With Sunday’s equinox, the Sun entered Libra: an air sign, but an air sign with a mission. Libra is a cardinal sign, initiating a season, and when the is Sun there, we’re all a lot more aware of the issues, decisions and challenges that we’re ready to take on in a new way. In true Libra style, those things may carry themes of balance, fairness, justice and relationship.
I think ‘justice’ in particular can be one of the more challenging of Libra’s themes to take on. The word calls to mind the court system and the many grave miscarriages of justice that can and do occur. ‘Justice’ relates to global human rights issues of all sorts. For some, the word has taken on a meaning that is actually closer to ‘revenge’ or ‘punishment’, completely devoid of any sense of healing, growth or deeper spiritual process and meaning.
Especially with the ongoing Uranus-Pluto square uprooting social paradigms all over for several years, we are faced more than ever with a question routinely asked every year when the Sun enters Libra: What are you going to do about the injustice you see in the world?
The question comes up because every year at this time the Sun is contacting the Aries Point (by way of opposing it). The Aries Point asks you to consider what is personal to you that you see playing out on the world stage, and what world events are having a personal impact on you. But you can’t take it all on, so where do you start?
Can you start in your own relationships? Can you begin modeling better balance, fairness and communication with everyone you’re involved with, whether intimately or professionally?
Consider also that right now the Libra Sun is making a trine to the asteroid Juno in Aquarius (exact Sept. 26 at 3:30 pm EDT), and Juno itself stations direct today at 3:16 am EDT.
Juno works on several levels. One one, it’s about whether one is able to express emotional needs to relationship partners. This may be at the heart of its tendency to jealousy and resentment. But according to some astrologers, Juno also carries a theme of social justice. And social justice is, ultimately, relational justice — just on a wider scale (pun not intended). In other words, think globally, act locally; the trine from the Sun is easing the way.
Speaking of scales, what is that point of balance in the middle, which is neither ‘this’ nor ‘that’? Can it be embodied? We tend to think of balance as being all about a pair of ideas, items or states of being that we’re trying to make ‘equal’. But is that sort of thinking a red herring?
Dichotomies like either/or, inner/outer, ‘me’/’other’ can be messy and often unjust, but Libra is ruled by Venus. What is the more elegant solution? Is there a third way, represented by the point of balance between the scales, rather than the things hanging on either side?
Isn’t that actually the state of existence represented by the equinox: a moment when night and day are equal for all, when we all share some facet of experience together all at once? That may be the thing to remember, to carry with you as the balance of night and day swings to an extreme and the astrology of the next season shifts into a higher gear: that point in the middle where balance is embodied, and from which you can extend yourself into your relationships and into the world in a way that allows room for the elegant solution, the third way. In any case, Libra says it’s time to start.
Perhaps my libra rising gives special meaning to this for me but years ago I was shown an image in my mind’s eye of one example of this balance. In my Shamanic teachings, the East (Sun/Intellect), West (Moon/emotions), North (Spirit/Intuition), South (Earth/physical) form a cross. On a journey my Guide showed me that Jesus being “on the cross” is symbolic for being in that place of total balance in the center where these 4 meet. It’s total surrender of any perceived earthly little “self” – sacrificing the fears and the ego for the Magic and the Beauty of the big “Self” and that multi-dimensional place of being One with all that Is.
I agree, Amanda, that we do need to seek a “third way”, which can indeed be a challenge in a world that seems polarized at every level, including the interpersonal. But the older I become, the more aware I am that either/or causes more problems, in many situations, than it resolves .Fortunately, I’ve been blessed by the example of my longtime stellium-in-Libra friend, who challenges me when I get too either-or-ish on an issue where there may well be another road, which I had not seen.
Perhaps part of the difficulty in finding/holding that Libra balance point, & perhaps finding another way, may be that most of us have so little tolerance for uncertainty. I know there have been times in the past when I have made a bad decision largely because I couldn’t bear waiting to see all the possibilities before leaping.
The photo is indeed gorgeous! My hummingbirds have gone South already – but my nasturtiums are still blooming. Thank-you, DivaCarla, for also loving my favourite flower! To me, there’re the most beautiful of all my flowers. I cover mine against the frost for as long as I can every autumn, & it’s always a sad day when I must give them up.
Libra balance, about being in the middle. I like that image. It calls forth ideas of taking in the concepts, information, energy – whatever – and becoming something new that takes the best and appropriate from the oppositions. Avoid polar opposites, except to see what the view is from each and then merge in the middle. Thank you, Amanda.
And many thanks for the great photo. As much as I like and appreciate charts with postings, I also really appreciate the artistry of the photos from you and Eric (and others) to enhance the astrology visually.
JannKinz
PS: Oh, yeah, it truly is a “court” system that, in spite of the definition, has little or nothing to do with truth or justice. May the Libra Sun shine light on the center.
Woa…you actually caught a hummingbird. Good shot.
Oh my hummingbird goddess Amanda. That is the sexiest picture I have ever seen. You are so blessed to have this visitation, and brilliant to have photographed. I can’t thank you enough for this image. I really merge with that hummingbird in the nasturtium. I feel the same way about those sexy little flowers. Pardon my gush, but I am having an overwhelming emotional response to your image, and this is the only way I can convey it!
Now about this astrology. Yes and yes and yes. Balance is the center. and the center is always the center, no matter what’s happening on the scales, or the edges. The thing about the center is it is empty of drama. We humans get addicted to drama, and tend to tilt the scales in its favor, micro and macro. Until we don’t.
Centering now. What a deep and resonant interpretation. Thanks!
Amanda, beautiful catch on the photo! Love hummingbirds, how fortunate for you to have the experience of this one.
So valid and important what you point out – that (fueled by media) the idea of Justice has been perverted into troublesome alternatives.
And indeed, it’s the coin as a whole; the balance point of the scales that must be our goal/focus in a world of duality. The equinox sets an example, to be sure.
Thanks for a wonderful post.
Amanda, that is a fantastic photo! And many thanks for the great post as well.