High tides and wild mood swings, let’s talk about Cancer.
Ruling the skies from June 21 – July 22, and the bulk of the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere, Cancer energy is intuitive, creative, emotionally heightened and decidedly defensive.
The fourth sign in the zodiac is symbolized by the crab, a creature with two physical states, the hard shelled and the utterly vulnerable. Just as their animal totem has two extreme incarnations, Cancer folks also oscillate between protection and abandon.
A wise Scorpio I know described the nature of Cancer as “emotionally sunburned.” When harmed, people develop strategies to guard against further injury. Cancer folk recognize early on the need to defend their soft, assailable interiority from the world at large.
All water signs are susceptible to heightened emotionality, yet their respective processing of those emotions varies. Pisces tends to inwardly direct or all together escape, Scorpio seethes and plots revenge while Cancer holds on to pain like a cherished family heirloom, counting their own survival as success.
As a cardinal sign, Cancer is associated with the changing of seasons and the initiation of action. Cardinal energy is expressed in Cancer folk through the curation of an emotional environment. Cancereans move through the world within their own kind of weather, easily able to cast shadows, sunshine, heavy fog and sudden downpours on others. Keen emotional intelligence, coupled with a borderline psychic ability translates to an almost supernatural sensitivity and ability to meet the needs and treat the ails of others.
Planetary ruler: the Moon
Cancer is ruled by the moon, the fastest moving and deepest feeling celestial body. The moon is moody and so too are its children. Those that fall under the sign of Cancer, are governed and oftentimes outgunned by their instinctual emotional responses. Just as the moon has the capacity to control the tides, so to do Cancer folk have the responsibility to control their feels. When Cancers succeed in this, they are receptive, compassionate and unwaveringly nourishing to those around them. A Cancer in control is able to intuit the needs of others and meet them in clear ways. When they wile out however, and let their moods get the better of them, they are like a damp fleece jacket, miserable to be, and to be around.
Mythology and meaning of Cancer zodiac sign
The Cancer constellation is related to the second of the Twelve Labors of Hercules. Seeking atonement for the sin of murdering his wife and children, the hero Hercules was tasked with killing the Lernaean Hydra, a multi headed sea serpent. Seeing that Herc might have the upper hand in the sea monster battle, Hera, the hateful sister wife of Zeus, sent the giant crab Carcinus to distract him. Carcinus bit Hercules in the ankle before being crushed under the hero’s foot. In gratitude for his loyalty and below the knee valor, Hera placed Carcinus among the stars in the night sky.
Charms/strengths
For all their reputed softness, upon first impression, Cancers can come across as sharp or even aloof. Yet what initially feels prickly is in fact a deeply protective layer of cartilage built from the barbs of betrayal. This veneer is how the crab folk vet who they will love, because make no mistake, when they love it is with an acute devotion and unwavering loyalty that sometimes careens into masochism. Cancers fall head first when it comes to love often directing their serious affections at a romantic ideal rather than a true reality. No one loves harder or holds on tighter to a fraught fairy tale than a Cancer, a quality exhibited by serial monogamist and long suffering lover of lamentable dudes, Khloe Kardashian.
Sentimental with a habit of hanging on when they could be letting go, Cancers view relationships as mooring posts that secure them amid the turbulence of their own emotional unrest. Exhibit A) Double Cancer Jack White who didn’t let his divorce from ex-wife Meg get in the way of their merry music making. Nay, he rebranded them as something even more familiar and familial, brother and sister, and kept the band on the run baby. For further evidence of Jack’s Cancerian nature see this video of him brought to tears to the tune of Lead Belly’s, “Goodnight, Irene.”
Cancer’s fiercely protect the ones they love, and are utterly unafraid to go to war on behalf of them, looking at you Solange ‘I will beat you in this elevator for stepping out on my sister’ Knowles. There’s no finer friend to have by your side in a fist fight or water polo match.
Because they can’t help but feel vibes and collect the psychic debris of others, Cancers make for incomparable artists, walking through the muck and mire of the human experience with bare feet, malleable hearts and unblinking eyes. Tied as they are to the past, Cancer’s are adept at drawing from the river of it, trading in nostalgia and reconfiguring the past into something wholly new and utterly venerable, a modality alive in the movies of moon child Paul Thomas Anderson, the writings of Henry David Thoreau and the music of Lana Del Rey.
Though Cancer rules the fourth house of home and roots they are not necessarily stationary creatures. Indeed one of the primary benefits of Cancer energy is that it carries, and thus fosters, a feeling of home wherever it roams.
Challenges/weaknesses
Hyper reactionary, Cancer operates from a place of emotional instinct rather than intellectual reason. This makes them great poets and volatile partners. The same sensitivity that allows Cancers to flourish as creators and caretakers can breed discontent, hostility and the unalienable belief that their feelings are facts. This belief makes them dangerous, but not the most dangerous zodiac sign, that honor belongs to Virgo.
The intensity of their emotional reactions can feel to Cancer like an inescapable undertow, as double moon child Courtney Love admits, “I will keep looking for saviors and looking for saviors, but the truth is..nobody’s gonna pull up in a limousine and say they’re going to save you. That’s not how it happens. You save yourself from drowning, that’s how you do it.” Indeed, when Cancer’s seek salvation within themselves rather than in the ragged rowboats of codependent relationships they emerge triumphant, fortified by the knowledge that they can always get themselves to dry land.
To paraphrase the writer Anne Lamott, care is the soft side of control and never is this more evident than in the Cancer psyche. The moon, which rules Cancer, is associated with maternal instincts and premiere among them is the urge to protect. Cancer’s are driven by the desire to shield themselves and those they love from pain or discomfort, at times to a detrimental degree.
Because Cancer is a cardinal sign and thus built for action, their defenses are often to lash out at anything or anyone they perceive as a threat. Yet, Cancer must learn that pain gives way to purpose, and coddling does not build character.
For all the care Cancer is naturally adept at providing, they are wounded/spite laden when their efforts are not appreciated or returned. When hurt, Cancers respond with retreat, lashing out, or a cycle of passive aggressive eye rolls, sullen muttering and scornful silence. They have a tendency to blame others and eschew personal accountability guided as they are by the mistaken belief that things happen to them not because of them.
Tarot
Each zodiac sign is associated with a card within the Major Arcana of the Tarot. For Cancers, this card is The Chariot. The card depicts an armored charioteer with crescent moon epaulets being led by two sphinxes, one black the other white, t**s and tails alike. These mythical creatures represent the oppositional forces the charioteer must master in order to move forward. Behind the charioteer is a river, a reference to the ruling element of this cardinal water sign as well as a directive to loosen the reins of control and allow life to flow naturally and change course as necessary.
Fourth House
Cancer rules the fourth house of home and ancestry. Situated at the base of the birth chart, the fourth house is foundational, tied to heritage, ritual, generational traumas and our concept of home. The fourth house informs how we remember and relate to our root systems.
Because their domain is the domicile, Cancer’s carry with them a sense of home that makes others feel nourished and at ease around them, delivering as they do, a kind of tenderness that recalls or fulfills notions of childhood. In art, Cancer is able to further explore and transfuse this feeling. Through her own pained and then painted reality, Cancer Frida Kahlo explored what it meant to find home in the volatile landscape of her own body.
Body
While Capricorn, Cancer’s opposite, is pure daddy vibes, the crab is considered the mother of the zodiac, embodying fertility and the divine feminine. Within the physical body Cancer rules the breasts, womb and stomach. Relative to the fourth house, the womb is the first home we inhabit and the breasts the original source of nourishment and comfort. Cancer rules where the mammalian and the mystical conspire.
Cancer Anthony Bourdain dedicated his life and work to illuminating that particular crossroads. Believing that we all seek to be fed and found in the same ways, he used food to illustrate that home is as much a flavor as a feeling.
On a practical level, Cancer folk tend to have calcium deficiencies and sensitive stomachs. Prone to ulcers and upset, their symptoms of discomfort are often psychosomatic, linked to whatever emotional turmoil they are currently wading through. Like all water signs they are drawn to the sauce but fare better physically and emotionally without alcohol.
Compatibility
When two signs share an element they share a certain fundamental nature. Water signs are intuitive and emo and the combo of Cancer and Pisces makes for a healing headwaters. Indeed the fated union of Cancer June Carter and Pisces Johnny Cash proved to be a source of inspiration and amelioration for both. A half century ride or die romance, Johnny survived just four months after losing June.
Cancer wants to be overpowered by love and power is the domain of Scorpio. Neither wants sex without intimacy or love without soul baring intensity so when these two water signs converge the result is instant connection, serious commitment and full scale Wuthering Heights level romance. Both are prone to severe mood swings and codependent behavior patterns. Scorpio brings protective dark overlord vibes that make Cancer feel loved and defended while the crab teaches the scorpion that a trust fall is the ultimate kink.
In mutable earth sign Virgo, Cancer finds someone as vested in caretaking as they are. Both signs are guarded, Cancer finding it difficult to trust people with their feelings and Virgo struggling to believe anyone is willing or capable of tending to them. When armor is dropped, deep devotion and flat out good times align as they have with Cancer Priyanka Chopra and her Virgo husband Nick Jonas.
Recommended Listening
“Help Me Make It Through the Night” – Kris Kristofferson
“Moonshadow” – Cat Stevens
“Use Me” – Bill Withers
“Born Free” – MIA
“Shake The Frost” – Tyler Childers
“Malibu” – Hole
“Into You” – Ariana Grande
“Love Interruption” – Jack White
Astrology 101: Your guide to the stars
- The 12 zodiac signs
- What are the astrology houses?
- Here’s what each planet represents
- Sun, moon and rising signs: Get to know your Big 3
Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports back on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture and personal experience. She is also an accomplished writer who has profiled a variety of artists and performers, as well as extensively chronicled her experiences while traveling. Among the many intriguing topics she has tackled are cemetery etiquette, her love for dive bars, Cuban Airbnbs, a “girls guide” to strip clubs and the “weirdest” foods available abroad.
