Secrets, Surveillance, and… Singularity? The Astrology of Q4 2026
Venus and Mercury retrograde in Scorpio, a Scorpio Venus star point, and Uranus lit up by the Full Moon: what the Q4 2026 planets say about leaks, watchers, AI, and people power.
A Note About Timing
This post is late because I’ve been running late, or in circles, as I put life back in order after relocating across the world. In May, we decided it might be time to leave the US; five months later, we were in Portugal. In between came a major surgery, a serious injury, and selling nearly everything we owned, keeping only 15 boxes and 10 suitcases.
Now, as October ends, I’ll use real-time events to show how the WTF happening above is showing up below. Since I’m in Portugal, times are in UTC (Lisbon time after the October 25 clock change).
The Bottom Line
Q4 2026 arrives on a flaming red carpet embroidered with three S-words:
• Secrets: Venus and Mercury retrograde in Scorpio
• Surveillance: the Venus star point in Scorpio and Pluto turning direct
• Singularity: Uranus in Gemini, lit up by the November Full Moon
I’m a practical astrologer who works from facts, data and history. I don’t do woo, conspiracies or fear-mongering, and I don’t pretend astrology is stronger than free will.
That said, I made some bold calls in The Astrology of 2026 about how the relationship between technology and society would change. This fall, Venus and Mercury both turn retrograde in Scorpio. The last time both stayed retrograde in Scorpio together was 1986, the autumn of Iran-Contra. This time the truth is surfacing through leaks, lawsuits, documentaries and the street, while AI leaders say the singularity has begun. I promised a deep dive. Here it is.
One Saturday, Four Countries: October 17, 2026
US: The fourth “No Kings” day pivots from protest to the ballot box as “No Kings: Vote Early” (NPR).
France: The worst unrest in years, with 2,628 detentions and 1,144 security personnel injured (CNBC).
Portugal: Tens of thousands march in Lisbon. The government says it “will not yield to shouts from the street” (Jerusalem Post/Reuters).
Albania: Day five of a student-led uprising against Prime Minister Edi Rama (Reuters).
Bangkok: Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark tells the IMF, “The singularity is here” (Import AI).
All of this came about a day after Pluto, the planet of power and overhaul, turned direct in Aquarius, the sign of the masses and technology. Pluto was squaring (challenging) Venus, the planet of values, retrograde in secretive Scorpio, while Mercury slowed to turn retrograde there too.
Secrets: Venus and Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio
When Venus and Mercury travel through Scorpio together, they’re forced to reconsider what we hold dear, what we’ve been told and whom we can trust. The heart and the mind go digging in the underworld, and ugly, hidden truths come up for exposure. I started tracking this pattern in my Mercury Retrograde in Cancer post this summer.
Housing, Money and AI
Markets: Kroger cut about 3,000 corporate jobs amid its AI push (KMPH), and AI stocks sold off globally in mid-October (CNN via ABC17).
Spain: Parliament rejected emergency housing decrees on October 2, the day before Venus stationed retrograde, after 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal was evicted. Around 50 marches followed (Al Jazeera), a snap election is set for November 29, and the country faces its first general strike in 14 years (RTÉ).
Portugal: Police cleared housing protest camps in Porto and Lisbon from October 15 on, with dozens of arrests (Amnesty International, Al Jazeera). Protesters kept coming back, right up to the night before the Taurus Full Moon. Taurus rules property and the Moon rules home.
France: Student protests over school conditions grew into a cost-of-living revolt. About 400,000 people marched on October 24 (unions claim 800,000), with more protests planned for October 31 and a national strike on November 5 (Reuters).
Power: Testimony, Lawsuits & the Ballot
In January, I wrote that “the power of governments (and large corporations) versus the power of the people is laid bare.” Pluto in Aquarius has been leaving more than a breadcrumb trail.
An FTC probe of AI companies was reported on September 30 (Al Jazeera). The New York City Council grilled AI companies under oath on October 5 (ABC11), and eight states sued OpenAI over ChatGPT safety claims on October 14 (CNBC). The US midterms on November 3 fall under both retrogrades, with voters worried about AI data centers and billionaires funding candidates on a scale never seen before (CNBC).
Women’s Rights: Where TF Are We Headed?
Trigger Warning: I have strong opinions on this one. If you’re easily offended, a creep, a Nazi, or a Christian Nationalist snowflake, skip this section.
Women continue to be targets of violence and inequality, and the UN says so. Meanwhile, the US keeps laws that block women and girls from life-saving healthcare and from medicine that prevents unwanted pregnancy, and it fails to protect them from AI deepfake pornography. In The Astrology of 2026, I said it would become “difficult to distinguish what is true from what is fabricated.” That’s already playing out.
UN Women reported on September 17 that one in three gender-equality institutions has been stripped of power in two years (UN Women).
A US appeals court heard the mifepristone access case in September (PBS), and abortion is on the ballot in Idaho, Nevada, Virginia and Missouri on November 3 (Guttmacher).
A court paused Minnesota’s AI “nudification” ban for xAI on October 2, the day before Venus stationed retrograde (Law Commentary).
A study published October 6 found that 1 in 6 female members of the European Parliament have been targeted with sexual deepfakes (EU Perspectives).
Surveillance: The Venus Star Point in Scorpio
Every 584 days or so, Venus meets the Sun and starts a new cycle. Astrologers call this the Venus star point: a seed planted for the next eight years. On October 24, it landed at 0°45′ Scorpio, the same day Mercury turned retrograde. The last two Scorpio star points were in 2010 and 2018. This time, the seed focuses on who is watching, and what they know.
Albania: Protests that began in May against a Jared Kushner-linked luxury resort became a nationwide student uprising in mid-October. More than 300 protesters and police were injured (BBC, AFP).
The hacked phone: On October 22, two days before the star point, a Vanity Fair book excerpt alleged that Dutch intelligence had been watching Jared Kushner’s hacked phone. Kushner called the claims “completely insane,” and his lawyers sent a defamation notice (The Hill). The allegations are unverified and disputed. A story surfacing and then being contested is exactly how Mercury retrograde works.
Inside the AI labs: A hidden recorder was found at OpenAI on September 30, and an engineer was arrested on October 9 (Nextgov).
The 8-year reverb: In October 2018, also a Scorpio star point year, journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The CIA concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing (CNN). He is also named in the 2026 excerpt. Interesting, though, not proof the two stories are connected.
Singularity? Uranus in Gemini and the November Full Moon
This summer, I posted about Uranus in Gemini and stated that, “I know that Uranus in Gemini is the most significant information-technology transit of the century so far, and that it will reshape how humans relate to knowledge, language, intelligence, and each other in ways we are only beginning to perceive.”
Uranus is the planet of sudden change and technology. Gemini is the sign of information, language and data. On November 24, the Gemini Full Moon lands half a degree from Uranus, and the Sun opposes Uranus the next day. In the same season, the people building AI started saying the quiet part out loud...
The Declarations
“We are now, like, in the singularity. This is the moment.”
— Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, July 2026 (Fortune)
Elon Musk said in a post on X that the singularity has arrived, and Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis said humanity stands at its “foothills” (Business Insider).
“The singularity is here.”
— Jack Clark, Anthropic co-founder, speaking to the IMF on October 17, the same Saturday as the marches (Import AI)
Nine days later, Anthropic’s IPO filing showed $16.3 billion in revenue and an $80.7 billion net loss for the first half of 2026. Most of that loss, $72.4 billion, is an accounting charge rather than cash spent (Reuters). The filing also warns of “existential risks” from AI (The Register).
The Godfather’s Warning: Geoffrey Hinton
“Now we’re creating alien beings… And the reality is, we only have a couple of years to adapt to that.”
— Geoffrey Hinton, the “godfather of AI,” October 13 (The Next Web)
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang pushed back: “Just because it comes from a scientist doesn’t make it scientific” (Geo TV). Hinton’s reply: “If, for example, you’re told there was a 10% possibility of a bus crashing, you wouldn’t get on the bus” (The Next Web).
Keep in mind that every “the singularity is here” claim comes from people who build or fund AI. Forbes notes there is “still no evidence that machines have entered a runaway cycle beyond human control” (Forbes). The public isn’t buying the hype either: 73% of Americans are concerned AI could threaten human survival (Quinnipiac).
Movie Makers Take on Tech Bros
Alex Gibney’s documentary Musk asks, “How could Musk assume so much power, and why had we given it to him?”
Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning dramatizes the Facebook whistleblower story. One critic’s verdict doubles as a Venus retrograde forecast: “even the title is a misnomer — there was no real reckoning” (SlashFilm).
Historical Parallels: Repeating Retrograde Themes
The last time Venus and Mercury were both retrograde in Scorpio for their whole retrograde was 1986. It won’t happen again in our lifetime.
1986: The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act became law the day after Venus stationed retrograde (Wikipedia). Weeks later, a Lebanese magazine broke the Iran-Contra story (Wikipedia), and the Contra diversion was revealed on November 25 (History.com).
1994: The web went commercial. Mosaic Netscape was released on the day Venus stationed retrograde (History of Information), and the midterms flipped Congress (Wikipedia).
2026: In 1986, Congress made it a crime to break into a computer. In 2026, AI models did it on their own during testing (TechCrunch, Nextgov), and their makers started calling it the singularity.
The Q4 Timeline: When Smoke Turns to Fire
All times are UTC (Lisbon time).
Oct 24: Venus star point and Mercury stations retrograde. A new 8-year chapter begins.
Oct 26: Taurus Full Moon, Sun square Pluto. Is shelter a basic human right or just for profit? It's time to take a stand.
Nov 13–14: Mercury, then Venus, station direct. We must take what we've uncovered and start rearchitecting a future based on what matters most.
Nov 24–25: Gemini Full Moon on Uranus, Sun opposite Uranus. The excitement is not over. Battles for power over information and technology shift.
Nov 30: Mercury clears its shadow. Let's get back on the same page, in the same book, together.
Dec 9: Second Venus–Pluto square. The demand for female value and autonomy is seriously challenged again by the collective patriarchy, in the name of the greater good. The Handmaid's Tale vibes are real.
Dec 10–13: Saturn and Neptune go direct, and Jupiter turns retrograde. The fog lifts a bit, letting ideas and inspiration gain structure, and the Jupiter-in-Leo hype show gets a cold shower.
Dec 15: Venus clears its shadow, still in Scorpio. This is the green light to buy that Bentley...or take a real shot at the patriarchy.
What to Do Before the Truth Comes Out
Look back eight years. What surfaced around love, money, and values in October and November 2018?
Check your chart. Find 0°–9° Scorpio and 22°–29° Libra. The house they fall in reflects the area of life most touched now.
Audit your technical and surveillance footprint: Check and secure passwords, review and update app permissions (especially access to camera and microphone settings), and assume that every app or system update is reverting permissions to the maker's preferences (not yours).
Hold off on big commitments and luxury purchases until after November 14.
Don’t act on a revelation until the retrograde shadows clear: Mercury on November 30, Venus on December 15.
A Parting Thought
“Outcomes depend on the integrity and restraint of those involved.”
AI disclosure: I used AI tools for research support and editing on this post, and the custom images were created by Google Gemini Pro. Read how I use AI in my Ethics & Expertise statement.
FAQ
When is Venus retrograde in 2026?
Venus is retrograde once in 2026, from October 3 to November 14. It stations retrograde at 8° Scorpio and turns direct at 22° Libra. The shadow period runs from August 31 to December 15. Venus retrograde asks us to review what we value, love, own, and trust, so avoid major purchases and commitments until it ends.
When is Mercury retrograde in 2026?
Mercury is retrograde three times in 2026: February 26 to March 20 in Pisces, June 29 to July 23 in Cancer, and October 24 to November 13 in Scorpio. The Scorpio retrograde overlaps with Venus retrograde, which began in Scorpio on October 3, a pairing last seen in full in 1986. Expect secrets, leaks, and second looks at agreements.
What does the November 2026 Full Moon conjunct Uranus mean?
The Gemini Full Moon on November 24 falls within a degree of Uranus, the planet of sudden change and technology. Gemini rules information, language, and data, so this Full Moon can bring shocking news, viral revelations, or tech breakthroughs. With Mars squaring it from the last degree of Leo, expect plot twists and impulsive reactions. The square between Mars and the Full Moon is technically out of sign (Mars in Leo, the Moon in Gemini), but it is within orb.
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