Understanding The Zodiac Sign – CANCER

CANCER (GYLPH)
Element: Water
Mode: Cardinal
Ruler: Moon

Cancerian are the zodiac’s most sensitive souls. They cannot help but empathize with, and feel concern for, their fellow humans. They are never happier than when making someone else happy and never sadder than when they fear they have inadvertently caused hurt. Anyone who has a Cancerian for a friend has little need of anything else in life.

The Symbol and Glyph

The symbol for Cancer is the Crab. The glyph can be taken to depict the crab’s claws encircling each other in a protective posture. Curiously it also looks like the number 69 turned on its side. The crab has a hard shell to protect a soft body and the Cancerian person can also be like this: crusty and defensive on the outside but soft and squidgy within. The glyph can also be interpreted as being representative of breasts (a Cancerian part of the body), or cradling arms, both images reminiscent of the nurturing and maternal nature of the sign.

General Characteristics

The emphasis for Cancer is on the home, the family and the past – the key principle being a need to feel safe and a strong urge to belong. Those who vibrate strongly to the sign often have a great liking for history and times for antiques. Both history and family provide a feeling of continuity with all that has gone before. This sense of having a past affords the individual a feeling of emotional security. The knowledge that they, belong to a family also provides a sense of security; as an important role of the-family unit is to provide a cushion against outside dangers.

Although a Cardinal sign, the Cancerian method of initiation is not a straightforward one. Like the crab, the movement of Cancer tends to be oblique, sideways and maneuvering; Cancer can be skilled at ‘going round the houses’. Going sideways or retreating into one’s shell can be useful defensive measures to take when, a degree of protection is required, but can also be ways of avoiding issues that need to be dealt with. And as the crab has very large claws to hold on tightly when necessary, so does, The Cancerian type have a tenacious grip.

The oblique, sideways quality associated, with this sign can be a way of dealing with shyness and timidity. Sidling up can feel easier than a head-on confrontation. Those with a preponderance of planets in Cancer may be defensive and cagey but can often be very shrewd, too. The shrewdness, conservative attitude and tendency to let go of nothing often makes for skills with money and what might be termed ‘good husbandry’. Sometimes hoarding and penny-pinching go with the territory.

Cancer, is noted for its characteristic traits of imagination, sensitivity and sympathetic understanding. It’s energy , is soft and yielding and yet surprisingly defensive. The Cancerian type is very protective; not only self-protective and protective of their clan but even of their country. Cancer can be patriotic. Those who vibrate strongly to this sign often feel easily threatened. There are various ways that might be used to respond to a supposed threat but often the response is to become touchy, sulky or huffy. Cancer is a moody sign although, more positively, one might say that it is in touch with the changeability of the feeling realm. Be that as it may, there can be a great sensitivity to slights whether these are imagined or real.

The protective, sympathetic quality of the sign goes alongside the strong urge to mother, to nurture, to care for. Planets here can be useful in both kinds of nursery: those, that are child-based and the horticultural variety. And there is a strongest-building propensity with Cancer. Home, the ultimate plate of retreat and safety, is everything. The house position of any planet in Cancer can show-where the individual creates some kind of home-from-home.

Whereas in many ways Gemini was the sign of the child, being youthful and innocent and either oblivious to, or not frightened by, the horrors of life, Cancer is the sign of the mother, who, almost by definition, is always alive to danger and takes little that happens in life lightly. Hence, in the same way that the Crab has a tough shell to protect a sensitive body, those whose charts have a Cancerian emphasis can be rather crusty. In other words, they can be moody, negative and pessimistic. For all that; it should be added that humor is very much part of the Cancerian picture-, partly because laughter increases a sense of belonging. Cancer will do anything for their, group; usually jokes are targeted at people who are not perceived as belonging to their own group. Potentially, therefore, Cancer is the sigh more likely to find it difficult to accommodate foreigners or foreign connected.

Tenacity is another keyword and, reminiscent of the claws of the crab, this is indeed the most tenacious and potentially clingy of the signs. It is not easy for Cancer to let go of the past or of family members, or indeed of anything that provides any kind of support system. Cancer can cling to people and to things, no matter how old. In some with the sign emphasized, their tendency to cling to people can result in possessiveness, a smothering propensity and needlessly fussing over them.

The sign has an association with memory; not for having a memory for facts so much as a memory for feelings, such as what happened on holiday thirty years before. Cancer is a sentimental sign and some with planets here will have a tendency to collect and hoard. The typical Cancerian type does not want to forget the past and does not want you to forget it either. Not only might they cling to you and not let you go, they might actually want you to cling to them. The need to be needed is very great and, again, provides a feeling of security. Still on the theme of tenacity, those whose charts are dominated by the sign are probably, statistically speaking, the longest living.

Cancerian likes to play it safe. They would be dull, unadventurous people were it not for one thing: powerful emotions. When a Cancerian feels a strong attraction to someone or something, all caution flies out of the window. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does its dramatic. Consequently, Cancerian spend their lives trying to stabilize after the last big upheaval and before the next one. In the attempt to be steady and settled, Cancerian can put up with amazing inconveniences and let people take them for granted. But when one of those strong inner urges’ surfaces, they’ll overthrow everything; they’ve worked so hard to build and take breathtaking risks and liberties. They justify it with the hope that their action will lead to equal stability under better circumstances. Usually it does.

It’s no use encouraging Cancerian to widen their horizons while they’re putting down roots. And it’s no use trying to speak to them about common sense when they’re in the throes of passion. Either way, they’d have to ignore you. For, while Cancerian are good at looking after others, they hate to be told what to do.

There is one thing that you can always give Cancerian: reassurance. They suffer from guilt and need to be told that it’s all OK. The right word at the right time will always mean more to a Cancerian than any expensive gift.

Cancer is the quality in you that’s sensitive and caring.  They seek to create a safe and homey atmosphere to make life flourish around you. It’s also the part of you that’s learning the secret to the true essence of nurturing.

The Cancer Mission:

Learning It’s Natural to Nurture

Cancers have a deeply sensitive and caring nature, which they tend to use to nurture everyone, and everything, in sight. Cancers are like both a mother (even the men) and a child at heart. On the one hand they are driven to protect and nourish, so all they take under their huge, loving wings can flourish. On the other hand, Cancers are vulnerable and innocent, eliciting and receiving nurturing care from others.

Cancers have a powerful drive to create security and connectedness, and their gut-level understanding of what’s needed and how it’s needed make them invaluable supporters in any situations. Cancers’ changeable nature runs the gamut between quiet introversion and bubbly extroversion, and everything in between. Cancers are the homebodies and family lovers of the zodiac. But since the world is their family, they can also extend their uncanny instincts to sensing and providing what’s needed in the marketplace or for the public in general.

Cancers are born to discover: The Highest Essence of nurturing is nurturing one’s True Essence.

Cancers are in their highest expression when they are aligned with the “home within.” This is a place of inner safety and nurturing inside themselves. When Cancers are in contact with it, they enjoy knowing that they are protected and safe. From this sanctuary, Cancers are able to fluidly give to and receive from life, understanding that the world, and all its inhabitants, are one big family.

The Cancer Challenge:

Finding Security Through Insecurity

Interestingly, one of the ways Cancers learn about how to nurture themselves is by dealing with, and overcoming, feelings of insecurity. Insecurity is Cancers’ greatest challenge and most powerful teacher. The form of Cancers’ insecurity can change as often as the Moon (their ruling planet) does. Usually it involves some feeling that they won’t have or be enough to meet the demands of life. Cancers can worry about money or fear they don’t measure up to the talents of others, or just have a sense that some tidal-wave-like catastrophe can take away all they love or have.

Whatever form Cancers’ insecurity takes, it is in truth a call for them to tap into their inner resource of self-care and self-nurturing. They are learning to support and stand by themselves and reassure themselves that no matter what, they inherently have whatever s needed to take care of themselves and their loved ones. Insecurity can also teach Cancers to ask for assistance from the Divine Parent, and realize the countless ways they are, indeed, always cared for.

Insecurity also teaches Cancers another important lesson: trust. Cancers are learning to trust that the way things are unfolding is as it should be. They are learning that just as a loving parent tends to its child’s needs, so does the benevolent universe provide what Cancer truly needs. The more Cancers learn to tap into trust (and stepping out of trust is a good way to learn to tap back in), the more trust becomes stronger and more consistent in their consciousness.

The Cancer Key: Nurture Yourself

Here’s the secret: The way Cancers can access the essence of Divine nurturing is by becoming a good parent to themselves. That means doing those things that support them on every level—loving themselves no matter what, making choices that truly support them, and offering themselves (and taking) wise counsel, so who they are can thrive. In doing so, Cancers build a deep well of security, wisdom and creative power inside themselves. Then, in their fullness, they extend that same empowering support to others.

Influenced by Water

The Cancer is one of the three Water Signs. (Scorpio and Pisces are the others.) Being a Water Sign means Cancers’ primary way of relating to the world is through feelings or emotions; they are most comfortable using them as their reference. Cancers have a very deep emotional nature, which they are learning to harness and guide so it supports their wholeness and expansion.

The unique Cancerian expression of Water is the way Cancers use their feelings and emotions to sense what’s needed in a situation, so they can wholly satisfy their caregiving/caretaking needs. Cancers’ depth of feeling also contributes to their compassion. They hate to see any living thing hurt and will use their considerable power to help make matters better. Cancer’s feelings are a rich part of both their experience and expression. They are the tools that they use in order to make heartfelt connection with others, and form the deep bonds of intimacy they crave.

Cancers’ emotions and feelings are powerful. So powerful, in fact, they sometimes think they are their feelings, or that their emotions are their truest indicators of reality. Sometimes that’s true: Cancers’ feelings can give them uncanny insight into what’s going on in a situation, or into a person’s inner Self even if appearances portray something different. They also help Cancers evaluate whether or not someone is safe or trustworthy, as well as whether or not something is right for them.

However, because feelings can sometimes be inaccurate, Cancers can sometimes be thrown off course if they give them too much power. The trick for Cancers is to check the impulses of their emotions with their minds and hearts. That helps Cancers get a clearer idea of whether their feelings are accurate, or if they are simply reactions. This can be challenging for Cancers because their feelings are so strong, they can convince Cancers something is happening (like a hurtful slight) when it is not. When this occurs, Cancers can expend loads of energy reacting to their feelings, even spending hours upon hours worrying about something, instead of doing what’s really productive. That can keep them from making the most out of the opportunities that life offers them.

Cancers are learning how to channel the power of their emotions to serve the wisdom of their heart and the direction from their Spirits. In doing so, they are better directed toward what’s truly right for them, and they can use their passionate emotions as fuel to accomplish that.

Indeed, Cancers can ride on their emotional energy to make things happen in life. It provides immense energy from which Cancers can create. In using their emotions positively, Cancers are potent and wise creators. For example, instead of expending emotional energy worrying about whether or not an upcoming project would be successful, Cancers are wiser to use their emotions to start to “feel” excitement for their project, and perhaps even feel what it’s going to be like when the project is a success. In that way Cancers use their emotions to lift and energize them, instead of discouraging them with negative images. Used this way, Cancers emotions become well-honed instruments for discovering ever-greater aspects of their True Self.

Being a Water Sign means that many of Cancer’s life lessons involve learning how to take positive dominion over their emotions and use them in an expansive way. But if Cancers don’t mature and direct their emotions, they can be run down drained by them.

Cancers’ negative feelings can parade as, “I’m not good enough,” or “No one loves me,” or, sometimes, “I just want to run away and hide.” To counter these feelings, Cancers might just need to acknowledge them. “I’m feeling unworthy” might be pointing to a place that needs loving or healing. These emotions might be trying to tell Cancers that something is amiss in the way they are behaving or treating themselves. “I am angry” might be a signal that Cancers are hurt about something and need to address it. Perhaps someone overstepped a boundary and Cancer needs to declare it. Then, there are those feelings that are pouty or whiny, which are signals that Cancers might be looking outward for the support they really can be giving to themselves.

Many Cancers think they’re stuck with these defeating feelings because it seems as if they completely take over their mind and body, and there’s nothing that can be done. But there is a lot that can be done—and should be done. Cancers have these negative emotions for a reason: They exist to help them learn to harness and direct their personal power by choosing to move away from them. As Cancers learn to redirect the negative energy of emotions into more useful expressions, they become more masterful creators.

It’s exactly the times when Cancers are reacting like mad or their self- esteem is dragging around the ground that they are learning the lesson of being a Cancer: self-nurturing, When Cancers take dominion over their emotions, they demonstrate that they, not their feelings, are the captain of their ship. When they bring the loving of their heart, and the understanding of their mind to nurture themselves and lift themselves out of negativity, they reconnect with the energy of their birthright. Over time, Cancers find negative emotions are no match for the loving power of their True Essence.

Plainly said, it’s Cancers’ job to bring maturity to their emotions in order to experience the best of what their sign has to offer. Just as raising a child involves differentiating what works from what doesn’t, /Cancers are learning to raise themselves emotionally, finding ways to use their feelings so they are lifted and expanded by them.

It’s never a good idea for Cancers to attempt and control their immense parched powerful emotional nature by simply denying their negative feelings or trying to close off to feelings altogether. It would be a shame if they masked over their vulnerability—it’s one of their most endearing traits. Closing off emotions isn’t mastery; it’s just shutting down.

The best approach, if Cancers are to gain the greatest value from what they have been given, is to use the energy and all of their feelings to nurture and lovingly support themselves.

The CARDINAL Quality of Cancer:

Initiating and Impelling Emotional Dynamics

Cancer is one of the four Cardinal Sighs (Aries Libra and Capricorn are the other three), which makes Cancers dynamic, with a driving need to initiate matters. Cancers’ unique expression of the Cardinal energy is initiating emotional dynamics. Cancers like to keep the emotional energy of whatever they’re involved in moving and active. Their own feelings are dynamic in that Cancers are always aware that they are feeling something. They might not always show how they feel (especially if they feel unsafe), but feelings are churning inside nevertheless. Most Cancers need to “get it out” and express how they feel, just to give themselves some relief Sometimes, Cancers’ feelings are so close to the surface, they laugh or cry, whether they want to— or plan to—or not.

Cancers also enjoy initiating the expression of others’ Sanctions. Intellectual conversations are fine only up to a point then, they want to get to the meat of the matter and find out what others feel about what they are talking about. And they know just, what to say to elicit the response they’re looking for.

Sometimes, in Cancers’ Cardinal need for action, they might| create feelings that may not really be there. They can prod others to express what they feel, when, at the moment they don’t feel anything except possibly annoyance). Or Cancers can take a little feeling and blow it into exaggeration and create a dramatic scene.

Cancers use their Cardinal energies to initiate circumstances that enhance their security. Cancers also move and shake in their careers, as well as get actively involved in any organizations that interest them. When Cancers learn to redirect the impatient quality of Cardinal energy into courage and forthright determination, there is nothing they can’t accomplish.

Cancer is a Personal Sign. That means their attention directed toward their person, and their immediate environment. Whereas the Social and Transpersonal Signs need to affect vast numbers of people as a way of developing their nature, Cancers’ job is to develop their Self as richly as they can. After that, they can attend to the multitudes.

Colors / Taste / Style

White, silvery and pearly colors. Often the first thing one notices upon meeting someone with an emphasis on Cancer, and with a Cancer Ascendant particularly, is their white or pale-coloured clothes. There may also be a liking for soft pastel, watery shades. The clothes are often loose and flowing. The preferred styles of furniture tend to be soft and yielding. Some who vibrate strongly to this sign favour antiques and most will be traditional in their orientation. Others have a liking for knick-knacks and for keeping hold of things that have sentimental value.

The Body

The stomach, gall bladder, digestive organs (but not the bowels) generally, or at least partially, come under the jurisdiction of Cancer, as does the chest. The rulership of the sign by the Moon may increase asthma or breathing tendencies and above-average vulnerability to the cold and the damp. A minority with the sign emphasized will have a crab-like walk, for any number of physical reasons.

Planets in Cancer

Any planets in Cancer will tend to take on a maternal, nurturing or protecting edge. Depending on the planet and the house in which it falls, the nurturing quality may be what is given or what is received from others. Any planets in Cancer – even outer planets (also the Cancerian house cusp) – will always invoke something of the experience of the individual’s mother, even though it is not usually the major statement in the chart that describes her. Planets in Cancer provide information not only about our experience of the biological mother but also our experience of all subsequent caretakers.

Cancer on a House Cusp

This will show areas of life where we may be protective and nurturing. For example, Cancer on the Eighth House cusp suggests taking care of other’s people’s money. When found on the Sixth or Tenth House Cusps it suggests work or a career which is involved with nurturance, security or protection. Cancer on the Seventh House cusp indicates that a maternal flavor will feature in one-to-one relationships. If on the Eleventh, perhaps our friends provide a sense of home and family; perhaps we mother our friends, or they mother us.

The last word on Cancer: Cancer is about giving, nurturing, providing and sensitive caring. When Cancer learn to provide those things to themselves at the same level as they give them to others, they are on the fast track to being uplifted and self-fulfilled.