Quarterback Controversies

Brett Favre has been in the news all week regarding stuff he said, stuff he retracted, blowing off mini-camp, deciding to go to mini-camp. Back & forth, back & forth…you’d think the guy was a Libra or something.

He is.

However, all these things are non-issues (and pretty much non-news). Favre will play for the Pack and, God-willing, finish out his career in Green Bay. Everyone has to vent now and then (one of the reasons for starting a blog), and things get blown out of proportion by the media when you are a high-profile athlete celebrity…especially during the off-season.

Libras get a bad rap for being wishy-washy at times. In the past, I have referred to them as the Big Waffles of the zodiac. These days, I have much more respect for the Scales and their capabilities. And I’m not just talking about their ability to carry on two sides of a conversation with no help from other people.

(fun party trick with your Libra friends: start arguing one side of an issue, and get them to play devil’s advocate, then switch to agreement with your Libra pal and watch them take apart their own point just to provide balance…hours of entertainment!)

No…I’m talking about their GREAT CREATIVE INTELLECT and their NEED FOR HARMONY.

These traits are what make Libra such stellar leaders. Libra is one of the four CARDINAL, leadership signs of the zodiac (along with Aries, Cancer, and Capricorn). These are the signs of the self-starter, the initiators of action. Of course, they all have a different motivation for their leadership:

- Aries has the need to experience new things, to blaze a path, to explore
- Cancer has the need to nurture the young, and protect the family/tribe
- Capricorn has the need to establish something of lasting value, a solid legacy

Libra’s need is to promote harmony and balance, and their great strength is their intellectual creativity. This is the sign of the diplomat, as “balance” is often achieved through effective communication and the ability to express ideas from multiple points of view, helping to build consensus (or at least compromise) from many disparate perspectives.

Hoo-boy! That’s a mouthful.

But Libra would probably call that a “fair” assessment. Team-building is the name of the game for Libra’s…they aren’t just the ultimate team player, they practically invented the idea of getting everyone involved and sharing the ball!

But doesn’t a leader need to sometimes make hard decisions, take a single stand and stick to it? Doesn’t a leader have to sometimes take the lone path in order to set an example for others?

Sure…and as with any sign, Libra has challenges that need to be met in order to reach its full potential. But the Libra that has grown and evolved knows (with that great intellect) that effective leadership requires a balance between consensus-building and independence. They need to cultivate both in themselves in order to have INNER harmony. When in doubt, Libras may err on the side of “trying to please everyone,” but with experience they find that real harmony sometimes requires a bit of disgruntlement in some folks.

Choices can be tough for Libras, though. Like: do I create harmony in my family (by showing up for a child’s school event) or do I create harmony in my workplace (by showing up for mini-camp). Sometimes, one choice is mutually exclusive of another and this can lead to a terrible agony in the Libra as the individual goes through profound mental gymnastics to try to justify the “right” decision. For example:

Do I let down my team or do I let down my family? (aaarggh!)
o If I fail to show up as a leader and example, it makes the team harder to harmonize.
o If I get special treatment, this can be perceived as being “un-fair” or un-balanced, disrupting team harmony.
o If I disrupt the harmony of my team, we won’t play to our full potential.
o If we don’t play to our full potential, it will disappoint the city and our fans.
o If people are upset, I will be upset.
o When I am upset, I cannot act in my fullest potential as a player, as a leader, or as a husband/father for my family.
o I don’t want to have a whole season of disrupting harmony in my family (caused by my own upset), so I should not let down my team.

So then the Libra picks team over family, still feels the dis-harmony from his home life, disrupting performance on the field and leading to future upsets!

I’m not saying this is how Mr. Favre’s particular thinking went (for all I know, financial/contractual obligations play a larger part of his inner “harmony-meter”). But I am attempting to illustrate how the Libra personality can suffer for its own “big brain” and “need for harmony,” and that it is this that sometimes leads to the “Waffle Effect” (putting off decisions in order to put off the agony).

The more experienced Libras have learned that:

- all choices made lead to consequences (good and bad)
- the sooner one makes a choice, the sooner one can deal with the consequences (attempting to create balance and harmony in the new situation)

Now I know I’ve previously posted that there is more to a person’s astrological inclinations than just their Sun sign; so why am I harping on about Libra this and that? Well (here’s a switcheroo, just for the Libras out there!), in general, the sign and placement of a person’s Sun is the most important part of his or her birth chart.

The Sun is the basic expression of a person’s ego and identity.

The Sun colors everything in the chart, adding extra dimension to every other inclination, tendency.

The Sun is the person most people get to know, once they get past the first impression/acquaintance stage of first meeting someone.

But aside from all that, Mr. Favre is a pretty big Libra. Although I can’t do a full chart for him (I don’t know his time of birth), I can say that in addition to the Sun, Brett has the Moon, Mercury, Jupiter, and Uranus all in the sign of Libra. Having 5 of 10 planets (including both luminaries) in Air signs and 6 of 10 in Cardinal signs, the “final signature” of Mr. Favre’s chart is indeed Libra.

Hmmm…the other thing I wanted to talk about was the Bucs, but I’ll save that for another post.