When Justice Fails: Libra and Scorpio Aspects and Transits
The signs don't exist in isolation. They have relationships with each other. They agree or disagree, help each other or fight. Each sign is a reaction to and correction of the blind spots and excesses of the previous sign, which means that signs that are next to each other on the wheel don't get along easily.
When a planet is traveling through a sign you like, the transition into the next sign can feel like whiplash. It helps to imagine that the planets are trying to solve problems the way we do. As they travel around the wheel, they observe the world from each sign's perspective. They try. They get things wrong. They try again another way until they find the technique that works.
The relationship between Libra and Scorpio can be especially difficult.
Libra is the sign of the peacemaker. Scorpio is ruled by Mars, the God of War. Their disagreements are the highest of high drama. Literally matters of life and death.
Astrologer Robert Hand says that Mars resorts to war when diplomacy has failed. The battlefield isn’t Mars’s preferred place to hang out. It’s what happens when Mars has been backed into a corner and has no other options.
Sometimes, when a planet moves from Libra into Scorpio, it’s because diplomatic possibilities have been exhausted. The institutions and systems that are meant to create justice have fallen apart beyond repair.
Libra is a particular kind of justice.
Libra justice sits down two opposing parties and listens to both sides with the belief that the truth will come out if both parties are heard equally.
This strategy can be effective, but it requires certain things from the participants. Truth telling. Respect for the rules. A fair judge. If any of these things are missing, the process falls apart. When the process falls apart, Libra has nothing else in the proverbial toolbox to set things right until the parties involved agree to participate honorably.
Sometimes, you can't wait for people to come around. Sometimes, they will never come around. Sometimes, you're dragged into Libra's courtroom and the odds are stacked against you because other people refuse to play fair. Sometimes, "justice" is about who is stronger or smarter or more resourced, not who is right.
Scorpio is what happens when systems of fairness and justice break down.
Scorpio has the right toolkit when you can't assume that everyone has good motives. When you need to hunt for the truth like an investigative journalist. When you need to deal with the reality of power dynamics. When you have to look evil in the face. When you can't just talk it out because your would-be conversational partner is out to destroy you.
Scorpio times can be difficult, but they can also be satisfying. When Libra breaks down, the world can feel kafkaesque or like Alice in Wonderland, like everyone is talking in absurd dialog and nothing is allowed to resolve.
Scorpio breaks through the witty banter to the truth no one wants to face and forces us to keep looking at it until we deal with it.
The end.
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