The equinox is a time of equal night and day; a fulcrum point between light and dark. But it’s worth considering that though this happens twice a year, only one of those days marks the Sun’s ingress into the territory of balance and equality.

The Spring Equinox represents the alpha/omega point of the zodiac, a time of beginnings contained in endings and the promise of new life. It seems fair to say that the very act of emerging from the womb, of starting something new, requires a certain degree of selfishness or ego. Aries says “me first,” because without that impetuous drive to emerge as ourselves, to assume an identity for the first time, we’d be having a very different kind of experience (perhaps as protons in a sea of weird soup).

Libra is a little less decisive than that. You can fault the scales all you want for wobbling back and forth, but that’s part of the work that’s required of us if we’re serious about this whole coexistence thing. If you’ve ever been to a protest or demonstration that leveraged the people’s mic method to amplify various voices, you’re probably well aware that real democracy is taxing, time-consuming, and oftentimes emotionally exhausting work. When everyone is given a platform to speak, the conversation can go back and forth for ages without ever reaching a clear consensus.

But for now, at least, the need for decisive action is less important than our ability to encounter The Other with fairness, grace, and diplomacy. It’s easy (and often less painful) to hide behind a veneer of snark. It’s much more difficult to drop your weapon first in order to engage someone in good faith.

It might bring some hope that the Sun is being assisted by Jupiter this year for the first time since 2004. Many people associate Libra with fluffy stuff like fashion, beauty, people-pleasing, and puppy love. What they sometimes forget is that Libra is a get-shit-done cardinal sign; an iron fist in a velvet glove, as they say, which commands a change of seasons and a collective shift toward the ideals of justice and harmony. Recent years have highlighted little in the way of justice or peace. Will this be the year that our justice system finally rights itself and begins the long process of eliminating racial disparities from its outcomes?

This is heavy subject matter, but these are heavy times we’re living in. Fortunately, Libra energy has a way of lightening the mood, even as it’s drawing attention to all the unfairness in the world. For fuck’s sake: schedule a deeply romantic date night, make sure you’re up to date on all the new art exhibits in town, indulge your inner socialite, and don’t let anyone see you in last season’s rags. Happy Fall everyone.

This post was originally published on 9/22/2016 on thedailyhunch.com.