Ruler: Venus

Exalted: Saturn

Detriment: the Sun

Fall: Mars

Polarity: Masculine/ Positive

Modality: Cardinal

Element: Air

Body Parts: all hormone secreting glands, kidneys, adrenals, physical balance mechanisms, blood pressure balance, and any other regulatory system, bladder, ovaries & testes (from a hormonal viewpoint), ureters

Nature: hot, moist, mental and refined

This post originally appeared a few years ago and has been updated.

The Scene: Sydney Opera House for a performance of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)- Three guys, one dead playwright, and 37 plays, all in under two hours.

Actor Eric Thomson is loosening up and preparing for his personal big moment on the stage. His chest puffs out, his head goes back and the back of a hand is rested ever so dramatically against his brow. He is every inch a tortured Danish Prince.

‘To be,’ he pauses for effect, ‘or not to be,’ he turns and faces the audience, still with full dramatic poise. Lifting just one finger in a meaningful and indecisive way he continues, ‘that…is the question.’

At that exact moment a laugh escapes from the woman in the middle of the third row. Eric stands and looks at her. She composes herself while the Actor re-sets his position. From the third row there is some muffled giggling as the two women on either side of the culprit attempt to restrain themselves and their companion.

Hamlet adopts his pose again, puts his hand back to his forehead and starts again.

‘To be…or not to be….’

Another laugh comes from the woman in Row 3. It is one of those laughs that escapes from the nose because the mouth is closed.

Actor 2 comes on stage.

‘Eric,’ he says, ‘what is wrong? This is your big moment- you’ve been rehearsing this for months.’

‘I just can’t,’ wails Eric…’its those women there in row 3.’ He points to the 3 women now cackling uncontrollably.

‘Don’t worry about them.’ Actor 2 turns and peers into row 3. ‘They are just ignorant trollops…and probably had a second bottle at the Opera Bar before the show.’

More giggles as Eric resets. ‘To be, or not to be….that is the question.’

Indeed, it is the question, as is:

should I stay or should I go?

Latte or cappuccino?

The red dress or the blue?

Making your mind up is indeed the issue when you have the Sun in Libra. This isn’t the “break everything down into little pieces before I make a call” of Virgo. Nor is it that you are indecisive, or that you don’t know what you want. It is just that you want to make sure that the choice you make is the right one- not just for you, but for the people you are with…and you like to have people with you.

Libra is that point where winter meets spring (or summer meets fall- depending on where you live). It the point of equinox, equality, a balancing point. It’s that point where the individual meets the other.

Sounds pretty deep, but in essence it means that the Sun in Libra is motivated by harmony and justice, and defines itself through relationships with others. All of this makes Libra social, fair, a born diplomat and just a tad (?) flirtatious. Libra generally does not like to be alone.

An Air sign, Libra Sun people have good brains, are able to see both sides of a story and come to an agreement between the two without necessarily anyone having to compromise their own beliefs. Ruled by Venus, Libra Sun people are also refined and love beauty, grace and gorgeousness in their surroundings. Loud noises, clashing colours, unpleasantness and disharmony of any sort will send a shiver up the Libra spine.

Tastes, colours and music must be balanced. Libra at heart is also a little more conservative than you might think- and this again is down to her love of beauty and refinement: “To be or not to be” definitely has a much nicer ring than the modern equivalent of “can I really be faffed hanging around?”

It is this drive for balance, parity and relationship that is also Libra’s shadow. In keeping a relationship alive, it can be very easy to forget that two individuals come into a relationship- one of which is yourself. The Sun is in detriment in Libra, with the ego tied up in other rather than self…or self through other. In smoothing the tides of discontent, you often hide your own needs and feelings. In finding balance and peace, you also need to practice moderation…or manipulation.

Which brings me to another part of the Libra shadow. Libra doesn’t like conflict- it’s unseemly and plays havoc with the nails. Sometimes it can be far easier to have a word in the ear of your factional buddies and watch as others take the cause up and rid you of the foul fiend. A well placed rumour or a deft aim with the back knives can allow you to outwardly keep the peace, get what you want and emerge with nary a hair out of place.

Indecision is also the shadow of Libra- the risk that in delaying action, you may miss out on the action, so to speak… Sometimes, Libra, instead of saying perhaps, there’s value in asking “why not?…let’s get started!”