Linda Goodman's Sun Signs (37 page)

It's an admirable trait, of course, but all that weighing can drive a positive person simply wild. It can drive the Libran himself into a state of constant indecision. Even the most controlled Venus men and women dislike making instant decisions without taking all the possibilities into consideration. Fairness can be a fetish. The Libran general, with his qualities of balanced, harmonious judgment, makes an excellent strategist, and thoughtful planning can win a battle before it's fought. His ability to see all sides, to smooth nerves and calm angry tempers can make him the finest kind of mediator, bringing people who hate and mistrust each other together, and getting them to work in harmonious cooperation. However, war makes all Librans secretly heartsick. They hate bloodshed. An October-born officer in the armed services will let someone else make instant decisions under fire, while he brilliantly charts the strategic maneuvers that will save thousands of lives in the long run and still win for his side.

This antipathy to making a decision can turn into quite a stalemate with the ones who have adverse afflictions between their planets at birth. There are some who can't decide which shoe to put on first in the morning, let alone which side of the bed to get out of. Even the average Libran you meet at the office or at a party will always reflect to some degree this tendency to weigh things back and forth until you get the jitters, and the time for decision is long past. They'll say, “If I do this, such and such will happen. On the other hand” (which is one of their all-time very favorite phrases) “if I do that, then such and such could occur.” Those scales can dip crazily up and down like a see-saw. Nothing is more painful to watch than a doubtful Libran trying to make up his mind why, wherefore, and whether to. He doesn't like to be hurried or pushed while he's deciding, either. An impatient person can turn the airy Libran into a sudden spell of earth stubbornness that would make Taurus, the bull, look like a gullible pushover. Impatience is one quality most Librans can't stand. Flighty, rash, impulsive people, who don't stop to consider the consequences give
them
the jitters.

It's amusing that Librans will always immediately deny their indecisiveness. The first thing they'll say when you're describing their Sun sign will be, “I'm not indecisive at all. That's not accurate. It certainly doesn't describe me.” Hide your smile. Translated, his denial means that, although he takes a devilishly long time to make up his mind (which he very conveniently forgets), once he's reached a conclusion, he's quite gung-ho about it. If he's been allowed sufficient time, his eventual, final decision will be carried out with such forceful conviction that it misleads him into thinking he's firm and decisive. Don't let it mislead you. Anyway, when he tells you he has no trouble making up his mind, he's just starting a typical Libran argument, and you can tell him so. It will do him good to realize that, even in the midst of his objections to his astrological traits, he's proving the truth of his Sun sign. When he denies your analysis of him, just say smugly, “I expected you to take that attitude. Librans always argue every point.” It will drive him crackers, but it may help him realize the truth, and the truth is what he seeks. He's bound to see the logic in that. Telling him he's being unfair and refusing to consider both sides will take him down a notch or two, also.

Very few Librans are markedly eccentric or show-offs. Most of them are as wholesome and as well-balanced as a neat field of wheat, swaying back and forth gracefully in the wind. They're normally scrupulously honest in business deals, and there's very little carelessness about them. Libra would rather take his time and get it right, than make a false start and have to repeat the process. They hate exaggeration, and they're repelled by embarrassing displays of anger and passion, though they themselves can be guilty of both extremes if they're pressed beyond their endurance. Most Librans have a fantastic ability to concentrate and to ponder deep subjects. They are born with an affection for books, and such a respect for the printed word that many of them scorn paperbacks. They feel it's not a book unless it's a hardcover, and smells and feels like a book. You're almost sure to find an extensive library in every Libran home.

They love the harmony of sounds, colors, poetry and the proper use of words, both written and spoken. Rarely do they escape the influence of the arts. A Libran is a gentle, tender lover of all that's good and clean and lovely underneath whatever image he may project when that fairy godmother raps one side of his scales. He's an artistic soul at heart, who enjoys spreading the soft blue and pastel shades of Venus at parties and cultural occasions. Soft light, mellow music, interesting conversation, good food and fine wines turn him on. His mind has both the brilliance of the diamond and the smoothness of the opal. He moves in the changing element of air and reflects the usefulness of copper, his harmonizing metal. There's a touch of the cool, Libran mint in his alert reasoning and his sharp sense of honor, and six dimensions of peace shine down on him from Venus.

To truly understand Libra, you must understand the riddle of the scales; one side heaped high with October's vivid, golden leaves, suggesting brisk, autumn weather—the other side holding sky blue bunches of shy violets, drenched in the fresh scent of April rain. When the scales dip, bright optimism turns into silent panic, weighed down with lonely depression. When they balance, they produce a perfect harmony between his rich, crackling intellect and his affectionate, sympathetic heart. The seasons hold Libra's secret. Winter is too cold for him. Summer is too hot. He must blend them both into a perfect fall and spring.

Famous Libra Personalities

You'll get plenty of free advice from this man. He'll have the perfect solution to all your problems and an answer for every question you ask. But there's no use expecting him to be the answer to all of your dreams. He'll change some of them and argue with others. A Libra male can be as cranky as a crocodile with poison ivy, and his habit of rationalizing everything, including love, will drive you to frenzy—or leave you limp with defeat.

Still, I must warn you that once you're caught and enmeshed in the Libran charm, it won't be easy to break away. Trying to escape from a bear trap is a cinch, compared to liberating yourself from a Libran man. If you try to run, he'll persuade you to stay with such logical, intelligent arguments you couldn't hope to top them unless you graduated from Harvard Law School. In addition to using his unmatched reasoning powers on you, he'll turn so sweet and gentle, you'll forget the frustrating inconsistencies of his nature that upset you before. Then he'll smile at you and something will happen inside. Your heart will turn over.

From that moment on, the battle will be lost. His dreams will be your dreams, and nothing will matter so much as making him happy. You'll seek that smile and need it to survive the way a thirsty traveler needs water. Only a really hard-hearted Hannah could resist a Libran smile, and she'd have to summon all her determination to avoid being magnetized by its purity. The Libran charm is not like the hypnotic persuasion of the Scorpio. The attraction of Libra is logical and real, not supernatural in any sense. There's no black magic about it, just common sense submission to his heavenly aura.

On the other hand, to use
his
favorite catch phrase, there will be times when those Libra scales dip back and forth with crazy contradiction. You'll have to shout at him, push him into the lake, or stand on your head to get his attention and force him to make a move. Don't be so naive as to think love will be smooth and eternally tranquil, even if he is ruled by Venus. If you're up on your Greek mythology, you're aware that Venus had her off days. Still, when the scales balance, life with Libra can be as intoxicating as a goblet of golden ambrosia, with lots of laughs and a casual freedom known only to the gods who cavort on Olympus.

Making up his mind is a chore no less strenuous to the average Libran male than taming a wild buffalo, and once he's made it up, he's liable to change it with no warning if he suspects he's made a mistake. There's a woman I know who hoped to go into a business partnership with a Libran, and she learned the hard way about this legendary Libra idiosyncrasy. They had a breakfast appointment together one summer morning, and both of them were full of enthusiastic, optimistic plans for the future. After he dropped her off on the way to his office, she began to worry. His promises were almost too good to be true, so she phoned him, just to make sure she hadn't been dreaming. He was still excited, he repeated all his promises and ambitious plans, and they made a date to get together again the following week. Before they hung up, he guessed what was on her mind and reassured her. “By the way,” he remarked, “I want to say something, since I won't see you again for a few days.” He hesitated slightly (she missed that clue), then continued with conviction. “I wanted to tell you that, well—I guess what I wanted to say is don't worry. I won't change my mind. We'll go through with it, just the way we planned.”

The next week, when he didn't call, she phoned him again. “Were you out of town?” she asked. “No,” he said slowly. “I didn't call you because I wanted to think it over.” A long pause. “I think I should try something with a smaller budget first. We'll get together on our project next spring. I promise. It's just that, well, I've decided it's best to wait until then, and put it on the shelf for a while, you know?”

Filled with natural resentment and disappointment after such an unexpected letdown, she made a decision of her own. She would never speak to him again. The man was obviously undependable, untrustworthy and cruel, besides. A month later she passed him on the street, and he stopped to say hello. Caught off guard, she stammered an aloof, cool sentence or two of greeting, and instantly regretted that she hadn't cut him dead. Then he smiled. That did it. She was once more his strongest booster. He could do no wrong, even to her. To this day she defends him fiercely, and if she hears that one of his dreams got shattered, she has an illogical desire to help him pick up the pieces, so he'll smile again.

Now, if that could occur when a woman is involved with a Libra man only in a business way, can you imagine your state of mind and your ability to insulate yourself if you should happen to fall in love with one of these impossible charmers? You simply can't be too careful. Steel yourself to turn your head when he smiles. Stuff cotton in your ears when he starts his convincing arguments in that smooth-as-silk voice that makes the back of your neck tingle.

The word love and the word Libra are practically synonymous. Libra invented romance, and refined it to an art with even more finesse than Leo, Scorpio and Taurus, which is saying a lot. The delicate strategies of Cupid are inbred Libran talents. He'll use every trick with casual ease and seldom fail to get the girl. However, once he gets her, he isn't always sure what to do with her. Having thoroughly charmed her into willing submission, he hesitates. Should he take advantage of her helpless state or should he propose marriage? Or both? Or neither? The mental struggle begins, and life in the garden of Eden with this particular Adam becomes considerably less than ecstatic.

He won't lose interest in the opposite sex until he's at least ninety. It may be purely an academic interest if he's happily married, but the subject will never bore him, even if he only speculates what it would be like to whirl each pretty woman he sees around an imaginary ballroom.

Since the art of love-making comes so easily—and shockingly early—to the Libra male, and since he almost always wears the crown of success on his romantic excursions into love's jungle, he gets tangled up with a lot of clinging vines. Libra hates to hurt anyone's feelings, though he remains blissfully unaware of the damage done when he's in an argumentative mood. He hates to say no, and seldom realizes that postponement is more unkind than an outright break of an affair which has no chance of happiness. In the opposite situation when the mutual feeling is as close to sublime as humans ever reach on this earth, the prolonged agony can be equally tortuous. Only an Aquarian can be more shy of making a drastic move in one direction or another. If he senses he's being unfair to someone in his own life, to you—or to someone in your recent romantic past—there will be no end to his painful indecision. Being unfair is, to him, a crime roughly on a level with murder. The reluctance to be cruel can push him into a mistaken proposal of marriage, predestined for the divorce courts—or else his endless procrastination can cause him to miss the love of his life. So you can see his attitude is a two-edged sword, which can either slice away true love or cut him a piece of indigestible matrimony. Tossing out false sentiment is the cure for both.