LIBRAPossibility / Diplomacy / Light-heartedness / Balance / Charm / Harmony
Ideally, harmony and beauty are best served when both your needs and mine are identified and reconciled Libra has strong will that leans towards instigating change, yet softens its personal bias by seeing the bigger picture. It devotes time to inner reflection to look at all possibilities, seeking reconciliation, but feels no need to compromise to avoid confrontation – so often negotiations give everything that’s wanted. It trusts that any conflict will be peacefully resolved, and this is done by respecting the tensions and strains on both sides in any situation – the need for give and take, drive and relaxation, coping and escaping. Often, attempts to find harmony, and resolve differences of perspective, or clashes of motivation, fail because people take up positions. It takes a special ability to raise issues without raising temperatures; it takes poise. With excellent communication skills, civility of good manners, true judgement, discretion, and no extremes or excesses, this born diplomat, a perfect negotiator and public relations artist, is a word warrior who can maintain a dynamic forceful posture using intellect and grace, which avoids the need for physical aggression. Libra is more conceptual than practical. It puts beauty on a pedestal as proof of worth, without quite realising that the unbeautiful may feel judged and wanting. Optimism is favoured over realism, and new can be seen as better than established. The brass tacks do not attract, and the superficial can be very absorbing. For these very reasons however, this sign offers friendship and social empathy at the drop of a hat, and has no deep-seated issues of principle or practice to threaten an immediate and sincere interaction – though such involvement may be short-lived, and eventually prove to have seemed only casual. The pursuit of excellence involves willingness to see other viewpoints. This is done in the spirit of reaching the highest level of perfection, by comparing what is against what may be. Done with innocence, not contrariness, it is the route of idealism, and sponsors both truth and beauty – in art as much as relationship. Seeing things from the other side is the way towards true insight and, with curiosity and willingness for new experiences, leads to a very refreshing lightness of being. This is the antidote when heavy seriousness has become a problem. As often as the wind shifts, the Libra planets will manoeuvre themselves towards an easier posture, releasing atmospheric pressure, consistently engendering movement and restoring equilibrium through attitudes of fairness and equality, backed up by justice based on impartial philosophical reasoning. It requires more than exemplary self-discipline to reach the yearned-for condition of perfect balance, because there needs to be a high-level overview to see how two conflicting attitudes are simply in fact one dynamic system expressed as a polarity. In this state of knowledge – called gnosis by mystics – fellowship arises as a spiritual state, and it is seen that all action contributes to life’s essential dynamism – and serene inaction is often an important contribution towards reconciliation and harmony. Libra defines itself in terms of its relationship with another – and is considerate by its very nature. Achieving a place of equality and peace can take forever – the fine-tuning, the listening, the tactful phrases – and yet forever is no problem. Persistence is as emblematic of Libra as it is of Aries. It takes the other’s position as much into account as its own. This is the essence of spirituality, the Golden Rule, taught by all religions – e.g. ‘love thy neighbour as thyself’ – and while all signs can theoretically achieve this, Libra actually enjoys it. Libra Wisdom Possibility
The Expressions of Libra Possibility Libra 1 – 5 There is an intrinsic equivalence between beingness and meaning; we are the meaning of our lives, and there is nothing else to it. Our life purpose is to be the best possible version of our unique selves. There are two major forces that act upon us to unsettle the status quo – those of degeneration and regeneration, and we need to resist the former, and flow with the latter, in order to remain and explain exactly who we really are. This is the only game in town, and it is the ultimate adventure – so we are stimulated, challenged, attacked and supported through it all. It is indeed best to view it as a game – and yet there is nothing else more serious, or in fact less serious – life is just best played as a game. Certain laws apply, and yet there is no rule book since the directives are self-selected. Typical beliefs that people hold are that we develop skills and knowledge so as to increase our rewards, that justice eventually prevails, that love conquers all…and so on. It takes a true idealist to maintain faith in these life principles throughout all of our difficulties, and the ideals that we embrace are representations of our intuitive sense of possibility. An inner feeling tells us what we might achieve, and then it is the accomplishment of this felt potential that imbues our lives with significance. Diplomacy Libra 6 – 10 One who develops true poise withstands the pressures of life and emerges with greater aplomb – but a coarse fool rarely survives life’s hard knocks. It’s tough here on earth and the inept cannot really thrive – because all of our qualities are each fairly rewarded, yet thoroughly tested. There are consequences for all of our choices and, to be beautiful and powerful negotiating with people who want different outcomes to us, it behoves us to come up with an elegant and effective, diplomatic strategy. It may be clear to us that freedom arises when we relax our power and enjoy beauty. Yet anything as vulnerable as beauty needs protection – so the power to defend is an aspect of grace. We think of course of the rose and its thorn – each is loyal to the other; they have mutuality of purpose and relevance, and they are really aspects of one another. Similarly, yet more subtly, a diplomat wears soft gloves to cover an iron fist. Light-heartedness Libra 11 – 15 It is highly beneficial to relax and enjoy simple pleasures in beautiful places, because this is how we dissolve the darker, heavy clouds of a worried mind. The very act of perception of beauty is therapeutic, a smile heals, and love is a potent tool of joy. We are studying the law of attraction, which is a fundamental life mystery – like attracts like; it may not always be self-evident, but it is known by esotericists as a universal law. So we make ourselves light in order to lighten our lives. The refinement of self is a process of mind. If we think only clear and loving thoughts then we tend to pull situations to us that are conducive to happiness. We need to associate only with empathic people, have only good intentions, expect only what supports our vision, and allow only love to inhabit the heart. This lightens our lives. Anxiety, fear, resentment and prejudiced judgements are invasions – we must cast them out. Balance Libra 16 – 20 Each of the zodiac signs has its own path to knowledge, none more important than another – and all of them are essential ingredients of the cosmic pie, like jigsaw pieces that only make sense as a whole picture. What Libra offers is the basic law of threeness – celebrated in so many spiritual teachings. It is not the balancing but the perfection of balance that we study here. Balancing is of two-ness: now me, now you. Balance is of three-ness – because when dynamic seesaw is momentarily at rest, then all heaven breaks loose. This is the mystical Hu; this is the infinite moment when time collapses into the instant, into eternity. In this state, all is known. And all is known as One. Charm Libra 21 – 25 When applied to personality, the quality of charm shows as tact and consideration. The relationship between two people always involves push and pull, give and take – in fact that is what relationship is. We have both to claim and surrender for there to be any involvement. To be considerate, we try to understand what the other person wants, and needs, and take this into account as we pursue our own goals and entertainments. It is a real skill to see the better qualities in someone, and speak to these. We can recognize a potential in another and bring it into expressed reality by talking it up. People often need a potential to be recognized by someone else before they can affirm their own sense of its possibility. The charming courtesy of tact – always looking to find the best in a person – therefore can actually be magically creative, bring dormant potential to life. It has equivalence, and is an example of ‘glamour’, in the sense of a magician’s methodology, whereby a certain mood or atmosphere is intentionally created to sponsor a specific positive outcome. Harmony Libra 26 – 30 Sufis pray to remember a state of perfection, known as ‘Hu’, which exists within us all, and is beyond pain and suffering. It is approached by recalling a feeling, known as ‘Ishq’, which is taught to be Divine Nostalgia – the heart-centred aching felt by one who has known and yearns again for Absolute Love. It is taught that we have all known that Love – that we were born from it and inevitably will return to it. There is a close relationship between love, beauty and harmony. Since love is ambiguously defined, often capricious, and extremely idealized, it is conceivably more reasonable to venerate beauty, and aspire towards harmony, rather than demand or expect something as transcendental as love. A pilgrimage of beauty is almost certain to succeed, and will lead inevitably to connectedness and harmony – and then with grace, love may descend upon us. If humanity is to claim its spiritual destiny and emerge from a sleeping state into awakened consciousness, we will eventually need to affirm a life of innocence and beauty, fellowship and awareness. Beauty is but a passing mood – its power to inspire awe enhanced by its transiency. Through beauty, the heart reaches out to know love – and through transience, it knows pain. We attach ourselves to that which is always shifting – and the attachment itself is responsible for sorrow, and its terrible sister, grief. Perhaps we do this for protection because we ourselves are shifting too? However, ultimately, we must come to know that both the flow, and the instant, is illusion. The ache of the grieving heart can actually be a fast-track path towards joy – if we would only surrender our fear of loss and discover the sacred mystery hidden deep within the broken heart. |
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