Zodiac Sign CANCER

Cancer ~ 22 June to 22 July-ish: dates vary very slightly from year to year. This is one of the mid-summer zodiac signs and a tricky one for me to write about. Even though it's my natal rising sign, I don't feel terribly in tune with it. I suspect my Sun and Moon (Aquarius and Aries) are always at odds with Cancer - two against one ! My sentimental Cancerian tendencies come to the surface at times - times when I get weepy for no good reason. I'm a wee bit shy, too, another Cancerian trait, a tendency to avoid situations where I'd feel uncomfortable. Aquarius/Aries, of course are always there, jeering in the background.

I haven't known many people with Sun in Cancer in real life. Perhaps I just don't gravitate towards them, nor them to me.

Astrologer Grant Lewi, in his "Astrology For The Millions" said, among other things, that Sun in Cancer means, first and foremost, a need for security:

Capable of great self-sufficiency, or of being a clinging vine, the Cancer branch will take the turn as indicated by the roots, which must always be in secure soil. If independence serves security, Cancer will be independent; if security depends on another, Cancer will cling. If security requires taking a chance, Cancer will take a chance - generally, if possible, with someone else's money ...."though Lewi goes on to say that the Cancerian will have as great a sense of responsibility towards another's money - as great as if it were his own......."Direct possessiveness toward what rightfully belongs to him makes Cancer outstandingly successful in business. .....Tops as home-making sign, the maternal-paternal instinct is powerful......will go to great lengths to protect mate and children."

That refers to Sun in Cancer, not Cancer rising, so it isn't surprising that I don't recognise myself there.

C.E.O. Carter, British astrologer from the past describes Cancer in this article. He specifically makes reference to Cancer rising:

I should say that Sun in Cancer is better than Cancer rising, and of course the Moon in Cancer is good. Not only kindly, but shrewd. It is not difficult to understand why it is not a very good ascending sign. Of course, as I am never tired of pointing out, it all depends on what means by "good." But the ascendant and
midheaven are the most exposed parts of the figure, and it seems on the whole desirable to have strong signs there. In these latitudes Cancer rising usually brings Pisces on to the meridian and so one gets an unusually sensitive personality. Now Cancer is certainly timid. Like the crab itself, it is apt to scurry to its hole on the appearance of danger. Yet, paradoxically, it is a lover of travel.

That's more like me - especially when I was younger, not so much now. In any case, after relocation to the USA my ascendant skewed around to Aquarius.

As usual, when writing about any zodiac sign, I have to remind myself and passing readers that there is really no such being as "a Cancerian", not in any meaningful way. A Sun in Cancer native is quite likely to have (at least) Mercury and/or Venus in either Gemini or Leo, not to mention the importance of the zodiac sign where the Moon is found, and the ascending sign. Cancerian traits, far from being text-book strength, can be very, very dilute in the Sun Cancerian personality. It would take a person with Sun, Mercury, Venus, Moon and ascendant, all in Cancer, to bring about an undiluted showing of Cancer characteristics, and even then some of them could be outweighed by any remaining strong placements on angles or sensitive points. This is, of course, why those stupid experiments based on Sun signs, carried out by anti-astrology skeptics, always come up with conclusions which put astrology in a bad light.


(Somewhere on an East Yorkshire beach, 5 years ago).