Our lives are filled with many diverse relationships — from family members, intimate partners, friends, co-workers, to casual acquaintances and brief interactions with service personnel. While the Sun shines in Libra we explore how we interact with each one another.
September 22 – the Sun Enters Libra
at the fall equinox 1:21 AM PDT (8:21 GMT). The Sun moves into Scorpio Oct 23 10:47 AM PDT 17: 47 GMT.
The first six signs of the zodiac focus our attention on our personal development. When we get to Libra, the seventh zodiac sign (second air sign), our personal identity is confronted and tested with interpersonal connections and relationships. A whole new dance begins when we enter the arena of partnerships. There is not just one but two (and more) individuals who dance together. A new interactive dynamic challenges our ability to know ourselves, what we want, and what works (and doesn’t work) for us. Every day we come face to face with other men and women who are also developing a relationship with their own energies and figuring out what they want, need, and must do in the world.
Dealing with Life’s Challenges
Every day we must deal with situations that require our assessment, response, and action (or no action). The Libra archetype brings us face to face with many dilemmas.
(1) How can we stay centered in ourselves, tune into the other(s), be responsive to life situations, and flow with the rhythm of life all at the same time?
(2) How can we interact in a way that honors each other and ourselves?
(3) How can we synergize and be co-creative (and not abusive or destructive)?
(4) How can we balance leading and following without controlling and being submissive?
(5) How can we be honest and authentic without being aggressive, spiteful, and hurtful?
Libra is represented by the Scales, whose goal is to find a state of equilibrium in the middle of the play of polarities. At first view, it appears that we must balance the two sides by making sure they are of equal weight and given the same importance or value. Our attention is on the two sides, not on the middle point. This is how we perceive reality in duality, i.e. we struggle to reconcile what appear to be opposing and conflicting forces and interests. Oblivious of the stable center that never moves, there appears to be a delicate balance point where a tenuous equilibrium can be reached. But there is always the imminent threatening possibility of one side commanding more attention and creating disequilibrium.
In duality consciousness, our mind and emotions attempt to find balance by shifting from one extreme to another. Our mind alternates between positive and negative and between happy and discontent. Watch your own thoughts and observe others’ commentaries. We usually start out with some complaint or criticism and then switch to the good aspects. And then we keep going back and forth. Some people express positive and negative in the same sentence!
The futile attempt to find balance is also displayed in erratic behaviors between extremes — (1) being loving, then hateful, (2) being kind, then confrontational, (3) being affectionate, then critical. The variations of the theme ‘You love me. You love me not.” are endemic to dualistic thinking and polarity dysfunctions. The basic problem is that we are mentally and emotionally living on the titer-totter (seesaw.) We have no stable neutral center. Our mid-point (our heart!) is missing.
When we operate from our neutral mind with integrated polarity consciousness, we react and interact very differently. The interactive dynamic in non-duality (oneness consciousness) is peaceful, not conflictual and confrontational. We are able to listen to and respect other points of view without getting thrown off balance or taking sides. In the middle (our heart), we can find harmony through cooperation, synergy, and compassion. Complementary forces naturally work together and there is no threat of domination/control or repression/submission.
Polarities
In Libra territory, we must investigate how we define and relate to polarities, especially the basic universal polarities — masculine/stable/active and feminine/flowing/receptive. When our perception of reality is dominated by dualistic thinking, we live in the belief that opposites attract in order to become whole. (This is true, however, it is only part of how reality works.) In human relationships, this partial perception too often creates co-dependence, not wholeness.
The essence of the Libra archetype is about transcending dualistic thinking into oneness consciousness where we experience the cosmic dance of stable and flowing energies. Since both polarities are active in both men and women, we each must find our internal balance, expression, and harmony within ourselves. As we evolve into this higher state of mind and achieve inner peace, relating to each other is no longer threatened by our internal conflicts and mental and emotional instability.
Venus in Scorpio (September 23 – October 23) prods us to go deep within to identify and uproot our unconscious projections and programming (most of which is based in dualistic thinking). This is possible only in our neutral channel (observer mind) where we do not judge and shame ourselves. In our neutral observer mind, we can be honest about our human needs, feelings, and fears without projecting them onto others. We can share without dumping. And better yet, we can have a close relationship with our own fears, feeling, and needs, and nurture ourselves with self-love.
The Sun in Scorpio (October 22 through November 20) intensifies the need to go deep, be honest, and act with integrity. Superficial doesn’t compute in Scorpio territory, where we discover that intimate, sexual partnerships expose deep wounds and require deep healing. The Scorpio archetype dives into the transformative power available in partnerships and awakens us to how we can best utilize and manifest with this power. Scorpio is about tapping into and using the synergistic dynamics of relationships to create alliances that transcend egos and tormenting games and deliver us to profound love and pleasure.
Libra’s polarity Aries helps us extricate ourselves from neediness into self-sufficiency making it possible to release ourselves from unhealthy co-dependence. When we can stay balanced in our neutral higher mind, while in relationships and in life, we have achieved the authentic balance point, which allows us to stay internally centered amidst the on-going fluctuations in the flow of life.
Jupiter in Libra September 9 through October 19, 2017
September 9, Jupiter entered Libra for 13 months, during which time we can investigate the roles we play and the fantasies that control our attitude toward relationships. The Libra archetype is not about finding the perfect partner, whose love makes it possible to avoid facing our own shadow and repressed emotions. It is a serious myth that a relationship can save us from our own personal development and taking responsibility for our own lives. When we introduce another person into our life matrix, we are similarly dealing with another human being with multiple and complex dynamics. Our inner state (peace or conflict) is what interacts with others. So it is with and in ourselves that we must start (and continue) to build the necessary foundation for all the relationships in our lives.
The belief (at least the hope) that being in relationship will somehow help us avoid or even solve our own inner conflicts is a serious red flag. If we believe that our major problem is that we are not in a relationship, we operate in a fantasy world. We must close our story book and avoid setting ourselves up for serious disappointments and endless problems!
Fantasies, obsessions, and theories don’t compute in real life, and in fact they are major sabotaging influences. While Jupiter is in Libra our most important tasks are (1) to develop a loving relationship with ourselves, and (2) to identify relationship fantasies so that we can get real. We are well advised to stop both the fantasy and the denial wheels before we cause (any more) unwanted and unneeded trouble to ourselves and others. And by the way, don’t shame or blame yourself or others for the illusions that run (and ruin) our lives. It is part of the human development and self-empowerment process to identify programming, which has been imposed by our culture, parents, education, and religion, and free ourselves of this painful burden.
September 30-October 1 – Libra New Moon
5:11 PM PDT (00:11 GMT)
New Moons draw us inward. At the Libra New Moon we investigate our relationship with ourselves and how we set the tone, impact, and create our relationships. The Sun, Moon, and Jupiter are in Libra. Venus and Juno are in Scorpio.
As an air sign, Libra’s pivotal challenge is to train and reorient the mind, which starts by moving out of our dualistic channel into the neutral/oneness channel and continues by learning how to stay there.*(1) In duality, the mind will (1) continue to ask useless questions, (2) engage in vacuous dialogues, (3) get stimulated by and attract conflict, (4) endlessly discuss with no resolution, and (5) drive everyone including ourselves crazy. In our neutral mind, we awaken to another perspective and understanding of ourselves and each other. In our observer/neutral mind we can distance ourselves from our own mental chatter and avoid creating endless hassles and complications. We can let things be and live in reality the way it is. Love begins in our higher neutral mind.
October 15-16 – Aries Full Moon
9:23 PM PDT (4:23 AM GMT) at 23 degrees Aries and Libra
The first sign of the zodiac is about new beginnings and the challenges of achieving a sense of personal identity and independence. Uranus in Aries adds a wild card to the Full Moon. Uranus in Aries wants innovation, reform, autonomy, and self-expression. Uranus forces us to think outside the box.
The Aries-Libra polarity pair is about balancing connection with others with personal freedom and authenticity. How can we live in integrity with ourselves and be fair in our relationships? On and around the Aries Full Moon, we may have an intense encounter and be challenged in dealing with opposition and opposites. Use these situations to upgrade your capacity to respect the rights and beliefs of others and at the same time stay attuned to and true to your own.
October 19 – Mars and Pluto Join at 15 degrees Capricorn
Mars and Pluto conjunct 8 times in Capricorn between 2008 and 2022. This is the fifth time. Again we are asked to evaluate how we are doing in relationship to taking responsibility for how we use both our personal and collective power and resources. Are we evolving from conflict and aggression to collaboration and empathy?
Mercury at 15 degrees Libra squares 15 degrees Capricorn, urging us to be more honest in how we view our progress.
References
Austin, Stephanie, Libra New Moon — September 30 – October 1, The Mountain Astrologer, August/September 2016, p. 105
(1) Discussed in detail in The Power of Neutral by Guru Rattana, Ph.D.
