Venus into the Underworld: The Final Initiation Gate
Hi everyone,
Venus retrograde 2026, 3 October to 14 November, in Scorpio and Libra
On Saturday 3 October 2026, Venus stations retrograde at 8° Scorpio.
In my 2026 Astrology Forecast, I identified this Venus retrograde as the final initiation gate. And now we are standing at that gate.
This is a wonderful time to begin noticing if, and how, these themes may be playing out in your life. Below are the key themes and dates for this cycle. And if you would like to go deeper, I have recorded a 35-minute audio exploring the whole journey through the ancient story of Inanna's descent into the underworld. There is a full transcript with it, so you can listen or read.
Listen or read: Venus in the Underworld ▶︎
The three weekends to remember
1. The weekend of 3 October Venus turns retrograde. The descent begins.
2. The weekend of 24 October Venus meets the Sun in Scorpio. The heart of the underworld. A short but intense death and rebirth.
3. The weekend of 14 November Venus turns direct and begins to rise. This is where clarity, solutions and wisdom can emerge.
All the key dates
Australian eastern time.
Saturday 3 October: Venus stations retrograde in Scorpio
Saturday 24 October: Venus meets the Sun. Mercury turns retrograde
Sunday 25 October: Venus moves back into Libra
Late October to early November: Venus reappears as the morning star
Thursday 12 November: Jupiter meets the South Node in Leo
Saturday 14 November: Mercury and Venus both turn direct
Sunday 15 November: Mars meets the South Node
Monday 16 November: Mars meets Jupiter
In the Americas, Venus meets the Sun on Friday 23 October, and Mercury and Venus turn direct on Friday 13 November.
The descent
Inanna was the great goddess of ancient Sumer. Queen of Heaven. Goddess of love, desire, beauty and war. And she was the goddess of the planet Venus.
In her oldest story, she chooses to descend into the underworld, the realm of her sister Ereshkigal. Nobody forces her. She decides to go.
The underworld has seven gates. At each gate she must give something up: her crown, her jewels, and finally her royal robe. At each gate, she drops a piece of her identity, until she has nothing left.
Venus makes her own descent now. As she approaches the Sun, she disappears into its glare. And the things Venus represents, the things we normally use to orient ourselves, love, relationship, value, money, fairness, can become harder to see.
I don't see this as a relationship-breakdown period. I think it can be a profound period of relationship healing. But sometimes healing begins by becoming willing to see what has actually been happening.
How this may show up for you
Past loves or old relationships coming back. Not necessarily to pick up where you left off, but for transformation. Something unfinished is returning to be seen, healed or released.
Current relationships going deeper, with questions of trust, power or control rising to the surface.
Money and self-worth. What you are really worth, and where you give more than you receive.
Work that no longer reflects what you value, or less drive than usual.
Your body asking you to slow down and rest.
Venus moves through Scorpio first, bringing things up from the depths to be transformed. From 25 October she is back in Libra, her own sign, and things can begin to return to balance and harmony.
If this is happening for you, trust the process. Don't force a resolution. And keep your discernment: you can welcome healing without walking back into something that wasn't good for you.
The heart of the underworld
On the weekend of 24 October, Venus meets the Sun at the very beginning of Scorpio. She is passing directly between the Earth and the Sun. This is the deepest point of the whole cycle.
At this point in her cycle, Venus is only invisible for about a week. But it is an intense week, because she meets the Sun in Scorpio, the sign of death and rebirth.
It doesn't have to mean the death of something in our outer lives. It may be the death of an illusion. The death of a way of relating. The death of a story we have been telling ourselves. Something new can be seeded in the darkness before we can see it.
On the same weekend, Mercury also turns retrograde in Scorpio. So while Venus goes into the underworld of love and value, Mercury goes into the underworld of thought and perception. Revisiting old conversations. Reconsidering assumptions. Sometimes what we discover is that our understanding has been incomplete.
The great disillusionment
From 12 to 16 November, Jupiter, Mars and the South Node meet in Leo, the sign of leadership, authority and being seen.
Disillusionment means the removal of an illusion. It doesn't have to mean becoming cynical. It can mean becoming able to see.
Like the emperor's new clothes, what everyone pretended not to see becomes impossible to ignore. We may begin to see where we have given our power away to people, leaders, institutions or hopes. Where we have made somebody into a hero, a villain, a saviour or an enemy.
The point isn't to replace one illusion with another. The point is to see more clearly.
The return
On the weekend of 14 November, Mercury and Venus both turn direct, and Venus rises out of the underworld.
As Inanna climbs back up through the seven gates, she receives her powers back. But they have evolved. She has been stripped of everything, and she has seen what is true. She returns humbled, and because of that, a far more profound queen.
That is the invitation as Venus turns direct. We don't return as the person we were before the descent. We return to the same territory with different eyes.
Something to notice over the coming weeks
What is coming back into my life, and what is it asking me to see?
Where have I given my power away?
What am I ready to release?
Tough moments are not necessarily mistakes. They're life.
I'll be watching this cycle unfold closely, and sharing more along the way.
Listen to the full audio or read the transcript ▶︎
Explore this cycle in your own chart ▶︎ Book a session