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always dealing with the mind. But the fact is, Libra often displays strong qualities and gifts which are usually associated with the opposite sex, often in the most graceful way and without any cost to his or her own sexuality. It's part of the Libran charm; and part, too, of the reason why so many Libran men and women get on better with the opposite sex as friends as well as lovers.
The further Libra goes into his ivory tower of perfection and isolation from ordinary human life, the harder he falls, and the more painful the growth which eventually allows him to make a relationship between the world of his ideals and the reality around him. Sometimes this journey happens to Libra through marriage. It's common enough for idealistic Libra to find fault with an imperfect partner, and dream of the ideal and often find the ideal in the form of a lover, only to discover that both are human and both imperfect. Libra's real reason in life, his real task, is about love - and about the bringing of love down from the level of an intellectual exercise to the level of the heart. Or maybe I should say bringing it up to that level. For Libra often values the head above more ordinary human manifestations of affection. And it isn't that Libra doesn't need affection, or that he's incapable of offering it. It's just that he often places unnecessary qualifications on it, based on his ideals about how love should be expressed.
And what about the god's anger in the myth? Well, it may be a little specious, but it seems true enough: this quality of blending and balancing opposites in Libra often causes immense jealousy. Many Librans have a very hard time of it with their own sex, because they so often have deep sympathy for the opposite. It's something I've heard over and over from Libran friends and clients: rather than the typical 'stay in your own camp' attitude which so many men and women take with their own sex, they cross camps and overtly sympathize with the other point of view. Many Libran men are unusually sympathetic to women's problems in society, to women's drive for equality and acceptance as individuals. To the horror of their more chauvinistic comrades, they can be heard stating their treacherous viewpoints openly. And many Libran women, happier in the company of men than with their own sex, often show great sympathy and understanding for the problems and challenges which men must meet in the world. And they're not usually thanked for it by their own sex, who feel it's a betrayal.
The Tiresias myth is a profound one, and shows the profound side of Libra's journey. For Libra isn't just about finding the perfect love, the perfect marriage, and perfect society. It's about blending the opposites, bringing together people and things which would otherwise fight each other without understanding. With his great gift of diplomacy, Libra can straddle the fence and comprehend both sides, and act as an intermediary because he recognizes both within himself. He may not be very balanced, but balance is what he's ultimately striving for. The sooner he climbs down from the ivory tower which is his protection against emotional pain and disillusionment, the sooner he can begin his real work, which is first to marry the conflicting opposites within himself. Whether it's his intellect and his emotions, his maleness and his femaleness, his spirituality and his materialism, Libra will always find deep conflicts in himself which represent the deep conflicts in life. And as he gradually carves for himself the thin road in the middle, he can truly become the bringer of the Good, the True and the Beautiful - because they no longer exist only in his mind.
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