Were You Born During Venus Retrograde? Every Period 1980–2009, Calculated — Venus Was Retrograde 7.3% of the Time
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Venus is retrograde right now (October–November 2026), and a common question that follows is: was Venus retrograde when I was born? For anyone born between 1980 and 2009, the table below answers it.
How common is it?
Over the 30 years from 1980 to 2009 our engine finds Venus retrograde on 7.3% of days, roughly one person in fourteen. That is the rarest retrograde among the planets: Mars is about 9.5%, Mercury 19.1%, and the slow outer planets 30–44%.
Venus turned retrograde 19 times in those 30 years. Each lasted 41 to 43 days, and they came about every 19 months.
Every Venus retrograde, 1980–2009 (UTC)
| Turns retrograde | Turns direct | Sign at start → end | Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 24, 1980 | Jul 6, 1980 | Cancer → Gemini | 43 |
| Dec 31, 1981 | Feb 10, 1982 | Aquarius → Capricorn | 41 |
| Aug 3, 1983 | Sep 15, 1983 | Virgo → Leo | 43 |
| Mar 13, 1985 | Apr 25, 1985 | Aries → Aries | 42 |
| Oct 15, 1986 | Nov 26, 1986 | Scorpio → Scorpio | 41 |
| May 22, 1988 | Jul 4, 1988 | Cancer → Gemini | 43 |
| Dec 29, 1989 | Feb 8, 1990 | Aquarius → Capricorn | 41 |
| Aug 1, 1991 | Sep 13, 1991 | Virgo → Leo | 43 |
| Mar 11, 1993 | Apr 22, 1993 | Aries → Aries | 42 |
| Oct 13, 1994 | Nov 23, 1994 | Scorpio → Scorpio | 41 |
| May 20, 1996 | Jul 2, 1996 | Gemini → Gemini | 43 |
| Dec 26, 1997 | Feb 5, 1998 | Aquarius → Capricorn | 41 |
| Jul 30, 1999 | Sep 11, 1999 | Virgo → Leo | 43 |
| Mar 9, 2001 | Apr 20, 2001 | Aries → Aries | 42 |
| Oct 10, 2002 | Nov 21, 2002 | Scorpio → Scorpio (at the Libra border) | 42 |
| May 17, 2004 | Jun 29, 2004 | Gemini → Gemini | 43 |
| Dec 24, 2005 | Feb 3, 2006 | Aquarius → Capricorn | 41 |
| Jul 27, 2007 | Sep 8, 2007 | Virgo → Leo | 43 |
| Mar 6, 2009 | Apr 17, 2009 | Aries → Pisces | 42 |
The pattern you can see in the table
The same five seasons come back every eight years: a spring retrograde in Aries, a May–July one in Gemini or Cancer, a late-summer one in Virgo or Leo, an autumn one in Scorpio, and a winter one in Aquarius or Capricorn. Each return comes two to three days earlier in the calendar. So if you were born during the October 1986 retrograde, the retrogrades of 1994, 2002, 2010, 2018 and 2026 are its direct descendants (the 8-year cycle, measured).
What the numbers do and don't tell you
Astrology reads a natal Venus retrograde as love and values turned inward or unconventional. That is an interpretation, and this table cannot prove or disprove it. Seven people in a hundred share this feature, so it says nothing about who any one of them is. It can tell you, to within about a day, whether your birthday falls inside a retrograde.
How we calculated: planetary positions from the public-domain formulas in our chart engine (Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms, and NASA/JPL low-precision orbital elements). A planet is counted as retrograde when its apparent longitude, seen from Earth, decreases over a day; stations were searched hour by hour. Dates are UTC and can differ by a day in your time zone; stations are the slowest moments of the motion, so a birthday on a start or end date needs a full birth-time chart to settle it. Dates can differ by a day from almanacs that use a different station criterion.
- Your full birth chart, free — shows Venus with an R if it was retrograde
- Born during a Mercury retrograde? Every period, 1980–2009
- Mars retrograde 2027, with every Mars retrograde 1980–2029