Libra

Autumn's equal day and night mark this sign for Ptolemy, in Ashmand's 1822 translation. As the Sun passes here into the lower half of the circle, Ptolemy gives him his fall in Libra and gives Saturn his exaltation, on the argument that cold grows as heat declines. Lilly 1659 calls Libra the chief house of Venus and lists it as a detriment of Mars.

Adams 1928 draws a useful consequence from those facts. She finds two kinds of Libra, one led by Venus and one led by the exalted Saturn, and she treats the second as sturdier and squarer in build. Here a table of dignities has been turned into a claim about people, and readers can see each step of the reasoning.

Alan Leo 1899 stresses weighing and dispassionate judgment. The 1697 English Manilius, reading the Scales literally, lists accountants, gaugers, lawyers and judges. Modern popular astrology leans toward partnership and the difficulty of deciding, a reading the older books do not state in those terms.