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Libra Shadow
(From the book "Astrology for Lovers" by Liz Green)
With all that Good, True and Beautiful stuff going on, you might expect Libra's shadowy side to be Bad, False and Ugly. Actually, the Libran shadow is a little subtler than that. We might call it the Coy Maiden syndrome. Shades of it can be found in the figure of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind. What it's about is a person in whom all that craving for love and approval has got so inflated that all human relationships become competitions where the object is to get the victim to fall in love with you. Then they're rejected, with another notch carved on the bedpost.
It's a little difficult to portray this in scenario form, because it should probably be portrayed in a novel. In fact a number of novels reflect it, not only in Scarlett O'Hara, but also in figures like Madame Bovary, and in men like Casanova (who actually existed, but made his life read like a novel anyway). What this shadow really hinges around is a series of manoeuvres, apparent in both Libran men and women, the object of which isn't sexual conquest so much as adoration. It's sort of like the line in Snow White:
Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Who's the fairest one of all?
And to the Libran shadow, everybody else is a mirror.
To accomplish these ends, the Libran shadow draws on all of Libra's best qualities. The charm, the flirtatiousness, the gift of flattery, the instinctive knowledge of what the other person thinks and wants - all are put to the service of the shadow. When you're being charmed by one of these Librans, be terribly careful. They have a unique talent for seeming to believe you're the only one. They make little wistful sounds like, 'It would be wonderful if we can go away together…But I know it will never be possible.' They display a real genius for taking one step forward and two backward - for if you show too much enthusiasm, you're suddenly confronted with the evasiveness and chilliness which are also air characteristics and which Libra can wield very effectively. It's known in the trade as playing hard to get, and nobody can play it as well as the Coy Maiden which is Libra's shadow. They also display an impressive ability to convince you that you're the only man/woman who can really fire up their nascent sexuality hiding beneath all that cool, aesthetic distance.
Lovely stuff. The trouble is that not a word of it means anything, because there's no real feeling in it. The Libran who falls into his shadow like this won't usually recognize consciously what he's doing, because it would be too painful - he'd have to face the fact that he has a shadow, which everyone has in one way or another, but which isn't a welcome fact of life for idealistic Libra. Usually, while he's playing Coy Maiden (and Libran men do this brilliantly as well as Libran women) he'll convince himself that he's really interested in you. But it's curious how quickly all that attentiveness disintegrates into pale cool wisps the moment you're actually available. That's not really what the game's about. And the Libran
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