Astrology with Alice: Libra season brings beauty, grace, and harmony

After the astrological storms of September with its eclipses, October is going to feel much quieter. (Phew.) And since we’re enjoying a cosmic lull, this is the perfect month to talk about what it means to fully experience Libra season, which spans from Sept. 23 to Oct. 22 this year.

So if you are a Libra or love a Libra, let’s dig into the real meaning of the sign.

Libra is the seventh sign of the zodiac and it’s the only one that’s symbolized by an inanimate object—the scales—a nod to its impartiality as the sign of justice, harmony, and beauty. However, Libra also gets a bad rap for being superficial, conflict avoidant, and noncommittal. If you don’t believe me, take a look at Libra memes online, you’d think they only care about cute boys, cute girls, cute clothes, and cute shoes.

But what if I told you that the lessons of Libra actually hold the key for deep personal development and soul evolution? That we cannot access deep psychological insight and wisdom until we’ve passed the threshold of the Libra experience?

Libra is a sign of relating. Its energy is concerned with the other. This stands in stark contrast to its opposing sign, Aries, which is the first sign of the zodiac and is all about me, me, me. Libra, on the other hand, is all about you, you, you. And that’s why it has a reputation for being codependent and wishy-washy, always wanting to know what you think before they’ll tell you what they think.

Libra energy likes things to be beautiful, and that applies to anything from people, to interactions, to things. Communication, words, and even courtship should be pretty as opposed to vulgar. They don’t need to be real, necessarily, but they should look nice.

Libra is the sign of grace, harmony, and beauty, so when people have a lot of Libra energy in their chart (especially if their sun, moon, or rising is in Libra), this makes for someone who can interact with others in a way that’s charming and pleasing. It doesn’t mean that they are sweet. It means that they can be sweet. (I know it sounds like splitting hairs, but this touches on the performance aspect of Libra. You know that meme about people who look like cinnamon buns but can kill you? That’s Libra.)

Furthermore, Libra energy likes things to be beautiful, and that applies to anything from people, to interactions, to things. Communication, words, and even courtship should be pretty as opposed to vulgar. They don’t need to be real, necessarily, but they should look nice. Whenever I think of how Libra energy fights, I always think of the old court of Versailles, where wars were waged with etiquette and devastatingly precise and well-timed pieces of gossip.

The Libra love of beauty also surfaces in literal ways. In fact, I always look for a strong Libra signature in the charts of hairdressers, makeup artists, and aestheticians, and the trend tends to hold. Either Libra or its ruler, the planet Venus, tends to be strong in the charts of people who work in any aesthetic field. As a result of its attunement to aesthetics, though, Libra energy is very sensitive to the people, places, and interactions that make up their immediate surroundings.

But the bigger question is how the heck can this sign be one of soul evolution and wisdom?

The answer is simple. Libra is the sign of mirroring. Through the mirror held up by our loved ones, we see what we can’t see by ourselves. And it’s only when we confront those blind spots that we can then pass into the deep wisdom of the next sign that follows Libra, which is Scorpio. But we are barred from entering Scorpio’s depths until we pay the price at the door, which is self-awareness, and that’s what we learn in Libra season.

So what do I mean by mirroring, and how does it work? Well, remember that Libra is the sign of relationships and relating. Libra energy knows that there are things that we can’t see ourselves. We all have flaws that have to be pointed out by others, however, it can’t be just anyone. If someone tells you off, you call them a hater and move on with your bad self. (Well, at least my Aries *ss would.)

But what if that insight comes from a trusted friend? A devoted lover? Woof. That lands differently, doesn’t it? When you’re called out by a true friend, you actually consider the possibility that what they’re saying might be true. When a wife tells her husband that he has a problem with his temper, she may be the only one on the planet who can say it and have him actually hear it. Oftentimes, we need “the other” to hold the mirror up for us to see what we can’t see ourselves.

Eighteenth Century Scottish poet Robert Burns says it best in this verse from his poem, To a Louse:

O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us…

Translation:

Oh, would some Power give us the gift
To see ourselves as others see us!
It would from many a blunder free us

Burns speaks true Libra wisdom here. He’s saying that if we could only see ourselves the way that others see us—with clear-eyed self awareness—we could avoid a lot of the headaches that we bring upon ourselves.

As mentioned before, Libra precedes Scorpio in the order of the zodiac because Libra is the gateway to Scorpio’s deep revelations. We see this play out in therapy sessions in which the patient literally pays an “other”—a trained counselor in the case of therapy—to mirror for them and help them to see themselves more clearly. And once they’ve done that, then the actual deep stuff can happen. We’ve seen what happens when the Libra work doesn’t happen in the people who do a lot of therapy but get nowhere with it. And that’s because they never got past the Libra step of really looking in the mirror to gain clarity first.

Before we can head into Scorpio’s intense season of confronting the uncomfortable truths in our lives, we are better equipped if we also learn Libra’s lesson of impartiality. Libra is the sign of justice and harmony, and despite what memes might say about codependent Libras, the ultimate highest expression of Libra is one of impartial fairness. (In fact, Libra corresponds to the Justice card in the Tarot.)

It is in the lessons of Libra that we learn to get comfortable with paradox and the gray areas of life, because when you’re impartial, you don’t have to pick a side. It doesn’t mean that you like everything. It means that you have grace—another word for Libra. And this is why Libra is the sign of peace. It isn’t because Libra energy wants you to people please your way to an accord—that’s the “low road” path of Libra—but because you’ve learned to make peace with the fact that life is messy, inconsistent, and contradictory, and that’s okay. You don’t feel the need to force things to change, and that’s how you find your inner peace. When Libra energy is at its best, it can see every point of view. It doesn’t mean it agrees with every point of view, but it can see it. (And that’s why Libra is also the sign of diplomacy.)

So before we can successfully wade in Scorpio’s deep, murky, emotional waters next month, we learn how to become impartial and how to see the world from other peoples’ eyes first during Libra season. This way, we don’t become more extreme or dogmatic when faced with emotional rawness and intensity later.

Yes, Libra is the sign of surface-level beauty, but it’s also the sign of soul-level beauty, which is the ability to extend grace to all facets of life. It’s also a beautiful declaration from astrology about peace and how peace can be achieved, which is not through external control, but through internal calm.

The questions that we should consider during Libra season are:

1. Where can I bring more grace and beauty into my life?
2. What am I projecting onto others that’s actually more about me than them?
3. Where am I negotiating peace at the cost of truth?

Also, did you know that we all have Libra energy in our chart even if we aren’t Libras? If you know your rising sign, you can figure out where in your life you’re meant to live with more grace, harmony, and beauty. (You’ll need your birth time to figure out your rising sign. You can use this tool to figure out your rising sign.) Once you know your rising sign, find it in the list below to read about where Libra energy lives in your chart.