This year the sun entered the zodiac sun sign of Cancer on June 20, the day of the summer solstice, and it stays there until July 19, 2024. The dates for the sun signs can vary by a day or two from year to year for astronomical reasons. Cancer from the Latin for Crab, is the fourth sign of the Western Tropical Zodiac, and represents the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere.
But what is the story behind the sign?
Traditional Associations
Ruling planet: Moon (a luminary, not a planet but counted as such in astrology)
Lucky Day: Monday
Key phrase: I feel
Body: The chest, breast, womb, stomach, alimentary canal, pancreas
Cell salt: Calcarea Fluorica (Calc Fluor) for elasticity and toning of the cells. Strengthens all tissues, including bones, muscles, teeth, and veins. Given during pregnancy to avoid stretch marks. Calc Fluor combats fatigue and supports periods of growth and aging.
Hebrew letter: “Cheth”, meaning a fence. Cancer is about travel and control, as depicted in the Chariot card.
Birth Stone: Stones and metals fall under the rule of planets, not signs, but through its association with the Moon, Cancer has affinity with pearls, silver and all clear crystals.
Colour: White, silver
Tree: all trees rich in sap
Flower: Acanthus (prickly)
Tarot cards: The Chariot, The Moon, The Queen of Cups, and the 2, 3 and 4 of Cups
Astronomy
Wiki: The constellation of Cancer
The medium sized constellation of Cancer is in a dark region of the sky. It is the faintest and highest constellation in the Zodiac, with only two stars above the fourth magnitude of brightness: Acubens (The Claw) and Al Tarf (The Foot.)
Cancer is visible in the Northern Hemisphere from the autumn/fall until early spring, best seen in March about 9 PM. In the Southern Hemisphere, you’ll see it in the summer and autumn, but it will be looking upside-down compared with this image.
It's difficult to see Cancer with the naked eye or even binoculars, looking between Regulus in Leo, the lion, and Castor and Pollux, the twin stars of Gemini. And really, it doesn’t look much like a crab at all, an upside-down Y shape, more like a crayfish or lobster. It was called the Crayfish in classical astrology, and in Egyptian astrology they called it The Scarab. But whatever its name, this group of stars has always been perceived as a creature with an exoskeleton, an arthropod.
Cancer appears to rise crab-wise; moving, not sideways, but backwards in the zodiac as the Sun's entry into the constellation sky space of Cancer marks the day of the summer solstice -or it used to, three thousand years ago. The signs change over time due to the wobble of the earth, an effect known as the precession or procession of the equinoxes. Right now, technically speaking, the summer solstice is seen to occur in the constellation Gemini due to the effects of precession. But this changes nothing in the zodiac sun sign story which is based on an arithmetic model as codified by the Greek astronomer and astrologer Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE/AD.
Cancer, as the sign of the Sun's greatest elevation (when its ruler the Moon is correspondingly at its lowest elevation in the sky at the Cancer full moon) was considered nearest to the highest point of heaven – and by the Neo- Platonists was called 'the Gate of Men' through which souls descended to Earth to be born. The opposite constellation, Capricorn, was the 'Gate of the Gods,' where the souls of the departed rose back to heaven, accompanied under safe escort by Hermes/Mercury, the messenger of the Gods.
Mythology
Public Domain. Heracles attacked by the crab and the Lernaean Hydra. White-ground Attic lekythos, c. 500–475 BC.
Cancer is associated with the Twelve Labours of Hercules/Heracles after he went mad (or was sent mad by his enemy, Hera) and tragically mistook his wife and children for monsters and killed them. His labours were performed in token of penance. The second of his great challenges was to kill the Hydra, a terrible water serpent. But his enemy, Hera, who had always hated him as an illegitimate son (yet another one) of her wayward husband Zeus, sent a crab to harass him while he was fighting the Hydra. The crab faithfully did its best, nipping Hercules again and again, but he stepped on it and crushed it, or in other versions of the story, killed it with his club. Hera rewarded the faithful crab by placing it in the heavens, placing it in a nice quiet, dark portion of the heavens, nice and homely for a crab.
Smith Waite Tarot: The Crab, Cancer, is represented here instead by its alter ego; a crayfish
Card meanings: Moon, month, cycles, fertility, the feminine, night, dreams, visions, psychic, ghosts, illusions, wild creatures, uncertainty, deception, infidelity, hunting, danger, risk in travel, infection, contagion,
Cancer, the fourth sign of the zodiac is a water sign, and is one of the four cardinal signs indicating a change of season when the sun makes its annual passage into them. The other cardinal signs are Aries, Libra and Capricorn.
The sign of Cancer announces the arrival of summer in the northern hemisphere and winter in the southern hemisphere.
The Astrological Archetype
Smith Waite Tarot
Card meanings: ambition, determination, speed, direction, purpose, control, the harmonizing of opposites
All zodiac signs are archetypes. An archetype is something that is considered to be a perfect or typical example of a particular kind of person or thing. All zodiac signs are archetypes, painting a portrait of a person born at a particular time of year, in a particular season. Of course, there is no such thing in reality as THE Cancer personality. You are a unique personality. Your zodiac sun sign is the ultimate touchstone, it’s not the whole story. Far from it. But all archetypes are based on many thousands of years of observation.
The Cancer personality is complex, elusive and riddled with contradictions. It hides. It is shy. It is defensive (the shell) But it waits in ambush in the rock-pool. It is a deadly hunter (the claws.) The Crab hunts alone. But the water sign of Cancer stands for teamwork, progress, movement and control. The charioteer, the chariot itself, and the horses, black and white, signifying the challenge of opposites, must work together as a single entity if they are to go anywhere and achieve that fast-forward potential of The Chariot.
Cancer signifies both the mother and the father. It is THE zodiac sign of the nurturing parent or presence. The empty nest can be an especially bleak experience for the Cancer parent, whether mother or father, but the Tarot court card explicitly representing Cancer is the gracious, refined Queen of Cups, the queen of the shoreline.
Smith Waite
Keywords: family, the home, homeland, mother, pregnancy, friend, artist, healer, food, horticulture, advisor, counsellor, intuitive person, peace-keeper, guardian, seashore, west
The Crab, whether quiet, moody, dramatic- or even melodramatic in its own particular way, longs above all for reliability, security and comfort from their life partner. They can be moody, downright crabby, but they are deeply humane, kindly, reliable and trustworthy. They can sparkle in company, when they so choose, and they never lose a childlike sense of fun.
Cancer is musical or artistic, or has a strong intellectual side; a scholarly bent, and an eye for detail; good at financial and other administration. Many Cancer subjects are drawn into the fields of academia, teaching, libraries, counseling, psychology and behavioural sciences.
Curiously, direct verbal communication is not Cancer’s number one operating forte. Decisions may be based on reasoning that is neither obvious nor apparent to other people, but is driven by a gift for lateral thinking, originating solutions to problems from angles others have not considered.
Cancer is the sign of hearth and home, and so, expanding this theme, it is also a sign of museums and libraries, preserving and recording the stories and artefacts of national, tribal and family identity, and collating and curating ancestral legacy; historical, cultural and genetic. Cancer is the sign of memory, nostalgia, sometimes regrets. It is the bittersweet longing embodied in a Welsh word 'hiraeth.' It is the longing to return to happy childhood haunts.
Cancer is an enigma altogether. But what would any self- respecting rock-pool be without a crab in residence?
The Decans
The zodiac decans provide a more in-depth look at your zodiac sun sign, further subdividing each of the zodiac signs, representing a 30-degree slice of thes ‘360 pie in the sky’ that is the zodiac into three blocks of ten days called decans. If you were born on the cusp between the decans, you might feel pulled between the following descriptions, but they simply reflect differences in planetary aspects throughout the (approximately) 30-day journey of the sun through any zodiac sign.
First Decan Cancer
20 June-1 July
Planetary ruler-Moon
Smith Waite
Card meanings: Love, marriage, friendship, gift, offer, invitation, agreement, exchange, healing
The first decan subject of any zodiac sign is the most ‘typical – archetypal. The Moon is the overall ruler of Cancer, but the first decan gets a ‘double dose’. First Decan Cancer 1 is sensitive, emotional, moody, imaginative, but it’s also good at defending itself, even over-defensive at times, hypersensitive- and yet tough – remember that shell. The first decan crab can be aggressive when provoked. Yes, these folk are devoted to their family, and their instincts are mostly kindly. That doesn’t mean they are always easy to get along with. They can be touchy, quick to take offence. They tend to back away when upset, but follow them, get them backed into a corner, and they are come out fighting. Ignore those pincers at your peril. First decan Cancer will buckle on its breastplate if need be, to fight for its loved ones. It sticks up for the underdog. Plus Cancer as a cardinal sign has leadership potential with a wizard talent for organization and administration. And not every sign can say that.
Second Decan Cancer
1-10 July
Planetary ruler Mars
Smith Waite
Card meanings: celebrations, announcements, groups, friendships,
The water of Cancer and the fire of Mars make for a steamy combination- and potentially a sting in the tail. Second Decan Cancer is sultry, moody, charismatic, sociable, and sparkles at social gatherings – when it is in the mood. This decan is, somewhat more than the other decans, liable to overdo things now and then; with food for instance, or alcohol, or on spending sprees on non-essentials. Second decan Cancer is somewhat reserved but can be possessive, with a higher than average story of more than one marriage. But though they can be forceful, they are still essentially tribal or familial, and stay close to home- or close to their group for safety and support, even though in other ways they are quite self-sufficient. Cancer likes to be left in peace- but not to be left alone. They are sensitive, yet resilient, and generally sensible about money, good with finances, reliable and trustworthy, and helpful to their relations. But they expect the same in return and –the Crab is after all tenacious-do not readily forgive or forget slights or hurts. Feast and famine, these are the divas of Cancer.
Third Decan Cancer
12 -22 July
Planetary ruler Jupiter
Smith Waite
Card meanings: Dissatisfaction, discontentment, lethargy, procrastination, indecision; the grass is greener elsewhere
This decan is traditionally understood as the moodiest of the crabs. Dedicated and devoted to their loved ones, they can be sunny one minute, unapproachable the next, and at times intense. Third Decan Cancer has a rich inner life and may be something of a visionary, but may become restless and dissatisfied, bored by mundane realities yet unsure what to do about it, while haunted by the sense there is somewhere else they should be, and something else they should be doing. Jupiter, the ruling planet of this decan is all about the big stuff. Nelson Mandela was a third decan Cancer. They need to feel family around them, they really do, but they also need plenty of personal space and outlets, building amazing sandcastles with those industrious pincers. They are both shrewd and efficient. As with the other water signs, Scorpio, and in particular Pisces, Cancer is strong but it can quickly fatigue. They are prone to delicate stomachs- as are all decans of Cancer. Take care of The Crab, it will take care of you, and not let you down.
Cusps of Cancer
Birthday June 22 through June 25
This is Cancer with Gemini tendencies, ruled by The Moon and Mercury. This native is a good manager, thrives on change and social exchange, and has a talent for dealing with the public.
Birthday July 19 through July 22
This is Cancer with Leo tendencies ruled by the Moon and the Sun. This native is clever, a thinker, and a good mixer, well liked socially, but needs plenty of peace and quiet to get on undisturbed with their studies and projects- which preoccupy them intensely. While they are dutiful, devoted and affectionate, and they have a sense of fun, they can be somewhat remote or solitary by habit and by temperament, and retain something of their solitary habits even when perfectly content and happy in their marriage or partnership.
Famous Cancer Sun Sign natives
Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Robert the Bruce, Garibaldi, Henry the Eighth, Lord Horatio Kitchener, Emmeline Pankhurst, Alan Turing, Nikola Tesla, George Orwell, Benazir Bhutto, Nelson Mandela, Angela Merkel, Prince William in the UK, Julian Assange, Ariana Grande.
Happy Birthday, Cancer, 2024
June 11 2023-January 21 2024 and again from this September 2 2024 to November 19 2024 Pluto will be in Capricorn, corresponding with your seventh house area of relationships and partnerships, while Saturn in Pisces in 2024 may bring you challenges this year with in-laws, teachers, students or people from overseas-maybe because this represents a future work direction or opportunity.
A time for serious business, this, including important dealings with life and work partners, contracts, legal affairs and other binding agreements. Right now, until August 31 and then again from November 20, Pluto is in Aquarius, affecting your eighth house of intimacy, sexuality, investments and taxes. It is only sensible to review our paperwork now and again, and this is the time to do it. This is also the house of the occult, when Cancer is more likely to experience powerful dreams, psychic insights or supernatural experiences.
Jupiter moving into your neighbouring twelfth house sign in Gemini on May 26 has been a sign to do serious sorting, taking stock, cutting back and de-cluttering of all kinds. There may eerie feelings of déjà vu, maybe from 2012/2013, the time of the last transit of Gemini in Jupiter.
The Harvest Full Moon September 17-18 is also a partial lunar eclipse in the elements of water and earth- a Pisces moon opposite the Sun in Virgo. This suits Cancer and things could go very well with writing, publishing or media work, or for teaching and learning ventures, especially anything that you started back in March/April.
The Libra New Moon/Annular Solar Eclipse October 2 could bring Cancer the chance of helping to bring about reconciliation, healing a rift. This could mend or strengthen family ties- or bring in a new romance. It is also favourable for signing paperwork to do with moving home.
Astrology in Cancer Season 2024-dates to watch
June 20 Sun enters Cancer + Sun in Gemini is square Neptune in Pisces.
June 22 Full Moon in Capricorn
June 26 Mercury trine Saturn
June 30 Saturn retrogrades in Pisces.
July 02 Neptune in Pisces goes retrograde until December 7, 2024
July 05 New Moon in Cancer
July 11 Venus enters Leo
July 15 Mars in Taurus conjunct Uranus
July 20 Mars enters Gemini
July 21 Full Moon in Capricorn
July 22 Sun enters Leo
Thank you for reading. Back soon. Please join me again next time.
Thank you Katie-Ellen, I look forward to reading your posts as they are always interesting and so informative.
Your explanations and illustrations are some of the best I’ve found. Thank you. Do you read charts?