The Sun, ruler of our inner nature, is somewhat dimmed in Cancer, the home of the Moon. Creative and romantic, with a strong love of home, family and tradition, you are a good communicator and a strong provider. Your deep sensitivity presents you with valuable and illuminating intuitions, especially regarding those you care for.

Powerful Intuition

Paradoxically combining a love of travel with a deep need for security, you surround yourself with sentimental objects from the past, including souvenirs, hand-me-downs and keepsakes. Cancerians are remarkably good at accumulating things; indeed, you can be unwilling to throw anything out, even relationships that have passed their use-by date.

Cancer is also good with money and generally takes a long-term view. The main thing to remember is not to let the powerful, turbulent emotions of the moment crowd out your normally rational judgement. Your intuitions are reliable and should be trusted; you may even have natural psychic powers, which may be developed, given the right circumstances.

Hard Shell

The emblem for Cancer is the Crab, a creature with a very hard shell which protects a soft interior. The crab walks sideways, which is how the Cancerian skirts around a problem until forced to take it on with gritty determination and a creative flair. The crab's large claws hang on to its possessions for dear life, just as the Cancerian collects things to beautify the environment and bravely defends the home turf.

Cancerians make good business people, combining artistry, originality and drive with an understanding of financial matters, marketing and the needs of the public. You can trust your intuitions, but you do need to generate a faith in yourself which will not be dampened by gloom or depression over what, in retrospect, may appear to be relatively insignificant problems. You have the natural ability to be diplomatic and to speak out when necessary or keep your mouth shut. Home and family ties will be significant in your life and developing a secure, comfortable home environment will be a boon to your state of mind, irrespective of your marital state.

Emotional Release

Physical fitness or sports activities can become important ways for you to work out emotional stress. Team sports are fun, for you can adopt team members as part of an extended family. Swimming, fishing, sailing and other water activities attract you, along with skiing, ice skating, and mountain climbing. Cancerians are creative. Even those among you who may not have any particular talent can use some involvement with art, music, or writing as another method of emotional release, rather than indulging in eating binges or other destructive habits. Living or spending time near the water is a relaxing, as well as creatively stimulating environment for Cancerians.

Cancer rules the stomach, diaphragm, upper liver and breasts. People with Cancer active in their charts are subject to coughs, indigestion, gas, gallstones, general problems with stomach, liver and intestines, plus emotional disorders such as depression, hypochondria and hysteria.

Ideal colours for the Crab are white, silver, and pale yellow. Cancer rules metallic silver, while both the ruby and the pearl are the traditional Cancerian birthstones. Silver reflects its environment in its shiny polished surface, yet it can tarnish and become dull unless properly cared for. In the same way, your sensitive nature reflects the people and circumstances surrounding you. The precious ruby, a variety of corundum, is one of the hardest minerals known, while the pearl is soft and easily scratched. Here we have the two contrasting sides of the Cancerian personality: hard and determined, yet simultaneously soft and vulnerable. Cancerian flowers are the water lily (lotus), iris, white poppy, white carnation and southern magnolia.

Cancer in Relationships

You are sensitive and caring by nature, although you present a tough exterior to the world. You soon learn ways to protect your feelings, which run very deep and tender. As a lover you seek security and fidelity, and, although you are not above a few flirtatious peccadillos of your own, you can be deeply wounded if the one you care for betrays your trust (which is never given lightly). Cancer is poetic and romantic, but also practical in matters to do with the home and raising a family.

A good communicator, your deep sensitivity can present you with valuable and illuminating intuitions, especially regarding those you care for. This said, sensitive Cancerians under pressure can retreat within themselves and allow repressed emotions to bottle up until they either explode with devastating force, or implode catastrophically, causing general meltdown.

Cancer, a feminine (yin) sign, is ruled by the Moon. So in relationship, Cancer, the most nurturesome sign of the zodiac, seeks a secure nest, or bolthole. The fluctuating Moon can reflect a moodiness in your nature that is not always understood nor appreciated by others.

Cancerians can be difficult to understand and sometimes allow irrational emotions to rule their otherwise sensible heads. For this reason the Cancerian soul seeks to build strong walls around home and loved ones, so tender feelings may express themselves in an environment which is stable and secure.

Cancer is a cardinal sign, so you are best involved with someone who understands creativity and will accept you for what you are, moods and all. Because your emotions are so powerful, you seek a partner who is stable and responsive, while at the same time understanding your intermittent need for solitude, alternating with a gregarious desire for companionship and stimulation.

Cancer is protective, even possessive and can be a jealous lover, though more from insecurity than simple desire to dominate. Those who seek a loving, protective partner, who has wonderful bouts of creativity interspersed with dreamy romanticism, yet peppered with practicality need look no further than Cancer.