The human balancing act . . .

Libra is about balancing duality, and because it also loves harmony, there’s a tendency to want to see only light on both sides of the scales. But the truth is that light in everyday life is balanced by darkness: for example, each time I become a little more personally conscious (light), I also become aware of the extent to which my motives are ego-based (dark). Trying to ‘live up to’ what I know, before I’ve properly become that, simply creates a battleground inside, where I beat myself up for not being perfect! (Does this sound familiar?) While actually, true perfection is what I AM already, and I need to accept all the bits of me, like a mother hen collecting her scruffy little chicks, and owning them all. So I’m aiming to be honest and let my lighter moments balance my darker moments in Libran gratitude for life’s infinite variety.

It’s all about the Truth

Those who need proof, before they believe an energetic trend or work out a likely outcome, have to receive results in the physical plane. On this level what is not actually happening is fantasy. What is happening is what we have to deal with, and it’s on this level that Jupiter and Saturn are now revealing in our lives what has been hatching for a long time. For almost two months, we have Jupiter approaching its most propitious connection with Saturn (the next time will be July 2013). This shows up as in-your-face results of past effort, or the lack of effort. As both planets are in earth signs, the field of results is physical circumstances - where and how we live - which includes housing, finance, possessions, health, everything practical and hands-on. The truth is here in this moment. Scanning your life realistically, you will know what, if anything, needs to be done.

Hopes and Dreams

There is a need to be alert to catch a couple of Libran reactions we may have: on the mental level there is a tendency to make our dreams into goals, so that our choices are reduced to what appears to lead towards those dreams. Narrowing your focus, when your future is unknown, you may miss out the very connections that could have moved you forward along your chosen path. Yes, dreams can manifest, but not necessarily in the way we think they will.

On the emotional level, our hopes take on a life of their own, often because we either don’t see them, or we don’t acknowledge what they are. Hopes are often unconnected with the reality around us, they are the endeavour of the psyche to fill personal needs and perceived gaps in our lives. They operate through sending out streams of emotional energy like tentacles to draw the desired conditions, which are not necessarily relevant to who we are, or to the people in our lives. What’s more, our emotional energy drains out, leaving us hollow and frustrated, a mood we feel but don’t know why.

Libra wants everything to be harmonious, tries to get the balance between necessity and kindness. And the first step to move forward in this way is to accept situations as the inevitable results of what has gone before. It may be useful to see the causes of your results but, as circumstances have probably changed, that knowledge may just be irrelevant. We need to keep a balance between looking back, using hindsight, and seeking the appropriate action to try next. It’s possible you’ve changed since last you checked your desires, and what you have now could be what you now truly want. Don’t let your dreams, hopes and desires block your receiving what life is offering you now.

Libra’s gift

Hopes and dreams of love, beauty, harmony, justice are wonderful reminders of the beauty that IS on the spiritual level. Everything in life is working itself out towards that wonderful peace and joy. Libra’s gift is holding that awareness so that its fragrance drifts into our daily experience of the world. It reminds us of what our hearts know, giving energy and encouragement rather than sapping it. Libra is not about taking action, which Mars in Libra finds hard, being our active energy. From 19 August until 3 October when it moved into Scorpio, we may well have been feeling the frustration of not being able to actively bring these ideals into our reality – that can easily become ‘fighting for peace’ which doesn’t work, of course.

Mars in Scorpio not only has the strength to act, but also the strength to wait until action is appropriate. We feel relieved to have endured the waiting and not acted precipitately, because, when we allow moments for right action to open up in their own time, Libra’s beauty flows naturally into the physical world and change becomes smooth and supported.

So let go of wanting your dreams to manifest right now. Just because they don’t APPEAR to be happening, does not mean they are not a reality waiting to manifest later. So let’s pledge ourselves this month to hold the ideals of harmony, beauty and balance, and allow life to unfold towards them in its own way. Our job is to observe the flow of life, and act when we are moved to act.

Solutions to old problems

In the meantime, Saturn moving forward and Uranus moving backward are careering towards opposing each other. These two forces can look like traditional exactness versus mass hysteria, but this opposition can also be seen as authority in service deliberately manifesting inspired solutions. Uranus entered Pisces within days of the Iraq war being declared, and from huge anti-war demonstrations, which were calmly humanitarian, we were plunged into mass emotional jingoistic reactions all over the place. Saturn, coming now to oppose Uranus in early November, could be the start of moving towards sorting out what can and can’t be achieved there.

This month, the New Moon chart also suggests the focus is likely to be on communicating in our relationships. As Mercury is retrograde until 15 October, the talking may focus on past situations, endeavouring to bring about harmony through understanding. Mercury, retrograding through Libra, is exactly trine Neptune, bringing a fine intuitive focus within our human concerns. So perhaps our conversations will be less about struggle and more about diplomacy, finding a workable way to deal with difficulties.

New Moon in Libra square Capricorn Jupiter

It will be difficult to believe that everything is fine, however nicely the truth is packaged. But blaming or battling with the other person, the management, or any outside circumstances, doesn’t help to decide forward movement. The attitude we need in our personal lives, too, needs to be ‘this is how it is, what’s next?’

The best way to move forward, indicated by this month’s New Moon chart, is to use our intuitive sense, bearing in mind the good of the community (Mercury trine Neptune/Chiron/North Node in Aquarius). The Libran way of approaching a solution is to gather all the information available about the present situation, until the right action becomes clear. This does not have to take a long time, but it does require acceptance, a broad focus, and a sincere intention to do what serves the highest good of all.

Although this is all showing up in the political and financial situations very clearly, we need to remember that the same forces are at work in all our individual lives also. ‘Out there’ is reflecting something that is ‘in here’, and you help the world by working these things consciously in your own life.