Hearing from an ex this week has a weird after-hours mood, like your phone is face down but somehow judging you. Late October has the exact astrology that makes old chemistry cough in the group chat, so here is the type of ex most likely to resurface for each element during the current double retrograde. This offers perspective and predicts nothing, and your thumbs still belong to you.
Hearing From an Ex During a Double Retrograde
Venus turned retrograde on October 3 in Scorpio, slipped back into Libra on October 25 and turns direct on November 13 at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Mercury turned retrograde in Scorpio on October 24 and turns direct on November 13 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern. Both retrogrades end the same day. That makes this week prime time for hearing from an ex, as a tendency to watch. Nobody is promised a text.
The full moon in Taurus peaked on October 26 at 12:12 a.m. Eastern, so the emotional table is already sticky with appetite and pride. Retrograde motion means planets appear to move backward from our viewpoint, and you can read about why planets seem to move backward if you want the mechanics without the incense smoke. Venus rules attraction, while Mercury rules messages and timing. Libra replays the relationship in a silk robe, holding receipts.
Retire the cliche that hearing from an ex during a retrograde is the universe telling you to get back together. Most exes who resurface in a retrograde miss the person they were around you. You are the scenery. For the wider love weather, see the signs this retrograde hits hardest. For the yes-or-no of texting back, go to deciding whether to reply at all.
Last winter a friend slid her phone across the table to me, screen up, like evidence. Her ex had sent one line: ‘just saw a dog that looked like ours.’ They never had a dog. She laughed for a full minute, then spent the whole evening drafting a reply she never sent. I still think about that imaginary dog.
Fire Signs: The Ex Who Hates Losing
Aries, Leo and Sagittarius tend to draw the ex with a trumpet and all the subtlety of a chair scraping across tile. Hearing from an ex under Fire energy often looks like a bold message out of nowhere: ‘You up?’ or ‘I was thinking about us.’ Then there is the classic little grenade, a text that opens with ‘random, but’ and immediately ruins your soup.
This ex usually wants an audience. After Venus slipped back into Libra, pride wants proof that someone still watches. Meanwhile, Mercury retrograde in Scorpio adds the sting, because they remember the chemistry and the fights. Attention and accountability are two different animals, and a comeback can be more performance than confession.
If you are Fire-heavy, answer like a person with a pulse and a calendar. Keep it short. Ask one direct question if you need clarity, then stop feeding the bonfire just because it crackles prettily. For context, how the four elements behave in love explains why Fire heat can feel like destiny when it is sometimes just adrenaline wearing cologne.
Earth Signs: The Ex Who Needs Their Hoodie Back
Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn often get the practical ex. Hearing from an ex here may arrive disguised as logistics: a hoodie, a charger, a streaming password, one quick question about the dentist you recommended in 2021. Very romantic. So beige. Suspicious, too, in the way a clean knife is suspicious.
Because Venus retrograde is back in Libra, the old exchange rate of the relationship comes up. Who gave more? Which of you pretended not to care while quietly alphabetizing the shared spices? Mercury retrograde in Scorpio pulls the feeling out from behind the task. The hoodie smells like memory, and the password is a tiny bridge.
I know this ex personally. Mine came back during a Venus retrograde for a cast-iron pan he had never once seasoned. I handed over the pan at the door, kept the lid, and felt oddly victorious for a week. Earth energy prefers proof, so if hearing from an ex starts at the practical door, keep it practical. ‘Yes, I can leave it with the doorman.’ Clean. Kind. Unseasoned.
I cannot tell you which of them means it. Half the time, they cannot either. Screenshot it. Then breathe. If your body tightens, that is information. A softening counts as information too, and it signs you up for nothing.
Air Signs: The Ex Who Texts at Midnight
Gemini, Libra and Aquarius get the chatty ex, the meme ex, the ‘saw this and thought of you’ ex who treats a breakup like a podcast with bonus episodes. Hearing from an ex during Mercury retrograde gets busiest for Air, because this element lives in language, jokes and the little dopamine hit of a notification.
Mercury retrograde in Scorpio turns casual conversation into a basement light flicking on. Suddenly the meme has subtext, and the question mark at midnight has fingerprints. With Venus back in Libra, the Air ex may test whether charm still works.
Every retrograde season, my inbox fills with screenshots from readers who want me to translate one line from someone they muted two years ago. I’ve learned to read the timing before the words, and I’ve seen the same pattern every time. In my experience, a message that lands during a double retrograde rarely carries news. It carries a mood, and the sender usually has not decided what they want yet. So before you answer, try this:
Write the reply in your notes app first, then ask: ‘What am I hoping this opens?’
Use one clean boundary line, such as ‘I am keeping things friendly and brief.’
Flirt only when it feels mutual, clear and easy to stop.
Water Signs and Hearing From an Ex Who Never Fully Left
Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces may experience hearing from an ex as a long emotional message, an anniversary text or a soft voice note that smells like rain on an old sweater. Water exes do not always return with noise. Sometimes they seep under the door. Because Mercury is retrograde in Scorpio, the unsaid stuff gets louder, and Venus retrograde wants love history reviewed with the lights too low.
This is the ex who never fully left the emotional room. Maybe nobody has spoken in months, yet one date on the calendar still has teeth. Then they send ‘I hope you are well’ and your nervous system starts rearranging furniture. Feel it without reopening everything before November 13, when both retrogrades turn direct. A feeling can visit without moving back in.
Is it a sign? It is a sign that memory is active. Whether the relationship deserves another season is a separate question. How long does this last? The strongest review period runs until November 13, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern for Mercury and 7:00 p.m. Eastern for Venus.
So notice the element, then watch yourself most of all. Your peace is allowed to be boring. Sometimes the sexiest move is letting the phone cool on the table while the old ghost learns to text somebody else.
The post The Ex You Will Hear From This Week, by Element appeared first on askAstrology.
