On the 21st of June 2022 at 09:13 UTC, Sun entered Cancer, the temple of the Moon, marking a turning point in the Sun’s journey across the Zodiac, commonly known as Summer Solstice in the Northern hemisphere. The Sun has reached its highest point in the sky. The ascent has reached its culmination, and after three days of hitting the same spot, the Sun starts its slow downward journey.
Therefore, whilst we enjoy the longest and hottest days of the year, the Sun is slowly inching its way towards darkness. In the explosion of light, there is the growing seed of the inward movement to obscurity. In the maximum of yang, there is the yin.
And that is what Cancer is all about.
Let us get back to the basics.
Cancer Energy is Water Element
The Water Element is part of the passive duo; the other is the Earth. And of the two, Water is the one that is the more active, shaping the Earth. By passive, we mean the ability to receive, pacify and reflect. In general, water has a cooling action.
Water is ubiquitous, creating bonds with nearly everything and carrying messages throughout the mineral, plant and animal kingdom. This characteristic is delineated as wetness, the ability to infiltrate into every structure, adapt to every conformation and hold memory from past interactions.
I talk more about Water Element in my Scorpio and Pisces post.
Cancer Energy is Nocturnal
The energy of the night is introspective, tending towards the centre of things like gravity, the pull of a magnetic field or the cathode part of a battery.
Cancer Energy is Cardinal
Moveable energy, the old way of calling cardinal signs, precisely defines the main characteristic of this energy: the ability to act as power pivots, kingpins, and fulcrums. Just a small effort, and the effect is multiplied.
Just a tiny push, and the ball starts rolling down and gathering momentum.
Cancer is the Temple of the Moon
Moon’s essential nature is cooling and moistening. Feminine in nature, as in that energy that receives. The Moon is ever-changing, fluid-like in its perpetual shifting motion. Luna’s texture is soft and watery, and its taste is slightly sweet with no overwhelming flavour.
If we could condense the quintessence of the Moon, it would be nurturing and protecting. Without the Moon, the Earth as it is would not exist. As the Moon stabilises the Earth’s rotation, so does the Moon give rhythm to an ever-changing life.
The cooling and moistening effect bring relaxation by lowering the adrenaline production and activating the Vagus nerve, opening the senses, becoming aware of feelings, and helping us to digest, sleep and dream.
The water content in the Moon is like memory storage, gathering all our thoughts and feelings, connecting them with events and people and made accessible for future retrieval whilst helping us unite with the others around us.
Through Cancer’s energy, the Moon finds all it needs to be herself. Water for memory and nourishment. Introspective energy for nurturing and recharging. Propulsive power to act quickly when required to protect the inner world.
Sun in the house of Cancer
When Sun enters the temple of the Moon, it brings attention to our more inner and private world. The Sun, all hot and dry, comes to a place where it is bathed and soothed with waters of creation. The outward-going life-giving principle of the Sun comes to meet the inward-going life-giving principle.
The King who governs the day meets the Queen, who regulates the Earth’s night kingdom, where everything is hushed, slowed down, and protective.
Here the Sun surrenders to the rhythms of the Moon. Focus shifts more to memories. The Yang looks into the Yin.
I like to imagine the Sun nearly arriving home but first stops at the Moon’s world where time slows down, and everything is all so changeable. The Sun has now time to look back at the long, meandering roads and dusty pathways that took the Sun a near complete circle as seen from the Earth’s point of view.
The Sun glimpses at the backstage where all is prepared, assembled, brought to the stage, and then taken back to be stored, modified and taken care of. The Sun looks at the dream world, out of which the props of the “real” world come out.
Remember, the Earth would not have a stable climate without the Moon. The Moon is the midwife of the Sun’s creative powers on Earth. When Sun comes to Cancer, it looks at the container, the womb of the Earth, out of which all her offspring are born.
Sun in Cancer comes to reunite with the Moon in the Moon's Temple, celebrating mankind’s descent in this Earth dimension.
Cancer in Medical Astrology
Cancer body zone is the breast, stomach, lower lungs, and all that goes around this area, including the rib cage, sternum, scapula, and diaphragm. When the uterus is pregnant, it falls under Cancer jurisdiction.
The common thread connecting these organs is nurturing, nourishment, procreation and the survival of the individual and their offspring. These organs sustain us from the inside so we can be strong on the outside.
The stomach is what enables us to digest our food to obtain nourishment and sustenance. Just like the Moon brings down the energies of the stars on earth, our stomach breaks down food in small parts so we can digest them better. And just like the Moon changing face, the size of the stomach can expand, dilate, and contract to the bare minimum.
The breasts in women are those organs responsible for nurturing newborns and babies. Women’s breasts, through the production of maternal milk, provide the possibility to ensure the survival of future generations at such a vulnerable age.
The uterus is where babies are in the making, enveloped in warm waters reliving in 9 months the evolution of species on Earth.
The lower lungs are responsible for the actual exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Gases diffuse in and out of the bodies through very fine and delicate one-cell thick circular structures resembling little moons (alveoli).
The diaphragm is the big muscle responsible for the rhythmic breathing that ensures survival. Like the tides of the sea, our breath goes in and out, never stopping from the moment we are born to this world until our last breath is expelled and births us in another dimension.
The rib cage, sternum and scapula are all thick and protective structures for the most delicate and vital organs for our survival. Yet they are a compromise between rigidness and flexibility. They move and accompany the rising up and down of the lungs, protecting them without blocking the structures.
Summary:
Sun in Cancer teaches us to focus where we are most vulnerable and make sure we take all the steps necessary to not only guard but protect our most sensitive parts.
We are strong as much as our softest spot is. Forgetting that can be lethal.
Sun in Cancer also reminds us that we all stand on those who came before us. And future generations will come to be according to the actions we take in our lifetime.
Sun in Cancer is where emotional resilience and memories are formed creating intergenerational bonds that shape mankind.
Picture by yours truly whilst I was nursing myself back to health whilst sitting near the sea on July 15th 2022 at 20:54 It felt so Cancer Energy.
Wishing you health, joy and prosperity,
Hilary
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