Your Guide to Libra Season

Illustration: Sunny Wu

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 about September 23 to October 23 every 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, even makes everyone happy. Libra is an air sign: smart, communicative, and charismatic. Symbolized by the scales, justice-minded Libra tries to look at the world rationally, 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. If your judgment is often clouded by emotion, you might find yourself able to see situations with more clarity. And if you’re usually able to leap quickly and boldly to decisions, in Libra season you might need a little more time before making a choice. This is a time to be fair and deliberate in your thinking, and to look at issues from all sides and consider all the evidence before reaching a conclusion.

This attitude of broad-minded openness makes Libra tactful and diplomatic. At its best, Libra is skilled at negotiation and restoring social balance; at its worst, it can come across as wishy-washy or frustratingly noncommittal. While the Sun is in Libra, it might feel more difficult to rock the boat or make big decisions. On the flip side, 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 do the work of maintaining 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 then, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kim Kardashian are Libras, too. Crucially, this is a sign ruled by Venus, planet of beauty and romance. This makes Libra one of the most gifted signs in the zodiac 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 or 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.

Still, that’s not to say that Libra’s energy is frivolous or slight: Libra also looks like Serena Williams’s grace and beauty (the outfits!) under intense pressure. Nor is it to imply that the best thing you can do with Libra’s energy is make yourself likable: Andrea Dworkin, whose unflinching quest for justice led to criticism from all sides, was a Libra too.

At its very best, Libra offers a surprising kind of magic, 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.