Libra

Time is passing by far too quickly for me.  It seems like almost yesterday I was writing about Virgo, and now here we are in Libra. We've harvested the food and had our feast.  The days and nights are growing cooler  preparing to enter Scorpio, a time of endings, but endings with the promise of a new beginning....but before we begin our descent into the darkness of winter that comes with Scorpio, we have Libra...a time of delicate balance. From September 22nd, the well-known Autumnal Equinox, until October 22nd we experience those golden days when nature seems to take a pause and everything is a bit dreamy and hushed during the day light hours as the nights become ever crisper, colder, and darker.

Libra, the seventh sign of the western Zodiac, was the last of the signs to be officially recognized. It is a Cardinal, Masculine, Air sign ironically ruled by the Goddess, Venus. The symbol for Libra is the Scales which represent the setting Sun balanced between night and day, and as the scales of balance, it is the only symbol in astrology which is not represented by a person or an animal.  It signifies a balanced approach to one's life and reflects harmony, fairness, and beauty.  Back in ancient times,  Scorpio and Libra were actually one constellation with Libra being the claws of Scorpio. Libra was just an empty space of unimportant stars, yet though its reach to Virgo's hand,  Libra became an instrument of justice through the hand of Virgo, the star 'Spica.'

The glyph for Libra is two parallel horizontal lines.  The top line has a half-circle coming off the top which represents the setting Sun as it descends over the horizon at the beginning of its annual cycle into darkness, death and re-birth. Libra, the  scales of balance and final judgment dates back to the ancient Egyptian funerary rites  wherein a scale was allegedly used to weigh the souls of the dead. Anubis weighs the heart of the deceased against the feather of Ma'at, the Goddess of truth and justice to determine whether or not that individual had lived a sufficiently commendable life to be considered for rebirth into an eternal life.  As the goddess of order and harmony, Ma'at was said to represent the natural law or universal law, and in the Hall of Ma'at, those who had obeyed the natural law were saved.

In Libra, we become conscious of our need for companionship, for partnership; hence, Libra has everything to do with how we relate to others. As an archetype, there is no one archetype, it many different, each related to the different sides of its energy-- The Lover, The Advocate, The Diplomat, The Judge, The Counselor, The Co-dependent, The Mediator, The Unrequited Lover, The Victim, and The Politician.  It also shares a deep affinity with another archetype which the Greeks called the Goddess, Aphrodite; the Romans called Her Venus. Known as the morning or evening star, Venus is visible just before sunrise or just after sunset. In nature, She is feminine, nocturnal, and temperately cold and moist.

As an evening star, She appears in the west during the period following sunset, and as She draws close to the Sun, She disappears from view while continuing to circle the Earth invisibly masked by the light of the sun. Them as She moves ahead of the sun, She eventually becomes visible again in the east as She rises shortly before the sun. During the ancient times, Her evening manifestation was said to bring men and women to the act of love in bed, but Her morning appearance woke them up to go to war. One role Venus plays in our modern times is to awaken us to acknowledge our divine. 
 

To the early Christians, Libra represented the Apostle Philip;  The Hebrews called it Moznayim.. To the Ancient Chinese, Libra was known as Show Sing, the "Star of Longevity," but in later generations its name was changed to Tien Ching, (Celestial Balance).  The sacred books of India refer to Libra as Tula (balance) where it is depicted as a man bent on one knee holding the scales aloft.  In modern times, Libra is usually the symbol of the "Scales of Justice" and stands alone, not being held by any personage.

The stars of Libra are also believed represent the Golden Chariot of Pluto/Hades which he used whenever he wanted to visit the upper world.   Four black horses pulled his chariot, and when he saw Persephone, the beautiful young daughter of Zeus and Demeter, he was so enraptured by her beauty that he had to have Her for himself. So, he abducts Her and makes Her the Queen of the Underworld. Demeter, the Goddess of agriculture, is so distraught about losing Her daughter, that She refuses to allow the seeds to sprout.

Zeus tries to convince Hades to let Persephone go, but, since She had eaten six pomegranate seeds, Hades won’t let her go. So, Zeus rules that She has to divide her time, eight months of the year She may visit her mother, and during the rest of the year She has to stay in the underworld. So, every year, on March 21st, Persephone leaves the Underworld and brings Spring with Her, and in the Autumn, She returns to Her husband....and the time of darkness begins.