Libra’s Mystery School Teachings

Art by Curtis Eberhardt

LIBRA'S MYSTERY SCHOOL TEACHINGS

As the Sun crosses the Equinox point, and moves into the High Holy Sign of Libra at 3:21 pm 9/22, we turn our attention to the themes presented by her Mystery School Teachings.

The equinox itself means equal night. And so we look at themes around shadow and light, equilibrium and balance. However, the Archetype of Libra is gorgeously multivalent, and her lessons of cosmic order, feeling as a function of communion, and right relationship, are essential in our changing times. Read on...

The first thing we look at when trying to discern the lessons the season holds for us is the axis of polarity that the sign sits on. Or rather, we look at the sign opposite from Libra, because the opposite sign is where the Full Moon will happen, making an easy energy exchange. The axis informs us of how the current sign behaves in polarity. In this case, that sign is Aries. If Aries is the initiatory sign that represents the “I am” principle, the principle of the encapsulated self, then Libra represents the principle of communion and magnetism.

In traditional astrology, Libra is an air sign, ruled by Venus, and in the house of marriage. As I’ve begun to explore the great wisdom texts, I’ve really deepened with my understanding of what Libra signifies.

As an air sign ruled by Venus, which signifies communion, there is an emphasis on bringing beauty and sophistication into our communication.

Francesca Woodman

In a very simplistic and reductionist way, you can equate Libra to the relating function of Venus and how she shows up in relationship with other. We aren’t only looking at marriage, though that is often the primary relationship we use to mirror selfhood. We are really looking at the mirroring and feeling function of relationship and how it facilitates greater awareness of our essence self. How it can bring a level of elegance and refinement to how we exchange energy with the world around us.

For these purposes we understand the word “feeling” as communion, it has functionality. Feeling’s purpose is actually to make contact with what is around us, making contact with truth, reality, and love. It’s reaching out and touching something. Feeling has a penetrative quality to it. And so when we enter a new space for instance, and we get a “feeling” about it, or we come in contact with a new person, what has happened is the energy of that space or person has begun to penetrate us and we in turn are penetrating it. And so part of our work this month is to look at how we relate to this phenomenon of “feeling”. How do we allow feeling to inform us of a deeper sense of self and give us greater awareness of truth and reality? Do we allow ourselves to be permeated by our feelings? Or do we employ strategies to shut that down, effectively not allowing ourselves to be penetrated by truth, or by love?

An aperture on a camera is an instrument that gauges how much light is allowed through the lens. As humans we often operate with a default aperture in a whole host of ways we commune with the world around us. Many of us allow ourselves to be flooded with experiences that our system cannot hold, and then to balance the increased sensation, we close the aperture too much, and then to protect ourselves we let in very little light. We end up emotionally “seesawing'' in relationship to self, others, and the world. Opening too much, then closing too much, in a dance that always keeps us off kilter.

Libra is also a sign of harmony, balance, validation, and justness but also friction, injustice, dissonance and betrayal. All of these themes and more will at one time or another shine across attempt open or close out aperture.

And so, cultivating a balanced aperture to utilize when connecting to the greater world around us is necessarily Libran work. Allowing love, feeling, emotion, and connection in, without becoming consumed or thrown out of harmony is key. We must find equilibrium within ourselves. We can go so far as to include themes of social justice, politics, spiritual beliefs, and even activism, in here because they concern how our internal state is in relation to the world around us. If we haven’t harvested a mature spiritual state, we will internalize dissonance and friction in the collective. Thus in turn, we will commune with the world by throwing more noise and static into our environment, contributing to societal disharmony. But if we have cultivated a mature inner life, we can adjust our aperture, without shutting down love and connection. We can stay in resonance with the things that really matter to us.

Libra is concerned with good character. As in she is the one who balances the scales, and who judges whether our heart weighs more or less than a feather. She seeks to bring order from chaos, beauty from ashes. That is why this idea of how our field relates to the field around us, why a sophisticated feeling function, and seeking equilibrium, are part of her mystery school teachings. But even more important to equilibrium are truth and untruth, reality and unreality. For those two paradoxes are wellspring from which, balance, love, order, justness, and good character flow. We wouldn’t know evil, if we didn’t know goodness, we wouldn’t know shadow if we didn’t know light. So in this way, truth and untruth are both useful. Hence, we come to know Libra as the Goddess of the High Heart, of the true Spiritual Adept.

Some useful tools for Libra’s Mystery School Teachings are: witnessing and validation. Witness yourself and others where you currently are. Validate your humanity. If you find yourself, others, or society wildly out of alignment, that is just useful information. It helps you map your own shadow and begin to see how both your conscious and unconscious self is communing with the world around you. Then, proceed to cultivate equilibrium by adapting as you feel your way through life. If the aperture is open too much, and the sensation gets too high, just adjust it down a little and proceed. Awareness is key. As soon as you go unconscious, you aren’t able to stay in equilibrium. This is, of course, part of a much larger spiritual curriculum, but I’ve tried to distill it down to just these few easy steps for people who really desire to work with the energies of Libra.

One thing to note, equilibrium does not mean neutral. It does not mean you don’t feel all of your feelings, that you never indulge your humanity, your lust, your rage, etc. It means that you have mapped your extremes and can easily find your way back to base camp. You are adaptable in changing conditions. You have awareness of the edges, and as they move, you move. Like everything I talk about, there is always paradox. Equilibrium is something that is always in motion, it’s never static. It’s center moves around what is true. So as the truth moves, so will your sense of equilibrium follow.

I am so excited to get started on Libra’s mystery school work. It’s in total alignment with other spiritual work I am doing this month. Let me know how it goes for you as well.

Important themes to explore...Feeling, Communion, Mirroring, Magnetism, Aperture, friction, relating, validation, witnessing, balance, harmony, dissonance, betrayal, and most importantly, equilibrium.