The Fourth Zodiac Sign: Cancer

The astronomical Sun is shifting towards the zodiac sign Cancer, which begins on June 21st. (Cancer happens to be my "Sun sign"!) As an astro-psychological symbol, the Sun represents our core essence, the unique individual we are striving to become in the world. The astrological Sun is a never-ending developmental process that continues throughout life. It is an integral component of the blueprint of our unfolding as unique beings, and it also contains the creative purpose with which we came into existence. When the Sun is in the sign or archetype Cancer, Cancerian themes become essential for the development/expression of individuality and solar vitality. However, in conjunction with the Sun, we must also integrate Cancer's astrological ruler: the Moon. You can't understand Cancer without also understanding the archetypal meanings of the Moon. The Moon represents the more hidden part of the psyche which is unconscious, "dark", irrational, moody/changeable, instinctual, habitual, feeling/sensory, intuitive/imaginative, and seeking of security/comfort through primal bonds.

Cancer/lunar life lessons include:

(1) Learning how to embrace and feel all the feels. This is essential for healing the emotional self, and for developing the part of us that can experience comfort, nourishment, satisfaction, empathy, connection, and strong bonds with others.

(2) Seeking out and establishing connections that provide emotional safety/security/object constancy (often times this wasn't present in early life). Through Cancerian experiences we experience the importance of both co-regulation and self-regulation in the context of soothing difficult emotions/sensations. Sometimes we need to rely on others; other times we must provide for ourselves.

(3) Developing all sorts of satisfying, familial-type bonds with others --relationships in which we can experience safety, security, release, authenticity, and a sense of affiliation and personal identity. When the goin' gets tough, these are the bonds we rely on to shelter us in the storm of life. We all need a sense of "home" somewhere.

(4) We create healing containers in which we provide physical/emotional nourishment, for both others and ourselves. We may cook, provide a listening ear, stroke a back, tuck in bed, run a warm batch, or say "Oh sweetie" -- whatever is required to soothe someone in need of love.

(5) With Cancer's penetrating emotional honing system, we learn how to feel and sense into that which requires care and commitment in order to heal, grow and blossom. Our intuition, sensitivity, tenacity, and shrewdness endows us a knack for making things grow -- whether it's people, plants, money, real estate, business, etc.

(6) We become drawn inside of ourselves, realizing that there is a whole inner universe of creativity, artistry, emotion, sensation, memories, instincts, impulses, cyclic fluctuations ... This inner world, ruled by the mysterious Moon, often seems irrational and disconnected from the rational mind, and that's okay. We learn to lean into it, anyway.

(7) In Cancer, we understand that our identities are intertwined and informed by the past. It's why Cancer is associated with memory, especially emotional memories. We are connected to our pasts, our families, our relatives, our ancestors -- even the memory of humanity itself. Feeling connected to the past gives us a sense of security, identity, and continuity through time. We can't escape the past but we can choose to examine it with the conscious intention to heal and release so we can enjoy the present and future.

(8) Cancer and the Moon remind us that we are connected to the cycles and ebbs/flows of life itself. We can't use our conscious egos to "control" our lives according to how we think things should be ... We must also attune our biological, lunar selves to the natural rhythms of life. We must sleep, dream, eat, have sex, reproduce, relax, release, and so on -- and on nature's timetable. The Moon shows us where to stop fighting our natural instincts and needs.