Most likable trait: Loyalty
Duality: Feminine
Element: Water
Quality: Cardinal
Cancer is receptive, sensitive, and imaginative, sympathetic, kind, and emotional, and possesses an active, shrewd, and intuitive mind.
Ruling planet: The Moon
Earth's one satellite, which waxes and wanes and exerts a powerful magnetic influence. In astrology, the Moon governs emotions and intuitive behavior.
Symbol: The Crab: Possessing an impenetrable exterior covering soft flesh underneath. At the first sign of danger, it withdraws into its shell and scuttles back to the sea where it feels safe.
Dominant keyword: I FEEL.
Polarity: Capricorn
Cancer is the sign of home and family life. Cancerians seek close personal relationships and are happiest surrounded by the familiar and those whom they love. Capricorn, Cancer's opposite sign, is the sign of reputation and public standing. Natives of Capricorn are concerned with the image they project, and they search for power and fulfillment in the outside world.
Part of the body ruled by Cancer: The breasts and stomach
Cancerians love to eat and have to fight overweight in later years. They are also subject to digestive ailments caused by tension and emotional stress.
Lucky day: Monday
Lucky numbers: 3 and 7
Magical birthstone: Pearl
Changes bad fortune into good and discord into harmony. It also brings support from influential people.
Special colors: Sea green and silver: The shimmering colors of the water and the moon.
Cities: Venice, Amsterdam, New York, Algiers
Countries: Scotland, Holland, New Zealand
Flowers: Larkspur and Acanthus
Trees: Trees rich in sap
Metal: Silver
Animals ruled by Cancer: Those with shell coverings
Danger: Cancer people are susceptible to accidents in the home. They are also prone toward becoming the victims of theft.
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No one has ever said Cancerians are easy to understand. You may appear gentle, kind, sympathetic, and a patient listener. Then someone asks for advice, and you turn cranky, snappish, and appear to be completely indifferent to anyone's problems but your own. You may wallow in self-pity and complain endlessly about how mistreated you are by the world. Turn another page of the calendar and suddenly you are back being helpful, solicitous, read to do anything asked of you. What's your secret? Cancer, which is ruled by the Moon and has water as its element, can be likened to the shifting tides of the oceans. Like the tides, Cancer is the sign of powerful forces moving under the surface. That surface, however, is quite difficult to penetrate, for Cancerians tend to build up an elaborate array of defenses to hide their deep feelings and extreme sensitivity. Complex, fragile, unpredictable, temperamental, the typical Cancerian needs constant support and encouragement. You want desperately to be loved and approved of but resent needing approval so badly. When you get what you need, you give the best you have in return. Those who make you feel secure command your undying loyalty. When you really care for someone there is nothing anyone can say about that person that will make the least bit of difference. You have a real blind spot when it comes to seeing a failing in those you love. You tend to be a worrier and a silent brooder. People may pour out their hearts to you, but the flow never goes in the other direction. You guard your secrets well. If offended, you do not strike back directly. Your method of retaliation is to sulk, and it is often very effective. The technique is somewhat like being whipped to death by a dozen strands of boiled spaghetti. Cancer's symbol, the crab, has a hard outer shell that protects soft, vulnerable flesh underneath. The same is true of Cancerians, who are often crusty, gruff and grumpy, but possess a proverbial heart of gold. Beneath your tough exterior you are a sentimental softie who will make any sacrifice for someone in need. If someone asks for a favor, your first reaction will probably be no, but the final answers is always yes. You should be judged not by what you say but by what you do. You are possessive. Anyone who becomes part of your life will never again be entirely free. You try to stay in touch with friends, ex-lovers, former spouses, business associates, persons you knew as children. If you let anyone go out of your life, it is unwillingly and never completely. This reflects your preoccupation with the past. An aura of nostalgia dwells about you; the events and people of bygone years continue to inhabit your memory and usually grow dearer to you as time goes by. You are devoted to family and home and continue to believe in the old fashioned idea that marriage is forever--even if the events of your own life contradict this. It is hard to deceive you, for you can spot the tiniest nuances of behavior. In fact, you are almost psychic in your intuitions. A photographic memory added to intense powers of observation makes you extremely canny about divining other people's inner motivations. Cancerians are crab-like in their indirect approach to an intended target. Observe a crab moving on a beach and you will notice its strange sidewise movement toward a goal. People born under the sign of the Crab never take the direct approach. You step to one side, then step to the other side, and sometimes go completely around. But you get where you intend to go. If channeled in the right direction, your enormous sensitivity can be a great source of strength. Once you overcome your shyness and touchiness and master your turbulent emotions, your intellect and imagination enable you to become a success in almost anything you undertake. Contrary to the impression you often give, you can be shrewd and canny in business. Cautious, conservative in your approach, you possess an antenna that quickly gauges public taste and opinion and senses new trends in the making. This instinct for business combined with imagination is visible in such famous fashion designers as Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta and Pierre Cardin. Cancer people hold on to money as tenaciously as they do to everything that belongs to them. To you money spells security, yet no matter how much wealth you accumulate you never feel really secure. That is true of your emotional security also. A Cancerian never gets enough love and approval; you always need more. It is very easy to fall in love with this loyal, devoted, affectionate, and protective Moon-child.</div>
