DO YOU STILL WANT WHAT YOU ONCE WANTED?

4 - 10 October, 2026

Hi beautiful souls,

This week asks us a very powerful, and perhaps confronting, question:

Do you still want what you once wanted?

Last week showed us the trigger, the wound and the old story. This week, we move into a deeper reassessment of our lives as Venus, the planet of love, relationships, money, beauty, pleasure and self-worth, begins her retrograde journey.

When Venus moves backwards, she asks us to pause and reconsider what we value, what we desire and what we are giving our energy to. Something we once desperately wanted may no longer fit. A relationship, friendship, job, home, goal or version of success that once felt perfect may now feel strangely empty. We may look at the life we have created and wonder whether it still reflects who we are becoming.

This does not mean we made the wrong choices. It means we have changed.

Our values evolve. Our needs change. Our desires become more honest as we become more honest with ourselves. The problem is that sometimes we continue chasing something long after we have outgrown the original desire. We have invested so much time and energy into getting there that we forget to stop and ask whether we still want to arrive.

So please take a moment this week to ask yourself: Do I still want this? Or do I just want to want it because it once mattered so much? Am I following a genuine desire or an outdated version of success? If nobody was watching, what would I choose now?

Venus Is Turning Our Attention Inwards

Venus usually draws our attention towards what we find attractive, beautiful and pleasurable in the outside world. As she turns backwards, that focus moves inwards and we begin to look at why we want what we want.

Why are we attracted to certain people? Why do we keep choosing similar relationship dynamics? Why are we comfortable giving but sometimes so uncomfortable receiving? What makes us feel worthy, desirable or successful and, very importantly, where did those beliefs come from?

Venus retrograde is not here to destroy our relationships or remove everything we enjoy. She is slowing us down so we can recognise what is genuinely valuable to us and what we have simply been taught to value. There is a difference.

We may have learned that love has to be earned, that being chosen proves our worth or that the most exciting relationships are the ones we have to fight for. We may have been taught that success looks like a particular home, body, bank balance, relationship status or career.

But maybe success looks different now.

Maybe it looks like freedom, peace, time, health, meaningful work, deep conversations, creativity, laughter and a life that actually feels good on the inside rather than one that simply looks impressive from the outside.

Venus is inviting us to update our definition of a beautiful life.

Revisiting Love and the Past

Relationships naturally come into focus during this period. We may find ourselves thinking about someone from the past or revisiting something unresolved in a current relationship. Somebody may actually reappear, or we may simply remember who we were when we loved them.

This does not mean that all our exes are about to arrive at the front door. Sometimes it will be a dream, a song, a memory or an unexpected little social-media investigation when we really should be asleep.

Please remember that someone returning does not automatically mean they are meant to stay.

Venus may bring something back so we can see it through different eyes. An old connection may return to show us how much we have changed. Someone may suddenly be open to a genuinely honest conversation that they were not capable of having before. We may finally receive the apology we once desperately wanted and realise that we no longer need it.

Sometimes the universe puts the old choice back in front of us simply to see whether we will make the same choice now.

If somebody does return, take your time and please do not allow familiarity to disguise itself as destiny. Do not let nostalgia remove all the difficult parts of the story. Memories can be beautiful little liars. They show us the highlights and quietly edit out the three years of emotional confusion.

Please tune in to yourself and ask if something has genuinely changed or if you are simply hearing another promise. Do you miss the actual person, or the dream you once had of how things could be? Do you miss who you hoped they would become? Does the connection support who you are now, or are you being pulled back towards a version of yourself you have finally outgrown?

You do not need to decide immediately. Let actions, time and consistency show you what is real.

Around the middle of the week, there is some lovely energy for open conversations and understanding. Something that has been left unsaid may finally find its way to the surface. We may find the words for feelings we have struggled to explain or hear something that helps us see another person differently.

We are not going to have much patience for shallow conversations this week. We want to know what is really going on. What do you actually feel? What do you really want? Are we moving in the same direction, or have we both been politely avoiding the obvious?

Be honest, but try not to turn curiosity into an interrogation. You can ask for the truth without trying to force a confession. You can explain how you feel without arriving with a 46-page document of supporting evidence. You can also have an important conversation without deciding the entire future of the relationship before dessert.

Listen to what is being said, but pay attention to how you feel too. Do you soften around this person? Can you relax and remain yourself? Do you feel safe enough to be honest, or are you constantly monitoring, adjusting and preparing for the next emotional shift?

Love is not only what somebody says. Love is also how your body experiences the relationship.

Are You Available to Receive?

Venus is also asking us to look at receiving.

Many of us are very comfortable giving. We give time, love, encouragement, support and energy. We anticipate what other people need before they even know they need it. But receiving can feel much more vulnerable because receiving asks us to believe we are worthy without proving, performing or paying it back immediately.

Can you accept a compliment without dismissing it? Can you allow somebody to help you without feeling weak? Can someone do something lovely for you without you immediately trying to make the exchange even? Can you be loved without constantly working to deserve it?

This week may show us where the flow between giving and receiving has become unbalanced.

If you feel resentment around how much you do for everybody else, do not judge yourself for it. Listen to it. It may be showing you that you are giving from depletion rather than genuine desire.

There is a huge difference between generosity and self-erasure.

Sometimes compulsive giving carries the quiet hope that somebody will finally recognise our value, choose us or give us the love we are afraid to ask for directly. Venus reminds us that love is not only something we offer. It is also something we must become available to receive.

Venus also rules money, so our spending and financial choices may need some attention. Where does your money go? What do you happily invest in? What do you continually deny yourself? Where are you spending for genuine pleasure and where are you spending because you are bored, anxious or hoping a new version of yourself is waiting inside a shopping bag?

Pause before making a large or impulsive purchase, especially if you are convinced that it will completely transform your entire existence by Friday. It might, my friend, but give it a few days.

Venus is not asking us to remove pleasure from our lives. Quite the opposite. She is asking us to work out what truly nourishes us.

Pleasure does not always need to be expensive, productive or earned. It might be music in the kitchen, flowers on the table, swimming in the ocean, dancing, resting, eating something beautiful or being with someone who makes us laugh until we forget to monitor ourselves.

We are allowed to enjoy being alive.

A Different Way Forward

Towards the middle of the week, the energy begins to move and we may suddenly see a new way forward. Master Mars brings courage while Uranus opens a door we may not have noticed before. A new idea, opportunity or realisation could help us understand that we are not as stuck as we believed.

We may feel ready to make a different choice, and it does not need to be a dramatic one. Freedom often begins with something small. Saying yes to what excites us. Saying no to something we have outgrown. Changing a routine. Returning to an old creative passion. Applying for something or taking ourselves somewhere new.

We are allowed to try things. We are allowed to change our minds. We do not need to know whether something is our forever path before taking one step towards it.

We can put so much pressure on ourselves to make the right decision that we make no decision at all, but clarity often arrives through movement. Follow what feels alive and let yourself be surprised by who you are becoming.

Towards the end of the week, there may be some tension between what we want and what another person wants. One person may want closeness while the other needs space. One may be ready for change while the other is very comfortable with everything remaining exactly as it is.

This does not automatically mean something is wrong. Two people can love each other and still want different things. What matters is whether those differences can be spoken about honestly.

We may also recognise where we have mistaken intensity for intimacy. Some relationships feel powerful because they activate every wound, fear and insecurity we carry. That intensity can feel magnetic, but it is not always love.

Sometimes chemistry is anxiety with excellent lighting.

Calm love may feel unfamiliar if our nervous system learned to associate unpredictability with passion. Notice how a connection actually feels in your body. Can you relax and remain yourself? Does it bring expansion or contraction? Are you being drawn towards this person from genuine desire, or pulled towards them by the hope of finally resolving an old wound?

There is no judgement here. Only awareness.

The Libra New Moon

Early on Sunday morning here in Brisbane, we reach a beautiful New Moon in Libra. After a week of reviewing what we value, what we desire and what we are ready to receive, this New Moon gives us the opportunity for a reset.

Libra teaches us about balance, partnership, communication and the art of considering another person without disappearing from our own lives.

This New Moon asks us how we want to love and how we want to be loved. What does mutual support look like now? What does healthy love feel like in our bodies? Where do we need more honesty, freedom, affection, pleasure or connection? What are we ready to give and, perhaps more importantly, what are we finally ready to receive?

Because Venus is moving backwards, this New Moon may not bring an instant new beginning. It feels more like a review and redesign of the way we relate.

We can repair what genuinely wants to be repaired. We can renegotiate an agreement that no longer works. We can recognise where we have been repeating the same dynamic with different people and begin to make another choice.

At the New Moon, write down what you want your relationships and your life to feel like, not only what you want them to look like.

Do you want to feel safe, alive, honest, free, supported, passionate, peaceful or expansive?

Choose the words that matter to you, then look honestly at whether your choices are helping to create those feelings.

The Lessons and Blessings

This week reminds us that:

• changing our minds can be evidence of growth

• someone returning does not mean we need to return to them

• familiarity and alignment are not the same thing

• giving and receiving are both expressions of love

• pleasure does not have to be earned

• our spending often reflects our emotions and values

• calm does not mean boring

• intensity is not always intimacy

• clarity often arrives through movement

• a beautiful life is one that feels true on the inside

• new beginnings need to reflect who we are now

✨ Affirmation of the Week ✨

"I give myself permission to want what I want now. I release the dreams, relationships and definitions of success that no longer reflect who I am. I am worthy of love, pleasure, support and abundance that feel honest, mutual and aligned with the person I am becoming."

Beautiful soul, you are allowed to outgrow an old dream. You are allowed to look at something you once prayed for and recognise that it no longer belongs in your future. You are allowed to want more. You are allowed to want less. You are allowed to want something completely different.

This does not make you ungrateful, inconsistent or difficult. It makes you alive.

The person who created the old dream did the best they could with what they knew, needed and believed at the time. Honour that version of you, but do not force your future to fulfil a desire that your soul has already outgrown.

This week, stop asking whether you are still capable of achieving the old dream. Ask whether the old dream is still capable of fulfilling you.

You are not here to keep wanting what you once wanted. You are here to become honest about what your heart wants now.

Love you,

Sarah ✨

If you would like to receive some more guidance about this week's energy, watch my Weekly Cosmic Forecast below.

CARD OF THE WEEK

Here's a little guidance for the week ahead from The Transformation Deck;