, 2026, and turns direct on November 13, the same day as Venus. The overlap is traditionally read as a time to review agreements rather than sign new ones.
Is Venus retrograde a bad time to buy clothes?
Not a bad time, a slower one. The traditional advice is to avoid impulse purchases and big aesthetic changes. Choose pieces you know you will keep and wear for years, and wear what you already love.
With love from Bali,
Myrah
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