The Birth of Libra

May 28, 2019 Jen Deer

There is some dispute about the origin of the sign of Libra, but the preponderance of information available supports the claim that Libra was the last zodiac sign to be created. For over a thousand years, while astrology was coming of age in Babylon and Ancient Greece, Libra was considered a constellation but not a separate zodiac sign.

Most sources agree that it was around the second century C.E. when the Romans created Libra out of the claws of the constellation Scorpio. Bernadette Brady, in Brady’s Book of Fixed Stars, states:

The claws of the Scorpion became known as the Scales around the time of the Greek and early Roman empires. Aran referred to the constellation as the Claws of the Scorpion…But it should be remembered that from at least 2,000 B.C.E. there were twelve signs with one, Scorpio, broken into two parts: The Scorpion and the Claws of the Scorpion.

In The Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology, Vivian Robson supports the claim that Libra was not itself a constellation of its own, but rather referred to as Chelae, or the Claws of Scorpio.

Its two brightest stars are Scorpio’s two claws—Zubeneschamali (“Northern Claw”) and Zubenelgenubi (“Southern Claw”). The establishment of Libra as a separate zodiac sign is believed to have occurred when the autumnal equinox was in Libra—so the concept of Libra as a symbol of balance referred to the balancing of the dark of night with the light of day.

La Bilancia from the Minchiate card deck from Florence c. 1860-1890

In Ancient Astrology in Theory and Practice Firmacus Maternus states:

Before the first century A.D. there were presumed to be twelve divisions of the zodiac but only eleven signs. The one now called Libra was considered to be the claws of the crab. This was also true of the Babylonian zodiac.

An astrologer known as Manetho, in the footnotes of Ancient Astrology in Theory and Practice, agreed. In his words, “The Claws, for which holy men have changed the name and call the Balance, because it stretches out on both sides like the sides of a balance.”

The Weight of a Soul

The Latin meaning of Libra is “pound” as a measurement of weight and one can easily imagine its function in weighing wheat for sale at the equinoctial harvest market. Steven Forrest poetically captures this essence of Libra in The Inner Sky,

Put an ounce of lead on one platform. Pour gold dust onto the other. When they balance, you have an ounce of gold.

This image of weighing gold versus lead on the scales resembles the concept in Babylonian and Egyptian mythology in which souls are weighed after death on a grand scale. The image of Maat comes to mind—Egyptian goddess of harmony, law, moraality, order, and truth—who played a central role in the ceremony of weighing the heart against a feather after death.

Themis, the Roman goddess of Justice, is also associated with weighing one’s heart at death. She captures the essence of abstract law, custom, and equality. In the major arcana of the Tarot, Libra is often represented by the Justice card. In its aspect representing justice, Libra is recognized to all as the Scales.

A Section of Plate 3 from the Papyrus of Ani from the Egyptian Book of the Dead

Vivian Robson, in The Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology, adds Astraea to the list of deities associated with the Justice element of Libra, who weights the souls of men and hands over her measurements to Jupiter for sentencing or dispensation.

Justice affects all relationships—business, familial, and personal. It requires balancing the rights of one person against the rights of another. Or the rights of an individual versus those of a collective. This may also encompass the rights of humanity as opposed to the rights of the gods. It is easy to see why Libra is associated with mediation and the law—the demarcation of boundaries between what is mine, what is yours, and what is ours.

This karmic aspect of Libra recalls the concerns of Scorpio with death and alchemical transmutation. Bernadette Brady states:

The Scorpion was seen as the gateway to the afterlife…followed by the scales of judgement. Justice, death, final judgement: this is the essence of this part of the sky.

Venus en Amor Bernard Picart c. 1724

The Balance Beam

Libra also means “balance” although that is not its literal meaning in Latin. In The Inner Sky, Forrest states that “Libra symbolizes harmony. Equilibrium. The reconciliation of opposites. Lead meets gold. Birth meets death. Love contacts fear. No light without shadow, no shadow without light.”

Libra is a mediator and epitomizes the process of drawing up agreements and establishing boundaries. On a grander scale, Libra mediates the eleven other signs of the zodiac. Some astrologers state that Libra was brought into the zodiac to mitigate disagreements between Virgo and Scorpio.

In The Secret Teachings of All Ages, Manly P. Hall connects the two halves of the zodiac to the seasons, stating that

The first six signs of the zodiac of twelve signs were regarded as benevolent, because the sun occupied them while traversing the Northern Hemisphere…The second six were considered malevolent, because while the sun was traversing the Southern Hemisphere it was winter with the Greeks, Egyptians, and Persians.

Since Libra is in the middle of the zodiacal year, commencing with the autumnal equinox, it represents the turning of the year into the dark seasons and performs the function of balancing the two halves of the year. Hall further states that the two halves of the year could represent two epochs, essentially benefic and malefic:

The 6,000 years during which, according to the Persians, Ahura-Mazda ruled His universe in harmony and peace, were symbolic to these [first six] signs…Therefore these [second] six months symbolic of the 6,000 years of misery and suffering caused by the evil genius of the Persians, Ahriman, who sought to overthrow the power of Ahura-Mazda.

Hall reinforces this interpretation by referencing astrologers who believe that the Greeks divided “the constellation of Virgo Scorpio (at that time only one sign) into two parts, thus establishing ‘the balance’ at the point of equilibrium between the ascending northern and descending southern signs.”

The Corporeal Libra

Libra is traditionally thought to rule our kidneys. In Spiritual Astrology by Master E.K he states, in a chapter titled “The Zodiac and Pranayama”:

In the physical vehicle, the inward pull of air is controlled by the nerves about the navel. This set of nerves is called astrologically Virgo-Scorpio in the body of a yogi. It is called Libra or equilibrium for a man of sex polarity. Libra indicates the symbolic fall of man (the debilitation of Sun). In all human beings, before the attainment of sex-consciousness (before completing seven years of age), it is Virgo-Scorpio, as in a yogi. Within the period of the second set of seven years, Virgo is separated from Scorpio by Libra (Libra is the consciousness that separates the inner man from the outer. It is the maya of the vedanta and the shame of Adam-Eve).

Master E.K. continues his musings regarding the origins of Libra as follows:

It is said that there were only ten signs in the zodiac at first. The whole of the fourth part of the circle, that begins with Virgo and ends with Scorpio, functioned as a single sign. It was the time when the earth was all peopled with the sons of grace. They multiplied through grace and worked out the evolution of the Virgin-matter of this earth. There was no sex difference…Then Virgo-Scorpio had undergone some functional divisions. The equator had its manifestation as a magnetic ring, to separate the lower from the higher. The annual Sun had to “cross” the equator at two points in the year. Thus, there is the birth of the lower pole (Libra) which separated Virgo from Scorpio.

He continues:

The region that covers the 90 degrees from Virgo to Scorpio governs the portion between the naval and the thighs. The inner tissues of the corresponding regions in the physical body act as one unit in the body of the present man or woman until the completion of seven years or age. From that time, until the end of 14 years there is the stimulation of the sex organs and the separation of the sex tissues from the others. This is the working of Libra to separate Virgo from Scorpio. This is but one of the seven keys to this part of wisdom.

Manly P. Hall includes a quote in The Secret Teachings of All Ages from Myer, author of The Qabbalah that reinforces this idea: “We think that the Zodiacal constellations were first ten and represented an immense androgenic man or deity; subsequently that was changed, resulting in Scorpio and Virgo and making eleven; after this from Scorpio, Libra, the Balance, was taken, making the present twelve.”

Justice from Tarot de Marseille by Jean Dodal c. 1701-1715

Libra Symbols—Scales, Bird, and Sun

Many imagine that the glyph for the sign of Libra is a scale, and it does resemble one. However, in Spiritual Astrology, Keys likens it to a bird:

… with its fully stretched wings in a horizontal plane but not touching the horizontal plane of the earth. The wings stand completely parallel to the earth plane, but the bird is always above creation.

In Astrological Origins Fagan states that Libra was the first constellation in the Arian age and that [as a result] …the glyph for Libra is an ancient Egyptian ideogram of the sun rising over the hilltops of the horizon as representing the first house and “the place where the Sun rises.”

The Turning of the Wheel

As the last sign of the zodiac situated at the mid-point of the zodiacal wheel, Libra occupies a unique position. In the words of Alice Bailey, in Esoteric Astrology:

…it is the energy coming from this constellation which controls what we might call (for lack of a more suitable word) the “hub of the wheel.” This is the point in intermediate space where the twelve zodiacal energies meet and cross. Libra, therefore, controls the “moment of reversal of the wheel” in the life of every aspirant, for there comes a moment in the cycle of lives wherein a point of balance is reached, and relative equilibrium attained, and over this event Libra presides.”

As the midpoint in the zodiacal year Libra is the spoke on the wheel that can turn it backwards or forwards.

Neither Human nor Beast

It is asserted by some astrological authors that Libra was originally illustrated as the Virgin weighing the scales, therefore it was a human sign like Aquarius and Gemini. But later history erased this human aspect of Libra, and it remains the only zodiac sign not represented by a living being. This reinforces the hypothesis of Alice Bailey regarding its role in the wheel of the zodiac as a vehicle for balancing the other signs.

Read my article about Libra correspondences to discover flora and fauna associated with the Venus-ruled sign of Libra.

Schedule an astrology reading to learn where the energies of Libra sit in your chart and how you can improve balance, harmony, and beneficial relationships in your life.

Meet the Author

Jen Deer has over 30 years of experience in the mystical and healing arts, a journey that began at 16 during a pivotal yoga retreat that ignited her fascination with the interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit. Alongside her healing practice, she spent many years teaching creative writing and literature at the university level, where she explored the ways in which language can serve as a powerful tool for personal transformation and spiritual insight.