09/01/2026
Yesterday, Venus began its pre-retrograde shadow at 22 degrees Libra, which will transit into Scorpio at 8 degrees where it begins its official retrograde on October 3rd.
The Scorpio portion of this retrograde will have us diving down deep into the parts of self that store things we'd rather not confront. Scorpio is where we lock things away that feel too scary or painful to look at. BUT, when we don't look, when we don't acknowledge, these things fester, grow, and take on a life of their own, controlling us in ways we don't even recognize or understand.
Luckily during this retrograde period, Pluto in Aquarius will square Venus in Scorpio.
Squares represent tension and challenges that help facilitate our growth and evolution.
Pluto in Aquarius is requiring us to live more authentically. Aquarius acts as a "de-conditoner", as it is the next sign after Capricorn, which can create a more rigid way of living life rooted in the need to go along with the status quo in order to feel safe, secure and in control. Capricorn is where we become conditioned by the world and its influences.
Capricorn is the last and ultimate Earth sign, rooting us firmly and solidly in the material world. When we are only conformed to the material world, and all of its influences, we are neglecting the other dimensions of self/life. We become crystalized and rigid. We can get stuck in fear and survival. There is no higher spiritual power in Capricorn, accept the authority figures and the institutions we "deify" and look to for guidance, protection, and order.
Aquarius allows us to BREAK FREE and LIBERATE from all the conditioning acquired in Capricorn. We can be more of our authentic selves in Aquarius, no longer under the old order (Capricorn), created in fear and survival.
All the things that we have internalized and experienced in life, in the 3rd dimensional material realm (Capricorn) that weren't particularly pleasant, that perhaps left a scar or mark on us, will be uprooted during this retrograde period, which will officially end on December 3rd.
The catalyst for this uprooting is the Venus retrograde in Scorpio. Scorpio is fixed water. It's where emotional traumas can freeze within the structures of the body and nervous system, keeping us locked in chronic fear patterns, playing on repeat.
This is where we keep attracting partners/relationships/situations to us that mirror some deep, unresolved psychological issue that got imprinted onto our emotional body - keeping us disempowered and drained of our TRUE joy, happiness, wellbeing, creativity, self-esteem, and experience of genuine LOVE. This then creates an unconscious push to develop and enact all kinds of defense mechanisms and self-destructive behaviors to protect ourselves, which only serves to keep the original wound in place - festering without resolution and healing. We clamp down and freeze OR become the predator/abuser/manipulator - both puppets of the unhealed, unexamined shadow, re-enacting the original wound over and over.
AND Scorpio wounds run deep. It's where we experience rejection and abandonment in our earliest years, that repeat in adult life. What is left is a deep hole of loss here AND longing. When a desire for love, acceptance, deep holding by another and intimacy are never met, Scorpio can turn rageful, bitter, resentful, manipulative, and very very self destructive. It can also hold a lot in and suffer in silence. Tons of repression happens here that can cause immense health problems of a psychosomatic origin, rooted in past betrayals that stay stuck in the body.
Once met with love, compassion and forgiveness, those deep defenses and holding patterns can start to melt and healthier relationships can manifest (Libra - the other sign Venus will retrograde in).
Pluto in Aquarius squaring Venus wants us free and happy again, and Pluto ALWAYS gets what it wants. So, we are going to have to confront the hard things with this Venus cycle, and as a result, transform something difficult into something healthy and beautiful.
This is where we get the CHOICE to respond versus react, because Aquarius encourages a calm, rational and objective manner, versus the Scorpionic disposition of having too much emotional intensity stored up from past betrayals running the show.
When you add in the Nessus in Pisces transit occurring in the last decan (10 degrees) of the sign, you have a situation where we are acknowledging, clearing, and healing ANCESTRAL, GENERATIONAL patterns of abuse, victimization and betrayal paradigms from our cellular memory banks that continue repeating and plaguing us to this very day.
Astrology coach Jenny Kellog describes Nessus as: "the way in which these traumas pass into our familial and collective unconscious, slowly POISONING our capability to become self-actualized and aware of our origins".
AND it's interesting to note that Venus in its retrograde cycle will oppose Chiron in Aries, the sign of self-actualization. This will activate the wounds of the selfhood that manifest when we fail to recognize and heal generational trauma patterns that continue to dictate who we are - that create the persona's we inherit that obscure the true, healthy self (Aries).
Kellog also states that: "Nessus represents the pain of remaining faithful, unaware, or quiet about ancestral wounds". Ouch. It's true that you can't heal what you won't feel, right? AND lastly, she says so poignantly: "While Nessus work is nebulous, frustrating, and painful, it is truly the work of “being a better ancestor” and transmuting the pain that previous generations have left behind".
Venus, in this current cycle in Libra will quincunx (stress aspect) Nessus in Pisces. Here, we are seeking to establish more peace, balance, harmony and love in all our relationships (Venus), BUT there are generational trauma memories to contend with that we are STILL carrying that continue to block our progress on the relational front. AND notice how we are at war with one another. NOW, more than ever it seems.
Lastly, Neptune in Aries will create a quincunx with Venus in its retrograde cycle - specifically when it is in Scorpio.
Neptune in Aries wants your identity rooted in God. This is the process of merging your little will with a higher, Divine Will. BUT how can that happen when we have a boat load of repressed shadow that hasn't been examined or healed. Impossible, right? As long as the shadow remains unhealed and unexamined, IT will control us, blotting out our connection with the Divine.
So, we have some healing to do over the next few months.
Look at how divided and ripped apart we are right now. Division, hatred, intolerance, cancel culture, unwillingness to listen to either side is absent. Everyone's defenses are up. Fight/flight/freeze responses are rampant. Everything in the media is triggering - which I happen to think is purposeful. Either that, or it's simply a reflection of what needs to be healed yet, that isn't - that keeps being put off because we don't want to confront hard things in ourselves and put them to rest.
BUT this retrograde is a chance to change that.
2026 is the year where "the buck stops here". It has to be - because we simply cannot keep carrying on like this. Our world is coming apart at the seems. We need reason (Aquarius). We need to have reasonable and responsible dialogue (Aquarius), rooted in integrity. We need to ALSO meet the parts that are emotionally obliterated inside - that are all screwed up from past trauma - and we need to calm them down so that the healthier parts of self can start taking the lead.
If we want a better world and better relationships, the deep inner work must be done. Forgiveness must happen. Understanding must be cultivated. Listening and learning to have healthy dialogue with others must be prioritized. We must be accountable to self and others, being willing to repair any damage we did to those we love because of ignorance. We must seek to gain perspective and have a healthy sense of detachment, not allowing the residue of past difficult experience and traumas to keep intruding on and hijacking our peace, joy and ability to have good relationships in the present.
This is happening on BOTH a collective AND personal level.
Where in your life do things needs to be healed and put right again?
Because as Sam Cook sang, "change is gonna come". AND believe me, Pluto running the show at this retrograde will have it no other way!
We got this!
