Have you ever tried slack-lining or walking on a high-rope? If you have you know there is a certain core-strength involved and meditative-like focus, combined with a surrender to deep and slow breaths. There is both a pressure and an ease involved, which is parallel to the energy Libra season brings. If there was ever a theme song for this season, amidst 6 planets being in retrograde and being that the planet of war (Mars) is currently being stuffed in Libra’s love blanket, it’s ‘I Walk The Line’ by Johnny Cash. (Just hear me out here.) He finds it “very, very easy to be true” (he is in love after all, and Libra, which is ruled by the planet of love, embodies the Golden Ratio, which creates all of existence, therefore loving is easy peasy for Mr. Cash) *elbow nudges you*, and his love is as sure as “night is dark and day is light” ( I mean do I even need to point out how Libra that line is?) All silliness and songs aside, we are in a season asking us to wrangle and reason with anything that keeps us from the simplicity of operating from a place of love, which involves mindful and deliberate action, as well as rest.
Like it’s justice-centered predecessor that is Virgo, here we are in Libra-scale season being further pushed (really I think cornered is a better word choice at this point) to align our walk with our talk, our innermost desires and beliefs with the life we live, and to find balance on that fine center between the night and day dwelling within us.
Ruled by Venus, Libra is the only constellation in the zodiac that is not an animal or person. Libra was given it’s classification of all things “balance” at a time when, at this point in the year, night and day were of equal proportion. The scale used to determine truth and virtue is held by goddess Themis, the androgynous oracle who does not know wrath, yet does see things simply for what they are–both the dark and the light. Blindfolded, Themis navigates and feels her way to her final judgments by way of Love, the dance of Venus and Earth around the Sun, which is the Golden Ratio 1.618, and in divine order with seeds growing in the earth, and the blood that flows in our bodies. For this reason she is trusted by the gods to make decisions, for there is no discrimination–you are either aligned with the cycle of Venus in your intentions and actions, or you are not. Libra embodies both the cut-throat and harsh, and the liberating, lightweight, and flowing.
I’ve been thinking a lot about transitions lately, and the way the balancing theme of Libra comes into play when it comes to making changes in one’s life. Being that Libra is in the center of the zodiac, it is a transitory time that symbolizes the mark between your relationship to yourself, and how you relate with others. The second half of the zodiac asks us to look at our dealings, commitments and interactions, and Libra is right at the middle of this turning point. Editing your story requires dismantling what once was, reconstructing, putting things into order, blindly making something new out of what is apparent and before you. This requires taking a close look at the people we engage with, and inviting others, or setting boundaries with them in order to actively create the environment most supportive of who you are and who you are blossoming into.
Right now I am walking on a line existing between shadow and light. I am in a vulnerable, yet also empowering place of saying goodbye to the roles I have filled, scrapping a career I have built around teaching, into being able to express myself freely and artistically, and move in the world authentically in alignment with my bliss, my beliefs, my passions. As I feel my way through, I have the option to choose to submit to shadows, give in to voices that critique, downplay, and shush what expressions want to come out. If I choose to I could fall into that pit and allow my limbs to be pulled by self-pity, shame and despair, but I know better. I am choosing to acknowledge, observe and dance with those masks, as if they are twirling in the mirror reflected back at me, tantalizing and seductive I give a playful smirk and sway where I am, which is on this golden twine just out of their reach. I choose not to demonize them, or keep them locked in a box I pretend doesn’t exist, but to use their existence to fine-tune myself into grace, humility and keep my feet on the earth to be of service in my own way. I love them all, but I see them for what they are, and I have boundaries. When they lash out in front of me, I bend accordingly and am in return grateful for the opportunity to rise, to beat my drum until they are dancing with me.
There is also the beaming light of day on the other side, where if I stay for too long, I may lose momentum in taking the strides necessary to dance with all of my relations. It is by stepping off of this chord in the middle, then overstaying my welcome in the sun glaze-coated bakery of bliss, that it then becomes a certain willful ignorance. Darkness inevitably emerges and has the power to startle me into a reaction that is off-centered and unaligned–it has the potential to catch me so off-guard that I have to spend a longer amount of time trying to get back into center. It is by embracing the dark we are able to stay above it. There is no righteousness in denying the wild, the untamed, the out-of-line mischievous fire-starter within you. It is right here on this line between chaos and purity that my sight is most clear. It is by welcoming everyone to my fire that I am able to move in ways I have never moved before. It is in being acquainted with death time and time again, that I am able to live. It is because of performing duets with my demons, that they know I am the director of the show.
As we negotiate, decide upon and show up to spaces during this season, let us strive to make our lives as simple as we possibly can (especially being that Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are all in retrograde). The easiest way to ensure we are making the right decision is to check in with the reasoning behind the choices we make. (Hint: operate from a place of love–this is no time for revenge, performative acts, or desperate pleads for love to come in from outside of ourselves.)
Questions to ask yourself as you operate over these next couple of weeks:
- Am I longing to/choosing to do this because I sincerely enjoy doing it?
- After I send this message/email how will I feel about myself? How will these words make the other party feel about themselves?
- Where in my life do I speed-through just to get-through? Where in my life can I slow down? What can I afford to sacrifice?
- What am I working for/toward? Are those things in alignment with what will bring me peace?
- What activities/past times/hobbies do I regularly engage in? How does my body feel (special attention to heart-rate/mind/eyes/gut) as I engage in these activities?
- Who are the people I regularly show my affection and intimacy toward? Do they share the same beliefs, actions and attitudes that I do toward life and what I value in mine?
As we embark down the paths our transitions lead us to, let us remember it requires both tension and surrender to walk in alignment with love this way, and before you get frustrated with the ever-evolving choices life presents us with–choices to speak up, edit, or stay silent; stay or go; follow a rule, break a rule, or create new ones—remember that being alive is a gift, one with love and heartache, closed doors and new terminals, memories and experiences we have yet to meet. As you maneuver your words and actions in your relations, forget wrong vs. right, you vs. them, and return to where your heart rests along the middle plane. There are no sides after all–it is only by gazing into the intersection where they meet in the middle that we gain stride into living in harmony with ourselves, and with others.
Invocations, Love Letters, Perlocutionary Acts 