Venus retrograde in Scorpio

Monday October 5, 2026

A woman sits on a throne. The words Goddess and Priestess are on either side and the title Empress is underneath

Venus went retrograde in Scorpio  on October 3, 2026.  This is metaphorically, Inanna, an ancestress of the goddess Venus, a forerunner of her, going through the seven gates to the underworld. Venus is in detriment in Scorpio.  In detriment, Venus tumbles into intense waters.  Venus answers to Mars demonstrating a Machiavellian martial orientation rather than her beautifully balanced Libran or  Taurean energy.

The Tarot card that represents Venus is the Empress.  As the Empress, Venus is in touch with her lighthearted self that puts beauty at a premium.  In the Empress card of the Rider Waite Smith her backdrop is pomegranates.  She is associated with a fruit symbolizing fertility.  The pomegranate also appears in a prominent role in the Persephone story where she is of the underworld.  In Scorpio, her detriment, Venus is in a state that lacks adornment. 

The other card that represents the underworld is the Death card.  As Inanna travels through the underworld, she journeys to the land of the dead.  Represented by Persephone, Venus also holds her fertility dormant.  The underworld becomes a place of change and transformation, as Death, in the world of the occult does not mean the cessation of life but rather the metamorphoses and emergence of a new form.