Seventh: Libra

If you haven’t already, I urge you to read the article explaining how the zodiac may be seen as a collection of twelve psychological types and thus gain context.

The equinoxes mark important points of transition in the blend of Day and Night forces, when their predominance switches. The vernal equinox saw the Day Force become the predominant force in Aries and it remained that way for the next six months, reaching a maximum at the summer solstice, the start of Cancer. Conversely, the autumnal equinox is the moment when the Night Force gains predominance in Libra and will reach its maximum at the winter solstice, the beginning of Capricorn.

The Day Force, which impulses the process of integration of our individuality, began to diminish in potency right after the summer solstice. In Libra, the self-affirmation of Leo and the self-criticism of Virgo reconcile and are dominated by a self-consecration to humanity. Of course, in this consecration, the ego is still present but neither as master nor as critic or servant. His individuality is a lens focused in the integration of the larger Whole, humanity, of which he will become a participant. Libra sees the birth of an individual entity within humanity which will function as a cell between now and the end of the zodiac.

The fall equinox marks the moment when social cooperation triumphs decisively over individualist self-expression and emotional egocentrism. It does not represent the ultimate victory, just like Aries didn’t imply the task of developing an individuality. However, after Libra, how to reach the objective will become clearer, true seekers will have the needed vision and understanding to find and follow the path. New energies arise from group cooperation and social interchange, providing fresh perspectives and new objectives in a somewhat clearer manner. The walls surrounding the ‘I’ have crumbled, at lest theoretically, allowing the collaboration with others to form social organisms.

Developing the State

The three phases after Libra parallel somewhat Aries, Taurus and Gemini but rather than developing a personality, using that term in the Jungian sense, the process integrates a society. A great power of adaptation to the social environment surges. The purpose is to make and validate the reality of human interchange, of community, of living together within an organic, stable and permanent structure of conduct and community (Libra). Slowly but surely, the energies from such communal living, the realizations it will enable (Scorpio) and visions born out of communal thinking (Sagittarius), will give rise to the perfect social organism in Capricorn: the State.

Libra is a cardinal sign, which accentuates activity and behavior values. There is a social eagerness, a vital sense of dependency upon social values. Not like Leo’s desire for fame or social approval due to unrecognized social insecurities that give rise to bravado; the Libra type has developed, for the first time in the zodiacal sequence, a real and true sense of social values. But, being those the important values now, and with feelings and emotions strongly conditioned by the Day Force’s individualism, the Libra type tends to exaggerate the importance of social factors.

The Social Impulse

Just like Aries is aggressive and even arrogant in his impatience to assert himself as an integrated personality, so the Libra person will do more than what is required to prove his social sense. He will sacrifice himself, or at least make it look like he does, before being indifferent to societal or group obligations. He is as obsessed with the social impulse as Aries is with the affirmation of his personality, and yet he doesn’t feel sure of himself within social activities. He feels he could go back and be individualistic but must disguise such possibility, inventing stories to reassure his companions, and himself, that he belongs to the group and that the group acts through him.

Dark Side

It is said that Libra individuals are opportunists, shifty, unstable, and notoriously unreliable; but those are superficial characteristics. The true, psychological motive is that the Libra type will do whatever is required to adjust his behavior to what is expected of him by the group or collectivity, or to what he thinks it is expected of him. Thus, on superficial decisions he seems to change his mind and be unstable, at times behaving like a chameleon who not only “changes colors” depending on the situation he faces but is absorbed by the situations themselves. In fact, this absorption is the true essence of the Libra behavior. However, underneath all this, there is great pride and susceptibility, and often a tormenting feeling of being incapable to perform the self-imposed jobs in both his family and social lives.

Both Aries and Libra are signs of unstable equilibrium. The two forces are only equal for an instant but remain nearly so in the signs, thus there is a tendency to keep moving, nervousness and, often, neurotic behavior. The Libra person consciously desires to be social, impersonal, spiritual, able to treat his associates with class, and yet, subconsciously it seems (to him) that he cannot reach the goal he has established as an ever evasive objective. As you can imagine, such personality type will feel at times disheartened but, at other times, enthusiastic about social work and group participation. He will be always in the lookout for the perfect group and the ideal form of cooperation. Every human relation is solemn and serious to him. However, he may give so much of himself to others that he might lose track of reality in search of the ideal. He could very well chop down the trees in his urgency to achieve an integrated forest.

Venusian Idealism or Realism

On the other hand, in his positive side, the Libra person is an excellent activities’ director for any group, a natural harmonizer, and a terrific integrator—because he is insecure about his own integration. Harmony in the group and in human relations are matters of life and death for Libra. Controversies and conflicts destabilize his nervous system and produce psychical exhaustion. He hasn’t yet learned to move in diplomatic waters as Capricorn does. In Capricorn, the social sense is as established and firm as the individual sense is in Cancer. But, in Aries and Libra nothing is yet established, personality and society are barely being formed. Things begin to take shape, there can be no calmness for Libra when the lack of social adaptation or the return to pure individuality are seen as horrible tragedies.

Hence the powerful need for idealism felt by the Libra individual when he is sufficiently evolved to be conscious of the social process. The load of an unstable personality makes Libra yearn for an ideal group or model of society which will protect his endeavors. For many, the theosophical ideal of the Brotherhood of the White Lodge, the perfect group, represents an answer to such a yearning. This idealism is best exemplified in Gandhi, who had Sun in Libra.

On Form

In the less-evolved Libra persons, however, the complex social process remains in the subconscious and they function at the easier level of human relationships, that of physical attraction. Others find solace in the arts. Libra is ruled by Venus which gives them beautiful features and great charm. It is the symbol of culture and aesthetic taste, always taking into account the concept of form, used to build coherent models of order and beauty out of different and scattered elements.

Often, the sense of “form” is misunderstood. Every type of social grouping is based in the principle of form, even business management. In fact, all relatively permanent relationships between two or more entities implies the embodiment of a form or model. Throughout the zodiac, the Night Force always depends on form. Every work of art is the reunion and organization of different entities, be those pigments, lines, tonalities, or physical materials, and the same is true when talking about a social group. Libra is the artist dreaming ideal forms, Capricorn will turn them into something concrete. Often, an artist’s dreams are seen to inspire skillful politicians. Wagner’s influence on Hitler, whose Ascendant was in Libra, is a good example.

The Balance Symbol

Besides form, there is a more predominant factor in the Libra person: that of evaluation. And this takes us to consider the balance as a symbol often associated with Libra. Such symbol is frequently taken literally by many astrologers who think that Libra people are “balanced”. They may be, but in most cases a Libra person is an extremist regarding key social issues, though he appears otherwise to benefit the group’s harmony. The balance symbol has another meaning. Balances are used to weigh something by comparing its weight to a socially-accepted standard. Therefore, the symbol refers to the evaluation and measurement of something fundamental in terms of social value. For centuries the value of something has been related to its weight in gold. The balance thus symbolizes the extraction of what is valuable in an object.

What is important is not the equilibrium seen in a static balance but the evaluation and measurement required to base a judgment. The Libra person is essentially an individual who evaluates things, persons or events against some social models, either traditional or ideal. He will constantly evaluate but, at the same time, he may feel insecure about the social model to cast judgment “in the name of society”, as Sagittarius would do. However, he will have passed the test and everything will be in its place, for he uses social usefulness and the capacity to act harmoniously in a group as his evaluation metrics. The Libra individual is often found operating in the arts because it is easier to organize the lights and shadows of a painting than coerce human personalities to become models of a stable social organization.

Seed of Civilization

Once again, Libra is not the owner of the social process; the Night Force is predominant but weak. He comes from the Virgo stage of criticism, self-evaluation and self-discipline. He may have the vision of what occultists call the “New Jerusalem”, the perfect city with an “Ideal Society”, but it will require other evolutionary stages, with a growing Night Force, to develop the necessary power to form the State with men and women. Hence the Libra person dreams, evaluates, irradiates and seeks the love that will form a new group, a new society. But, he does all this more as an artist than a politician, despite being an excellent executive. He is more of a seer and harmonizer than a builder.

In another important sense, Libra symbolizes the seed, which should not be surprising since the autumnal equinox marks the time when the leaves begin to fall from the trees (in the northern hemisphere) to form mulch that will protect the seeds during winter. Importantly, one can find in the seed all the vital energies of the dead plant, in a rigid organizational form. Rudhyar tells us that the seed symbolizes the mystical brotherhood but also self-sacrifice. Thus we have the Sabian symbol for Libra 1: “A butterfly made perfect by a dart through it”, the dart referring to the wisdom of understanding the social process, as mentioned earlier. The stage of chrysalis was Virgo, where the Sphinx looks ahead, towards the equinox and Libra; the encounter with the other, the Beloved. Indeed, Virgo is a true preparation for Libra.

Living With Others

A “new life” begins in Libra; the life as a participant in a group, in society, in some important Whole, perhaps the Church, and in Humanity. The Sphinx gave way to the Great Pyramid and Libra is the Initiate who emerges from the sarcophagus in the King’s Chamber. He has received the vision and has found his function and his place within the nearest group or the entire Universe. He now moves in the path of service to the group, but such service will lack value unless the reality of the greater Whole is experienced in his being. In Scorpio, this reality must impregnate and revitalize the feelings and emotions, the deepest substance of one’s personality, and in Sagittarius, it must transfigure one’s mind. Libra’s vision is substantiated in Scorpio and born at a mental level in Sagittarius. Finally, at the winter solstice, the State becomes a reality, while the Baby Christ is born.

Gift: Ease

The entire zodiac is balanced around the equinoctial axis linking Aries and Libra. Similarly, all the gifts offered by Spirit to whomever participates as someone in the vast ritual of cosmic activity, revolve around two virtues: adaptability and ease. What “adaptability” is to the novice in spiritual living, “ease” is to the man of more mature experience, ready to establish himself and his work among his peers. At the beginning of the path, the individual faces challenges to emerge from the collective and act as his own center. First of all, he must survive and to do that he must adapt. The collective powers of mankind will want to reduce him, and everybody else, to the average. He must not ram with impatient eagerness and adolescent egocentrism the defenses of society.

Half a journey later, he has learned many lessons. He now finds himself rather sure of himself. But what of other men? Heretofore, he had seen them perhaps as dangers on the path or materials for conquest and overcoming. When meeting them, he felt he was encountering his own objective nature; human nature. The last lesson learnt was that of tolerance, the realization that he needed to give up the limitations and rigidity of ego-centered judgments to grow his individuality, welcoming all that was different but assimilable. However, inclusiveness is a strain on the mind and feelings. Meeting human beings who also claim to have arisen as individuals, like ourselves, as equals presents serious difficulties. Whereas inclusiveness of unfamiliar points of view may be difficult, full relatedness with unfamiliar people seems much worse, as many newlyweds will attest. What better gift can the Spirit give than “ease” to facilitate meaningful relationships?

On Ease

As it was with tolerance, this little word, ease, is rich with great depths of meaning but most definitions stress only a negative one. Ease is not only freedom from agitation, constraint, affliction, tension or fear. It is not even merely a form of tranquility or comfort, or facility in performing actions. Of course, it is all these things but, more importantly, it is the realization that “co-operation” is more than “operation” and the whole is more than the parts and even more than the sum-total of the parts. In many ways, ease is the sense of being lived by a greater life, containing all the components of a situation or, crucially, of a relationship in which one is a part. If everyone of us vitally realizes, and not just intellectually conceives, that we are functional parts of a whole, and one with its wholeness, how could there be a lack of ease between any of us?

Ease is an expression of totally accepted relatedness, to an object, a situation or a person. It is the lack of mental reservation in approaching a relationship and the acts it demands. Thus, a dancer is related to the floor, the speaker to his audience, and the lover to his expectant mate. If any of them holds a thought or feeling against his relatedness to whatever he faces, ease simply vanishes. Behind all resistances is some kind of fear. Selfishness is a form of fear, and so are most illnesses.

The Libra Fear

As mentioned earlier, many people (and astrologers) speak of the fine social feelings of the Libra type of individuals. We should nevertheless realize that these feelings are attempts to hide fear. Deep inside, the Libra person could find in himself (if he only dared investigate) an unconscious, subtle but powerful, resistance against total relatedness. He knows that it is the next step he will have to take and thus resists it. Warns Rudhyar: “If he attains social ease, it is essentially by overcoming this resistance and a sense of social inferiority—just like the impulsive bravado of the Aries type is usually an over-compensation for a gnawing sense of personal insecurity” (his emphases).

The Darkest Side

If the negative character has gained control of the Libra person, the sense of relatedness takes on exclusivist and destructive forms. Relationships are still glorified, but it is the type of relationship which is spiritual bondage, and seeks subconsciously to bind and to absorb. This situation occurs in relatively few cases but it is worth mentioning because real ease should not be taken for granted in a Libra person. When it truly manifests, it is a gift of the Spirit and, as such, it will both satisfy a vital need and overcome a subconscious fear. The results of such overcoming produce a radiance not seen in other persons, for what comes as spiritual victory has always a creative and contagious quality found in no other way. Transformations of individualities depend on such victories, which are never achieved without a struggle and faith in the ultimate overcoming, both.

Struggle and Morality

The factor of “struggle” and faith in the eventual victory has been stressed by humanity over centuries, and it is symbolized by the tightened jaw and the clenched will. At least in the West, this performance is understood to constitute “morality”. However, such morality as the glorification of a fighting will-to-do-good should vanish under the dawning light of an age of abundance and plenitude of living. Morality as an expression of tenseness of mind and feeling leads to diseases of a constricted will, just as body illness inevitably follows physical strain and long-held cramped postures.

Struggle may be necessary and none more important than the effort to overcome inertia, spiritual indifference and the doubt that there will be a victory. Not a struggle against an entity, to be met with strained muscles, contracted heart and tightened will; but a struggle for understanding, inclusiveness, breadth of vision and greater light. It is an effort without it being a conflict. It is a constantly deepening eagerness for identification of the ego with the greater Self. The ego is what it is, the center of the conscious mind, and that only. The Self is the power of the integrated personality. The ego is exclusive; the Self is not consciousness but wholeness focused into an individuality which can only grow through inclusiveness. That said, the degree of inclusiveness must match one’s capacity to assimilate what is being included and absorbed.

The New Morality

“Indeed the source of ease is to be found in every part of the soul of the body”, writes Rudhyar. Ease thus spreads from our center, where the harvest of our own nature resides. Suppression, repression, a sense of inadequacy or of guilt, fear, and the pride born of fear: all these products of a civilization theoretically stressing morality at all cost, and of a will burdened with the belief in sin, are witnesses to a fundamental inability to trust the promise of abundant living. They are the products of scarcity. In fact, morality, as we traditionally know it, is spiritual scarcity.

Gradually a morality of abundance will take form in humanity, a morality that is wholeness operating through every part of the social organism; a morality refusing to be haunted by the ghostly sins of individuals, and accounting every man responsible for every other man’s failure; a morality placing the spiritual priority of the whole over that of the parts. The crowning jewel of such a morality will be the ease of living and ease in being.

Final Words

Rudhyar writes: “Ease is the fragrance of a love so harmonious that the participants share one another wholly, in feelings and in deeds. Ease is the fragrance of happiness. It is simplicity become peace; peace singing to itself in the silence of consummated living.” Men and women of tomorrow shall know the wonder of ease, for their souls will be freed from scarcity of love and poverty of spirit, their bodies joying under the sun, and their minds gathering ideas from gardens where bees will extract the flowers’ nectar.

Always Love. 🌹🙏💖