Cancer
Symbol: 
Ruling Planet: Moon
Tarot Key: The Chariot
Sun in Cancer: from around 22nd June to 22nd July
Season: Summer solstice, fertility, withdrawal under shady trees due to great heat
Cultural: midsummer festival, midsummer night, fertility rituals
Physical body: Breasts, chest, stomach (and sometimes abdomen)
Star constellation: Cancer
Mythology of the star constellation
Liz Greene[2]: The Crab has a curious mythic heritage. The Greeks perceived it as the creature of the goddess Hera, guardian of the family and the hearth. This sophisticated goddess protected those who honored the bonds of marriage, but was the jealous and implacable enemy of the illegitimate children her husband Zeus fathered on mortal women.
When the hero Heracles, one of Zeus' illicit progeny, was battling the Lernaean Hydra, she sent her crab to bite the hero's foot, to distract him during the fight. The crab caught hold of Hercules' heel with its powerful pincers and could not be shaken off. Although Hercules managed to conquer the Hydra, Hera placed her valiant crustacean in the heavens in gratitude for its loyalty.
The crab's association with Hera reflects one of Cancer's best-known meanings, for Hera was the primary Greek symbol of domestie stability and continuity through the preservation of family bonds.
In Egyptian myth, however, the zodiacal sign of Cancer took a subtler form. Instead of a crab, a scarab or dung beetle was associated with this segment of the zodiac which begins at the summer solstice, when the Sun is at the zenith of its power. The scarab is a more mysterious image than the crab, and gives us deeper insight into Cancer's complex nature. Because this beetle lays its eggs in a ball of dung which it rolls about until the larvae hatch, the Egyptians perceived it as a solar symbol from which new life mysteriously emerged, and understood the sign of Cancer to reflect the incarnation of the spirit into mortal form.
Thus the first of the water signs is associated with the mystery of the spiritual source of life and with emotional loyalty to the values of the past.
Interpretation
Cancer is the fourth sign of the zodiac. It is associated with empathetic and maternal qualities. It is sensitive to impressions rising from the depths of the soul. It embodies a world of images and dreams which is difficult to put into words or describe in any kind of concrete way. And although this world is ever present, other signs generally find it more difficult to access than the imaginative and sensitive individuals born under the sign of Cancer.
The energy of Cancer is introverted in nature, and Cancerians usually prefer moments of quiet contemplation in which they can sense the more subtle aspects of life. They can passively receive impressions and reflect them back.
Taking care of others and being taken care of are also important themes in the lives of those with the sign of Cancer dominant in their horoscopes. They want to make their loved ones feel warm and secure and expect the same in return. They enjoy the company of children and can empathise with them because they have not lost contact with their own inner child, which can also mean that they are sometimes reluctant to grow up themselves.
They have a fine intuition and are always receptive to the moods of others, which can sometimes cause them to be moody. Their need for emotional contact can sometimes lead them to unintentionally manipulate other people, and because of their strongly emotional nature, they are sometimes in danger of rejecting all appeals to reason, only allowing their feelings to guide their actions. They often build up a thick emotional shell with which to hide and protect their sensitive, impressionable, shy and vulnerable core from being hurt or completely at the mercy of others. If they feel that it will help them to reach their goals, Cancerians are able to retreat into their rigid shells. They are also in a figurative and literal sense strongly orientated towards the past, and can tend to be rather conservative. For them the past is often equally as important as the present because for them past experiences continue into the present. These may often be related to earlier experiences and relationships in childhood, especially to the mother, but also other events and relationships outside the family.
Planets and axes in the sign of Cancer exhibit sensitive, imaginative, nurturing and to a certain extent childlike qualities.
Cancer, together with the other two water signs, Scorpio and Pisces, is highly sensitive and tuned in to the world of emotions. But where the qualities of Cancer are reminiscent of the Sea out of which all life developed, Scorpio could be compared to a deep muddy swamp out of which the lotus flower grows, and Pisces to a slowly meandering stream. Both Cancer and its polar opposite sign Capricorn are associated with aspects of society: in Cancer's case it is the smallest unit, namely the family, whereas with Capricorn these are the general structures and laws upon which society is based. Cancer can learn valuable lessons from the signs that form natural square aspects to it: from Aries the ability to take direct action, and from Libra the ability to socialise with ease.
Jupiter is exalted in Cancer, Saturn in detriment, and Mars in fall.
Weblinks
- Cancer the Crab (Deborah Houlding, Skyscript)
- The Zodiac Suite: "Cancer" by Rebecca Tripp (youTube - Video)
- Sound of zodiac - Cancer (youTube - Video)
Notes and References
- ↑ Gertrud Ring was the first wife of Thomas Ring
- ↑ Text by Liz Greene, from Mythic Astrology