How unassertive.  How diffident.  Why, you'd be glad to do it.  In fact, you'd even thought of it yourself.  You're so glad to have his support…

It's no wonder Libra has a reputation for being a skilled diplomat and a masterful statesman.  He has a rare gift of being able to achieve what he wants with the minimum offence.  How can you be offended by somebody who's always consulting you about your opinions?  Here's the art of Venusian relationships at its most fluent. 

The problem with this, of course, is that more direct souls don't believe a word of it.  They see Libra as a chronic hypocrite and flatterer.  From one point of view, it's sometimes true; Librans have been known to smile sweetly and pay you an endearing compliment when they actually hate the ground you walk on.  They're also prone to agreeing with your side of the argument when they take their place as mediators - 'Yes, I agree with you completely, he's perfectly dreadful' - and then turning around and doing the same thing to your opponent - 'Yes, I agree with you, she's behaving horridly.'  It's hard if you're the sort of person who likes friends who'll bleed and die for you rather than show the faintest sign of disloyalty, to learn to trust Libra, who'd rather be friends with everybody than bleed and die for anything.  And more suspicious types like Scorpio and Capricorn don't appreciate Libra's gift for flattery either.  They don't trust compliments in general, these signs, and they certainly don't trust somebody who always approaches with a 'You're looking marvelous today' when you know you look terrible.  Viewed from the other side of the fence, Libra doesn't come across as particularly trustworthy.  Diplomats never do. 

But on the other hand (an expression you'll hear frequently on the lips of Librans) this isn't hypocrisy, nor is it dishonesty.  From Libra's point of view it's all true.  He'd much rather compliment you than insult you, not just because he likes to be liked, but because he tends to look for the beautiful and the positive in people and in life.  Yes, the diplomat is at work.  But sometimes it's nicer to be courted by a diplomat than bludgeoned by one of those types whose excessive love of 'truth' causes him to destroy brutally your most delicate dreams and needs.  The Libran photographer, for example, will usually use a soft-focus lens and flattering lighting to enhance a woman's appearance, because he knows that most women like to appear beautiful; you'll rarely find him in the harsh realist school which insists on portraying every last spot, wrinkle, and superfluous hair because it's true to life.  True life to Libra is tinted with his visions of the beauty it might contain.  Even if he lives in a dark, dreary one-room basement flat, he'll do his best to disguise its limitations with a few flowers, some bright colours, some clever use of design.  And when you're there, you have the illusion that it's bigger, brighter, more luxurious than the physically big, bright, luxurious homes of less tasteful people.  Which is the reality? 

Libra's royal 'we' isn't sheer hypocrisy either.  Of course the diplomat is at work here too, because Libra is smart enough to know that you can get a lot more done when people are on your side than when they're fighting you.  And he also has a positive hatred of quarrels and emotional storms, and a real terror of being disliked.  It shatters him to know someone despises him.  He'll often do everything in his power - which is considerable - to win the opponent over.  But apart from the diplomat, Libra also has a genuine interest in other people's ideas and feelings.  He really does care, although the degree of it varies with the individual Libran.  The interested listener isn't just listening because he knows it makes you like him better.  He's also truly interested.  And if he doesn't show his disagreement, well, that's not wholly hypocrisy either; he's also smart enough to know that even if he disagreed, it wouldn't change your mind anyway, so why bother?  Much more pleasant to have pleasantness. 

An interesting case in point is Alexander the Great, one of the more

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