Saturday, July 12, 2014

Cancer the sign, the ascendant; Moons - but no Junes...or Ferris Wheels.....

A person could fill several pages, a couple of books even, with thoughts, quotes, pictures featuring the Moon, "ruler" of zodiac sign Cancer. I shall severely limit myself to one or two less-used bits and pieces.

“It was lunar symbolism that enabled man to relate and connect such heterogeneous things as: birth, becoming, death, and ressurection; the waters, plants, woman, fecundity, and immortality; the cosmic darkness, prenatal existence, and life after death, followed by the rebirth of the lunar type ("light coming out of darkness"); weaving, the symbol of the "thread of life," fate, temporality, and death; and yet others. In general most of the ideas of cycle, dualism, polarity, opposition, conflict, but also of reconciliation of contraries, of coincidentia oppositorum, were either discovered or clarified by virtue of lunar symbolism. We may even speak of a metaphysics of the moon, in the sense of a consistent system of "truths" relating to the mode of being peculiar to living creatures, to everything in the cosmos that shares in life, that is, in becoming, growth and waning, death and ressurrection.”
― Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion


The Cruel Moon
by Robert Graves

The cruel Moon hangs out of reach
Up above the shadowy beech.
Her face is stupid, but her eye
Is small and sharp and very sly.
Nurse says the Moon can drive you mad?
No, that’s a silly story, lad!
Though she be angry, though she would
Destroy all England if she could,
Yet think, what damage can she do
Hanging there so far from you?
Don’t heed what frightened nurses say:
Moons hang much too far away.


“Maybe there's a whole other universe where a square moon rises in the sky, and the stars laugh in cold voices, and some of the triangles have four sides, and some have five, and some have five raised to the fifth power of sides. In this universe there might grow roses which sing. Everything leads to everything.”
― Stephen King

Here's an alternative take on Moon's gender by Michael Cheval: Sunset Tango with a male Moon and female Sun. (More on this artist and his gorgeous work in an archived post HERE).



The Moon is a Painter
by Vachel Lindsay

He coveted her portrait.
He toiled as she grew gay.
She loved to see him labor
In that devoted way.

And in the end it pleased her,
But bowed him more with care.
Her rose-smile showed so plainly,
Her soul-smile was not there.

That night he groped without a lamp
To find a cloak, a book,
And on the vexing portrait
By moonrise chanced to look.

The color-scheme was out of key,
The maiden rose-smile faint,
But through the blessed darkness
She gleamed, his friendly saint.

The comrade, white, immortal,
His bride, and more than bride—
The citizen, the sage of mind,
For whom he lived and died.





Speaking of painters...an archived post featuring a Cancer-ish painter Paul Delvaux, his nudes and moons can be accessed HERE.








20th century British Astrologer C.E.O. Carter's piece on Cancer, the zodiac sign, is a good read. He isn't much impressed with Cancer rising though (my own natal rising sign). A few snips on that strange tid-bit, and a couple of others I'd not been aware of before:

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 in these latitudes Cancer rising usually brings Pisces on to the meridian and so one gets an unusually sensitive personality.
TRUE ENOUGH .
..........................Cancer is the quincunx to Sagittarius, and so one would expect them to be unlike, but they are both travellers. At least, tradition call the 9th sign the sign of travel abroad. Actually I should say it is more explorative than Cancer; it has an urge to find what lies beyond the ranges but Cancer is perhaps rather the tourist, or commercial traveller.................
NOT EXACTLY - I can be both explorer and tourist...but never commercial traveller!

Cancer is not easily thwarted and put down. Unlike the quincunx sign Sagittarius with its sudden enthusiasms and changes of interest, Cancer holds on. Even if its claw is torn off, it grows another. When it succeeds it is usually due to this doggedness, a word not inappropriate actually, since both Sirius and Procyon fall in the longitude of the 4th sign!

RIGHT AGAIN...I've always put this down to Aquarius Sun being a Fixed sign, this "dogged" factor could further underline that, I guess.

......Socially Cancer has a valuable card in its powers of mimicry....... For example, they can render dialects excellently .........

NO, I'M NO MIMIC, but I usually am quick to recognise and identify accents/dialects, but perhaps those who can mimic with accuracy have Gemini, the adjacent sign to Cancer, emphasised in some way (I don't have any planet or point in Gemini).

......I do not think Cancer is a happy ascendant, but it is plain from what has been said that it can be a gifted one (a list of well-known and well-gifted people with Cancer rising preceded this remark of C.E.O. Carter.)

I'm not sure that astrologers ought to be declaring ascendant signs (or any signs) good, bad or indifferent - the rising sign is but a single strand in a multi-layered personality pattern. I'm wary of going along with the standard astrological lore that the ascendant is "how we are seen by the world and how we see the world"...or words to that effect. I know that's what astrologers tell us to think, but...I prefer to look on the rising sign as simply part of a whole; it can be, and is, modified or emphasised by other strands forming the pattern.

 Moonshine by Paul Klee

Moons and Junes and ferris wheels,
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real;
I've looked at love that way.

(From "Both Sides Now" - Joni Mitchell)



10 comments:

mike said...

Well, we all have Cancer somewhere in our chart and the ubiquitous fourth house is to be found in all, regardless the sign that occupies that cusp. I have a stellium in Scorpio, so matters not to me, as I typically associate well with Cancer Suns and ascendants...at least we have commonality.

The Cancer-Capricorn polarity is interesting, with both sharing many similarities, but each in their particular assessments. Those qualities are in full-swing today, with the full Moon. I don't know the degree your Cancer rising, but I hope it's in your first house. Are you feeling it? LOL.

LB said...

Twilight ~ Michael Cheval's art is amazing. In your post devoted to this artist, you said his paintings were "splendiferous". Good word!

mike ~ About today's Full Moon, though you asked Twilight and not me, I'll volunteer anyway how I'm feeling it - yesterday more than now. It forms a Grand Cross with my Nodes and Venus, and as expected with action-oriented Cardinals involved, it's been stressful not knowing where to go or what to do.

I hope you're faring better, Twilight.:)

Twilight said...

mike ~ I don't, knowingly, know any Cancer Sun people, though my mother had a stellium in the sign & had Sun in Libra. We didn't see eye to eye on lots of things. I loved her though, so tried especially hard to compromise.

I don't know my rising degree for certain - had to have a rectified ascendant calculated by an astrologer who admitted he was uncertain of the degree, but certain it was in Cancer. He put it at 15 degrees slap in the middle of the sign. I think my birth time was likely around 30 minutes later than he settled on, which would put ascendant at around 22/23 degrees.

I'm not feeling it at all, so far.
Life trundles on much as usual...sorry to be boring! :-)

Twilight said...

LB ~ Yes, I love Michael Cheval's artworks, beautiful and cleverly insightful :-)

Oh dear, sorry you're "feeling it" LB!
I'm not - so far anyway. I did, though, enjoy seeing the big moon glowing strongly through the bedroom curtains last night (or early this morning).


LB said...

Twilight ~ I just think my South Node Aries warrior is tired and ready to retire from active duty. And my Libra North Node (in the 2nd) is struggling too, trying to accept and live with certain injustices for the sake of peace.

This Full Moon is hitting me where I live, and in a big way.

Twilight said...

LB ~ Awww! Just for these few days maybe taking Dean Martin's advice would be good....how does it go?

"when you're too tense, it's common sense to relaxez-vous."

or Don Williams: "Take it easy on yourself":

There's two hundred people pushin' up daisies
In the graveyard out back of the old Baptist church
There were some schemers, some sinners and dreamers
And not one died wishin' they spent more time at work (or worrying!)

Take it easy on yourself
The world will keep turnin'
Without any help.....


:-)

mike (again) said...

LB - Are you having a nodal return? Mars is conj transiting north node, too. The astrology of this full Moon is stressful for those with sensitive points, and there are quite a number of transiting aspects and sign changes upon us.

I've endured a number of stressful, kooky balooky events in my life, only to realize afterward that either the stress was self-induced and overly proportional to the event or that the stress was just the remedy to move me on my way. It can be difficult to differentiate at the moment of anxiety...best to lie low, isolated in a dark closet sometimes, until it blows by...LOL. This might be a good time to enforce detachment. Relax and feel better, LB.

Sonny G said...

my moon is cancer, sun is Cap. I started saying this past wednesday that I thought my best bet would be to sleep thru this full moon.
of course I've been wide awake mostly and when I do sleep the dreams are hectic and annoying to the point that I feel exhausted...

LB said...

Twilight and mike ~ Thanks so much for the good thoughts (and song lyrics), I appreciate them.:) A little Dino sounds good right now!

And yep, mike, I'm having my Nodal Return, conjunct my Venus-Sun and opposite my (South Node) and BM Lilith.

Times like these humble me. While I can hold it together on the outside, on the inside I'm just not that evolved. My husband and I are both trying not to panic, knowing there's only so much we can control, the rest is out of our hands. Que sera, sera.:) We'll get through it.

Twilight said...

Sonny ~ I know how you must be feeling. I experience sleep difficulties at some full moons too - and at others I've had "weepy sessions" though this one hasn't had that, or any effect. I hope things clear for you soon - these things related to moon are fast moving - that's a positive to hang on to! :-)

LB ~ I hope the next week, as things move on, it will make things feel better for you and your husband.