CANCER
June 22-July 23 Birthdays
- Symbol of the sign: the Crab
- Planetary ruler: the Moon
- Birthstone: Ruby
- Best day: Monday
- Element: Water
- Type: Cardinal
As a member of the sign that primarily rules women's interests, you have all the characteristics traditionally as¬sociated witli women; moodiness, intuition, need for se¬curity, love of home, children, family and all the well-es¬tablished customs and traditions that help to keep the family together and protect the home. You are clinging in your relationships and rather timid; you are sensitive and have a great need to be loved.
This applies whether you are a man or a woman, and it does not imply, by any means, that men born under the sign of Cancer are weak or feminine. Cancer is a Cardi¬nal Sign and there is a great strength and capacity to get what you want in all the Cardinal Signs. The life-pro¬tecting principle, which Cancer symbolizes, is one of thestrongest forces in the world—fortunately, or none of'us would be here. All the Cardinal Signs are action sums, the only difference being in the method they use to achieve their objective, which in turn depends on the element to which they belong. Your element is water, and your method is that of waves which advance and re¬treat momentarily, but then advance again and again, so that in time you can wear away even solid rock.
The face you show to the world is rather timid, but that is deceptive. You want security, and you will go about getting it in your aggressively nonaggressive way. When the crab, which is the symbol of your sign, sees what it wants it will go after it and clutch it tightly in a claw, defying even death without letting go. If the claw is chopped off the crab will in time grow another one and will immediately reach out again to clutch what it wants. Your method is much the same; you do not let go easily—of people, of money or of possessions.
With others, you get security by seeping—like water— into any comer of their lives they have left unguarded, and then holding on. There is in you none of the easy tolerance of all sorts and conditions of people that is typical of such signs as Aquarius and Sagittarius; this would not give you the security you need. You prefer all your relationships to be close and exclusive, and so you limit your circle to your family and a few close friends.
You are., the parent who does not like to let the chil¬dren go even when they are grown up; the husband or wife who, though not as possessive as Scorpio or Pisces, insists that the home be the center of family life. With the few friends you have chosen, you are not above snooping into closets, dresser drawers or the refrigerator —not to pry, or to look for dirt and disorder, but to find out how that person lives from day to day, because each point of contact you establish makes your hold that much greater.
When it comes to money, there is a laziness about you in settling your financial affairs that others frequently cannot understand.
Such signs as Taurus and Capricorn may be more greedy and practical when it comes to money, but you can beat them all in clinging to small sums and making a dollar go a long way. Rich or poor, you always symbolically have the attitude of the mother with a brood of ten children who wants to be sure they are all adequately fed and clothed; you get a great lift out of finding a bargain, whether it is a $750 original-model dress marked down to §500, or a $2 T-shirt for one of your children on sale for $1.59.
This attitude can sometimes make you penny wise and pound foolish, but on the whole it is sound. Cancer peo¬ple are more likely to be millionaires than almost anyone else in the zodiac. Since you are also highly emotional, there is a possibility that you may throw money around to satisfy some emotional need; but even then it is nota¬ble that, no matter how many new dresses or suits you buy, how much furniture, art objects or whatever your particular fancy is, you will always delight in a bargain and will practice economy in some peculiarly personal corner of your life.
Cancer is the sign of the homemaker and home lover; if you are a woman, you are the kind the women's maga¬zines cater to, with their eleborate recipes, suggestions for home decoration and articles about how to get the best service out of your home appliances. All these things are important to you; your major function in life is to build the nest in which the young can flourish and grow strong until they are ready to make then" own way in the world. Male or female, you probably love to cook, and you love to eat. In fact, self-indulgence in this area is one of your biggest health and figure problems.
You take care of your home because it is psychologi¬cally an extension of your nest-building function. And while you bear in mind that it is a home, to be used, not a house with which to impress the neighbors, it is impor¬tant enough to you to want to keep it well. You are as clinging about your possessions as you are about every thing else; you hate to throw anything away. Sometimes this can have the result that your home, no matter how much you cherish it, can be the messiest place in town— especially if your do not have room to store things or the time and energy to sort and rearrange them periodically.
On the positive side, your love for holding on to, tilings can result in a home full of beautiful antiques, lovingly treasured and carefully preserved. You are especially fond of anything that has come down in the family for generations, and if you have such possessions —whether they be furniture, glassware, a lace tablecloth or a silver teapot—you will point them out with pride. If you do not have any family treasures and can't afford antiques, you will still not be likely to go in for modern in furniture or decorations. You love the traditional and well-established, and a Cancer's home is most likely to be decorated in Colonial or "contemporary" style.
Because you are the sign that loves to hold onto things, you are also the sign that loves to collect things. Glassware is a special favorite of yours, sirice glassware is said to be the crystallized form of your own element, water. Silver, the color ruled by the Moon, is another fa¬vorite. You also like to collect sentimental pieces, partic¬ularly mementos of important events and places in your life.
You love the past and everything that goes with it; you especially love anything connected with your own family. Your family instincts are strong and firmly rooted and, since Cancer is the sign that astrologically symbol¬izes the mother, you usually have a closer relationship with your mother than does anyone else, even your brothers and sisters. It is rare that a Cancer is not pro¬foundly affected, for better or worse, by the mother-daughter or mother-son relationship. Wliile you are anx¬ious to marry and establish a home of your own, it is often the Cancer-born son or daughter who will, without resentment, give up their chances for marriage to stay home with an invalid or widowed mother when the brothers and sisters have married and moved away.
You cling to your family because therein lies your sense of security. Shy and sensitive, you yourself need in youth the kind of carefully preserved and protected en¬vironment you will some day make for your own family. In childhood you thrive on a good relationship .with your mother and a solid family background; you are even willing to be teased about being mother's favorite in order to enjoy the benefits of being close to her. Sometimes you carry this relationship over to the school¬room and become teacher's pet, again being willing to be teased in order to enjoy the protection of this close relationship with a protective adult.
Even when grown up, you fear the clamorous de¬mands of the world; faced with stress, you retreat into your shell. You are inclined to be as conservative in thinking and politics as Capricorn or Taurus, but for a different reason; while they are concerned about pre¬serving their material possessions and place in the world, you get a psychological sense of security from clinging to what has been proved true and steadfast by the pas¬sage of time.
Because of this, Cancer is the sign that is especially dedicated to patriotism, love of country, love of your church, your town, even your street. You are sensitive enough to be personally sympathetic to people, and no snob; but you are the kind who will fight hard to keep minority groups out of your town or neighborhood—not from any love of preserving status but from fear of change. You may also be worried about a decline in real estate values, because holding on to money, especially as represented by real estate, is part of your security urge.
Since you find the modern world so hard to combat, you often try to re-create the past in one way or another. You like to reminisce, savoring old memories, especially about the family. Your memory is very good; you may be the one who remembers all the birthdays and family trees of all the relatives for several generations back.
The study of history interests you, as does any attempt to make the past live again. (It was Cancer-born John D. Rockefeller who provided the money and the inspira¬tion for the re-creation of the historic town of Williams-burg, Virginia.) Your liking for a "period" flavor in your home is part of this feeling for the past. You are often even inclined to pick some period of the past as your ideal, and mourn that values and standards have de¬clined since then. Gossip about small, intimate details in the lives of historic personages delights you, since your outlook is more concerned with the details of daily liv¬ing than with world wide trends.
The intuition for which Cancer is noted is part of your sensitivity; like the crab, protected by its she!! and send¬ing its feelers out into the environment to spot danger, you always have your feelers working to pick up the psychic vibrations of everyone you meet. This intuition is sometimes strong enough almost to amount to second sight, and many Cancers also can develop various kinds of psychic ability. This often leads to an interest in the occult or in extrasensory perception.
Because you can sense people's feelings, you are one of the warmest, most sympathetic signs in the zodiac. The Moon, ruler of your sign, rules the general public, and once you overcome your shyness and timidity you can go out among people fearlessly, because you have the real "common touch." You are not an organizer, ex¬cept for causes you deeply believe in, but when you do decide to fight against something that you feel is imper¬iling customs and traditions or the security of the home, you can easily arouse people to go along with you be¬cause you are "one of them." Even when you do go in the world, you still have reservations against those who are not part of your inner circle, and do not accept them readily; but those who have won your seal of approval are treated with as much love and concern as if they were part of your own family.
CAREER POSSIBILITIES
You are primarily the sign of the homemaker, and this strong interest often serves you vocationally. You may do something that is actually homemaking on a larger-than-personal scale, such as catering or running a hotel or motel. You may be a cook, baker, housekeeper, home economist or dietician.
Or you may combine the home-making skill with other talents and become, for instance, an interior decorator, furniture designer or manufac¬turer, or a writer specializing in such subjects as home-making and cooking.
You may be interested in child care, in such fields as teacher, child psychologist or children's nurse. Or you might enjoy organizing or working in a nursery school for the children of working mothers. You could run a diaper service or a laundry, or design toys or children's clothes.
Because of your talent for accumulating a great deal of money from many small transactions, you make an ex¬cellent small shopkeeper. You also have a talent for sens¬ing what the public, especially women, want and will buy; consequently your small shop has a good chance of growing to be a large one. Many famous department store owners are Cancer born.
Your interest in the home also gives you a good chance of being successful in real estate, or in designing, manufacturing, selling or installing home appliances. Liquids are under the rulership of the Moon, and dairy farming or soft drink bottling or selling could be your field. (John D. Rockefeller made his money in a liquid -oil.)
You are sympathetic and motherly, and could be very good in a field where you take care of people in a "motherly" way—nurse, airline hostess, waitress or secretary, for instance. Doctors specializing in women's prob¬lems—obstetricians and gynecologists, for instance—are also included in your sign.
And strangely enough, though you are shy, you often make a good politician, especially one who is on the conservative side and dedicated to preserving the tradi¬tions of the home and the nation. Here the Moon's ruler-ship of the public is often helpful and you have no trou¬ble meeting people on their own level, once you have overcome your initial hesitancy.
HEALTH
Cancer people are often delicate in youth and need, physically as much as psychologically, the sheltered en¬vironment they are always seeking. Once past this stage you are likely to be reasonably healthy, but you have a tendency to exaggerate any symptoms you may have. This, plus an abnormal fear of pain, makes some Can¬cers think they are almost always sick, even when' what is really wrong with them is so slight it would be shrugged off by other people.
You are, however, more prone to catch a contagious disease than many other signs. You are a Water Sign, ruled by the lazy, languorous Moon, and the sluggishness that is often characteristic of Cancer people does not provide the reserve of energy you need to fight off dis¬ease. Your recuperative powers are also rather sluggish —so, all in all, you need to make a real effort to keep your health in tiptop shape.
But your biggest problem is not disease; it is digestive disturbances.
Cancer rules the breasts and the stomach, and you are likely to be well developed in both areas, even when young and reasonably slim. When you get older you are inclined to let yourself go" and to eat anything and everythng you want—which certainly does your digestion no good (not to mention your figure).
You have, unfortunately, very little will power about avoiding the foods that are especially bad for you. When you go on a diet you may eat very little all day, but you can't see why it does you any harm to nibble on a few french-fried potatoes or a cookie or two.
This kind of eating, plus the Cancer lack of activity, makes your digestion inactive too and leads to various discomforts of the stomach and digestive tract. In some cases it may lead to such serious health problems con¬nected with self-indulgence as diabetes and ulcers. To avoid these problems, you must try to keep yourself on a reasonable diet, even if it means consulting a doctor about what you should and shouldn't eat.
LOVE AND MARRIAGE
You are sensitive and emotional and crave sympathy, love and comfort; but you are affectionate rather than passionate. You tend to think of marriage as the setting for what you really want to do—establish a home—rather than as a mad love affair between two people with the rest of the world shut out. For this reason you are cling¬ing but not as jealous as the other Water Signs, Scorpio and Pisces; as long as you have a settled, happy home life, you are not as much inclined to wonder if your partner may be straying.
You may have trouble in marriage, though, because of your excessive moodiness. You have ups and downs, and during the downbeat times you are inclined to withdraw into yourself, shutting out even the people you love. And you crave sympathy and understanding at all times; you can be extremely touchy if your feelings are not taken into consideration. In extreme cases, a cross word can send you into a fit of depression or sulking.
With a reasonably suitable partner, you take to mar¬riage easily; a home of your own is what you've been subconsciously preparing for even since you were a child. Cancer girls may be the kind who are happy to leave a job they've only been dabbling at till they could get married; Cancer men work harder and better when they have their own family circle to work for and come home to.
An individual horoscope is necessary to determine the proper marriage partner for any particular person, but generally speaking you will find your most suitable mates in the other Water Signs, Scorpio and Pisces, who can understand your sensitivity, moodiness and desire to cling; or the Earth Signs, Capricorn, Taurus and Virgo, whose common sense can rescue you from your with¬drawn and self-questioning moods.
Of the Air Signs, a Cancer woman may get along rea¬sonably well with a Gemini man; he will fit adaptably and cheerfully into a well-taken-care-of home, which leaves him free to pursue his various interests and hob¬bies.
On the other hand, a Cancer man may find a Gemi¬ni wife too social and lacking in the domestic virtues to please him. Cancer shares with Libra an interest in hav¬ing a beautiful home, but this is deceptive; to Libra the home is just a background for more intellectual interests. With the third Air Sign, Aquarius, you are not likely to find any common ground at all.
Cancer can get along reasonably well with Leo, who wants a beautiful home and stable family life too, though for somewhat different reasons than yours. The other two Fire Signs, Aries and Sagittarius, would find your clinging tiresome and can be quite brusque in fending it off, thus wounding your feelings severely. Best not even think of this kind of match.