The Solar Eclipse in Libra and Making Hard Choices

Hey everyone, this is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology. Today, we're going to take a little bit more time to reflect on the upcoming solar eclipse in the sign of Libra, and we're going to do so by visiting one of my favorite passages ever written about the sign of Libra and its mythology. 

This is a passage from a book called The Astrology of Fate by Liz Greene, and it comes from a section of the book called The Myths of the Zodiac; in that section, there's kind of a subsection devoted to Libra that's really beautiful, and so I'm going to read you that passage dates a couple of pages long, and then as I go, I'm going to pause and just offer some reflections on my own experience working with Libran planets. I have several in my office, three in my own chart, and also Libran planets and people with Libra stellium Sun Moon rising over the years; what have I seen, what have I learned about this sign? And how can it help us prepare for this solar eclipse in the sign of Libra, which will greatly emphasize the mythology that is present in the sign which Greene talks about so nicely in her book. 

So that is our agenda for today. I think it really like this, and if nothing else, it will expose you to one of the great modern masters of astrology, Liz Greene, and her work. If you've never read it before, I hope that you will be off to the races to read more because her work is really awesome, and it's informed a lot of my own understanding. So anyway, that's our goal for today. 

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All right, well, let us refresh ourselves on the eclipse that we are looking at here. I'm going to put up the real-time clock. The eclipse comes through on Saturday. We've already taken a whole Horoscope look through the 12 signs this month. We've talked about the eclipse from multiple different points of view over the past few months, even as early as this past summer, and here it is Saturday, October 14.

Our first of the big eclipses in Libra; we've got a combust Mercury that's in the process of transforming; it has mutual reception with Venus, who's in her fall. So, one of the themes that we visited was that of disappointments, you know, when things don't work out exactly as you had planned, we have to trust that something deeper is at work. But it's not always easy to do so, especially if things feel sort of unfair, and we talked a lot about the issue of fairness and unfairness with Libra in yesterday's talk. 

So today, we're going to look at this again, but we're going to look at it. We're going to look more deeply and broadly at the mythology of Libra as we prepare for this eclipse, and as I said, I'm going to actually be reading out of a text. This is called The Astrology of Fate by Liz Greene, and it is a text I love. 

There's a section called the Myth and the Zodiac, like a chapter, and then she goes through some of the mythology of all 12 signs, and I think she's just she's got a knack for just drawing out some of the really deep archetypal complexes within each sign and I think that's going to help us as we prepare for this Libra Eclipse. 

Sometimes, once in a while, you guys know I like to read things to you. It's like reading hour for about four pages. So it's reading hour; get ready, get comfy, and I'm going to read to you what Liz Greene has to say about Libra, and as I go, I may pause and offer some reflections of my own and then continue.

Libra, his greatness weighed His will is not his own, for he himself is subject to his birth he may not, as unvalued persons do carve for himself for on his choice depends the safety and health of the whole state. That is from Shakespeare's Hamlet. 

Libra is the only sign of the Zodiac, which is represented by an inanimate object. This may sound insulting, but it suggests to me that as we arrive at the point of equilibrium reflected in the autumnal equinox, we meet something which is very far removed from the instinctual kingdom. Libra has a highly confusing early mythology, and this is perhaps fitting because the faculties of judgment, reflection, and choice, which seem to be so basic, a feature of the sign, or the fruit of conscious effort, and not natural, the name Libra itself, which means the balance does not seem to have occurred before the second century BCE. This has led some writers to believe that the sign did not even exist as a separate entity in early astrology. 

Instead, the scorpion was double the size of the present constellation and encompass two distinct facets or aspects. The part of the heavens which is now called Libra, was originally known as *Chelae, the scorpion's claws. This is very suggestive that the scales of balanced judgment should have developed from what was originally the gripping origin of the dark underworld creature, which always represented the cathodic realm. It is as though our noble faculty of judgment emerged from something much older, more archaic, and more primitive and evolved over time into what we now understand as objective or impartial assessment.

Although Libra the balance is almost new, however, images of judgment in myth are far older. The Egyptians use the scales as a symbol of the judgment of the souls of the dead by Osiris and the underworld, and the myth of this rite of passage is perhaps relevant to our understanding of Libra. It does seem that the Egyptians knew the balance, although the Babylonians did not, and the Chelae, was sometimes portrayed as a scale beam an even stranger image comes to us from Babylon, the claws of the scorpion are shown holding the lamp of illumination. Amidst these confusing images of what we now know as Libra, it seems that a single figure begins to emerge a goddess of justice, a sort of civilized Moira, which has acquired something more refined than the dark and bloody instinct for vengeance. This goddess judges according to human law and morality; however, unlike a Straya, who is more of a representation of the orderly pattern of nature, judgment in the Libra incense rests upon careful assessment and reflection before any sentence is given. 

In Egyptian ritual, when the soul of the deceased had safely crossed the country between the land of the living and the kingdom of the dead, he was ushered into the presence of Osiris by Anubis, the Egyptian form of Hermes Psychopompos, guide of souls. In the centre of the hall of judgement was erected a vast scale, beside which stood Maat, the goddess of truth, ready to weigh the heart of the deceased. Meanwhile, the monster Amemait, whose name means 'the devourer' - a species of early Erinyes, part lion, part hippopotamus, part crocodile - crouched waiting to eat the hearts of the guilty. Forty-two personages sat around the hall in their winding-sheets; some had human heads, some the heads of animals. To each of these assessors the soul of the deceased had to proclaim his 'negative confession' - that is, a list of all the bad things he did not do. After this came the weighing of the soul. In one of the pans of the balance, Anubis placed Maat herself, or else the feather of truth, which was her symbol. In the other pan, he put the heart of the deceased. If the two pans were in equilibrium, and therefore if the man's sins did not outweigh the feather of Maat, then the divine judges passed a favourable verdict. 

Maat, like the Greek Athene, whom I also associate with Libra, seems to have personified law, truth, and social order. She is definitely a thinking, civilised Moira, an emergence of something reflective out of the natural eye-fer-an-eye vindictiveness of the Scorpion's Claws. Maat's law is not that of the Mother but that of the ethical and moral codes of society. The forty-two judges in the Hall of the Dead represented the forty-two 'nomes' or provinces of Egypt, and the individual's sins were very much related to his conduct in society. We have met Athene in this role already in the story of Orestes; her human court, which votes on the young prince's fate, is something 'new', something different from the bickering and angry gods. It is as though myth is here suggesting that in this eminently human although 'unnatural' faculty of rational judgement lies a potential resolution for, or point of equilibrium between, the collisions and conflicts within the unconscious psyche which the Greeks so loved to represent as quarrel- ling deities and family curses. The goddess Astraea also possesses something of this quality of discriminating judgement, although as we have seen, it lies in a different sphere; but it is my experience that both Virgo and Libra share a similar sense of outrage at the breaking of the rules. But Libra seems to project this vision of justice out into life in a heightened way. It forms the basis of the sign's intense idealism and belief in the fairness of life. I have never felt that Libra was concerned, as some popular descriptions would tell us, with romantic love, flowers, and candlelight, except as an abstract concern with the appropriate rituals of courtship according to an ideal conception. Romantic 'feeling' is not a property of Libra. The sign is much more connected with questions of ethics and morality, judgment, and apportionment. This theme of morality is one which I have encountered many times in the lives of Librans, for there is that within the sign which longs for the verification of this deity who holds the perfectly balanced scales of judgement; and in order to achieve such an experience, imbalance and extremes and the violation of the law are necessary happenings from which Libra does not readily escape.

The mythic image of Osiris judging the souls of the dead is a portrayal of the gods' judgement on man and implies the existence of universal principles of right and wrong by which human life must be lived. These principles are not 'natural' in that they are not the laws of the kingdom of nature. But they belong to the realm of the human spirit and its vision of perfection. There are two mythic tales I would now like to explore where it is man's judgment of the gods, which is the primary theme, and these myths have, I feel, bearing on the patterns which shape Libra's development. In these stories, a human being is called upon to decide an issue about which the gods are quarrelling, much as the human jury of Athens must pronounce judgement between Apollo and the Erinyes. The trouble which ensues after such a judgement is also a relevant theme in the myths, and implies that judging the gods is not a simple issue, nor one without its consequences. In the figure of Osiris and the scales of Maat, we can see a vision which is dear to the heart of Libra: The cosmos is ultimately just and fair, and good is rewarded and evil punished. There is no sign so oriented towards the 'good, true and beautiful' as Plato puts it, although how that good is defined depends, in the end, upon the individual's definition of it. Libra, however, does not see it as an individual issue but rather one of finding the universal ethics which transcend mere human choice. 

But in the stories of Paris and Teiresias, we find two humans who, because of their superior experience and perception, are called upon to do something which the gods themselves cannot do. Thus, the vision of a just cosmos is something that the human spirit can contribute to life and to the gods rather than the other way around. Both Paris and Teiresias suffer consequences, which strike me as typical of the kind of entanglements into which Librans have a tendency to stumble. For the business of judging, as these stories suggest, is a hazardous occupation because the gods themselves will not play by the rules. 

Paris was the son of King Priam and Queen Hekabe of Troy. An oracle or dream had warned his Mother that he would grow up to be the ruin of his country. Therefore, the infant was exposed on Mount Ida, where he was saved and suckled by a she-bear. But his royal birth was eventually recognised by the outstanding beauty, intelligence, and strength of the young prince. Because of his prowess with women and his superior powers of judgement, Zeus chose him to arbitrate between three quarrelling Olympian goddesses. The young man was herding his cattle one day when Hermes, accompanied by Hera, Athene, and Aphrodite, appeared before him. Hermes handed him a golden apple and delivered Zeus' message: 'Paris, since you are as handsome as you are wise in affairs of the heart, Zeus commands you to judge which of these goddesses is the fairest and to award to the winner the golden apple.' 

Since Paris was no fool, he understandably baulked at this request, knowing full well that whatever he did, he would incur the anger of two of the deities. So, like a good Libran, he offered gallantly to divide the apple equally among the three. Zeus, however, would have none of this evasion and demanded that the young man choose. Paris then begged all the goddesses not to be vexed with him should they lose, for the task had been foisted upon him against his wishes and was none of his choosing. All three promised not to seek revenge should they lose the contest. The goddesses were then asked to disrobe. Athene insisted that Aphrodite remove her famous girdle, which made everyone fall in love with her and gave her an unfair advantage. Aphrodite insisted that Athene remove her battle helmet, which made her look more noble and distinguished. Hera did not stoop to such tactics but merely removed her clothes with the dignity befitting a Queen of the gods. 

Hera then offered Paris the rulership of all of Asia and promised to make him the richest man alive if he chose her. Paris, being a typical Libran, was not especially attracted by the responsibilities of such enormous wealth and power. Athene then promised that she would make him victorious in all his battles, but since this is a Libran myth and not an Arien one, that, too, held no appeal for him. Aphrodite, being herself by far the best judge of what motivated Paris, promised him the most beautiful woman in the world to be his wife. This was Helen, the daughter of Zeus by Leda and the wife of King Menelaos of Mykenai. Paris objected that Helen was already married; how then could she be his wife? Leave it to me, said Aphrodite, and Paris awarded her the golden apple without a second thought. By this judgment, he incurred the hatred of both Hera and Athene, who, reneging on their own promises to be good losers, went off arm in arm to plot the destruction of Troy. When Paris eventually met Helen at her husband's court, the two fell instantly in love, and, during the King's absence, eloped together and fled to Troy. This incident provoked the Greeks to avenge the insult and provided them with the excuse to do what they had always wanted to do: burn Troy to the ground. During this war, not only Paris but his three sons by Helen were slaughtered, but Helen, being semi-divine and blameless as Aphrodite's pawn, was returned repentant to her husband. 

Thus, Paris, one of the most Libran of mythic heroes, was confronted with the necessity of making a judgement - one of personal values and ethical choice - to which he responded in a characteristic way. That he came to a bad end does not imply that this is the concrete fate of Libra, although sometimes Libra's choices in love do lead to considerable confusion and difficulty. I have seen enough of the typical love triangles of Libra, where such choices are thrust upon the individual to draw him into some fairly strenuous emotional dilemmas (and sometimes financial ones as well), to be convinced that in this myth lies a typical development pattern for the sign.  

Teiresias, on the other hand, is a rather different kind of character. When we meet him in the tale of Oedipus, he is a blind seer renowned for his insight and judgement. It is he who warns Oidipus that the accursed thing which has polluted Thebes is the king himself. But the story of Teiresias' blindness is an interesting one. There are several versions of this tale, and in one of them, Teiresias, like Paris, was called upon to judge who was the most beautiful among four goddesses: Aphrodite and the three Graces. By awarding the prize to one of the Graces, he incurred the wrath of the goddess of love, who turned him into an old woman. But the best known version of the Teiresias myth begins when he was once wandering on Mount Kyllene. There he saw two serpents in the act of coupling. When both attacked him, he struck them with his staff, killing the female. Immediately he was turned into a woman, and spent several years as a celebrated harlot. Seven years later he hapened to see the same scene at the same spot, and this time regained his manhood by killing the male serpent. Because of his unusual experience of both sexes, Zeus then called upon him to decide a judgement between himself and Hera. These two had been quarrelling, as was their wont, about Zeus' infidelities to his wife, and the god had defended himself by arguing that when he did share his wife's bed she had the better time because women derived more pleasure from the sexual act. Hera denied this, insisting that the truth was to the contrary, for why else should her husband be so flagrantly promiscuous? Teiresias, summoned to settle the dispute, replied: 

If the parts of love-pleasure becounted as ten, Thrice three go to women, one only to men.

Hera was so exasperated by this response that she struck Teiresias blind. But Zeus took pity on him since he had, after all, taken the side of the god, so he was granted inner sight and the ability to understand the prophetic language of the birds. He was also given a life-span which lasted for seven generations and was permitted to keep his gift of insight even in the dark fields of the underworld. 

Both Paris and Teiresias have forced upon them the necessity of making a judgement. This necessity springs from the gods themselves, who are apparently, in dispute. In the case of Paris, the nature of the choice is not difficult to discern, for this is not really a beauty contest but rather a decision about what is ultimately of most value to him. Jane Harrison writes about the judgment of Paris,

It is an anguish of hesitancy ending in a choice which precipitates the greatest tragedy of Greek legend. But before Paris was there, the Choice was there. The exact elements of the Choice vary in different versions. Athene is sometimes Wisdom and sometimes War. But in general, Hera is Royalty or Grandeur; Athene is Prowess; Aphrodite, of course, is Love. And what exactly has the 'young man' to decide? Which of the three is fairest? Or whose gifts he desires the most? It matters not at all, for both are different ways of saying the same thing.

It would seem that, by the fiat of Zeus, Paris may not have all three, and that, too suggests something about the 'fate' of Libra. He cannot have his cake and eat it too. We could as easily substitute a woman for Paris, and three male deities as the contestants. One might speculate fruitfully on what then would be the elements of Choice. Might one favour Zeus with his gift of power, or Dionysos with his gift of ecstasy, or Apollo with his gift of long sight? Or perhaps Ares for his courage, or Hermes for his cleverness, or Hephaistos for his artistic skills? This myth does not describe an exclusively masculine problem. It is perhaps relevant that it is among the attributes of the goddesses - the anima or soul - that Paris must choose; he is not called upon to select masculine goals which he favours, but those which pertain to his deepest inner values. But the choosing of one thing over another, which life seems to force upon Libra, not only contradicts the sign's innate desire for having everything in proportion rather than one thing at the expense of another. Such a judgement also involves psychological consequences, for any decision of an ethical kind made by the ego means the exclusion or repression of some other content of the psyche, which produces enormous ambivalence and sometimes great suffering. I believe that Libra's famous 'indecisiveness' does not stem from any congenital inability to make choices but from the fear of the consequences those choices will entail. It might be argued that Paris made the wrong choice. But whichever goddess he had selected, the other two would have been angry, and had he refused to choose at all, then Zeus would have struck him down. 

It is not surprising that Libra perpetually complains about the unfairness of life. So it is; poor Paris did not ask for his fate and tried his best to avoid it by an equal division of the apple. But he is chosen from the beginning because of his superior experience and insight, and this implies that we must pay for our gifts and accomplishments. Perhaps life is just after all. It would seem that the development of Libra encompasses a curious paradox: that the sign is in love with the orderly laws of life and places great faith in their fairness, yet is perpetually confronted by the disorderly and immoral aspects of life, which fragment and divide Libra's cherished unity. Yet, in these apparently unfair vicissitudes, the footprints of a deeper and more ironic order may be tracked. Libra's propensity to get stuck in a choice between two women, or two men, or two vocations, or two philosophies suggests that while the sign cannot bear division or disharmony in the universe, something within the Libran himself forever drives him to divide himself so that he can discover himself through the deepening knowledge of the processes of choice. 

Teiresias came to a better end than Paris, although he, too, had to suffer for his judgement. But there are compensations. His story is a strange one. Its beginning, with the vision of the two serpents coupling, suggests a kind of archetypal perception of the origins of life. We met the uroboros, the serpent which devours, slays and begets itself, in ~he sign Cancer, and the uroboros in alchemy is often imaged as a pair of serpents or dragons forming the circle of unity. Teiresias has evidently spied upon a deep mystery, for these snakes are the World Serpent, male and female together. Thus, they attack him, for he has no business seeing what he has seen. It is like the mythic attack of Artemis upon Actaeon, who accidentally stum- bled upon her bathing: Nature is jealous of her secrets. Libra's cool intellect undoubtedly spies where it is not 'permitted' to go, especially in the sphere of love, and love often turns and attacks the Libran for his disinterested judgement. In defence, Teiresias kills the female serpent - thus perhaps attempting to protect himself from the instinctual side of life. In doing so, he sacrifices his own manhood. That is perhaps an image of the price paid for this stage of the journey, for the distinctive repression of and distaste for the body and the fleshly odours of life which is so characteristic of Libra can result in a loss of self and a selling of the soul. But eventually, the future prophet experiences once again his vision of the origins of life and, on this second occasion, defends himself against the overriding patriarchal principle which has previously made him an enemy of his own sexuality. Thus, he is restored to himself. This seesaw between male and female, spirit and body, seems typical of both the Libran man and the Libran woman. So, too, does the symbolic experience of the opposite sex, where one is estranged from 

one's own biology and is possessed by the trans-sexual unconscious. Libran men are traditionally known for their affinity with the 'feminine' sphere of adornment, ornamentation, and beautification, while Libran women are known for their clear, rational thinking and organising capacities. This myth of Teiresias suggests that the often ambivalent sexuality of Libra has archetypal roots. 

It is as a result of the wisdom which Teiresias gained that he was honoured by Zeus to solve the Olympian marital squabble. This is like the judgement of Paris: a mortal is asked to provide what the gods themselves do not possess, the capacity to reflect upon the opposites with unbiased judgement. Teiresias suffers for his judgment but had he sided with Hera, no doubt Zeus would have punished him instead. Like Paris, and strangely like Job in the Old Testament, Teiresias was made to pay for his too great insight into the nature of the gods themselves. But the old prophet was given a gift in exchange, and the image of blindness in myth is often a portrayal of the eyes turned inward towards the Self. Thus, he can no longer be seduced by worldly beauty, as Paris was. Wotan in Teutonic myth also offered up one of his eyes in exchange for knowledge. The prophet's long life and position of honour in the underworld suggest that something eternal remains beyond the mortal span of the wisdom for which he had to pay such a high price. 

I am inclined to feel that Paris is an image for the youthful Libran, Teiresias for the mature one. Somehow, this issue of choice progresses from the necessity of deciding where one's values lie and the ensuing conflicts into glimpses of the deeper dilemmas where the gods themselves are revealed as double-faced and needing the help of man's consciousness. Through this insight, both man and gods are changed. This is the theme to which Jung addressed Answer to Job, and I believe it is one of the underlying themes in Libra's fate. Not least of all the possible lessons inherent in the stories of Paris, Teiresias, and even Job is the realisation that the gods may not be as just as man. If Libra can ultimately accept this, then his role as a bringer of civilisation and reflection becomes a genuine one and dignifies the nobility of the human spirit. 

It's a beautiful passage; it's one of my favorite things I've ever read, written about the sign of Libra and most of the sections of that particular part of this book again, I'll hold it up so you can see it the Astrology of Fate by Liz Greene. The Myths of the Zodiac are, quite literally, I think, some of the best things ever written about the archetypal characteristics of the 12 signs. 

So if you haven't read that, and you enjoyed that reading, check out the rest of that book because you'll probably really enjoy it. That being said, as I was going, there were a few moments where I thought to interrupt and add my own reflections, but I just, I thought, No, I'm going to save them for the end. I thought maybe I might kind of stop and go and add my own reflections as we went, but no, wait until the end. 

So the thing that I resonate with the most in what Liz Greene said is that there is something about Libran mythology and hence our Solar Eclipse in Libra. That implies that we are working with we're at a kind of crossroads. That crossroads may be in a very specific area of life, but probably we are faced with a choice. Because that is the hallmark of Libra, there are choices that we have to make about the direction that we're heading in, and events have a way of conspiring to make that choice more difficult. 

There will, of course, with the Aries eclipses be times in which we just have to plow forward, you know, it's like, Don't think, just act, just do, just be, and there's a time and season for that. But right now, it's Libra season, and there's probably an important choice that's going to come up for us, or several of them, or a kind of dilemma that we're facing that has something to do with a comparison of outcomes that may result from a choice or of values that we're choosing to embrace within a time of choosing and what ultimately, usually is at play in such choices on like, level one is, what will I get? You know, what will I get? Like, if I do this Or that, what's in it for me? And that's a normal self-protective consideration. That can also be a selfish consideration. 

If I make this or that choice, what kind of outcome? Will it guarantee for me? And will it be pleasurable or painful? I think that's a basic way, that's a basic consideration, as we're weighing options that it, you know, in an everyday moment, or in big crossroads in life. 

But the deeper consideration has to include what we value, which is by its nature subjective. It's like, what are your values? What do you appreciate? What do you love? What can you deal with? What can you serve? What can you include within your heart or your life? And sometimes, Libra is making choices from the standpoint of social consequence. I ought to do this; it's right to do that. It's bad to do this; that kind of weighing of consequences is also related to will people like me or not like me. Or will I get a good outcome or a bad outcome? Will it be favorable or painful? It'd be will the choice lead to something that I want or desire.

As in Paris's choice, you know, of the three goddesses, he ends up choosing the one whose gift he wants the most. Initially, he doesn't want to make the choice because he doesn't want to incur the wrath, or he doesn't want a bad outcome, or he doesn't want any harm coming to him because of making the wrong choice. But life says nope, it doesn't work like that; you can't avoid having to make a choice. 

So then the second level of the choice has something to do with what will give me the best outcome. Right? So there's this basic way that we evaluate our choices. How can I avoid pissing anyone off? Or doing something that will get me a bad outcome? And then the opposite, which is, you know, how can I make a choice that will lead to giving me something that I want or desire, something I could benefit from, 

and then there's a story of Teiresias, which has to do with a kind of inner vision that's cultivated, and that's, I like how she said that she liked the two myths that there's like the sort of more immature, you know, Paris myth, and then there's maybe a little bit more mature version of Libra found in the Teiresias myth. Because what we're really developing is inner vision. What's in My Heart, what's what lies within the sphere of my honest to god value system or values like we have to know ourselves to understand what we value. What we value is not the same as what we want or what's in it for us. There's something about what we value; that is, it's more like understanding what kind of color makes you feel good. It's more about understanding what choices you feel you can live with that gives you a sense of dignity and integrity. 

So these considerations she mentioned played the platonic values of, you know, truth, beauty, and justice, the inner sense of what makes the right choice during a Libran eclipse has to do with, well, what choice makes me feel like there's a combination of beauty, truth and goodness, or beauty, truth, and fairness, or justice, or something like that, that is at work in the way that I'm deciding, or in the way that I'm responding to situations and in order, so that's an inward turning and it's, there's something about that, that is so human, right.

Sometimes, it's hard for Libras to look inside and consider what does goodness, truth, and beauty look like from the perspective of my utterly unique soul. There's a law, but it's within, you know; think of Immanuel Kant, who said, The only two things that awe me the most are the starry heavens above and the moral law within. 

I always took that to be not just a reference to the idea that that there, there's a law that is exactly the same for every human being, but more I took him to be speaking to something like dharma and that there's each soul has a dharma, which is like a law or a code like James Hellman's book The Souls Code. But it's unique, and when you find that, it's like, that's the that's what integrity and beauty and wholeness looks like, for you for your utterly unique soul. 

Discovering that value, and that, that intelligence, that that's the ultimately bring price because that leads you to being able to make difficult decisions where you might piss someone off, you may get a bad consequence, you know, whatever. But it's almost like, well, but I can live with it if I've found the place of wise discernment that comes from my soul where I say to myself, I'm, I've done the best I can. I've made the choice with the clearest understanding I had in accord with the beauty, truth, and goodness that lies within me as an individual. 

Otherwise, we look at the cosmos in the universe, and we think it's this perfectly ordered place. But that's exactly why the gods end up needing our intervention. The gods, as archetypal organizing principles, are always interested in mythology, especially in the air signs in the involvement of the human spirit and soul. The participation of utterly unique beings that experience life and death. There's this fragility that's there and this uniqueness that's there. 

That, in some ways, is for the gods just as beautiful to them as the gods as archetypal organizing powers are to us. Well, how do we inhabit that soulfulness? For Air signs that sometimes it's hard? Because the Air sign, in a way, has access to that kind of archetypal mental domain, the mind of God, you know, there, there are triangles floating around and stuff like that. 

So it becomes a matter of for air signs, Libra and Aquarius in particular, it's like, can you be human and can you make a decision in this moment that's not purely based on, like, well, will I get punished? Or will I get rewarded? Or will I get something I want or don't want? Or will people like me or not like me? Instead, it's about what is my soul's code, and if I can come forth from that standpoint, somehow I'm actually serving as a mediator for the conflicting values of the archetypes themselves, and I become the mediator as an embodied soul.

So the crossroads is a soulful one right now as we enter the underworld, and the consequences of a soul balanced against the goddess, right? That's a big deal. It's a big deal. The choices that we make right now are choices that have to do with heart and soul. Not right and wrong, in some totally objective sense. They're about value, beauty, and goodness, not in some perfectly objective way where I've figured out the calculus of the universe, but have I figured out the calculus of my heart, what can I live with and feel that is in alignment with me? 

You know, what's fun is that the Aries eclipses will take us off, you know, in a direction that will often sort of drag the Libra along, right? We like kind of like In the Libra in us, it sort of says, let's go, let's just go in this direction and see what happens, and then we experiment, we explore, we blaze a new trail, we pioneer, we take risks we assert ourselves, and sometimes we do that only to discover that it was haphazard, foolish, out of touch with, not in alignment, and then the Libran calibration happens, and those choices, those independent flurries of activity, help us to refine and understand our souls code, and the Libran intelligence that guides our soul emerges more deeply refined. 

On the other hand, sometimes, you know, like right now, Libran eclipse season, we might be leading a little bit more from the Libran side of things. I've been here before; what kinds of choices have I made in the past? Were they good ones for me, I'm being offered the chance to maybe make a new decision that's in more deep, deep alignment with my soul. I'm being asked to judge in a beauty competition between the archetypes within me. I'm gonna there's someone's going to get upset, but I can't make the decision in terms of whether I will be rewarded or will I be punished. Or will I get something I want, something pleasurable or something painful? It's like, that's just the surface. Do you think that way? It'll never turn out in the way you think it will. That's, that is not the way we operate at that level. 

It's like, we're not operating from a very intelligent position, and the least that we'll do is live temporarily in some space of, you know, vain self-satisfaction. Well, people are happy with me, well, I've gotten a good thing and not a bad thing and real choice, you know, it is a soul choice. So, I think that's what we're looking at right now. I think that's what's at stake in this eclipse, and it may put us in touch with cycles from the past that are offering us the ability to refine the soul's code within the moral, spiritual, artistic, and beautiful truths that can guide us right now. 

All right. That's it for today. I hope you guys are having a good one and that you enjoyed this beautiful passage from Liz Greene. Hopefully, my reflections, clumsy as they may be, are helpful and add something to your understanding as well. That's it for now. We'll see you again soon. Bye, everyone.