Three Misconceptions of the Zodiac Sign: Libra

Transcript:

0:01
Hi everyone, this is Acyuta-bhava from Nightlight Astrology and today we are going to talk about three of the most common misconceptions that people have about the sign of Libra. This is one part of a series that I've been doing on misconceptions about all of the signs that people generally have. I'm trying to get at the deeper essence of the 12 zodiac signs in this series. And so I hope you'll enjoy this one today on Libra. Before we dive in, I want to remind you all that my new course ancient astrology for the modern mystic is coming up starts on November 13, there's still time to register, go to the courses page on my website, go to the first year course page, in particular, and you can scroll down to learn more about it. This is a year long deep dive into Hellenistic astrology you can learn all about the kind of the foundational spiritual and metaphysical philosophy. This is a course that's really about helping us helping you make astrology a spiritual practice in your life, as well as preparing you to read charts for other people if you desire to do that. There is so much content packed into this programme. In addition to bonus content, I teach all the classes live on webinars. We also have breakout study sessions between major units. We have guest lectures that come in tonnes of homework and bonus material it is seriously probably the best thing I've ever created in my life in terms of outside of my kids, I guess so. But it's a fantastic programme, learn about it on my website, take advantage of the early bird payment. While it's still there, use the need based tuition if you need some help for whatever reason, you can check that out on the website, there's a payment plan if you need it. I'd hope to see some of you in class coming up here soon. You can participate live on the webinars. Or you can follow along with the recordings of the webinars if you can't make the classes live. It's just a really great programme. It's one of a number of programmes I have a second year programme I have a horary programme. And I have a new course called readings and passages. It's also coming out in December which I will be promoting more, I've decided to kind of hold off on that I'm going to promo that more in November. So you can check all those out on my website and let us know if you have any questions about it whatsoever by emailing us info at nightlight astrology.com.

2:18
It's really exciting to have a new group of people. I've led 1000s of people through this programme. It's something I'm really passionate about. This is where you see me give the deepest, most concentrated level of teachings that I have about astrology and I also bring in clients you can see what a day in the life of my practice is like and see how I work with clients and break down those sessions. And so really great programme hope to see some of you there. In the meantime, we're going to talk today about three of the most common misconceptions about of the sign of Libra. Now we've gone through our series now with all the signs up to Libra.

2:56
So if you missed it, go back and check out the sign that we might have covered previously. In the meantime, I'm going to put my astronomy programme up on the screen to give you a picture of what is happening around the sign of Libra in terms of the exchange between light and dark that forms the basis metaphysically of the zodiac. So the Zodiac is rooted in the alternation of light and dark found in the solar year a scene from the northern hemisphere, all of which is simply a symbolic picture of light and dark in an eternal sense. The orientation is relative doesn't really matter. And we're not entering into it from a literal causal perspective, we're entering into it from a symbolic perspective. So don't listen to people out there who say that you absolutely have to flip the Zodiac if you're in the southern hemisphere, simply not true. But on the other hand, it's relative: you could flip the Zodiac if you want to. You'll get good results. I think I've seen people flipping the Zodiac will get good results as well and I just don't think they're better results but that's a debate for a different time. At any rate. So here what I want to emphasise right now is you're going to see that the sun is crossing the celestial equator right around the time of Libra, which is the halfway point between darkness and light. When the sun is crossing this and the line of the Sun is ascending upward in the sky. That's the spring equinox point that beginning point of zero Aries and that will mark the beginning of the light half of the year where the days are longer than they are shorter and more lightness generally dominates the lightness of course is a symbol.

4:40
Now when it's crossing it going downward, this is the beginning of Libra and it is the entry point into the dark half of the year where there's more darkness in the day than there is light in that last half of the year all the way back until Aries This is the fall Equinox because the sun is falling in the sky. This is why we say the sun In its fall here, but in Aries when the lightest taking over is in its exaltation. So some symbolism there now, Libra when the sun enters, this crosses this line and goes below, it is also generally speaking for the rest of the year, the solar year, the excuse me between now and Aries, you should say is all the way moving down towards the south all the way toward the winter solstice, zero Capricorn point, and then it rises back up from Capricorn. So there's also two halves of the dark side of the year, the dark of the dark and the lightening of the dark, darker the dark is Libra down through Sagittarius, and then Capricorn up through Pisces is going to be the lightening of the dark, but both are still in the dark half of the year. These are things that we break down by the way, my programmes really in depth step by step through the whole year.

5:53
So in the meantime, what we need to understand about this sign in particular a little bit we covered in Virgo, which means that this is the entryway into the solar underworld. And that's where Libra gets a lot of its symbolism from a lot of it comes from this right here, as do some of its stereotypes. What are the stereotypes we're going to talk about today? There's three of them. They're all kind of go together, like all of the stereotypes we've been looking at. One is that Libras are ambivalent. Libras are superficial, and Libras are all about justice and love. So the last ones, like positive kind of you'll hear people kind of romantically saying, oh, Libras are all about fairness. So they're all about justice. They're all about love. And then you'll hear people say, oh, Libras are so superficial, or you'll hear people saying, oh, Libras are ambivalent. So we're going to break these down and see, you know, if there's any substance here, and maybe also what's what's at the heart of Libra, what's Libra all about? In order to understand Libra, there's a really important piece of like technical astrological theory that you need to know. One is that Libra is the domicile of Venus, the fall of the sun, and is the exaltation of Saturn. This is really important because it's the combination of these dignities, as well as an understanding of what's happening in the solar year, even the constellation image of the balance or the scales that go into understanding the sign.

7:26
So let's talk a little bit about what these words mean, especially the word, the word Libra itself means a balance or a pair of scales. But the more important is the word ambivalence. So ambivalent, is defined in the Oxford Dictionary, if I'm looking at the right dictionary, as having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or some one. The etymology simultaneous conflicting feelings. Also the ambi- part of ambivalence; ambi means both or on both sides at once. So it can also mean some two things simultaneously, this is a simultaneity I think that's the word. So those are really important concepts, especially when we break down some of these dignities. For example, did you know that this is the place where Saturn is exalted, and that Saturn was the planet associated with the aspect of an opposition. So the opposition as an aspect in astrology, where two planets are opposing one another by opposite signs was said to be of the nature of Saturn and Saturn is exalted in Libra, the sign of the balance a sign that is often stereotypically associated with ambivalence, simultaneous simultaneous, mixed or contradictory feelings. Oh, you're ambivalent or Oh, you can't make a decision. That's another one you'll hear sort of similar to ambivalent, and ambivalent is almost always levelled at Libra as though it is a sin, it's something bad. So obviously, when it comes to, let's say, making up your mind about who you are, what you value, what you're going to take a stand on, making a judgement for yourself. You know, the fear of disappointing people being able to see both sides of something and being sort of paralysed by it. Obviously, there would be some downside to that, right? We can all sort of understand that, that there might be some downside to getting stuck or paralysed by simultaneous conflicting feelings. On the other hand, why don't we ever talk about the value or virtue of ambivalence? What Is it? What's really going on here? So, from the standpoint of the exaltation of Saturn and the aspect of an opposition, what is an opposition? opposition is a tension between two opposites. Two opposite planets and two opposite signs the two opposite rulers. Remember that all of the opposites in astrology are rooted in archetypal opposites like if you have a planet in Sagittarius and a planet in Gemini, you're talking about the natural archetypal opposite between Jupiter and Mercury. If you have a opposition between either the sun or the moon's sign and Capricorn or Aquarius, you're talking about the lights versus Saturn, if you're talking so it goes like this Venus signs are opposite Mars is signs and so forth.

10:48
Every opposition has rooted in and no matter which planets are opposing one another, every opposition has built into it at its very core, the idea of archetypal opposites. So how are we supposed to handle metaphysically? The reality of opposites? There are two ways that ancient astrologers talked about the reality of opposites in general, one of those ways has to do with the idea that opposites are if there's a black and white relationship, interestingly, have you ever noticed that Libras often like black and white photography, just kidding. Okay, so black and white is one way that opposites work, you are not me and I'm not you there are fundamental differences that cannot be changed or altered. You can't choose them or they're just facts, okay? And that's like, whether it's has something to do with identity like I'm me, and not you and you're you and not me, or if it has to do with, you know, basic categories of good and evil are light and dark and in terms of the light in a day, or whatever the case might be there are opposites that stand categorically opposed to one another. And in order for them to be what they are to be themselves to have some kind of ontology to have some kind of reality they cannot be the other. They have to be independent and apart. This is one way in which ancient astrologers said that opposites existed for example, through platonic philosophy, this was this would have been commonplace understanding in the ancient world that the Pythagoreans said similar things you have a very common understanding of opposites that never shall the two meet their opposites are opposites in their somehow reality is built on opposites on self and other on it's like a binary system, and you can't change it, there's just something about it that's going to that there's always going to be like a one and a zero, there's always going to be a self and and other there's always going to be some sense of oppositional tension between things.

12:58
And that's one way that opposites exist. The other way that opposites exist is that they exist in terms of a spectrum, and fluidity moving across a spectrum of opposites. So for example, hot and cold are kind of moving in and out of one another. light and dark, there's gradations. Right, so in another sense, there's a kind of fluid medium between opposites. And you'll always find some element of the opposites in each other. So for example, if you ever seen the yin and yang symbol, you have a little I've said this many times before, we get a little speck of light in the dark and dark in the light. So now, this is where we get into Libras happy territory. both kinds of opposites exist and are in play with one another, even though these are conflicting images of opposites simultaneously. And the goal of the mystic is to work in in through not only opposites. See, there's a there's a real impatience in like modern New Age thinking, that says, oh, opposites and duality are bad. And the goal is oneness where there are no more opposites. That's not mostly what ancient mystics said, there were some monus. But mostly what ancient mystics were talking about was the fact that you have to learn how to carry the tension of opposites fluidly, which means that there's a way in which you're relating to opposites, this fundamental categories that involve separation, duality, hard duality, but at the same time you carry them in a way that shows that they're always mingling and mixing.

14:36
And it's somehow this tension between the two types of opposites themselves existing simultaneously. That is, at the core of reality. And so you walk that in life you are learning to walk that if you're a Taoist, you see very similar things said in Taoist texts which will be after this series is done. We'll be launching into a series on the Tao teaching which should be fun. Not that I'm not a great expert but just unpacking it for people who are totally brand new, and getting down to some core ideas well that's what the Tao Te Ching is all about. The dyad, the impenetrable dyad you know it's it's a mystery the way that opposites work well this is Saturn's territory Saturn is very good at representing duality but not just duality but interpenetrating dualities and there's so much deep esoteric philosophy at work here something that I can't possibly break down right now something I spend a lot more time on in my programmes. But for example, what about the opposition the natural opposition built in between Saturn and the sun both in its domiciles ended its exaltations: the Sun sign of Leo is opposite Saturn sign set the Sun's exhaltation of Aries is opposite Saturn's exaltation. And Libra why is that or is the sun represents noose, the like the the the complete light in the mind of God that shows the complete hole. Saturn is going to be the God of duality in opposition to that. So where as the light has a singular and all encompassing unity to it, the idea of the light all encompassing, everything comes from it, nothing can be seen without it, everything is dependent upon it, it's the origin, it's the source has that kind of monistic feeling to it. Saturn, on the other hand, is representing the duality involved in light. For example, Saturn represents darkness. By contrast, now, darkness is actually part and parcel of light, it's like the space around which light is understood, and the space through which light is diffuse.

16:51
So you have to understand that they go together in the in the ancient thinking, and that there's two ways in which light and dark can be understood. Light can be understood in relation to darkness, as in, you know, illumination and clarity as opposed to ignorance and illusion. We love that one that one's really like heroic and obvious, right? But the other one is that light can be understood in and through the tension of opposites, right, the light can be understood through some kind of distance, or separation from light. There's a funny paradox going on in that. This is at the core of a lot of, you know, mystical, perennial mystical philosophy around the planet. So when we get down to Libra, we're really, in a sense, what we're really talking about, we're talking about an air sign, a sign that has a lot to do with the mind. And we're talking about an air sign that has in mind the ideal when it comes to opposites and duality. And so when you bring that all the way down into the human world, one of the things that a Libra is dealing with at all times is two ways of understanding opposites themselves, not just that they get caught up in conflicting feelings, and that they can't make a decision and that, Oh, I'm just ambivalent. I just, I don't want to make anyone mad. I mean, yeah, sure, it could, it could come down to that that might be like the really cheap version of it. But at a deeper level, what Libras are dealing with is the challenge of understanding that the reality of all opposites is necessary. It's not like you can just eliminate an opposite. It's not like you can just get rid of the tension inherent in opposing views or people or concepts or archetypes or ideals. And so librans walk around, not so much with conflicted feelings, like oh, I just want to be popular and I can't, but oftentimes is that Libras walk around the feeling that nothing here should really be excluded. There's a sense of injustice, unfairness, imbalance, if there's not some recognition that all things battling with each other in the realm of light and dark in the realm of duality are somehow all necessary. Saturn is a planet of necessity. And this is the place where Saturn is exalted.

19:08
Remember that for ancient philosophers beauty something that Libras are always charged with, oh, you you're just obsessed with like beauty. Well, beauty, and truth, and justice, were all wrapped together. So that if you recognise truth, if you recognise justice, then you are also inherently appreciating beauty. But this was a very like idealistic, lofty, metaphysical sense of what is beautiful, just good and true. And so on that level, what you're seeing is the sense that all things in reality are constant balancing and of of our constant battling and balancing simultaneously of the opposites of battling and a balancing simultaneously of all the opposites. Libra is therefore Like, in a sense, it Libras walking around the world with a very, very lofty intellectual sense of idealism. And it's hard to judge how can there's, it's not that Libras Are you know, people often say, oh Libras are very judgmental, or that Libras are here to like, learn how to make decisions, because they just struggle with ambivalence. Know that, you know, another way of putting it is all of all, this is just kind of, in a general sense, like all of you struggle with not being able to see the simultaneous perfection of all opposites existing simultaneously. And you're all out there being judgmental, you're not fair minded, you're not balanced, you don't see beauty, you don't see truth. you're judging between superficial appearances. You're judging based on only one very limited idea between about opposites. You know, so, you know, sometimes people will say, Oh, you know, these Libras they want to have their cake and eat it too, or they want you know, they just want they don't want anyone to be unhappy. And a lot of times, it's not really it. A lot of the times it's that you can see the perfect necessity, the perfect placement of all tensions inherent in a situation. And there's something ideal and perfect about it and who's to say that it should be some other way. For most people I know that's like very that's very lofty, which is why it's not so much that Libras are ambivalent you could say as much as they are idealistic.

21:31
This is something that I once heard Liz Greene say and I always I've always found that it is just spot on. She was someone said, don't you think Virgos are perfectionist? And they're just so idealistic and perfectionistic about everything? And she said, No, that's not a Virgo. That's, that's Libras. And she went on to explain that Libras and this is something remember, I'm drawing on a book in the series called The Astrology of Fate. She talks a little bit about this in the Astrology of Fate, but it was actually in a lecture that I heard her give one time. So anyway, at any rate, she said because Libras have a sense that there's nothing out of place in the universe in an ideal sense. So they're seeing things soon as very lofty perspective. Now, that's not the frustrating thing about that is that when you break that down into like, the everyday, the mundane, the common, everyday life that we live, it's not always practical. Right. So when you're thinking about, for example, the contrantiscia built in between Virgo and Libra, a lot of the times we're talking about perfectionism, and an idealism and then how that's translated into the practical, that's a different story.

22:43
But at any rate, the idea here is that sometimes it's hard, when it boils down to having to make choices having to make judgments, having to participate in the world of choices, and judgments and consequences for choices and judgments. Sometimes there it's as though Libra doesn't know which criteria to pick by means of which to judge a choice or a decision. Because they can see many different criteria by means of which to make a choice or to evaluate something. There's also the, again, the ability to see things in this kind of ideal, light, cosmic beauty truth, in in through opposites. And so, there's a sense of lofty appreciation of things, sometimes you'll see that translated into almost like a haughty, my taste, my sense of my sense of things, my evaluation, my discernment is so superior, sometimes it can be very vain. And sometimes, you know, there will be just some, I just reluctance to want to disappoint anyone or it can come down and paralyse a person and make it difficult for them to not to make a choice and where they probably need to make a choice, right. So that's all valid.

24:02
Also, when you hear someone say, Libras are superficial, this is really where that charge comes from. It's that sense that like, well, you just don't want to disappoint anyone or you're just trying to, in trying to consider everyone and everything you're not really thinking about yourself, there's it's just kind of what everyone else thinks are. But it's not so much what everyone else thinks as much as it is an ability to see how many different people see, or to consider many different perspectives, which all air signs are good at. But with Libra especially, it's like, you can see the tension, the beauty, the balance, the necessity of lots of different perspectives. And so that may seem to another person like you are being socially defined, and therefore you're somehow superficial. But actually, you know, how nice would it be if a few more people in the world had the ability to see things beyond the you know, the end of their own nose, right? And that's something that Libras are very, very gifted at is that kind of consideration. And that kind of ideal vision of the way things are the inherent tension between things. Remember that this is, you know, when you ever see images of Lady Justice, you know, the balance in her hands, you know, she's got a blindfold on. So you have to also remember that there's a way in which in this world, Libra also gets at this, which is in this world, there is a range of outcomes that are wildly different according to the laws of karma. And according to human nature and domination, and competition and cruelty and competition over resources. And then you know, people being born differently with different aptitudes, some people are going to be born, you know, maybe really good at one thing, some persons born really good at a different thing. So there's not like, in this world, you don't see an equality of outcomes. But on the level of the soul, like as our constitution says that all all people all men are created equal. And this is the sense that you have in the ancient world to that there's inequality on the level of spirit soul. And there's a sense in which all things are always being perfectly balanced in the cosmos is a perfectly just in good place. But that is really hard to understand, when it comes to the inequities that we see in our world. Now, librans are people who are also dealing with that tension, the appearance of unfairness, the appearance of things being unequal, while also being able to perceive something of the inherent perfect justice of the karmic laws of the universe, that's not an easy tension to hold either. So all I'm trying to get at is, if you think about the kinds of deep profound intellectual tensions that librans are carrying it, it's a little bit like Gemini, but not as playful and young, it's like there's a little bit more at stake, the, the, the weight of the opposites are and the way that they shape our world. And the way that people experience them as fair or unfair as implying separation or unity. I mean, these are, these are heavier things, that feeling of real social ramifications and consequences attached to them.

27:24
So it's a deep sign, you can imagine walking around the world carrying that with you, and especially if you've had no training, you're not even aware of it, that you're more attuned to that, then, you know, some people are going to carry that with more or less sophistication, or self understanding, or whatever. So we also have one last thing to say here, which is that when people say Libras, are all about justice and love. If you buy justice, you mean this kind of cosmic metaphysical sense of simultaneity that there's simultaneous ways in which opposites are at work and exist. And if you think that there's some inborn appreciation for that, and some sense that that is true and beautiful and good. And then trying to relate to that will also being an individual who is bound by those opposites and having to make choices within the flow of those opposites like, well, then you're getting into the territory of Libra, it's not that Libras just walking around being like, I just want everything to be perfectly fair, socially, and I'm just really all about love and harmony, it's like, not not not where we're really going with Libra, it's quite a bit deeper than that. So at any rate, this just to remember that the the Libra is, you know, on one sense is enabled by this lofty understanding of opposites. On the other hand, it's a real burden, you know, it's a real burden, especially when we are individual beings. And we can't be paralysed by some kind of metaphysical idealism, we still have to walk through the valley of the world and make choices and make judgments. And we know that that's going to tip the scales. This world is uneven, naturally, the ground you walk on is not like a perfectly, you know, paved from start to finish, the the natural feeling of the feet on the ground of the Earth is uneven, and the body has to react to all sorts of, you know, unevenness and jaggedness in life. And, in many ways, you know, as Libra can see, in some grand and perfect or ideal sense that there is this perfect balance, it's still very hard to carry that sense of ideal idealism through the world on uneven terrain. So at any rate, I hope that this has been illuminating just helps you understand a few more things about Libra.

29:56
I kind of went off my notes quite a bit here today. I was more organised in my head and then just so as someone born in 1981 with the Jupiter Saturn conjunction in Libra, configured to the midheaven in my chart by a trine, I can tell you that this is you know, one thing that I've even though I identify with my Cancer sun or my Taurus rising or whatever, it's like Libra's really strong in my chart and in the charts of people who were born in 1981. In general, if you have that configuration. Anyway, interesting that we just by the way, had the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius, another air sign that we'll talk about that also deals with seeing things from this very idealistic perspective, all air signs are, generally speaking, sharing that in common, so we'll come back around that later. But next we're going to go on to Scorpio, easily one of the most misunderstood and stereotyped signs of the zodiac so all my Scorpios out there, get ready we're about to give you some love, and hopefully all my Libras today feel seen and validated. But if you're a Libra and you have a different version of the story to share, please feel free to leave your comments in the comment section. I'd love to hear the advice and expertise of all my Libras out there. Alright, that's what I've got for today. Hope you're doing well everyone. Take it easy. Bye.