October 2026 Astrology Forecast: Venus Retrograde, Scorpio Season and the Hunter's Moon

October asks you to look back before you move forward. Venus has been retrograde in Scorpio since the 3rd, and the back half of the month packs more sky into one week than most seasons manage. The Sun walks into Scorpio on the 23rd, Mercury turns retrograde the next morning, and the Hunter's Moon peaks in Taurus as the weekend ends. All of it points the same way, toward an honest inventory of what you want and what you're saying about it, and the month rewards slowing down more than it rewards a big launch.

Key dates, October 16 to November 1

All times are Eastern Time (ET).

October 16, 4:25 a.m. ET: Mars trines Saturn at 10°23' Leo and Aries, with Saturn retrograde.
October 18, 12:13 p.m. ET: First quarter Moon at 25°19' Capricorn.
October 20, 2:43 a.m. ET: Venus squares Pluto at 3°04' Scorpio and Aquarius, with Venus retrograde.
October 23, 5:38 a.m. ET: The Sun enters Scorpio. At 11:39 p.m. ET that night, the Sun meets Venus at 0°45' Scorpio, the middle of the Venus retrograde.
October 24, 3:15 a.m. ET: Mercury stations retrograde at 20°59' Scorpio.
October 25, 4:56 a.m. ET: Venus moves back into Libra.
October 26, 12:12 a.m. ET: The full Moon in Taurus, the Hunter's Moon, at 2°46' Taurus. It is still October 25 in Central and Pacific time.
October 26, 8:11 a.m. ET: The Sun squares Pluto.
October 29, 10:05 p.m. ET: The Moon enters Cancer.
October 30, 1:21 p.m. ET: Mercury squares Mars at 17°59' Scorpio and Leo, with Mercury retrograde.
October 31: Halloween, with the Moon in Cancer.
November 1, 3:28 p.m. ET: Last quarter Moon in Leo.

The first half of October

Venus stationed retrograde in Scorpio on October 3 at 8°29', which opened a review of love, values and trust. The tension came early: Mars opposed Pluto on the 3rd, the Sun opposed Saturn on the 4th, and Venus squared Mars on the 10th. The new Moon in Libra on October 10, at 17°22' Libra, was a start point for balance and relationships, and the Sun's sextile to Jupiter on the 15th brought some ease. Pluto stationed direct late on the 15th at 3°04' Aquarius, so power and transformation themes start moving forward again.

October 20 to 25: Pluto, Scorpio season and two retrogrades

Venus squares Pluto on October 20

Venus is what you want and who you want it with. Pluto is power, intensity and whatever sits underneath. When they square at 3°04' Scorpio and Aquarius, with Venus retrograde, what you want grinds against the urge to control. All-or-nothing attraction, jealousy, or a lopsided balance of power in a relationship or around money gets hard to ignore. Read it as a push to be honest about what you're gripping, and ask what you'd do if you held on a little less tightly.

The Sun enters Scorpio and meets Venus on October 23

The Sun enters Scorpio, and for about a month everyone gets a taste of what Scorpio runs on: depth, privacy and intensity. Fixed water doesn't skim. You light the first candle of fall and suddenly want to reorganize your whole life, because the surface version stopped being enough.

That night the Sun meets Venus at 0°45' Scorpio, the middle of the Venus retrograde, when Venus passes between Earth and the Sun. Identity meets values, which makes it a reset point for what you love and want. Naming it plainly, even just to yourself, is plenty.

Mercury turns retrograde on October 24

Mercury stations retrograde at 20°59' Scorpio and stations direct on November 13. Retrograde motion is apparent, since Mercury never physically reverses, and the three weeks are for review.

In Scorpio, the review goes deep: conversations about trust and what was left unsaid. A friend asks if you're okay and you give a real answer instead of "busy." Rereading before you send and confirming plans are sensible habits while it lasts. The full story is in Mercury retrograde in Scorpio, October 24 to November 13.

Venus backs into Libra on October 25

Early on the 25th, Venus moves back into Libra, and the review changes subject. Scorpio asked what you want and what you're holding on to. Libra, which Venus rules along with Taurus, asks about fairness and the give-and-take: who makes the plans, who replies first, who keeps score. Venus stations direct on November 13, and Venus retrograde from October 3 to November 13 follows the whole arc.

The Hunter's Moon in Taurus

The full Moon in Taurus peaks at 12:12 a.m. ET on Monday, October 26, which is 11:12 p.m. Central and 9:12 p.m. Pacific on Sunday, October 25. It sits at 2°46' Taurus, opposite the Sun at 2°46' Scorpio. Hunter's Moon is the folk name for the first full Moon after the Harvest Moon, tied to the opening of the hunting season.

Taurus is fixed earth: continuity, comfort and persistence. Across the sky, the Sun in Scorpio brings depth and privacy, so the night sets what you can hold in your hands against what you feel underneath. A full Moon brings things to a head and into view, so this is where the month's review shows itself.

Venus rules Taurus and is retrograde, which turns the question toward what is enough of what you already have. The donate bag from your closet is mostly things you bought to be someone else. The Taurus answer is the coat that still works and the mug you reach for every morning.

Pluto at 3°06' Aquarius squares both the Moon and the Sun, and the Sun's square to Pluto is exact later on October 26. That's intense and hard to look away from, so the grounded Taurus move is to look anyway, slowly. If you like to write on a full Moon, the full Moon journal prompts give you somewhere to start.

The last days of October

Mercury squares Mars on October 30 at 17°59' Scorpio and Leo, with Mercury retrograde. Mercury is what you say and Mars is how hard you say it, so words heat up. Fast replies, debates, impatience and sharp edges are all on the menu, and the friction pushes toward the real thing, ideally after one pause.

Halloween falls in Scorpio season, and the Moon has been in Cancer since October 29. That leans toward a cozy costume party at home more than a big night out. Your Halloween costume plan gets more elaborate every time someone says "wait, what if," and a Cancer Moon is perfectly happy to keep the whole production in your living room.

The slower sky behind it all

The slower planets set the backdrop for all of it. Mars entered Leo on September 28 and Jupiter has been in Leo since June 30, which makes for warm, expressive, confident drive and growth through being seen. Mars trines Saturn on October 16, so drive and discipline cooperate. Saturn and Neptune are retrograde in Aries all month, putting structures and dreams under slow review. Uranus is retrograde in Gemini, and Pluto is in Aquarius.

October 2026 for your sign

Read for your rising sign, which needs an accurate birth time. If you don't know yours, read your Sun sign's section instead. Houses here are whole sign, so your rising sign is your 1st house, the next sign is your 2nd, and so on around the wheel.

Aries

Scorpio season and Mercury's retrograde go through your 8th house of shared money, intimacy and how much of yourself you let anyone see. The digging lands on whatever is tangled up with someone else: what's owed, what's split, what's still behind the door. At the full Moon in your 2nd house of money and values, the question gets personal: what do you own that you'd buy again?

Taurus

The person across the table gets the review. Scorpio season, Mercury's retrograde and the start of Venus's retrograde all sit in your 7th house of one-to-one relationships, and Venus rules your sign, so it has your name on it. Then the Hunter's Moon rises in your own 1st house with the Sun directly opposite, and you get both sides of the table in one night.

Gemini

Mercury, your ruler, turns retrograde in your 6th house of daily routines and work, with Scorpio season arriving there too. The systems you run on get a second look: the inbox you call managed, the order of your mornings, the work thing you keep patching instead of fixing. By the time the Hunter's Moon reaches your 12th house of rest and retreat, the invitation is to cancel one plan and stay in.

Cancer

Romance, creativity and play all live in your 5th house, and Scorpio season has no interest in keeping them casual. Venus's retrograde began there on October 3, which made it a review of what you actually enjoy and who you want to enjoy it with, and Mercury's retrograde asks you to say so out loud. Friends, groups and what you're hoping to build with them take the spotlight when the Hunter's Moon rises in your 11th house.

Leo

The Hunter's Moon lights your 10th house of career and visibility from across the chart, and it asks which part of your work you actually want seen. Closer to home, Scorpio season and Mercury's retrograde sit in your 4th house of home and private life, where the conversation you've been rehearsing in the shower with whoever shares your space is worth having.

Virgo

Reread before you send. Mercury, which rules your sign, turns retrograde in your 3rd house of communication, learning and local surroundings, and Scorpio season takes the usual small talk somewhere deeper. Your 9th house gets the full Moon in Taurus, which pulls the lens out to the bigger plans: the trip you keep describing and the course you keep meaning to take, and whether either still sounds like you.

Libra

What do you spend on, what do you save for, and what do you say you value? Your 2nd house holds all three, and Venus, your ruler, started its retrograde there on October 3, with Scorpio season and Mercury's retrograde joining it. When Venus backs into your own sign on the 25th, the review turns to what's fair, and the full Moon in your 8th house of shared resources and vulnerability asks what you're willing to share and what you're still guarding.

Scorpio

Scorpio season is yours, and it opens in your 1st house with Mercury's retrograde right alongside, so the focus is you: how you come across, what you start next, what you've been hiding behind a very good poker face. Pluto, your sign's modern co-ruler, takes the square from both the Moon and the Sun at the full Moon, which keeps the intensity close to home. Across the chart, the Hunter's Moon falls in your 7th house and puts a partner directly opposite you.

Sagittarius

The 12th house is the quiet back room of the chart, where rest, retreat and the things you haven't said out loud wait their turn. Both Scorpio season and Mercury's retrograde sit there, so thinking something through comes before talking it out. Over in your 6th house of daily routines and work, the Hunter's Moon swings the spotlight to the unglamorous part of your week: what's running well and what you keep tolerating.

Capricorn

Capricorn likes everything to count, which makes the Hunter's Moon in your 5th house of romance, creativity and play a pointed one: what do you do just because you like it? Meanwhile Scorpio season and Mercury's retrograde work through your 11th house of friends, groups and hopes, where a conversation that went quiet could be picked back up.

Aquarius

At work, the question is the distance between how you come across and what you'd say about yourself. With Scorpio season and Mercury's retrograde in your 10th house of career and public role, reread the email, the bio, the portfolio. Then the full Moon settles in your 4th house of home, and the last word goes to the couch, the kitchen and whatever makes your place feel like yours.

Pisces

You've probably been saying the same few sentences about what you believe for a while. Your 9th house of beliefs, big-picture thinking and far-off plans is where Scorpio season and Mercury's retrograde test them. In your 3rd house of everyday communication, siblings and short trips, the Hunter's Moon points the conversation toward someone close by.

Before November 13

Venus and Mercury both station direct on November 13, which closes the review. Before then, one small thing is worth doing: say one true sentence about what you want, out loud, to one person who matters. "I want more of this." "I'm done with that." "I've been telling the wrong story about it." It doesn't need a speech, just a plain version of whatever your inventory turned up.