Oct. 11, 2026 is the final gate of Venus, the final gate of Inanna for the evening star phase of Venus, the months when she shows in the sky after sunset. And if you are tracking, I’m going to be teaching a course on the Venus cycle and its connection to the myth of the goddess Inanna in Sumerian mythology, and how that correlates with the archetypal narrative of descent and reemergence. As part of that, I touch on the gates of Inanna, and there’s a lot more information about the mythology that I’ll get into in that class. But I did want to highlight this final gate here. Inanna: Myth, Astrology, and the Venus Cycle meets live on Zoom for five Wednesdays beginning in November 2026 at 3 p.m. Pacific, 6 p.m. Eastern, through Synchronicity University, with recordings sent after each class. Tuition is pay-what-you-choose, starting at $25.
What a gate is
What I’m talking about when I say a gate of Venus, or of Inanna, is this: Venus is visible in the sky, meaning she is far enough away from the sun to be seen, and the moon, on her monthly cycle, comes into contact with her in the crescent phase of the moon, the thin, lit sliver.
Venus and Mercury, as inner planets whose orbits sit inside Earth’s, never get far enough from the sun for the moon to connect with them in any form but a crescent. The furthest Venus can get from the sun is about 47 degrees. A quarter moon is 90 degrees, so the furthest she can get would be just about halfway between the new moon and the quarter moon. We’re talking about the crescent moon, anywhere from a large crescent to a small one, whenever Venus connects with the moon in the moon’s monthly cycle. If the moon connects with Venus while she’s under the beams (lost in the sun’s glare) or behind the sun, invisible, we won’t see that conjunction, the two meeting at the same degree of the zodiac. That’ll happen around the time of the new moon. But if Venus is far enough from the sun to be seen when the moon connects with her, it will be a crescent moon connection.
Venus’s cycle from evening star to morning star is about 19 months. In each of those phases, evening star and morning star, there are between seven and nine lunar conjunctions with Venus in the crescent phase. They roughly correlate to the seven gates that Inanna goes through in her descent into the underworld and in her ascent back into the overworld. So we call these moon connections gates.
In the last several decades, the shamanic schools of astrology have delineated these gate crossings and connected them to the chakras from the Vedic traditions and other esoteric connections. I definately recommend connecting with that tradition if you’re interested in learning more. Cayelin Castell has published writings about it, and Katy Sophia of Soul Radiance has published information on these gates too. You can check out their writings as they connect to the chakras and to some of the more esoteric things.
I view the evening star as the descent, and here is why. The morning star is when she has reemerged from the underworld. She seizes her throne back and takes to war. This is all morning star energy, and I remember Demetra George saying that in a class I took from her, so it makes sense to me that way. Conversely, this puts the evening star phase before the hanging on the hook, the three days Inanna’s body hangs in the underworld, and therefore the evening star gates are the descent. But that is my take. Others may have a different reading.
The eighth gate
Oct. 11 is the final gate, and actually this is the eighth time that the moon is making a connection. When the moon and Venus make eight visible conjunctions, it’s often thought of as an even more inwardly facing gate, an inwardly facing time to connect with the symbolism of Venus. This connection happens with Venus in retrograde, the stretch when she appears to move backward in the sky. Often when that happens, Venus is already invisible, but this time we should still have some visability. Depending on where you are in the world and the level of pollution, she may be too dim to be seen, but if you’re in a bright, clear sky and you have the right latitude, you will be able to see this conjuction. The conjunction is exact at 9:27 p.m. PDT, when they will be below the horizon. The best viewing time will be at sunset, wherever you are in the world. This last conjunction, when there’s eight, is considered a deep, soul-oriented, inner oriented connection of Venus and the moon, what Katy Sophia calls the Soul Star gate, signifying some deep surrender.
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The luminaries in their fall
What’s interesting about this gate crossing in 2026 is that it happens in Scorpio, in the seventh degree, which is still in the via combusta, the burnt road. The via combusta has significations, or traditional meanings, for the moon of being in a weakened state. The reason is that the fall of the moon is considered to be in Scorpio. The fall is the place opposite the exaltation for a planet. A planet’s exaltation is the degree where it is considered strongest. The moon is exalted in the third degree of Taurus, so its fallen point is the third degree of Scorpio. This conjunction takes place in the seventh degree of Scorpio, very close to the fallen point of the moon.
The sun has its exaltation in the 19th degree of Aries, so its fallen point is considered the 19th degree of Libra, just opposite. And it just so happens that as Venus crosses this eighth gate, the sun is in the 19th degree of Libra. Both of the luminaries, the sun and the moon, are in their fallen places. The sun will be at 18 degrees and 52 minutes of Libra. The exact fallen point, depending on the tradition you follow, would be 18 degrees 57 minutes of arc, which is the 19th degree of Libra with only a few arc minutes to spare. So we’re very close in the sun’s position to its fall. The moon is very close to its fallen position in Scorpio, Venus is there in retrograde.
The inner turn
So we have planets in fall, Venus in retrograde, and the eighth gate, which is a deeply inwardly focused gate. This is a period of time for deep, internal orientation. It’s a time to be retreating, to be doing inner practices and meditation practices, all of your introspective practices. If you’re not into meditation or introspection or retreat, this is a time to be doing your planning. It’s more inwardly focused then execution. This is a planning stage, a time to be reasessing things.
But if you’re oriented toward a spiritual path, this is a time when we may feel significant stress on our egos, on our assertion and our identities. We may feel challenges to how we present ourselves in the world in terms of our gender expression, in terms of our career life expressions, how we identify as a person, our careers, our creativity, how our families perceive us. The idea of who we are, it can be extremely challenged during this period of time, and not only who we are but who we are in relation to others. Relationships could be ending, or feeling like they’re going to end. They can be reassessing, resetting boundaries, reconfiguring. This is a time when relationships are restructuring, reorganizing, reconfiguring, terminating. Starting new? That will come later when Venus is in direct motion again as the Morning Star. As those relationships reconfigure, we are reorienting our identity in the world.
If a person is a deeply spiritual practitioner, especially a Buddhist or a Vedic practitioner, the moon has just passed through the Vishakha nakshatra, measured in the tropical zodiac. Vishakha is a lunar mansion of 13 degrees 20 minutes and a triumphal period with a lot of positivity around the moon, even though it’s in it’s fallen place. That is because this is a point in the cycle of the moon when the ego is weakened, when we are expressing karmic assertions and our karmic patterns are at their weakest, or at the point where they can be seen most clearly for what they are. That can be challenging, it can be difficult for us to do, but it is the perfect time for this kind of energy to be coming into the zeitgeist of our lives and how we are experiencing the world.
Mercury and Mars
Especially with Mercury involved, because Mercury is also in Scorpio, not far from this lunar gate that Venus is passing through. Mercury is in the 14th degree of Scorpio. It brings to the front of the thought not just communication but the way we think about navigating between different worlds. We might be dealing with different sexual identities or professional identities that are at odds with our family life, or our family life at odds with our professional life, or our gender identity being different internally from how we’re expressing externally. The differences in how we identify and present are going to be critical to assess and reevaluate in this period of time.
All of this is happening at the same time that Venus is recieving the superior square from Mars. A square is a 90-degree angle between two planets. In traditional astrology, the superior square is a configuration specifically oriented toward Mars. It’s a very strong configuration for Mars, where Mars has dominance over the planets that are inferior to it. In this case, a very fiery, Leo-centered Mars has just finished this superior square with Venus. The official name for this configuration is decimation. To be decimated in modern times is kind of like talking about a greater level of destruction. The traditional language was more about taxation, like tithing or taxing, taking away a tenth of the power of Venus.
Reduced capacity, deeper access
So all of this points to planets that are “weakened.” But the weakening makes it more difficult for the planets to bring about their significations. In your natal chart, we may be seeing these planets having a reduced capacity to act. The counterside of that is the depth of access we have to our spiritual paths. These are deep moments to be practicing our spiritual path, focusing on compassion, loving-kindness. For people on a spiritual path who practice in this way, the outer world right now can seem quite chaotic, and we are seeing quite disturbing news around us. These are times to find ways to rest in equanimity in the world around us.
This superior square for Mars, combined with the luminaries being in their fall, and Venus herself in retrograde. And at the same time, I have to say, Saturn is in its fall, opposite the sun in its fall. These two very strong planets are in opposition to each other, about 180 degrees apart, both in their fallen states. Now is the time to be focusing on strengthening our inner values, strengthening our inner core, finding the space within ourselves that allows us to see others. It’s not a falsely positive way of doing that, but a way that brings balance and harmony to the somewhat conflicting ways we might be experiencing the world right now.
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