Libra has been a sign trivialized in popular Astrology which is concerned exclusively with the way the sign expresses itself through the personality. Libra then seems short of the characteristics which give a sign a ‘reputation’. The Libran qualities of reasonableness, measure, discrimination, and fairness are not exciting by contemporary standards which favour a heroic individual, a fashionable cause, a single-track understanding of right and wrong and a willingness to eliminate adversaries. This is not the Libran’s way.

Discrimination is one of Libra’s defining qualities. Why choose to argue and antagonize when minimizing conflict and difficulties and seeking out common ground could be a more effective means to a desirable result?

Librans are strategists. This is the first thing we need to understand about those born under this sign. The second thing is that they are likely to be highly intelligent, and work with mind not physical strength. There are probably more exceptional minds being born under Libra than Aquarius now, and they need things to be rational and reasonable. Libran’s creative start point is what is and what could be moved forwards from that place, not what could be if only…

As ’Sephariel’ says in The Manual of Astrology, my bible when I first engaged with Astrology.’ ‘The future is but the past unfolded.’ Librans understand this, and consider where they stand is as good a place as any to start 

The decanates are clues to where Librans focus in their efforts to achieve cooperation. 

• Those with Sun in Libra degrees 0-9 will aim for cooperation in all aspects of everyday life – fitting in. 
• Those with Sun in Libra 10-19 will be focused on personal relationship – fitting together.
• Those with Sun in Libra 20 -29 will be focused on human evolution – fitting the individual  into the whole. 

The Sun in Libra is in its Fall, a concept which generally is not well understood.  In a natal chart the Fall of a planet is a process which represents an important step in the evolution of  that individual’s consciousness. When a planet is in Fall it is loses its defining qualities and is no longer expressing itself in a self -serving way, able eventually to access and express the energy of the Hierarchical ruler of the sign, an energy that serves the evolution of the human family as a whole. 

When is in Libra, the fiery, egotistical Sun becomes more aware of others, and more respectful of different realities that may be harmonized by finding new common ground.  Whilst in the process of Falling, the Sun is available to be influenced by slower moving planets close to it and which will override the influence of Venus, the ruler of Libra at the personality level. This will give Libra a quite different quality.

Bob Geldorf has Sun in Libra’s second decanate, conjunct Mercury and Saturn.

When the Sun has completed its Fall it draws on the energy of Saturn which working through Libra serves the evolution of human consciousness. 

Until the Sun in Libra has completed the process of Fall and can draw upon Saturn – and this may take more than one lifetime -many Libran lives will be lived out somewhere between two positions: they wish to serve evolution but don’t know ‘how best’ – a very Libran expression – to further things. This is where the Libran reputation for indecisiveness comes from and often the cause is the  ‘how best to do’ uncertainties.

In those with the head centers developing, the last degrees of Libra (in the Tropical Zodiac) can bring in the influence of some challenging stars from constellations which contemporary humanity struggles to view positively. Then, blandness, reasonableness and indecisiveness will be overlaid by a disputatiousness and lawlessness called up by a need to make a point.

The French poet, Arthur Rimbaud, had both Sun and Ascendant in the last degrees of Libra and by the time he was 21 he had shocked and scandalized bourgeois Paris sufficiently to be able  to retire to and  live quietly – aside from a little gun running  - in Ethiopia: point made, the emotional self laid bare, job done.   A Libran knows when enough is enough, and that it is counter-productive to overdo a thing. 

The disputatiousness brought about by the presence of certain stars in the sign’s last degrees will also affect the expression of those with Libra Rising, but typically they are compliant. peacekeeping, diplomatic and agreeable.  They can agree with anybody on any matter with enough appearance of interest to sound as if they mean it, because they learned young around strict parents that pleasing gets a better result better than arguing. They make sure they look pleasing; sound pleasing and avoid controversy. They are generally very popular, if uncommitted. In conversation they prefer to let those with whom they are engaging choose the topic and  keep to themselves the matter that they are in search of something which they will truly care about, which will give them a sense of identity and their lives an authenticity which they know they lack because of all the compromising done in early life. They will likely consider it poor form to talk about such things socially, and in any event, they want more than the opinion of another; they want to experience inner recognition or resonance. The Esoteric Ruler of Libra is Uranus, and a person with this sign rising is trying to integrate soul and personality. 

Again, the decanates will indicate in which area of life they will find this for which they are searching.

To the esotericist, Libra is the sign that acts as the agent for the Third Aspect of the Trinity. It is  the bridge with arches connecting  our solar system with the higher worlds represented by the suns and stars of the Milky Way; and  our Solar Logos with our Planetary Logos  and  its transformative centres, of which Humanity is one. What comes across the Libran bridge to reach our world is Ray 3, (Ray of Active intelligence); what is carried back includes the riper  fruits of conscious human endeavour in time and space.

For the last ten centuries human evolution in the West has been driven along by education, literature and teaching to encourage balance leading to integration in the relationships

• between people, 
• between the dense physical and etheric vehicles comprising the human body
• between the personality and the human soul

In the West, Libran values have shaped our spirituality on the Path of Evolution where we  aspirants have added the awareness of the need to integrate the Human Soul and the Monad , struggling as we do so  to understand  power as more than an undesirable and dangerous  expression of egotism. In this we start on the back foot because Christian teaching has never focused upon the Crown chakra. This was left to Islam.

Regardless of the gains made by monastic life and by what we thought we would achieve when the New Age went to our heads and we took up with Asian systems, we Westerners are moving along the slow Path of Evolution: staying in the world, developing individuality, learning from our mistakes and using discrimination to decide when enough is enough.  Western individuals need all aspects of life to be explicable to the reason, and even the sincerest Western aspirant in an Asian tradition will (more than) likely leave his path and his teacher when individuality is threatened because it takes Westerners beyond our limits. From that point onwards, everything will be perceived by us as aberrant. It’s the way we are; it’s the way Libra has made us.  

Our insistence upon reasonableness and rationality limits our spiritual development because those qualities never got anyone free from the imprisonment of personal reality. Yet they have enabled spirituality and social codes to cross fertilize and stumble along together, if not always harmoniously.

What we have forgotten, however,  is the balance between the ever-growing human family and the planet, and we remain uneasy about finding a place for personal power amongst our spiritual values. Aware people sit on their hands and let those without conscience take over. These omissions will cost us dearly very soon. There will be big learning coming from not bringing these things into a better balance.

As the short comings of democratic government pile up in these fast moving times, our Western societies are coming unravelled, but we can help ourselves and those who come after us by remembering what Western evolution has achieved and strive to uphold its values in our personal lives. We are individual enough to do this and to hold a space for those who come after us, so that that thesis meeting with antithesis can make a new  proactive synthesis that includes the Libran values of reasonableness, measure discrimination and fairness.

 Suzanne Rough / DKF-K

 November 2024