libra-6Libra (Latin for balance), September 23 – October 22, does not like being alone, and is happiest when in love. Always planning for the next “relationship”, this sign’s horoscope is all about being “in love with love”. For Libra, everything is better when done as a pair.

The “Scales” are Yang, Air, and Cardinal. Its color is blue, day of week Friday, birthstone Opal and it shares traits with the Chinese Zodiac’s Dog.

This is the youngest sign of the Zodiac, and the only one that does not represent a living creature. In Greek mythology, the constellation was viewed as the scales held by Virgo, the goddess of justice.

Libra has well-developed social skills and is motivated by a desire for personal, social and relationship harmony. This Zodiac sign prefers the company of others to solitude and enjoys social occasions and outings. Possessing a natural sense of justice, they have good powers of comparison, which enables them to appreciate both sides of any situation. This makes them gifted in the arts of diplomacy and peacemaking. With an aesthetic and refined sense, this sign has an appreciation of the finer things in life and beauty and the arts. At times, they can be too dependent on others and overly needy in relationships.

Ruled by Venus, our smooth seductress is at her best amid pleasurable excess. Cultured, refined and good-looking, this sign loves beautiful things (especially beautiful people).

Charming and adept at conversation and making others feel comfortable, this balancing act is a people magnet and easily the Zodiac’s most social horoscope. The center of the party, when these folks are on their game they’re a pleasure to be with.

Libra rules the kidneys, lower back, and ovaries. Lower back pain, and problems caused by too much sugar or rich food are common complaints.

Harmony is a thing of beauty for Libra, not just a sensible way to make matters run smoothly. With this cardinal-air sign, we learn that there are others in life with whom we can form unions based on equality. This concept, of two or more people being on equal footing, has not been put forth before by the first six signs. It becomes a whole new way to view life, but not a simpler way. Two-way streets invite more traffic, and now we need to look both ways before crossing.

Libra seeks out others with whom it can mutually share life experience. This means more than just wanting company to avoid being alone (although that is partly the motive). Shared experience usually implies there’ll be at least two different viewpoints to contend with, since people rarely see eye to eye in every matter (and Libra wouldn’t enjoy that kind of union, anyway). The Balancer ideally love to reach an amiable agreement after hearing both sides and hammering out a solution, perhaps a compromise, that all parties involved can live with.

Libra is a skilled negotiator. The airing out of contrasting ideas is important to the Libran growth process (all air signs must get their thoughts out in the open, and cardinality is certainly not going to sidetrack issues. it pushes them to the forefront). Libra clearly wants to get things off its chest, but it prefers venting to a committed, trust-worthy partner rather than to a bathroom mirror, especially under harsh lighting.

Libra comes alive when it can interact with a partner, whether love or war is in the air. Yet achieving just the right balance of give and take is not easy, since Libra also wants to be the recipient of all that it happily gives to its partner. It’s not a doormat and it won’t allow itself to be used, although it takes a while to decide to put its foot down and say, No more! The key to its true inner contentment comes from Libras ability to make a marriage within itself, to harmonize its inner parts in ways that lead to peace of mind – the kind that cannot come from any relationship, no matter how intimate a couple appears to be.

If the Balancer is secretly out of balance with itself, its partnerships emphatically reflect this discord. It may seem strange that Libras symbol, the Scales, is the zodiac’s only inanimate object. Libra introduces the impersonal concept of justice, an ideal that reflects the nature of cause and effect on moral and legal levels – As ye sow, so shall ye reap. Those unfettered actions taken by innocently self-seeking Aries are now shown to have social consequences at this Libran stage of unfoldment.

What is clear here is that we can’t just do whatever we please, at least not at the expense of others. Their needs are to be considered now as well. Were learning to see both sides of a relationship, not just our own. The scales of justice don’t allow for special treatment in this regard. All who break the rules of proper conduct, including fair play and common decency, will suffer penalties. What goes around, comes around, hmmm . . . this sounds like karma in the making. Now we get to realize that inconsiderate action can have repercussions.

Libra is a sign of potential backlash regarding selfish behavior on our part (and it only gets worse in Scorpio). At this point in the zodiac, we realize that willful misbehavior will be punished if not immediately, then at some timely point in the future. The zodiac has now made us aware that a day of judgment awaits. What this also suggests is that normally sweet, charming Libra, on some deeper level, is immune to dramatic emotional pleas, clever rationalizations, or brilliant intellectual arguments when it comes to a violation of rights. The Balancer has been wisely dubbed the “iron fist in the velvet glove”, suggesting that it can be one tough cookie” who’s surprisingly unyielding, even under strained conditions.

True justice is not vulnerable to human manipulation. No one is above the law. This explains why Libra, when oppressively backed up against the wall, would sooner die for its principles than compromise under tyrannical pressure and lose its integrity. This doesn’t mean, once we get past its pleasing, social veneer, that Libra is a cold-hearted sign. The Balancer tempers justice with mercy.Yet it wouldn’t be able to do so if it didn’t understand human nature very well. Remember, Libra can see and understand many sides of an issue. Nothing is to be judged in rigid, black-or-white terms. A careful weighing of diverse factors is required.

Virgo provides us with an opportunity to try to figure people out, especially regarding why they sometimes do the dumb things they do. Libra goes further by sharpening its understanding of human psychology (while in Scorpio, we finally plumb the darker depths of the psyche to determine what needs a total overhaul). Libran types appear to be more understanding of social misconduct because they can recognize conflicting motives in operation that result in such behavior. Yet if aggravated enough, the Balancer will chillingly say, Let the ax fall so that justice is served. Libra then becomes an agent of karmic retribution.

Libra is very sensitive to the current atmosphere it finds itself in, especially wherever people congregate. Observing society in action is stimulating for this sign. While Gemini is also a people watcher, its not always willing to participate in relationships as fully mutable energy doesn’t urge us to plunge into experience in the energetically assertive way that the cardinal mode does (the one mutable exception is Sagittarius, due to its irrepressibly fiery nature). Libran types must have harmonious social contact on a daily basis and are quite unnerved when something enters the picture to spoil an otherwise pleasant exchange between people. Its a sign that believes in the cultural importance of courteous interactions.

Since Libra is also learning about disharmony, the other side of the coin, invariably somebody comes on the scene to cause a little friction that tips the scales, typically leaving the Balancer feeling quite out of sorts. Virgo isn’t keen on such disruption either, but then, this realistic earth sign doesn’t harbor idealistic expectations about other peoples behavior – it anticipates that they’ll eventually screw up.

Libran types need to be careful not to express too much sweetness and light, since it becomes very hard for them to sincerely sustain such an aura of peace (and some who try to do so are probably suppressing a lot of darker elements that then get projected on to antagonistic people in their lives). Libra can forever play the smiley-face game and pretend everything is beautiful, as long as nobody makes any waves or touches a raw nerve.

The ability to handle the downside of being human is also important to the Balancer’s inner growth. Libra even has to learn to be a fighter, and not just of social causes. It needs to learn how to defend itself against direct, personal attack. The key is to fight fairly and intelligently (something Aries doesn’t always do).

Doing battle can be upgraded to an art form, and indeed, military strategists benefit by having natal planets in Libra. Its okay to be kind to others and to show consideration, but it’s not so hot when Libra feels it’s always the one bending over backwards to please those who’d never think of returning the favor. Why risk getting hurt again and again by expert abusers who only look at relationships one way – their way. The Balancer needs to lovingly permit itself to give back as good as it gets, and to hell with having a nice day. (Scorpio decides it’s going to give back even more than it gets to those who really have it coming.)

Virgo is a sign that praises the virtues of good grooming. Staying clean and looking neat and presentable require a degree of organization. How freshly things smell seems to concern this earth sign (it knows that anything with a rotten odor is probably not in a healthy state). Libra carries this theme of being well-groomed to a more ideal level. Looking marvelous is sometimes even more important than actually feeling great. Appearance means a lot to the Balancer, and may be that’s because when we look our best, we attract the right people. Yet when we look like a skid-row reject, we repel them.

Libra feels its life will run better if it takes time to doll up and package itself as a class act. It’s a sign whose more cultivated, polished image becomes a magnet for social approval. lt’s easy to see the shortcomings of only being impressed by things having such surface appeal. Yet Libran types aren’t bothered by this because they know they’re not shallow at heart. They just prefer to look at things that are pretty.

Let beauty and grace come to the rescue of weary souls everywhere. Libra is more than just the sign of one-on-one relationships, which can also imply those of an adversarial nature. It’s a symbol of committed unions, and thus it governs the traditional state of matrimony. In this area, the Balancer seems most comfortable with the conventional, legal set-up. Polygamy will never do (nor will that group marriage experiment that nonconformist Aquarius sometimes talks about).

Regardless of sexual orientation, Libran types want an intimate partnership that society will endorse, and the Balancer is not ashamed to admit that it does care what others think (its like Capricorn in this regard). However, Libra also knows how unfair society can be whenever it tries to regulate the private lives of its members (perhaps here, Libra is at odds with rule-enforcing Capricorn for this reason). Air believes in freedom of expression for all, and therefore adopts a live and let live policy. But for itself, Libra would rather that its blessed union be bound by law, if possible. So where’s the ring?

The ideal arrangement in Libras mind would be for two people in love, who have much respect for each other, to join forces as self determined individuals, each with a healthy ego intact. That’s a situation the Balancer would value the most. Libra wants a marriage of equals (no previous sign thought of that possibility). This suggests that no one is to play a parental role, or one of a helpless child. Nor is one person to dictate the actions that another is permitted to take. Libra doesn’t believe that partners own each other, just because of a marriage contract, and will balk at the thought of being unfairly controlled or dominated.

The problem is that Libran types can have stormy dialogues inside their heads that they dare not verbalize in any ongoing, difficult relationship, at least not for a while. Eventually the tables turn, as Libra unleashes pent-up anger and outrage over being poorly treated. A colder side emerges (those scales are made of hard metal) as the Balancer addresses all grievances it has suffered. It’s nearly impossible to appeal to Libras sweet side once this level of alienation has been reached. Yet until that day occurs, Libra is apt to forgive its loved one again and again (but it never forgets abuse, as its always keeping score and will wait for the right time to issue an ultimatum, or else leave the union for good). Actually, at heart, Libra wishes that the honeymoon could go on and on . . . so why can’t two people in love just try to get along?

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