Goddess of Justice

Libra season 2023

“The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind small.”

Sextus Empiricus, 3rd century AD

When we greet the beginning of autumn, we often feel pulled in two different directions; our legs akimbo as we straddle the equinox like a canyon of delineation. Before it, the anxious transition and disciplinary crack down that is Virgo season - and past it, a luscious slide into crisp air, scholastic stride, and celebrations of gluttony. After a fraught August and September full of retrograde madness, political intrigue, natural disasters, and a decent amount of weltschmerz, the mellow equanimity of Lady Justice feels like the moment OTC pain relief hits. We might stop amongst the trees on our way to work in late September, and while standing beneath the fiery leaves as they shush each other realize; so this is what it feels like to not be anxious. 

Acting as the liminal space between Virgoan institutional service and obsessive Scorpionic resurrection, Libra season might feel like purgatory to the more action-focused among us. It is a season of pure Venusian pleasure; a moment to bide time and enjoy things like art shows, game nights with friends, and romantic outings. Like their sister from another mister, Taurus, Libra thrives in all areas dominated by the ruling planet Venus - art, beauty, love, and money. But unlike Taurus, the airy sign of justice exudes rational, masculine awareness that can cause Libra to sit uncomfortably with sensuality for sensualities sake. (The Bulls of the world suffer no such compunction - if you presented them with a lifetime of endless quantities of food to be eaten on a velvet couch while watching television, Taurus would have a full mouth and couch ass before the t.v. was even switched on.) People under the sign of the scales, socially lubricating and diplomatic to a fault, often struggle with the ideas of love and attraction, in the sense that they crave it so badly, they often place dangerous emphasis on what other people want or find beautiful instead of their own internal perceptions. 

The constellation of Libra was initially part of the Scorpius star clump, referred to as the scorpion’s claws, and weirdly, the two signs continue to share a kind of symbiotic compatibility. As a Scorpio and astrologer who is loathe to piss off the heavens, I long ago chose a Libra for my best friend; a woman who gifts people far more grace than I ever would, and who could foment a breezy, dinner party atmosphere in prison if she so desired. She has pulled my Mars-ruled ass from the precipice of too many brutal bar fights and random physical conflicts to count, but is also the person who will force me from self-imposed isolation and depression with a promise of chicken rings from White Castle. All of this makes sense when we recall that scorpions fight with their tails, not with their claws. The claws are how they anchor to the world, surviving only through Libra’s contagious, generous humanity. 

Even in 2023 Libra has association with Lady Justice, often depicted in modern western culture as a young woman in a blindfold, wielding a set of scales in one hand and a sword in the other. Her appearance is connected loosely to both the Greek goddess Dike and the Roman goddess Justitia, daughters to Zeus and Jupiter, respectively, whose job was to maintain fairness and order amongst the mortals when it came to managing crimes and reckonings.  Dike is not depicted in art or artifacts with a blindfold, but Justitia is, perhaps as an illustration to Rome’s slightly more evolved idea of the court of law, in that it should be applied equally to all citizens, regardless of rank or wealth. Of course, much like Rome’s sycophantic great, great, great grandchild America, the tangible practice of a blind justice system was far more elusive than simple verbal commitment to it. 

In many ways, that dissonance between desire and reality, between theory and execution, can be a major irritant to those born under a Libra sun. They are individuals of great generosity and charisma who nonetheless struggle with a kind of blindness to their own worth in deference to other people’s opinions. The whimsical astrology we read about in digital lifestyle publications tends to emphasize Libra’s social nature, charismatic appearance, and diplomatic communication - all things which certainly present strongly in late September children. But an oft overlooked Libra trait that drives 90% of their social behavior is deep, pulsating insecurity. They are constantly wondering if anybody loves them, and if they are attractive enough or smart enough to even be worthy of love. The depth and breadth of this fear can also contribute to the infamous indecisiveness of people born beneath the sign of The Scales, their ambivalence stemming not so much from their own minds, but what they fear is going on in the minds of others. Libras are observant and cerebral, but they don't enjoy conflict and will gladly turn a blind eye to transgressions and slights if it allows group interaction to proceed more smoothly, but that doesn’t mean they don’t care. Part of the problem with Libra is that they care too much about external opinions and allow others to plant seeds of pessimism inside their egos, usually when they are very young. Those seeds grow into a poisonous garden that Libra unconsciously tends every time they swallow a slight, feign indifference, or cling to unrequited love, providing food for the negativity and vanity that often plagues them. As they get older, many Libras are able to back burner the need for approval and release their unnecessary self-doubt, rebalancing their own mental scales in order to apply diplomacy and fortitude in equal measure. This, then, seems to be the individual Libra struggle and ultimate goal - to find the perfect balance between egotist and doormat that allows them to treat themselves as generously as they treat others. 

We all endure echoes of this struggle throughout autumn, but we will feel it more acutely and urgently in 2023 due to the occupation in Libra of the southern lunar node, a place in astrology that tells us what must be released in order to progress forward. With the lunar nodes occupying the Aries/Libra axis and our sun newly entering Libra, equality, diplomacy, and balance become public issues for the entire zodiac. As an air sign, Libra prefers to solve things academically and mentally, so don’t expect, say, a loud overhaul of the Supreme Court or some form of proletariat revolution, at least not yet. This moment is still a liminal space; an empty bridge that we populate with circumspection about equity as we bide our time and build our case. It would be silly to expect some kind of drastic reckoning during Libra, anyway, regardless of how caustic, corrupt, and fundamentally unequal life on this globe is becoming.  Venus is not Mars, and Libra is not Scorpio, despite those planets and signs sharing many of the same goals. Lady Justice is not the sort of goddess who goes around cutting down criminals willy nilly. Instead she gives the scales time to do their thing, making friends through her unmatched diplomacy and filing slights and misdeeds away in her formidable mind, building a case for future change. So we can expect a lot of cogitation on these issues for the next month, and perhaps increased public conversations regarding the justice system, inequality, and course correction, which are all good and necessary steps. But another Venus-ruled aspect that contributes to fomenting change is painful financial upheaval. As I write this, student loan payments are about to be reactivated and the commercial real estate market is approaching burst bubble-hood the likes of which we haven’t seen since the Great Depression. Rome’s mutant offspring, The United States, is likely to shut down its government due to craven incompetence of the ruling class, leaving thousands of people without paychecks during a season typically utilized as preparation for major western holidays. Art, feminism, and culture, mainstays of Venus herself, are under attack in various areas of the globe through book bans, drag bans, and bans on reproductive health care, and yes, sadly, nothing drastic is going to change this fall. We are all going to repeat customary greetings, complete work tasks, and go to the grocery store as though we are unbothered, much in the way a Libra might swan through a party, concealing an anxious desire for something better with sparkly wit and easy smiles. If you know any Libras, you know this is a stall tactic; a way to shore up their confidence and bring in trusted reinforcements. Libra would never, ever cause a scene, but they are observing and notetaking all the same, hewing closely to the wisdom of Sextus Empiricus. The ruling class should enjoy this restive autumn while we do the Libra thing of going with the group and feigning a mellow apathy to the injustices against us, giving them no reason to be anxious or defensive. Yet.

We are grinding slowly right now, but the planets are re-aligning in the sky for 2024, and Scorpio’s chilly freak of a ruler, Pluto, will be teaming up with Aquarius to pack punches that Venus isn’t equipped to throw. Pluto brings primordial underworld energy to entire generations, and Aquarius is the astrological embodiment of ‘fuck your feelings.’ Together they form a vicious fixed sign duo that tears down outdated systems and destroys with the sole purpose of rebuilding, ushering an era wherein the wheel of justice might finally, finally, begin to grind small. Until then, with Libra, we wait.