Throughout our civilization, poets, storytellers, painters, and philosophers have been inspired by love and beauty. The great artists of the past were aware that human life can be full of turmoil and sorrow, but they had a remedy for this, and the name of that remedy was beauty.

If we were to ask Plato: what is beauty? He would answer: Beauty is a visitor from another world, we can do nothing with it, except contemplate its pure radiance. Beauty is not just a subjective thing but a universal need for all human beings. Through beauty we are brought into the presence of sacred.

For Botticelli, Simonetta Vespucci nicknamed la bella Simonetta, represented that sacredness that was contemplated but not possessed. Born among the waves, Venus, the ruler of Libra, stands on a shell in Botticelli’s masterpiece The Birth of Venus. The enjoyable, thrilling, heart-awakening beauty of her face is a symbol of the life expressed in it, the revelation of Divinity in the here and now. It is spirit in flesh.

And so, speaking of love of beauty, we enter into the realm where the life force of Libra draws its breath.

Her metal is copper, her stone the opal and her color is pink.

In the Greek mythology, Libra’s symbol is the scales used by Astraea, Lady Justice, to orchestrates the divine dance between the two polarities: darkness and light, positive and negative, feeling and reason – both must exist in order to keep the world in harmony. Libra is that current that keeps the flow of energies in synch.  Whatever energies we embody and set into motion, these energies must return back, like a circle inescapably completing itself.

Ruled by the grace-bestowing Venus, she is culture, aesthetics, refinement, and harmony, weather in art, objects, nature, or people. The lure of color, shape, form, texture and the intriguing sound of music or a voice pushes Libra’s emotional buttons and brings them creative inspiration.

To truly understand this archetype, we must understand that the masculine and the feminine come together strongly in Libra. Their mental processes operate with male logic, she is a cardinal air, potent intellect and can match anyone in any discussion. She is not just Venus beaming sweet mannerisms and grace; she is a brisk monologuer, an accomplished humorist and a brilliant imitator too.

In astrological lore, the idea of marriage and partnership was associated with this sign - to bind together, to connect, so that the circle of life can be cemented together. This form of attachment-fragrant love of heart is one thing Libra treasures above all else on this temporal earth.