LIBRA (September 23-October 22)

Your guardian planet Venus makes you the zodiac’s sunshine in a bottle, dear Libra. Your world is one that is refined, polished, poetic, and soft with no harsh edges. Venus embellishes and beautifies all it touches, so you make an effort to surround yourself with beautiful objects that seem to blend together in effortless harmony.

Most Libras love the fashion and beauty industries as well as the cultural arts, and if you work in one of these fields, you have an excellent chance of growing into a position of respect and power. Libras, more than most signs, are thought of as the arbiters of taste and work particularly well as editors, museum curators, or film and television critics.

Finding justice in all matters is important to you. If you see two strangers arguing on the street, you will likely jump in to try to create peace between them. Many Libras grow up to be superb lawyers, labor negotiators, ambassadors, or diplomats—or marry a partner who works in one of these fields. Libras are skilled matchmakers too, whether they are making an introduction, a love match, or one centered on mutual interests in business.

As a Libra, your friends come to you to discover the hottest clubs and bistros, the must-read new best seller, the most applauded designer with the latest runway collections, and the best retailers to find an edited collection of clothing. As is true with all air signs (Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius), you stay up-to-the-minute in style, and you love to debate each new design, piece of art, or beauty product that has come on the market.

You manage to look fresh-from-the-shower clean and polished, even when you’ve worked a particularly long and grueling day—this is one of your trademark qualities, dear Libra. Your manners are impeccable, you are diplomatic in all interactions, and you no doubt wonder why rudeness would even exist on our planet.

In clothing, you love shopping online for new pieces to order to add to your present wardrobe. Female Libras love soft colors—the colors of the rococo dining room—such as soft blues, pale through rosy pink, white and cream, soft fabrics with shimmering gold threads, and outfits with beautiful handwork, such as embroidery, beading, or restrained, elegant transparency, lace, or ruffles. You prefer to buy fewer but more important pieces and accessories that you will love and wear more than one season or year.

Libra is symbolized by the scales, associated with the concept of blind justice, where questions of law are carefully weighed and balanced against the prevailing complex circumstances but always in a fair, slow deliberation to ensure equality to all. As a Libra, you expect fairness in all your relationships and matters, almost to an idealistic extreme. As a child, you might have gone home to your mother, upset that something happened at school, and exclaimed, “It was not fair!”

Libra is fascinated by the law, and many become lawyers or prosecutors. If you decide not to enter the legal field, you could marry someone who works with the courts so that you can be near the compelling deliberations on ethics and justice. Other Libras make superb negotiators, diplomats, or ambassadors or work in politics, eager to make a difference.

The Egyptians invented the balance scales some 7,000 years ago to measure the harvest, and the scales were also central to their belief in cosmic order within the human and divine worlds. When someone passed into the afterlife, that person’s heart was placed on a golden scale and balanced against the feather of truth on the other side. If the “heart” of the soul proved to be lighter than the feather, the soul earned admittance into a blissful realm. The faithful knew of this and would strive to be pure of heart.

Your overriding need for balance in everything may well stem from the fact that you were born at the time of the year when light and darkness are even, although soon, as days go by, darkness will prevail. In astrology, light symbolizes individuality, whereas night refers to partnership. Libras love to be coupled up, and your sign is considered the prime sign of marriage. Libra needs a sounding board and likes to bounce ideas back and forth with a partner. Even as a child, you likely preferred having a homework buddy, and chances are you did not want to work alone (not unless you have strong Scorpio elements in your chart). Few signs are as talented at matchmaking, whether in love or business, for you easily and clearly see what each partner needs to be complete. If you have a Libra friend who volunteers to make an introduction—let them! It may change your life forever.