Balance is a process.
It’s not something we can ever crystallize, and there is no final state of being where Our Universe solidifies into a static notion of perfect harmony. This isn’t possible because things are always changing. With every breath in and every breath out, we change. They can be tiny changes like adjusting your elbow a little bit to the left, or they can be huge changes like getting on a plane to move across the country.
And as we breathe our world in and out - as we embrace the changes of our making - we look to bring ourselves back into a lived experience of balance. Sometimes one side is heavier than the other and we wobble, stumble and trip. Sometimes it takes us a while to find the courage to get up and walk again. Sometimes we berate ourselves for not paying enough attention to where we put our feet.
Still, no matter where we are, we recognize what balance is. We know what it looks like, what it sounds like, what it feels like. We appreciate what it’s like when the scales are even, when the world seems fair and just and it’s all okay.
I’ve even been seeing myself as scale this week, noticing all of the things I’ve placed in the polished brass bowls that are my hands. I’ve come to see that it’s difficult and painstaking to keep things equal when I’m putting dense, solid objects of different shapes and sizes in the bowls. These are like the stuck emotions and entrenched thought patterns I’m holding onto, and trying to balance the bowls by adding more weight only increases the load on my head and heart.
So I’ve been changing how I look for balance. The overflowing energy from this week’s Lunar Eclipse in Pisces taught me that nothing needs to be hard, and nothing needs to be hardened. And it has reminded me that there’s one substance that moves forever fluidly to equilibrium: water. Water fills containers so effortlessly, shedding any superfluous drops in a cascade towards the Earth. Two identical bowls filled to the brim with water will always be balanced, no matter how much more you pour in.
And now I find myself embracing the chance to dissolve what I’m holding precariously in my hands, to liquify the stories that tie me to the limitations of the past. Right now I can forgive myself and everyone else for anything that ever happened, I can let go of any internalized expectations of who I need to be. Those are rocks on the scale, and they’ll make it infinitely more challenging to keep myself in equanimity.
Then I recall that 99% of the molecules in my body right now are water, and I imagine pouring more of myself into each of the bowls. I fill them with a crisp sense of clarity, and I notice how freely I move. There is no concern about getting the balance “right” because I already know that it will be. I’m going with the flow.
Flowing to balance is a big theme during this electric eclipse time tunnel we now find ourselves in. Eclipses open the floodgates to evolutionary change, which can be both profoundly inspirational and deeply unsettling. It’s a time when the wind picks up, when the sea gets choppy, when we get blown in new and unexpected directions. If we remind ourselves that energy wants to move - that it is always in motion - we can work to welcome eclipses without resistance, we can relax and let the currents take us exactly where we need to be.
This past Tuesday’s Lunar Eclipse brought us to an emotional high tide, and it gave us a chance to feel the power of our personal presence in the ocean around us. And now this weekend, we celebrate the equinox - that magical moment when every part of this planet gets equal measures of daylight and darkness. Equinoxes invite us into a lived experience of collective balance, a moment where the hemispheres pass in the hallway with a handshake. This equinox also announces the beginning of Libra season, a time when we are called to put our lives on the divine scales.
Libra is a relational sign, and it draws our attention to where our interpersonal connections are out of whack. And just as with our own internal equilibrium, we can ask ourselves where we are bringing fixed ideas, inflexible narratives and emotional triggers to the table. Libra helps us to see that there are two sides to every story, and by listening - genuinely listening - to how other people experience us, we can open ourselves up to seeing, feeling and being another way.
Libra season is especially charged this year as we’ll come together to witness a Solar Eclipse in the sign of the scales on Wednesday, October 2. We’ll tune into this more next week, and this eclipse is no doubt already entreating us to open the drain after this week’s flood of feeling. Perhaps we can come back to center in seeing ourselves as the scales, knowing that we can allow things to overflow without ever losing our balance.
If you’d like to tune more into the equinox and Libra energy, check out this conversation I had with
at this time last year or feast your eyes on my September equinox write-up for 2023. It’s amazing how these themes carry forward, and it’s wonderful how looking backwards can show you how far you’ve come.Love,
Patrick