The constellation of Libra is a unique one among the Zodiac signs. It is an air sign, but is ruled by Venus, the planet of love. (Though in fairness, an air sign ruled by an emotional planet is no stranger than an earth sign ruled by a mental one, as is the case in Virgo.) For the first in this series diving deep into the inspirations that went into each of the zodiac designs found in The Universe Within Zodiac Oracle Deck, Guide, and Journal- NOW LIVE ON KICKSTARTER- click here. To view the Kickstarter, click here!
Libra is truly unique though, because it is the one constellation in the zodiac which is not a depiction of a living creature- it is an inanimate object, cold, calculating, harsh and scientific, and yet it deals with that one thing at the center of all life: the heart.
The season and archetype of Libra is associated with the Justice card in Tarot, as well as the classic “Lady Justice” who is often cast in bronze and perched atop court houses, holding her own scales. (A trend which almost certainly emanates from ancient Egypt and is merely a continued nod to the same archetype of Libra.) Because of this association, I have also illustrated the Scales of Libra as held by Lady Justice- blindfolded and everything. The blue green color in the background is also in homage to the copper statues of this classical lady.
Matters of the heart often require impartial truth and justice, but not heartlessness. Though Justice may be blind, she cannot be heartless. For justice in essence is the re-balancing of the heart. Where injustice is done, there must be compensation, acknowledgement, and ultimately forgiveness. Without it, the hearts of both the victim and the perpetrator will weigh too heavily.
In modern analytical times, we forget that the laws and courts which issue justice did not spring into existence fully formed. They were formalized slowly, the institutionalization of morals, which are nothing more than millennia of observed human actions and consequential human feelings- a knowing deep in our hearts of “this is wrong” until it isn’t, because justice has been served- and they are constantly weighed and rebalanced using those same human hearts.
In the Thoth Tarot deck, Justice is emphasized as a deeper balance- the eternal, ineffable balance of the universe. The creators of that deck saw Justice as the acknowledgment of karma, essentially - a trusting that even if we cannot see it, that justice and harmony will ultimately prevail. To me this is the same sort of ten thousand foot view which is required in true forgiveness. For in order to truly forgive, a certain apathy to here and now justice is required. True foregiveness means giving grace to those who have wronged you, even before they apologize or make it right. It is intentionally letting go of resentment and hate and revenge, not because immediate justice has been served, but because you deserve the lightness of heart that can only be achieved by letting go and putting faith in the ability of the universe to rebalance fates. It is knowing that your hatred and longing for revenge harms no one but yourself, and it is knowing that if those who have wronged you can not humble themselves to ask forgiveness, they will ultimately be in more hell than you could rain down on them with your vengeance. It is a true lightness of heart, an evening of the scales in your own soul. It is cosmic justice, rather than a more material one.
Ma’at, goddess of the scales.
The history of this archetype is fascinating as well, because of the link between those copper Lady Justice statues and ancient Egypt I mentioned earlier. Court Houses all over the West are built in the Neoclassical Architectural style, following after the designs of buildings in the US Capitol. Those designs in turn were built following the neoclassical style, which was an 1800s revival of the actual classical era of Ancient Greece and Rome. And though stylistically and visually different enough, much of the culture in Ancient Greece and Rome was actually originally adopted from ancient Egypt. Which brings us to the goddess Ma’at, Egyptian goddess of Justice, who ruled over the afterlife ceremony which weighed the heart of the dead against a feather.
In Egyptian mythology, the heart of the dead was weighed as part of the passage to the afterlife. The heart must be lighter than Ma’at’s feather (in other words, it must not be weighed down with earthly resentments and injustices either dealt or received) in order for the deceased to pass into the Egyptian equivalent of heaven in the afterlife.
Aside from the literal scales, Ma’at has another similarity with the sign of Libra; they both are rather less embodied than one would usually expect. According to WorldHistory.org, Ma’at was less of a goddess and more of a spirit of that cosmic justice that the Thoth Tarot taps into:
“Ma'at's spirit is the spirit of all creation, and if one is in tune with that spirit, one will live well and have good reason to hope for eternal peace in the afterlife; if one refused to live in accordance with the principles of Ma'at, then one suffered the consequences which one would have brought upon one's self.”
For reasons that are perhaps obvious by now, I used other illustrations of Ma’at to inspire my Libra goddess depiction. I also appreciate the synchronicity of the feather and the heart though. Since Libra is an air sign ruled by the planet of love, it seems all too fitting that the things balancing on the scales would be a feather (often used in spiritual and other metaphorical contexts to represent the element of air), and a heart, the thing that is actually at the heart of this sign’s mental clarity.
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Until next time,
Stay Enchanted my friends, stay curious, and keep chasing wonder! 💫