Once a year the planet Jupiter changes astrological signs and blesses us with the largesse of whatever qualities that particular sign has to offer.
Jupiter is all about the spirit of generosity so the energy of the sign that it enters EXPANDS and impacts us all on both a personal and collective level.
Jupiter also governs confidence and faith and asks us to step into our confidence and reassess our relationship to faith in whatever realm it touches. Which means that we might be asked to look at how our confidence is flagging or our faith might need a boost in a particular area.
So now that Jupiter has moved into Libra we are going to be catapulted into the queendom of love, art and relationship.
Circumstances will arise that that lead to questions such as what is our relationship to love? What IS love? How do we love? Who do we love? What feeds love? What blocks love? What keeps love alive? What kills it deader than the proverbial doornail? What place does love hold in our lives?
There are all different kinds of love but on an intimate level Libran love is the love between equals, soulmates and lovers.
Libra is very interested in keeping the spark of romance and positive feeling alive between two people who love each other.
We all know of folks who profess love but who treat each other badly… through neglect or laziness, meanness or contempt. Who make being right more important than being loved. Who forget that love is an active practice that involves continually focusing on the mechanics of love.
So in that sense, Libra is a technician of love. She knows what it takes to maintain that feeling of loving connection and is willing to do whatever it takes to keep that experience of loving connectivity vital and growing.
Libra is also a priestess of love and when she is operating out of that particular archetype she sees nurturing love as a spiritual journey.
There is the deep recognition that maintaining an alive and dynamic relationship with the beloved is the most effective way of staying in contact with the divine.
She knows that love looks like treating each other with respect and basic decency and courtesy and simple niceness. Nice is a dirty word in some circles. It implies a quality falseness. But nice doesn’t have to be unreal. Libra knows that niceness is one of those qualities that simply make the world a much more pleasant place to be.
Libra places a very high value on empathy… the ability to put yourself in another persons shoes through the practice of non-judgmental listening and witnessing.
Libra is an air sign, so unlike the watery signs of Cancer and Pisces she doesn’t lead with her emotions. Water feels without effort. But for Libra, empathy is almost a mental exercise in a certain kind of visioning. With this type of empathy you don’t necessarily actually feel what the other person is feeling as much as you IMAGINE what they are feeling. This form of empathy takes effort. It is not a passive function. You have to actively engage your minds eye and your hearts capacity to engage with any type of human experience.
And Libra is a master at this type of engagement because she knows how to get out of the way, let go of her own agenda and simply be present to another persons inner reality.
Libra is also a very social sign and is primarily interested in amicable connection with other people. She wants interactions between folks to be civil and courteous. She doesn’t want there to be unnecessary conflict. And in her more unconscious expression, doesn’t want there to be any conflict at all.
Libra rules things like etiquette and protocol.
Because these conventions do allow social interactions to run more smoothly. If everyone knows what to expect and how they are expected to behave, there’s lot less potential for misunderstandings.
However, Libra is sometimes accused of being superficial. And that IS one of the shadow aspects of the sign. If ALL you are concerned about is whether or not Miss Manners will approve of you, it can lead you to gloss over situations where truth, even if it is uncomfortable, can actually lead to greater and deeper connection.
Libra is far from superficial, however and is the sign most associated with justice, fairness and the law.
Libra’s highest goal and desire is to activate a place of peaceful rapport between humans. But Libra also understands on a very deep level that there IS no peace without true justice. So she is willing to tell the truth and face injustice squarely. But she will do it with empathy and grace.
Libra, like Capricorn, is one of the strategists of the zodiac. Again, air rules the mental functions, so Libra wants to understand and think things through. But while Capricorn strategizes for greater status and worldly success, Libra’s strategies and solutions are always oriented towards making relationships and social interactions fluid and more harmonious.
Libra is one of the most humanly oriented of the astrological signs. And she is most interested in human interaction. She is always trying to figure out what it is that allows human beings to work in concert and to what it takes to create a functional relationship, family or society. And she knows that large doses of co-operation, collaboration and communication can help to facilitate that goal.
She is the anti-polarization sign and one of her archetypes is that of the diplomat.
Her primary thrust is to bring people together and it almost causes her physical pain to be in the presence of unresolvable conflict. Which means she will do everything in her gracious power to find common ground between two wildly disparate positions. Through her capacity to see clearly both sides of an issue and by activating her superpower of non-judgmental empathy, she is very often successful in creating seemingly impossible accord.
Because Libra’s highest values revolve around the qualities of peace and tranquility another one of her archetypes is that of the artist as creator of beauty.
She knows that beauty and order allow us to calm down and access a sense of serenity. So she creates an atmosphere of loveliness everywhere she goes, through how she dresses, her home environment and through her creative expressions.
Jupiter will amplify all of these Libran traits and qualities during the coming year bringing some much needed emotional intelligence, heart balm and social justice to the fractured and divisive collective atmosphere we have all been living in recently.
On a personal level, it’s an opportunity for you to brush up on your empathy skills and to explore how justice and fairness does or doesn’t operate in your life. It’s a great time to reach out to others in the spirit of collaboration and co-operation. To discover your inner imperturbability through art, beauty and creativity as you make your way with the rest of us through these wildly turbulent transformative times.
And to remember that we are all in this together and we have what it takes to work things out by calling on the Libran devotion to the art of balanced, respectful relationship and our capacity to love.
As a Libra & Libra rising, this makes me very happy. I hope this means a period of more ease in my dealing with others is in order.