We have often remarked in the Lodge that a sign may
express itself quite differently in different parts of the
horoscope, which indeed is hardly surprising.  But the
difference seems greater in some cases than others.
  Libra is a sign in which the changes are quite remarkable,
and if they are not understood, bad delineation may readily
result.
  Although generally considered a fortunate sign under which
to be born, Libra suffers some disabilities.
  If it rises, then one must remember that it is in
opposition to its natural place in the horoscope, which
would be cusp 7.
  If the Sun is there, he is in his fall, and if Mars is
there, he is in his detriment.
  On the other hand the Moon and Mercury are happy in Libra
and Venus is obviously very much at home, technically and
actually.  Jupiter is said to "rejoice" in Libra and Saturn
is in his exaltation.
  I hardly know what to say about Uranus.  Generally, Uranus
is not well matched with Venus, though a good aspect between
them is often productive of artistic ability, sometimes of a
high order.  However, of the four elements it is probably
true to say that Uranus is best in Air and so may be
considered pretty well placed in Libra, though better in
Gemini and Aquarius.
  Neptune may also be regarded as well placed in Libra,
since the spiritual and intellectual powers of the planet
should have scope for happy expression.
  It is too early to speak of Pluto.  This is a planet upon
the nature of which I maintain an open mind.  It has, like
the proverbial dog, received a bad name, perhaps unjustly.
  However, broadly it may be said that it is quite desirable
to have the Moon, Mercury, Venus or Jupiter in Libra; and to
have either of the benefics rising in this sign, reasonably
aspected, is certainly pleasant.  Such a person should be
kind and philanthropic, cheerful, and able to extract all
the enjoyment possible from life, as well as being generally
fortunate, with excellent prospects of longevity.
  One can understand the exaltation of Saturn.  Both the
planet and the sign of exaltation have a liking for
order...sometimes, indeed, a passion for it.  A place for
everything and everything in its place.  Of course some
Librans are indolent and live in a state of muddle; but that
would not occur with a rising Saturn.  It might seem that
Saturn would really be happier in Virgo, which also craves
order and is usually, though not invariably, industrious.
  Justice is really order in the moral realm.  To each his
due.  Libra, however, tempers justice with mercy, which is
hardly Saturnian.  The planet can be unrelenting and ask,
like shylock, "Is it so nominated in the bond?" Hence a
delinquent may well hope that his judge has Saturn in Libra.
  But if Saturn is softened in Libra, the sign,
contrariwise, may gain depth from the planet.  We all know
natives of Libra who are shallow and foolish, people of whom
the best one can say is that there is no vice in them.  They
are too readily influenced by others and always try to find
an easy way out and the point of least resistance.  I speak
now of Libra rising.  With such natives, it is always well
to pay special attention not only to Saturn, but to Mars
also, for if these planets are poorly placed, a weak
character is very possible.
  We all know the tradition that the zodiac was once
tenfold, Libra being absent and Virgo and Scorpio
amalgamated.  I think there is still much in common between
Virgo and Libra.  Both, for example, are often fond of
gardening.  But Libra is much more sociable and
instinctively runs to partnership, not only in marriage.  It
has an inborn sense of personal inadequacy.  It is not an
inferiority complex so much as a feeling that it is natural
for it to work in harness with someone else.  This recalls
the Platonic myth that tells how mankind became too
arrogant, and so Zeus split each soul into halves, and every
half goes seeking its other half and is incomplete until it
finds it.
  One would suppose that the other half of Libra should be a
native of Aries; but actually it would seem that Leo most
often partners Libra, supplying the backbone and faith that
Libra needs.
  Indeed, I am prepared to declare that Libra is not a very
good sign to have on the ascendant, if we place the Good in
worldly success.  We will examine cases later, but when
Libra rising succeeds, it is usually in cultural fields.
  But if Libra is not a very good ascendant for those who
wish to win success, it is quite a good one for those who
happen to be born with silver spoons in their mouths, so
that there is no need for the initiative and the taking of
risks.  Uncertainty about the future worries Librans,
setting the balance all aquiver.
  They make good librarians and are often found as
shopkeepers in articles of adornment such as jewellery.
They probably gravitate to such work as that of models and
mannequins, cashing in on their frequent grace and charm.
  Those that have Cancer on the midheaven are sometimes
quite good business folk.
  Their gift of impartiality and detachment makes them good
counsellors and they can be sympathetic and prudent legal
advisers, not too ready to involve their clients in
litigation.  In fact, Libra rising is a born arbitrator.
  Naturally one has to keep one's eye not only on the natus
as a whole, but above all upon the ruler.  That, at least in
part, explains the unLibran characteristics of Adolf Hitler.
But it must be recollected that he was not a man who relied
entirely upon brute force; he won many successes without
shedding a drop of blood.  Libra combined with Capricorn is
the diplomatist...or the cunning schemer, whichever term you
prefer.
  But it must remain something of an enigma how any Libran,
even a semi-maniac, could have perpetrated the wholesale
murders that will for ever disgrace the Nazi regime.  Yet
the same man sincerely disapproved of blood-sports.
  We must always bear in mind how the Law of Compensation is
ever at work, and it is probable that some Librans,
conscious of their easy-going complaisant tendencies, react
by behaving in a crude and rough manner.  This is the sort
of thing one might expect from some Germans, especially one
as ill-bred and uneducated as Hitler.  But that it should
extend to attempted genocide does seem hard to believe.
  If Libra and Virgo have points in common, there seems
little resemblance between Libra and Scorpio, except a
common interest in sex, though I would hazard the
distinction that Libra, as such, is attracted
psychologically and Scorpio physically.  But it might not be
easy always to draw a line between the two.  Of course Libra
usually prefers gentleness to roughness, and, though it may
be true that:
  "The female of the species is more deadly than the male,"
still one the whole one gets fewer jars from female society
than from the masculine.  Even nowadays.
  Libran engagements seldom last long.  The relations get so
tired of the love-struck youngsters that they get them
married off in desperation, even if the pair has to go and
live in a disused omnibus or railway coach.
  We may now consider a few cases of Libra rising people,
all more or less famous or notorious.  We will take them in
order of the degrees:
  1½  The Earl of Harewood, who was an enthusiastic
collector of antiques and had an interest in art and music
that descended to his children.
  2½  Charcot, famed for his studies in scientific
hypnotism.
  4½  Sir Alfred Fripp, surgeon.  And under the same degree
we have in Maurice Wemyss's booklets, an Art Expert.
  8½  Petofi, a Hungarian lyrical poet, and Francis Galton
the eugenicist.
  11½ We have a meteorologist, a Spanish hermit, and the
Archduke Leopold of Austria.
  14½ The Lindbergh child (kidnapped and murdered)
  15½ A Musical Prodigy; and Edith Cavell whose memory
throws a noble light on the Libra ascending race.
  16½ Piccard, the famous aeronaut.
  17½ With a becoming blush I have to say that this degree
had to its credit or discredit several well-known
characters.
  First, the "good old Duke of York" who was a popular
Commander in Chief, reputed to be kind-hearted and merciful
to the rank-and-file but also said to have been under the
thumb of numerous female associates who influenced his
choice of promotions.
  Next, Benvenuto Cellini, famous sculptor, duellist and
autobiographer.  Was this ferocious character really born
under Libra?  Like Hitler, he had his ruler conjoined with
Mars, in, in his case, in Scorpio, which also held the Sun.
  Then we have Bramwell Booth, a general only by courtesy.
  Lastly, Sir Isaac Pittman and Harry S. Truman.
  18½ Maurice Wemyss gives us an "expert mountaineer."
  Coming to the last decanate, we have under the 20th
degree, the greatest of all natives of Libra...Sir Isaac
Newton.
  23½ Hugo Grotius, whose book was for long the standard
work on international law.
  25½ Yehudi Menuhin, the violinist.
  26½ Mahatma Gandhi, another Libran with ruler conjoined
with Mars and one who certainly fought, but with spiritual
weapons only, and found them most effective.
  27½ brings us back to Hitler, and also to Robert Hooke, a
philosopher and one of the first to proclaim the now
obsolete doctrine that the stellar motions should be
explained on mechanical principles.
  28½ ends the present list, appropriately, with a great
astrologer, Paul Choisnard, a man who may justly be called
the first of astrological statisticians.
  According to the Chaldean system the first decan of Libra
is under the Moon, the next under Saturn and the last under
Jupiter.  The above examples give some support to this
classification.
  I have not gone through "A Thousand and One Nativities"
because I feel you may be tired of these well-worn examples.
Actually I think the above instances give a fairly
representative picture of Libra rising interests, the
emphasis being on science, in one form or another.
  When we turn to Sun in Libra we get quite a different sort
of temperament.  Here there is no tendency to indolence, but
an unusually active way of life.  Nor is there any
propensity to easy compromise: on the other hand, this
position tends to a love of debate, not to say dispute.  You
get an impressive list of generals and admirals and such
born fighters as Dr. Besant and Eamonn De Valera. (Irish
leader) Instead of the sometimes rather plaintive "It isn't
fair!" of Libra rising, you get a strong determination to
remedy the "unfairness" and put things right.  In fact,
fighting , one way or another, seems the main preoccupation
of Sun in Libra.
  They are, at first sight, "strong" characters who will
stand nonsense from nobody.  But underneath there is a fatal
weakness, due to the fact that Sol is in its fall.  They are
often betrayed by their associates.  I have not read Lady
Lutyens' recently published book on her relations with the
Theosophical Society but in the reviews there is mention of
her statement that Dr. Besant was unduly influenced by
persons less intellectual and perhaps less scrupulous than
herself.  That is certainly true of many Sun in Libra
natives and astrology gives us a clear warning, if we have
this position, to beware of this danger.  Sometimes I think
this happens through an admirable but misplaced loyalty to
friends...or those deemed to be friends.  Having once formed
an association, the Sun in Libra will stick to it.
  Whilst Libra rising will do its utmost to make marriage a
success and usually succeeds, Sun in Libra is rarely
fortunate in this respect.  Sometimes separation is through
death or some other outward circumstance; sometimes it is
through disagreement.  Sun in Libra usually survives its
mate.  Whether the mate can escape premature decease by
divorce or running away, I do not know.
  We cannot escape these positions of detriment and fall,
anymore than we can miss the benefits of exaltation and
other dignities.  All one can say is that the severity of
affliction and the extent of benefit do depend a lot on
aspects and also on our commonsense.  Dr. Besant was of
course an extreme case, because of the Uranus oppositions.
However brilliant she was, her Saturn was weak in Pisces in
the 12th and therefore her hold on "hard fact" was but a
slippery one.
  We are all apt to make excuses for those whom we admire
but either astrology is true and reliable or it is not, and
we cannot use one system of interpretation for those we like
and another for those we don't.
  Of course that is not to say that we should not pay regard
to the general type of person whose map we study, their
background, and so forth.  You cannot apply the same rules
to a Hottentot nativity as to an Englishman's.  At least it
would be better to say: you cannot apply the rules in the
same way.
  The same applies of course to directions.  It would be
absurd to tell a man who is serving a life sentence to
beware of rash speculation, or advise him to emigrate!
  The stars can but express themselves through the media
presented to them.
  By the way, we said that 17½ Libra seemed to be a "strong"
area and Dr. Besant, who was generally acclaimed as a great
orator, had her Mercury there, and the exact opposition to
Uranus did not seem in any way to diminish her gift.
  Theosophists usually forget her early and very close
association with Charles Bradlaugh, another "bonny fetcher"
if there ever was one.  He had Sun, Mercury, Mars and Saturn
in Libra!
  There seems to be a strong affinity between Libra and
religious interests.
  My paternal grandfather had Sun, Venus and Mercury in
Libra.  He became a very prosperous builder but decided that
this occupation could not be carried on both profitably and
honestly.  There is some truth in this, because few people
know good work from bad, and so the jerry-builder undercuts
the good workman and gets away with it.  He then acquired a
pottery, but when it became known that, in pursuance of
Biblical precept, he would not sue his debtors, he soon got
into trouble.  He then tried itinerant preaching, but was
wise enough to realise he had no gifts of that sort.  So he
retired on a comfortable competence and lived to be over
ninety, cared for by a daughter and other females, doing no
work at all, unless studying the Bible may be so called. A
very Libran sort of life!
  Perhaps the interest in religion derives from the Libran
love of intellectual tidiness...a universe that just happens
and then tumbles and stumbles on anyhow doesn't appeal to
it.  Not that other signs are likely to find this doctrine
particularly attractive, either!  Then again, the Libran
conception of Justice calls for some explanation of the
gross inequalities of life.  Do these really just happen or
is there a law behind them? And so on.
  Indian mystics tell us that if we meditate sufficiently it
will be apparent to us that there is and must be a law of
retribution.
  It seems to me that all motion is circular, whether it is
literal motion or metaphysical. And so indeed: 

               "By this the slayer's knife did stab himself;
                The unjust judge hath lost his own defender." 

  But how can this explain the shocking cruelties
perpetrated by man upon animals, who are incapable of sin,
or any form of deliberate wrong-doing.  I cannot say.  One
can but hope their sufferings are more apparent than actual.
  Let us now turn to Sun-In-Libra, beginning with the first
decanate, and taking them by degree.

  7½  Necker, the pre-Revolution French financier who
          tried to save the monarch.
  8½  Hindenberg, Mrs. Besant's "astro-twin."
  9½  Marshal Foch and Mahatma Gandhi
  10½ J.H. Thomas, Labour Party leader.

  It must be admitted in none of these cases do the
traditional Libran failings of indolence and indifference
appear.  On the contrary, they were all fighters.
  One feature that seems common with Sun in Libra is that
they don not "stay on course" and often appear to end their
days as comparative failures.  But not always.
  Coming to the second decanate, we find:

  11½ Dolfuss, the Austrian Chancellor
  16½ Philips, the Dutch industrialist and manufacturer of
radio apparatus.
  17½ Lord Nelson
  19½ Virgil
  19½ Ramsay Macdonald..another example of fading out in

late life.
  These five seem to me to cover Libran activities pretty
completely.  We have politics, war, industry and art.  It
may be said that religion was not represented, but Virgil is
believed to have been an initiate.
  The last decanate yields:

  21½ Katherine Mansfield representing literature.
  22½ Nietzsche, literature, philosophy and a good (or bad)

representative of the bellicose side of our sign.  A
compensation, I believe, for an inner sense of weakness and
dependence.

  22½ Austen Chamberlain...politics again.
  24½ Nevil Maskelyne, astronomer royal.
  25½ Thomas Love Peacock...literature.

He was also a capable and successful man of affairs.
It was suggested, in the discussion that followed the
reading of this paper that Sun in Libra is not without an
element of vanity; hence its love of the platform,
especially if it can be sure of a large and appreciative
audience!  I have noticed several people with this position
have affected or "cultivated" voices and other mannerisms.
  Libra rising combines with other signs to form types that
are readily recognizable.
  The following are tentative:
  Libra rising with a strong Scorpio value.  This suggests
capacity for psychoanalysis and the study of sexual
aberrations.  Sympathetic, but discerning.  General
scientific aptitude.
  With Sagittarius.  A very pleasant and often gifted
combination.  Literary and possibly poetic.
  With Capricorn.  Typical of the diplomatist or man of
affairs.  Quiet tactful and persistent.
  With Aquarius.  Scientific and literary.
  With Pisces.  Kindly, but pretty useless!  Might consider
himself "inspired" but is probably merely interested in
fantasies.
  With Aries.  Something of the iron hand in the velvet
glove.  Or sometimes the feeble hand in the iron gauntlet!
  With Taurus.  The danger is laziness due to the
over-accentuation of Venus.  Possibly a dreamer.
  With Gemini.  Active, clever and charming but much will
depend on the power to concentrate and persist; otherwise
there will be little to show.
  With Cancer.  Danger of neurotic propensities but
potentially a good business man or politician.  Probably
inhibitions through shyness but frequently a good deal of
ability.
  With Leo.  A good combination, much better than the Leo
rising, bodies in Libra formation.
  I suppose the best example, in one case, was the Emperor
Franz Joseph of Austria, who had Libra rising and Mars
exactly setting, with Sun, Moon, and Saturn closely
conjoined in Leo.  This powerful Saturn and maleficient Mars
really governed the life of this unfortunate monarch, who
lost all his wars, whilst his wife was assassinated and his
son committed suicide.  He was respected rather than loved
and seems to have been a hard-working pedantic sort of a man
whose life was a constant ritual; not at all typical of
Libra-Leo, which should indicate a happy, pleasant nature.
  It is quite likely that the Queen-Mother, who certainly
has Sun and Venus in Leo, also has Libra rising, and she has
all the appearance of being happy and pleasant; whilst
Princess Anne, with Libra rising and Sun in Leo, is a bright
and sunny child, though what the future holds for one with
the Moon beseiged between Mars and Saturn is another matter.
  We come last to Libra with a strong Virgo backing.
  This produces, I think, an agreeable type with little
inner conflict, for, as we have said, the two signs have a
good deal in common, such a person should be a social
success, witty but not malicious and with some
"accomplishments," as they used to be called.  On the more
intellectual plane,"a scholar and a gentleman." But there
would be little force of character and one would not expect
much in the way of achievement; they would prefer
tranquility and comfort to "laborious days."
  So much, briefly, for Libra with the other signs strongly
indicated.
  A note on health.
  Venus and Libra have a good deal to do with this.  For
Venus rules adaptation and adjustment and good health is
largely a matter of adjusting the body to changing
conditions, as of weather, and adjusting the mind and
general disposition to other external circumstances.  Hence
I question whether one would find many cases of longevity in
which Venus or Libra is severely afflicted, though it is
true that persons with bad maps (in respect of health) do
reach a considerable age if they are in a position to
safeguard themselves and elect to live a more or less
vegetable existence.
  Libra, as an ascendant, is classed as a fairly good sign,
less liable to overtax its vitality than the fire signs,
stronger than Cancer and Pisces, not so open to infections
as Scorpio, careful as regards accidents, not self-indulgent
as Taurus frequently is.
  Some people are never ill, some never well.  Some are
usually hale and hearty but experience one or two very
severe illnesses. Others...and this is Libra...often have
minor ailments but avoid serious ones.
  Generally I would say the fire signs are the strongest;
then I would place Aquarius, and then Gemini and Libra
bracketed together.
  I used to think that Sun in libra was a position that
favoured a long life, but I do not think statistics lend any
colour to this opinion.
  As a Venus sign, one would expect Libra to be artistic;
but is it?
  In matters of taste, it likes simplicity.  Perhaps there
is something symbolic in the fact that of all the Grecian
goddesses, Venus alone is always nude.  Of course the nymphs
don't count...they were creatures of nature and could no
more be depicted in clothes than a lion or a dog. Over
ornamentation is certainly repugnant to Librans; they like
simple lines and curves, elegance, not the voluptuous. In
fact the classic style appeals to them.
  As for music and poetry, I think you will usually find
they "like" them, but that is about as far as they get.
  I should say that of all the arts it is Architecture which
is most likely to appeal to this sign.
  But Libra rising seldom produces "great" personalities.
Only gracious and pleasant ones.
  Is it as good looking as some books declare?
  Once again I should plump for the middle way and say that
Libra on ascendant is seldom...in fact hardly
ever...positively repulsive.  But it is not strikingly
handsome unless Venus is prominent, in which case I should
ascribe the beauty to the planet rather than the sign.
  I do not keep a file of pretty girls or good-looking men,
though I daresay such a collection would afford excellent
proof of astrology.
  But three exceptionally attractive girls known to me have,
respectively,

  1.  Sagittarius rising, Venus in 1st in Capricorn, Moon in Libra.
  2.  Capricorn rising, Venus in Libra.
  3.  Scorpio rising, Venus in midheaven.
       Scorpio, Sagittarius and Capricorn certainly often
  produce good-lookers.

  In the Zodiac and the Soul I have written that Libra "is
the principle of reciprocity or mutuality, by which all
things have mutual relationships and reciprocal rights and
obligations.  This produces the virtues of fairness,
co-operativeness and helpfulness."
  I stand by this, but I would add that Libra is one of the
very sympathetic signs, thanks no doubt to this sense of
relationship.  It has a particularly warm heart for animals.
Miss Lind-of-Hageby, a noble opponent of the disgusting
practice of vivisection, had Libra rising, with the Sun in
close conjunction with Mars in Virgo.  Another with similar
views was Dr. Anna Kingsford, who always declared she was a
Libra rising native, though apparently the ephemeris, with a
callous disregard for her wishes, made her the end of Virgo,
with Sun and three planets in that sign.  Dr. Nunn, also an
anti-vivisectionist, had Libra rising with Sun, Moon,
Mercury in Aquarius.
  Perhaps this "quality of mercy" is not greatly to the
credit of Libra, because it actually feels the suffering of
others, not as a mere sentiment but as actual pain.
  In the same book it is stated that the vice of Libra is
parasitism, or the belief that it is natural for some, i.e.
the Librans, to attach themselves to others and be dependent
upon them.  A good example of this is Aemilia in Vanity Fair
which some of you may have seen recently on television.
  But this, again, is only true of Libra rising; Sun in
Libra is usually far from dependent in the parasitic sense.
But in the sense that its life is much involved with others,
yes.
  It is appropriate that the second half of the zodiacal
circle should begin with and affirmation that "no man liveth
or dieth unto himself alone."
  We partake of a common life and a common destiny.
  A quotation from Alan Watts little book The Spirit of Zen
is apposite here:
  "Man suffers because of his craving to possess and keep
for ever things which are essentially impermanent.  Chief
among these things is his own person, for this is his means
of isolating himself from the rest of life, his castle ,
into which he can retreat and from which he can assert
himself against change...the Buddha taught that all things,
including this castle are essentially impermanent and that
as soon as man tries to possess them, they slip away."
  The lesson of Libra does not go the whole way but it does
stress the impossibility of achieving this isolation.  It is
not merely bad; it is impracticable.
  The contrary tendency is that of sympathy for others, of
life in all its forms, and this comes readily to Libra, as
we have said.
  Does this universal sympathy lead to happiness, to
liberation, to Nirvana?
  Not of itself.  The very sympathetic person is often one
who suffers much, as Gautama himself suffered.
  Liberation lies further ahead, appropriately in the signs
of Jupiter.
  But the sympathy of Libra is a beginning.

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© Astrological Lodge Lecture  -§-  28 October 1957
© Astrology Quarterly  -§-  Vol. 33/3&4

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