Loving Libra -- The mystique, mysteries and magic of the Zodiac's seventh sign -- Part 2

Part 1

Pink is a Libra color!
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Masters of manipulation

Much of this comes from the tension of always having to take other people into account -- people who are often not nice, not cooperative, not one bit enamored with appearances -- people not at all like Libras.

When that happens, somebody's gotta adjust!! And Libras, for all their smiles and suavity are not into being doormats all the time.

They just don't want to have to put up with a lot of yelling while they finagle folks into giving them their own way. And they can be as fixed on getting their own way as any Aries you ever met.

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Smoothing over the rough spots

This means competition, conflict, confrontation and the clash of different needs and priorities all has to be expressed, managed, and covered over -- all at the same time. Can you say maneuvering-and-manipulation? Libras can manage this to a fare-thee-well ... and the gracious grin will never leave their lips.

Diplomacy was a game invented by Libra -- because all-out war is so messy after all -- and they are master champions at it on every level.

Have a close look at that lovely Libra baby next time you meet one. He or she will already have those opening moves down pat. Who else, I ask you, could make a toothless smile so dazzling?

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Taking others into account

The first six signs of the Zodiac are all about the individual. The My Presence of Aries, the My Money of Taurus, the My Ideas of Gemini, the My Home and Family of Cancer, the Me, me, me everything of Leo, the My Work and My Established Routines of Virgo.

By the time Libra arrives, the field is getting crowded -- and you gotta take these others into account. Maybe by then a little tact and diplomacy is not a bad notion.

With our Libra energy -- and everybody has some of this somewhere -- we realize we are not the center of the universe after all. (I know. Some of us think that's a dreadful piece of news. Talk about an inconvenient truth!!)

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Cooperation and competition

There are souls out there who are emphatically not like us ... but who need what we need and want what we want every bit as much as we do. When you're talking about praise, encouragement, recognition and attention ... that's one thing.

When you're talking about the one plum job, the love of your life, the exclusive trophy of attainment, the one unique treasure -- whatever it may be -- that only one person can own and it's what you want with all your heart, the hackles rise, the ambition grows and perhaps turns malignant -- and you're no longer in any mood to share -- or be a good loser.

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Trying to share and accommodate

History and literature are bloody with stories about what happens when those contests start to involve love, money, politics and power -- or the basic stuff of survival.

Yet, Libra's solution is to promote sharing somehow -- using compromise, conciliation, the concepts of taking turns, give-and-take, and whatever else its wily mind can devise.

The trick is to find out what the other guy wants more than he wants what you do and find a way to give him that ... or find out what he would be willing to settle for that you are willing to surrender or supply. That way you both can feel like winners. The psychology of it can get Byzantine after a while.

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It takes time and plenty of patience

It is not a mission for sissies -- not when you have to do things like hammer out an agreement on the shape of the bargaining table delegates will all sit around before you can even get off the opening remarks about what you have come together to discuss.

That's when the idea of a few well-placed warheads starts taking on new glamour ... but that's the Aries in me talking. You'll just have to excuse the attitude.

I have to say I still admire them ... the Libras ... and the part they play in human events. Thank heaven we have them. But I can also say at last, thank heaven we're not all them. The spices of the different signs are things I wouldn't have missed for the world.

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That doesn't sound like me

After many, many years -- well more than half my life even now -- of trying to emulate the sterling qualities of Libra, I'm trying to learn to be myself again. When I talk about it, I say I'm trying to get back to being who I was when I was five years old.

I remember that little person so keenly ... and the fact that not many people found her charming at all. She was too demanding. She was too out-spoken.

She was far too independent ... and for a little girl living in Texas in the 50's, she was far too brash and took way too many risks. She wasn't lady-like and she heard about it constantly.

Red is an Aries color!
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Not even a little

She was Aries from the moment her eyes opened in the morning until she was shoved into bed at night, reluctant and resisting all the way.

She always had skinned knees. She was always into something that caused trouble. She was a rough-and-tumble type. She got dirty a lot. She played cowboys-and-Indians and softball with the little boys far more readily than she played house and jump-rope with the little girls.

She was not my mother's model of anything a child of hers should be. But she was double-Aries me ... and I'm still trying to recapture her essence again and let it shine.

All these many years later, I'm still learning to love that, too. Along with my dream of being a Libra. Someday.

Thank you for stopping by!

If you've always known there was more to Astrology than Sun Sign material and the three line daily horoscope in the newspaper, climb aboard and follow this blog. You'll find a world of wisdom detailing how you were designed to work with life ... and why you are the way you are -- all in quick-to-read, easy-to-digest-and-remember, written-in-plain-English essays that offer plenty of food for thought.

Little by little, I'm doing a set of articles that talks about all the elements in your horoscope and what they have to say about you. If you "know something" about Astrology -- or know something about your chart placements, that will help you get more from this material.

If you don't ... well, this is one place you can learn. We all have to start somewhere ... because we aren't born knowing this stuff. Meanwhile, if you've never seen your horoscope ... and don't have a clue how to work with it, maybe it's time to find out. There are lots of "chart services" on the internet -- some of whom produce decent, readable charts "for free" and some are so awful and confusing that even I can't read them easily -- and I've worked with charts for decades.

One extremely user-friendly chart site is here: AstroLabe. I recommend them if you want a simple, easy-to-read chart. I think they even give a reasonable little interpretive reading of your horoscope as part of the package. You'll need to know your birth information -- day, month, year, time and geographical place. Without all that your chart will have limited accuracy.

Or, if you want to get serious and really talk about this, upvote this post and start a conversation in the comments section sometime in the next six days from the time of publication. We'll go from there depending on what you want to know.

Questions about any of this? -- Upvote this post and talk to me in comments. It's a terrific way to build value for yourself and the community ... and it will give me ideas of what to write about in future posts. Believe me there is lots to say about the way The Sun, The Moon -- and all the other elements in a horoscope, all the other components of Astrology -- work together to interpret you and your story -- and what it all means to the person you've become.

This is who I am.

About the art in our visual essays ...

Although sometimes the background pictures in our visual essays support the topic and text, they don't always. Sometimes the connection is clear. Sometimes it's symbolic and subtle. Sometimes, there's no connection at all.

The scenes depict landscapes and natural features, buildings and wildlife. They were chosen because they show something lovely or interesting ... or simply because the photo appealed to me.

Our spectacular and remarkable planet is changing at astonishing speed. Rarely are these changes for the better. Few people seem to know ... or care ... or have the will and power to do anything about this. It may not be long before the world humans have known and lived in for centuries is forever lost. We certainly won't be able to make repairs as fast as we destroyed it.

So a few years ago I began collecting pictures of the way things were ... and still are for now, a record of the beauty we have while it is still ours to love and honor.

The photos here are part of that collection, with sincere thanks to the artists who saw these moments ... and with their cameras ... preserved them. All of us at Enchanted Spirit are profoundly grateful to them for their generosity and skill ... and for the added grace, depth and dimension their art brings to ours.

Original images used under this Creative Commons license or this Creative Commons license and modified by added text.

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