Has it happened yet? Has Jupiter moved from workaholic Virgo to pleasure-loving Libra? I’m counting the minutes, the seconds for this ingress. Is it September 9 yet? Wake me when Jupiter is in Libra. I’m tired from work.

Working in the analytical world one meets lots of Virgo suns and Virgo moons who have spent the past year making sure everything is perfect (a delusion of the rational mind I would argue). Now our analytical friends can take a deep breath, relax and enjoy some Libra-inspired pleasure (Virgos: pleasure is the opposite of work and involves enjoyment that has no purpose).

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round;
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery*

Jupiter in Libra

The planet Jupiter “expands what it finds.” Virgo, an earth sign, represents work, health and pets with a strong dose of attention to detail and general anxiety in the name of perfection and service to others. For the last year, Virgo has expanded (which was evident in US politics). Find the area of your chart with Virgo to see where you might have both expanded in work and service and, possibly, drove others to drink.

Libra, a cardinal air sign, is about “the other” and focuses on relationships, comparison, fairness and justice. Ruled by Venus, Libra is also very much a pleasure-seeking sign. While Libra can work as hard as any Virgo, it does not care to do this 100 percent of the time. Hard work can be followed by hard idleness.

Symbolized by the scales, Libra represents balance. If you’ve read your Linda Goodman you know that Libra is rarely balanced. The older I get, the more I realize balance is rare in this world. Its rarity is a result of its value and achieving balance is probably one of the most difficult spiritual lessons.

The striving for balance leads Libra to one of its most salient traits – partnership. Libra reflects off of the partner to develop the sense of self. Libra without balance often is unaware of its own feelings as the image-orientation of air signs leads it to mirror others but not always reflect deeply on those images.

Charm is the natural tool and defense of Libra which helps when forming partnerships. Beware the Libra charm – that is when Libra is most dangerous. Unlike those fire signs, a Libra attack often comes with indirect words and a sweet smile; only later do you realize that you were bamboozled with charisma.

Find the area of Libra in your chart to see where you need partnership, have the most charm and need to reflect and react to the behavior of others. This is where you have pleasure but also need balance.

Libra Poetry

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:
And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean;
And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!*

When you meet a Libra, ask about the art in his/her life. No matter in what profession you find your Libra, there is some artistic talent from singing to dancing to writing to music. If your Libra claims to have no artistic talent, ask to see the poetry. It’s hidden somewhere.

Libra poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge dreamt of Kubla Khan but claimed to come from humble beginnings:

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born on 21 October 1772 in the remote Devon village of Ottery St. Mary, the tenth and youngest child of Ann Bowdon Coleridge and John Coleridge, a school-master and vicar whom he was said to resemble physically as well as mentally. In vivid letters recounting his early years he describes himself as “a genuine Sans culotte, my veins uncontaminated with one drop of Gentility.” The childhood of isolation and self-absorption which Coleridge describes in these letters has more to do, on his own telling, with his position in the family. Feelings of anomie, unworthiness, and incapacity persisted throughout a life of often compulsive dependency on others.

Coleridge may have been born into the lower classes, but his Libra sun and Leo moon dreamt of a grander existence. Libra’s grace and charm usually exceed any material limitations; in fact, pleasure in this world often costs a lot of money so Libras not born into great wealth can often experience issues with money as money for its own sake is rarely the focus. Money provides pleasure which is to be enjoyed. For earth signs, in contrast, money provides security so must be hoarded.

As many did during Coleridge’s times, he had to flee debt:

What sort of revolutionary would enlist in the king’s army in this perilous moment? Coleridge did so on 2 December 1793 under an assumed name, fleeing debts and discouragement at college. He was rescued by family and friends after serving locally for some five months. Escape, servitude, and retreat would become a familiar pattern in Coleridge’s life.

The “compulsive dependency” noted with Coleridge can also occur with Libra as the desire to partner can be strong and override individuality.

Socialization

Jupiter’s travel around the sun takes about 12 years. When we are age 5-6, Jupiter will be opposed to our natal Jupiter. This is when we go to school, i.e., when we begin socialization. Age 12 is when we approach our teenage years when we appear most rebellious but are truly most influenced by others.

Jupiter’s cycles represent socialization and involve Jupiter institutions such as school and church. These are the two places we learn (or are forced) to get along with others in the pattern of the rules at that particular time.

Find the Jupiter transit in your chart to see where you need to refine your ability to get along in this time and space in which you have found yourself. Today’s socialization is tomorrow’s history lesson but we must all get along where we find ourselves. If you don’t care for the social environment, find the Uranus in your chart because Uranus helps you challenge the status quo.

Because Libra seeks contentment, it often avoids conflict and “ugly” situations. The Libra in your chart can represent both an area where you exhibit finesse and where you speak beautiful and calming words to pacify others.

Drink the Milk of Paradise For a Year with Jupiter in Libra

A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight ’twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.*

Jupiter is in Libra from September 9, 2016 until October 10, 2017. Check it out.

* Kubla Khan by Libra Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Libra Olivia Newton John sings Xanadu