Cancer is one of the most under appreciated & misrepresented signs in the zodiac. Usually described as sensitive, empathic & emotional, this sign actually fits more into the “quietly ambitious while carrying the whole on their shoulders” category.
Continuing where I left off with Gemini in the Garden of Eden, as being the choice between the Tree of Knowledge & the Tree of Life, Cancer is what happens when Eden is no more. When the choice has been made and real life & growth must start.
When God kicked Adam & Eve from Eden, He told them to be “fruitful & multiply” & warned of the pain in childbirth. He also told Adam that “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” God took away eternal life, and like the Lunar Cycles of Cancer, we begun the cycles in birth, in life & in death. We now live & die by the Moon.
Cancer is the sign of work, of pain, of deliverance & of the ramifications of your family’s karma.
The Moon is the reflection of the Sun, and for that we are still created in the image of God, but now we are separated. We own the night, the darkness & the shadow, and must look on, as all all the easy things come in the day.
When the first children of Adam (Aries) & Eve (Taurus) are grown, the eldest, Cain, kills his brother Abel, out of jealousy. Cain was a farmer and sacrificed his vegetables at the altar of God, whereas Abel was a shepherd, and so his sacrifice was made of blood—the blood of his best lamb. Neither could help the profession in which they were born to do, but one was seen as more valuable than the other. The 7 deadly sins were born out of the choice in the mental sign of Gemini, but are acted out in the impassioned sign of Cancer. Now Cain is not killed for his actions, he is merely exiled and given protection from God, so that if anyone kills Cain, his death would be avenged sevenfold.
God shows mercy on Cain, as if it is through the first murder that we can now see what grace & hope look like. And *maybe* we can also see this as a silent admission of guilt that Cain was a victim of favoritism. In toxic family dynamics, there can be an unbalanced praise of one child, while the other must work twice as hard, for less approval. Cain did his best, but it was never enough in the eyes of his parents, and therefore, in the eyes of God.
Cain does not get to stay with his family as an adult, but he will spend the rest of his life paying his debt to the world, and being grateful for the opportunity to live. He is no different than his father before him, who also had to make his own way, by his own choices. On the beautiful side of this, both Adam & Cain no longer have to live in the shadow of another man, for all their days. They are free.
It’s by facing our demons & being brave, that we can be see the beauty in the life we are given, even when having to work for it. And even though our mothers & fathers put us into unfortunate situations with the bad choices they made—we can know that these are not our fault, but they our responsibility to overcome. And instead of being sad about it, or feeling like a victim of circumstance, we can begin the trek forward & overturn the sins of the father, before we let his death, be our death as well.
The sign of Cancer is known for hiding inside its crab shell. And where this rings true, Cancer’s DO love to hide, it is through their emotional growth & ability to face their fears that they prove their worth to the whole world. No matter your shame, you still have the ability to shine your light at night & lead others to safety, and that is what we are all meant to do.
Hurt people can hurt people, or hurt people can save people, because they don’t want anymore suffering. We are all living this life together, and not everyone is given the luxury of hiding out. As soon as Cancer realizes that this is the world we live in—for better or for worse—it begins it’s 2nd life as a hero.
Through the Cancer’s quiet ambition, innate sense of self, and focused emotional power, the world’s tides can turn, and we can flip the script on evil & injustice. A new heaven & a new earth can be made from our lust for life, crushing the fear of our parent’s disapproval. We can now live without anxiety, and be who we are in our rawest forms, allowing ourselves to take root on our own land, so that we might grow into something new.
