This month our spotlight shines on the Sun in Libra, where the solar impetus for self expression becomes focused on the other, rather than the self.
The Sun’s ingress into Libra marks the equinox in the northern hemisphere and the start of autumn. Like the spring equinox six months earlier, ushered in on Aires’ initiatory fire, Libra season marks a new beginning, but towards cooler weather and, eventually, winter. Libra’s symbol of the scales is apt, symbolizing the time of year when the balance between the seasons begins to tilt.
Seeking Balance
Libra season is all about balance and discernment — choosing where to put our energies. But it’s also a time in which we can lose sight of ourselves, a state of being that those born with Sun in Libra can perhaps relate to (happy birthday dear Libras!).
This is because the Sun is technically in its sign of fall or depression in Libra, opposite the Sun’s exaltation in Aires, where it pursues its self expressive adventures with an almost-blinkered single-mindedness. In contrast, in Libra the Sun expresses itself through the antithesis of an exaltation of self, through the other, whether a spouse or the person on the other side of a conversation.
Social Butterflies
Libra Sun folks are among the most social of the socially-inclined air signs, ruled by Venus, planet of relationships, accord, and all things beautiful and agreeable. Naturally inclined towards others from the Sun being in its fall, Libra is then oriented completely around relationships through its venusian rulership.
Think about it: Gemini is ruled by brainy Mercury and Aquarius by stodgy, long-game Saturn, neither of which are fundamentally social on their own (Mercury does like to talk but the ideas are the point). That they’re rulers of two air signs brings their functions (Mercury: to communicate; Saturn: to build) into the social realm. But they aren’t motivated utterly around relationships, like Libra.
Which is where the stereotypes of Libra as the social butterfly, serial flirt, or inveterate charmer come into play. The ladies’ man, the player, the tease are all versions of this and highlight both the gender play of the masculine Sun ruled by feminine Venus in a masculine air sign, as well as the playful romantic approach taken by Libra Sun. This isn’t the romantic conquest of Aires or Scorpio, both Mars-ruled and into keeping score.
Wanted: A Partner
This is romance and partnership as a higher truth, a north star around which life is oriented. It’s hard to overstate how important relationships are for Libra Suns. They often feel incomplete without a partner, like their life force dims without an other to reflect them back to themselves.
It’s therefore a good practice for Libra Suns to engage in activities that boost their solar energy as their own self expression, and not just their partner’s. Doing things by themselves, focusing on their own tastes and preferences and not their partner’s, and experimenting with having the spotlight on them, alone, can be good exercises for bolstering their own sense of self.
Venus Rules
In fact, Venus’ rulership of the Sun in Libra goes a long way towards helping the Sun deal with being in its fall, where a planet is said to lack reputation. If Venus is helpfully placed in a natal chart, it can provide resources that strengthen the Sun.
Venus can only ever be 48° from the Sun at its greatest elongation, or about one and-a-half signs away. So you can’t ever have the Sun in Libra and Venus in Pisces or Aires, for example.
People with the Sun in Libra generally have Venus in either Virgo, Libra, or Scorpio, though it’s possible for Venus to be in Leo or Sagittarius as well. Of these placements, Venus in Libra is most helpful, in its air domicile where it has its own resources, with the other placement providing more or less help to the Sun based on their own condition. Venus tends to struggle in Virgo and Scorpio, which can affect how much help it can give the Sun in Libra. As always, there are many other mitigating factors in a natal chart that can affect how a planet functions.
Truth and Justice
But don’t be fooled into thinking that Libra Suns are helpless romantics waiting breathlessly for their true loves; opposite martial Aires, and with Saturn as its exaltation lord, Libra is at heart a fighter for justice, as its symbol of the scales suggests. One of Libra Sun’s superpowers, in fact, is being underestimated, mistaken for a lightweight.
Libra Sun uses its social dexterity and connections to advance its solar principles of truth and justice through charm offensives, winning people over to its cause through honey, not vinegar.
Building things in the social sphere through relationships and social currency are one of the ways that Libra Suns distinguish themselves and make their mark. And indeed, you often find Libra Sun folks in the thick of event planning, whether of weddings, fashion shows, charity galas, arts productions, and many other venusian pastimes.
Peaceful Overtures
The Sun enters Libra on September 22nd where it will stay until October 23rd, when it departs for Scorpio’s caverns of the soul. Even though we’re in the midst, and soon aftermath, of a particularly overloaded Mercury retrograde, the Sun in Libra seems to be playing a stabilizing and helpful role.
This is particularly true once Venus also enters Libra on September 29th. Venus in her diurnal air home strengthens the Sun in Libra immensely. Before this, Venus is in her fall in Virgo, where she lacks reputation and struggles, compounded by having a retrograde Mercury as her ruler.
Thus, in the first week of the Sun’s time in Libra, the Sun, in fall in Libra, will be ruled by a compromised Venus, also in fall. This is a bit tough — things might feel like they just aren’t coming together. Venus undergoes a huge improvement in dignity when she enters Libra, which shores up the Sun as well.
Look for things to feel more together in the topics of the Libra part of your chart from the 29th on, even as things get messy along the mutable signs as Mercury’s retrograde in Virgo opposes Neptune and squares Mars.
One of the first things the Sun does after entering Libra is to conjoin with backtracking Mercury at 0° Libra on the 23rd. This marks a moment of clarity in the Mercury retrograde story, when Mercury is protected in the heart of the Sun.
Some of the themes of the earlier libran part of the Mercury retrograde may be revealed, including a perhaps overly-optimistic opposition to Jupiter which invites big ideas that may go overboard, but in a way that is potentially constructive and insightful. Maybe we realize we may be pushing things too far. Just after the cazimi with the Sun, Mercury slips back into Virgo; look for a resumption of the usual Mercury retrograde cloudiness and logistical problems.
The Sun’s opposition to Jupiter in Aires on September 26th, just after a new moon in Libra on the 25th, amplifies the calls to action we heard earlier this spring when Jupiter first entered Aires. What causes have you been willing to fight for (hopefully metaphorically)?
Yet, I would urge caution against getting carried away, which is the speciality of Jupiter in any fire sign. With the Sun and Moon both still ruled by Venus in Virgo, herself crashing into backwards Mercury, drowning in Neptune’s oppositional waters, and fending off a mouthy Mars, Venus doesn’t have much resources or help to offer. We don’t seem to have the network or logistics to get whatever it is done at this time.
Things seem to improve in early October in terms of the basic functionality of things, with Venus entering Libra and Mercury stationing direct. The Sun in Libra makes helpful trines with Saturn in Aquarius on October 11th and Mars in Gemini on October 17th that seem like peaceful overtures to the usual malcontents, the Sun in Libra deploying its favored honey strategy.
But don’t be surprised if diplomacy is sabotaged somehow, and in a surprising fashion; Saturn and Uranus get within a degree of their corrosive ongoing square by mid-October before Saturn changes directions, suggesting an almost (if not actual) resumption of hostilities between forces of change and the institutions with power. The Sun squaring Pluto on October 19th underscores the potent nature of the challenging and transformational times we’re living through.
The Sun and Venus seem to be giving peace everything they’ve got, joining in their superior conjunction at 29°Libra on October 22nd, forming harmonious trines with warlike Mars and institutional leader Saturn, with Mercury, now direct and in Libra broadcasting the give-peace-a-chance message. Will it be enough? The Sun and Venus both enter Scorpio, Mars’ nocturnal domain, the next day. Stay tuned.
All the Beautiful Things (and People)
A cursory look at notable Libra Suns yields a veritable who’s who of artists of all types: visual artists, musicians, actors, writers, etc. This is understandable, as Libra Sun tends to wear its art on its sleeve, so to speak, embodying the archetype of the artist with ease.
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921), the French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic era, had Libra Sun, Venus, and Saturn all centered around his Libra rising (what is it with Libra stelliums these days in my chart examples?), a literal embodiment of someone who was a composer of beautiful music that has endured the test of time.
However, this Libra stellium is opposed by difficult and transformational Pluto in Aires in his seventh house of partnership, which played out in his life as marriage problems likely stemming from the tragic deaths of his children; he also may have been gay in a difficult time and place. Life, as we all know, is complicated.
Yet, his music endures for its accessible beauty and lasting charm (libran keywords). I remember my first ballet teacher playing music from The Carnival of the Animals and having us “free dance” around the studio. I was probably six, wearing the aquamarine lycra leotard that was the uniform (it was the 80s). I remember the beauty of the “aquarium” section (starts at 8:46 in video), which appealed to me no doubt as a Pisces Sun, and the sheer joy of inhabiting that bewitching music with my entire body.
See you next week! And, don’t forget: I’m offering a special 10% discount just for my readers for booking a consultation this month to celebrate 18 months of Fifth House Astrology. Thanks for reading!