Your Guide to Libra Season

By the end of September, Virgo’s perfectionist tendencies might be starting to wear on you. A person can only handle so much hard work and self-criticism! Sometimes you don’t want to worry about keeping your life impeccably organized; you just want to relax and enjoy yourself. Fortunately, this is when the sun enters kind and lovely Libra, offering relief.

Libra season — which begins at the autumn equinox and lasts from September 22 to October 22 this year — is all about beauty, harmony, and balance. While the sun is in Virgo, the focus is on reaching the correct solution; once it enters Libra, the focus is on finding one that meets everyone’s needs. Libra is an air sign: smart, communicative, and charismatic. Symbolized by the scales, justice-minded Libra tries to look at the world as fairly and with as little favoritism as possible.

Even if you’re usually a person with powerful and unshakeable opinions, in Libra season you might find yourself moved to reconsider what you had previously taken on faith. It becomes important now to inspect all the facts (including the inconvenient ones) with a clear head, and to look at issues from all the angles, even if that means trying to put yourself in an adversary’s shoes. You might not regard everyone’s ideas or criticisms as equally valuable or persuasive, but at the very least, you’ll listen.

This means that decision-making can take longer than usual during Libra season. Sifting through all that information requires time! While you might typically leap quickly and boldly to decisions, expect yourself (and others) to be more hesitant now as you consider multiple perspectives and weigh the evidence before reaching any conclusions. All this intellectual work might feel slow and laborious, but it isn’t a waste of your energy: by the time you do land on a decision, you can trust that it’s solid and fair.

This commitment to fairness makes Libra tactful and diplomatic. Libra is skilled at negotiation, making others feel seen and valued and restoring social balance. While it might feel more difficult to rock the boat or make big decisions while the sun is in Libra, it’ll also be easier to compromise, to forgive the people you love, and to solve problems collaboratively. Libra season reminds you to value your relationships, and it can motivate you to make an effort to maintain them. This is the time to reach out to your friends, to listen to them without judgment, to do the work — sometimes difficult, sometimes sweet — of connecting.

All of this may sound high-minded and serious, which Libra can be. But Libra is also a sign ruled by Venus, planet of beauty and romance. There’s a stereotype that it’s the most beautiful, graceful, aesthetically minded sign in the zodiac, and that take is not entirely wrong. Libra is gifted at at flirting, charming others, and dressing to impress. Libra understands better than most that while outward appearances might not be everything, they aren’t meaningless, either.

If your life has felt drab and uninteresting recently, Libra season is the perfect time to make it beautiful again. That can be as small as getting a new haircut, rearranging your furniture, or buying fresh flowers to brighten up your workspace. Libra’s great secret is that sometimes, the solution doesn’t need to be that deep. Making your life more aesthetically appealing isn’t a cure-all, but it can effectively lift your spirits.

At its very best, Libra offers a surprising kind of magic, one where seemingly impossible problems become solvable not through force or cunning but through generosity of spirit, or through social connection, or through an unwavering belief that justice and beauty still matter.