Libra

Libra is the seventh sign, the one that stands opposite Aries, and the Sun is in it this year from 23 September to 23 October 2026. Ptolemy names it as one of his two equinoctial signs: “Libra, the first after the autumnal equinox”. The autumn is the northern one.

The second equinox

Aries and Libra share their definition in Ptolemy. Both are equinoctial, and both he counts as “masculine and diurnal”. Together, he says, “These signs describe the equinoctial circle”. Modern astrology calls a sign of this kind cardinal.

In his chapter on exaltations the two signs get opposite treatment. The Sun, entering Libra, passes into what Ptolemy calls the “more southern and lower” half of its yearly path, and so, having given the Sun’s exaltation to Aries, he adds: “His fall is placed in Libra, for the converse reasons.” Saturn is set against the Sun on purpose. It is “in order to preserve his station opposite to the Sun”, Ptolemy writes, that Saturn “obtains his exaltation in Libra, and his fall in Aries”. The principle he gives is a balance of heat and cold: “the increase of heat must be attended by a diminution of cold, and the increase of cold by a diminution of heat”.

A house of Venus in Saturn’s triplicity

Libra is one of the two houses of Venus. Ptolemy describes the planet as “possessing a favourable temperament”, and says of her signs, Taurus and Libra: “These are of a fruitful nature, and preserve harmony by the sextile distance”.

The triplicity tells a different story. Ptolemy groups Libra with Gemini and Aquarius, the air signs in our data, and gives the group to two other planets: it “holds connection with Saturn and Mercury by containing their houses, and is therefore attributed to them”. Venus is not among its lords. So Libra is a house of Venus that sits in a triplicity Saturn rules by day, and it is the sign of Saturn’s exaltation as well. Putting those three facts together is our reading. Ptolemy states each in its own chapter and does not connect them.

The Libra character, as the old books give it

William Lilly’s line calls Libra “aeriall, hot and moyst, Sanguine”, lists it as “Moveable, Equinoctiall, Cardinall, Humane”, and ends by calling it “the chiefe House of” Venus. “Moveable” and “Cardinall” both mark what is now called a cardinal sign. These are qualities for judging a chart, and Lilly is not describing people.

Alan Leo does describe people, and his portrait turns on weighing and balance. “Those born in this sign are remarkable for their powers of comparison; they seem to be able to weigh and balance all things mentally, as though they were inspired.” Of their manner he writes: “They have always a kind and amiable disposition, expressing the Venus side of their nature more than any other; this makes them courteous, agreeable and very pleasant persons.”

In our reading he sees a cost in that love of balance. The aim at work in this sign, he says, is “to seek equilibrium, and this causes them to love harmony so much, that they feel exceedingly sensitive until the whole of their organism is in a state of balance”. Another of his sentences, as we read it, has the same shape: “They are sensitive so far as the personality is concerned, when not fully self-conscious, but they are always just and generous.”

Air with air

Libra is an air sign, and the two that share its element lead the list of matches below: Aquarius first, then Gemini. Libra paired with itself is third. Virgo, the sign just before Libra in the zodiac, comes last. Aries, the opposite sign, falls in the middle of the list.

That middle place has an echo in Ptolemy that we point out as our own comparison. He treats Aries and Libra as a matched pair, yet he also says that signs in opposition are “considered to be discordant”. The list below comes from our formula and not from Ptolemy; the method is on how we score.