Libra and Attraction

Libra 2006

Libra – another month under the influence of Venus. However unlike her influence on Taurus, which is about sensual things and money, here she is interested in harmony, balance and exchanging ideas in relationships. Venus is often thought of as the beautiful goddess, shown in all her glory in Botticelli’s painting of her birth. However, she was not always nice and loving – she usually wanted something back for her efforts and wanted life to be fair, a very Libran concept.

Boticelli’s Birth of Venus

Attraction – are you and your company meant for each other?
Venus is known as the planet of attractiveness, so I want to explore the idea that since companies can be thought of as living entities, they may be able to attract people to them. We are in effect in a relationship with the companies that we work for. But can they attract us?

KLM and Air France
I know I keep going on about these two companies, but the more I study them the more they fascinate me. If you study astrology, one of the things you end up taking for granted, is that there is no such thing as coincidence. But even though I know this, things still amaze me. KLM and Air France merged in 2003 and have been doing well ever since. (Note 2017 – this was written in 2006!)

KLM is a Libra company born 7th October 1919. Air France is actually Virgo (discussed in my last Virgo post), but their inauguration date is also 7th October! But the year was 1933. (Libra of course).
KLM’s CEO is Leo van Wijk, born 18th October 1946 in Amsterdam – yes another Libra.

Air France’s CEO is Jean-Cyril Spinetta born 4th October 1943 in Paris and yes you guessed it, another Libra. The chances of this happening are pretty remote statistically, but maybe astrologically it makes sense. Why wouldn’t the heart of the company appeal to someone with the same values? The management can be seen in the company horoscope, and Leo van Wijk fits the bill nicely for KLM. He is maybe the ‘right’ leader for KLM.

For Air France there is more. Spinetta has a lot of Virgo energy – the same as Air France. But the Air France chart also has what is known as a conjunction between the Sun and Neptune. This happens about 12 -14 days a year. Spinetta also has this same conjunction. So what the company wants (creative, compassionate management) Spinetta also sees as his vocation.

Perhaps these are indeed matches made in heaven and therefore work well. Or perhaps companies have powers we don’t recognise. They attract who they need, not only in terms of people but also other companies to have as partners.

The Libra Country – New Zealand

I have received the odd comment that the Monthly Planet is a bit Europe or even Netherlands biased, so maybe it is time to explore how a country can have a horoscope. That gives me a chance to create balance down-under by using my homeland as an example. New Zealand. All countries have horoscopes but deciding on which one to use can be very tricky, as various things happen at different stages in history. So we need to know what the event is that we are using, and interpret accordingly. New Zealand, being a relatively young country, is not as complicated as some of the older ones. There are three events that we might consider using for the modern NZ.

1. Discovery of New Zealand by Abel Tasman or Captain James Cook, for the latter I have a seen a time of 13:55, Gisborne, in 1769 but I would need to do more research to decide whether I would accept this as clean data.
2. The signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on 6th February, 1840 at 11:00 when an agreement was reached about ownership of land between the English and the Maoris. I would probably consult this chart for any land rights issues.
3. My choice would be to use the day that NZ became a dominion, within the British Empire, on 26th September, 1907 at midnight. This is an official date and the celebrations took place just after midnight as an official proclamation took place in Wellington at 11:00 am. So New Zealand became self governing at midnight, an important step. So this chart can be used for any general topics relating to New Zealand.

Part of the NZ Dominion horoscope

General Libran Characteristics
The first thing that springs to mind is that everyone who visits NZ (without exception in my experience) talks of how beautiful it is. Most people also comment on how friendly everyone is. Libra is a very sociable sign, so it is not surprising that the culture reflects this. Harmony and balance are important to Librans, so being direct and arguing are not as common as they are in, to mention a country off the top of my head, the Netherlands! There is an air of graciousness. I can hear you Kiwi’s saying “well where?” but if you have been in other cultures for a while, it is very noticeable how helpful most NZ’ers are.
The norms and values of people in authority, such as government or business leaders, include diplomacy, reasonableness and fair play.

However there are other archetypes present in the management culture that give NZ leaders the potential to be: different, future oriented, innovative, powerful and authoritative. (My Virgo post of 2017 focused on NZ leadership.) As in other countries, these qualities are all too often negatively expressed such as: ‘thinking they know better’, dominating and manipulative, or perhaps worse, indecisive. It must be quite a challenge for leaders to be fair but do what they want anyway. This does work well sometimes. NZ is certainly seen as an innovative country, a trendsetter in many areas. (See link below for our heroes.)

The general populace or ‘bottom-up’ culture can be at odds with this ‘top-down’ culture. In a horoscope this is shown by the Moon, which in this chart is in Taurus. So the ‘people’ want good food and drink, a quiet peaceful life and to enjoy nature. Here we see a bit of the ‘Rugby, Racing and Beer’ culture. A very practical race. The ‘Do-ers. Whereas the bosses are the ‘Thinkers’. The challenge for business is to combine the good qualities of both. Incidentally a good role for NZ on the world stage would be as a mediator, one of Libra’s fortes.

New Zealand will celebrate her 99th birthday as a dominion this year (2006). This means, using my organisational development model (which appears to work for countries in the ones I have studied up until now), that she is in the middle of the 5th or Leo phase. This is a creative, risk-taking phase. The turning point, or what can be a crisis point, around June 2007 can bring problems associated with risk-taking. Because the phase for NZ should be handled in a Scorpio way (different for other countries because of the sign the cycle starts with), the businesses who focus on this combination of themes (Leo and Scorpio) should do well in the coming period. These can be as diverse as: personal power development, sex and fun, dying in the way you want, transforming sewage works, fun toilets, buying shares in any companies that have products from below ground, oil, diamonds, minerals …, gambling.

Scorpio also rules finance companies and the signs are already there that they need to be careful. Being creative is the way to go for them, but enjoying all the profits for themselves may result in tears. Taking risks can be rewarding in this phase as long as the risk is understood. Has NZ attracted the right leadership to take advantage of this? Helen Clark is not a Libra, however she does have the planet Mars in this sign. Her approach and the way she operates fit NZ very well.