The Sun in astrology symbolizes the core essence of who you are -- your individuality and sense of self. It describes what is likely to motivate you, and why. The Sun Sign describes the prime focal point within the personality structure, and is of major importance. Understanding and developing these aspects of the self will help you to develop and expand your sense of being the authentic self you truly wish to be. Understanding the house in which your Sun is found will give even greater detail. If you do not feel much like your Sun Sign, then consider if you are giving yourself permission to be who you truly need to be?

Cancer: Cardinal Water            

Ruler: The Moon

Keywords: Nurturing, Enclosing, Protecting, Intuiting

Positive Expression - sensitivity, emotional intelligence, nurturing, aware of others needs, psychic, family oriented, empathetic, reliable, concerned with continuity. 

Negative Expression - hysterical, hyper-sensitive, overly emotional, extreme selfishness, fearful, overprotective, smothering, unable to relinquish emotional attachments, clannish.

With the Sun in the sign of Cancer, the urge is to experience connectedness with others on an emotional level, and then to take action to nourish, support and protect. Cancer is a Water sign, and so, is concerned with emotions, intuition, imagination and the psyche. As a Cardinal sign, Cancerians need to act. Within the watery realm of emotions, Cancerians are often actively engaged. For this reason, Cancer is strongly connected to family and domestic life. The emotional ties that bind those closest to us are the things with which Cancerians are primarily concerned.

Cancer, as the sign most connected to family life, lends a maternal or paternal quality to those born under its’ influence. Cancerians usually feel deeply connected, for better or for worse, to both family of origin, and those they consider dear to heart. The strong connection to home and family life means that Cancerians often feel personally responsible for the well-being of those near and dear. This can operate as both a blessing and a curse. On the upside, Cancerians can be especially warm, loving and devoted. They will nourish others and enjoy taking care of them. In this way, a greater sense of self is gained by taking action to nurture others.

On another level, Cancer is connected to continuity and tradition, and Cancerians tend to foster the ties that connect and bind us all by reminding loved ones of all the special things they share. Yet on the down-side, Cancerians can become deeply enmeshed in others emotional lives, and quickly lose perspective. This problem is especially activated around the well-being of family members. Cancerians can find themselves feeling responsible for how others choose to be, and becoming overly focussed on trying to ‘fix’ what is not theirs to take on. Emotional upsets flow thick and fast as Cancerians try to take action around their own perceptions of how others should think and feel. They may then find themselves experiencing resentment both inwardly and from others when this attempt to assume responsibility is not welcomed or wanted.

Cancerians have a tendency to involve themselves in the emotional lives of others and lose sight of their own needs. As they become less in touch with their own individuality, they can become increasingly moody and erratic. At times, like their namesakes, they can be clannish and crabby. They tend to react at the slightest trigger, and feel themselves in the middle of situations that often, in reality, have very little to do with them. This can be both draining and dysfunctional, as it creates feelings of obligation and guilt that are difficult to resolve. Learning to separate the Self from feelings of emotional responsibility is a key life lesson for many Cancerian individuals. Cancerians need to recognize that their need to be needed may not be the same need as others have, and must learn to hold back and stay focussed on their own lives. As this sign is all about emotional need, it is natural for Cancerians to respond to life by trying to give to others. Yet assuming responsibility for what is not theirs to take on means that Cancerians have a way of making unwelcome intrusions into others lives and creating turmoil where they really want peace. Learning to recognize when ‘good advice’ and emotional involvement is not wanted can be a major life hurdle that in time must be overcome.

Home is the natural domain of the Cancerian individual, for it is here that they are in their strength. Home life is especially important, and Cancerians often need to feel safe and secure within a loving home environment in order to feel at ease. Therefore, the home needs to be as calm and serene as possible, for the home environment acts almost like the shell of the crab, protecting what is soft and vulnerable on the inside from the harshness of the outside world. For this reason, Cancerians will spend a lot of time getting the home ‘just right’, for a calm home life is necessary for emotional equilibrium. From the foundation of a stable home environment, Cancerians can then project themselves out into the world. When a Cancerian is happy within the home, they can then become a source of great nourishment and delight. They make great hosts and entertainers, and enjoy nothing more than taking care of the ones they love through good food, rapport and empathetic conversation. Many excellent cooks are born under this sign, and anything connected to hospitality suits well the temperament of those born here. Providing nourishment for others is a concrete way of taking action around emotional needs, and it allows them to fulfil a sense of individual purpose or identity.

In this way, the home is both the source of strength and yet the shell they must outgrow. The need to experience a warm, safe and nurturing home life is paramount, so that it is imperative for Cancerians to create the right kind of living circumstances to feel calm, serene and connected to other people. Yet leaving the safety of home is also imperative if Cancerians are to make their mark on the world. As a Cardinal sign, they are usually not satisfied unless they are making a wider impact than just the family life. Cancerians can, at times, avoid the challenges of the outside world by remaining emotionally stuck.

This sign is connected to memory and the things of the past, so that Cancerians like to surround themselves with objects that have emotional resonance, or remind them of what they have done. Those born to this sign often prefer what is vintage, hand-made or antique to what is shiny and new, for they value objects and experiences that evoke emotional depth. They may tend to collect trinkets and mementos and keep them stored away for years. In this way, Cancerians can absorb themselves in figments and memories, and at a deep inner level, refuse to move on.   They feel ‘safe’ within the security of their own four walls and memories, and will not budge. The home literally functions like an outer shell, and Cancerians can resist anything that will take them out of what is comfortable and known.

Although Cancer is concerned with action, these folks often tend to act through vacillation and reflection, avoiding direct moves until external circumstances feel favourable and therefore ‘right’. In this way, they have much in common with their celestial namesake - The Crab. On the outside, the Cancerian may appear at times tough, hardened or impenetrable, capable of a steely tenacity and ability to hold on that can be formidable. But underneath, they are often as soft and as sensitive as can be, protecting their vulnerabilities from the harshness of the outer world by bringing it all back to the security of home and hearth. Yet as the hermit crab so artfully reminds us, what we define as home and security is also something we tend to outgrow.

Cancerians are often gifted with vivid imaginations. This tendency to imagine should be acknowledged and developed. Like many things in life, it can become either a liability or a strength. For many Cancerians, there may be creative and artistic talents that need an outlet. This can range from creating in the kitchen to design around the home. It may be expressed building homes and properties, or creating a business from scratch. Cancerians have a way of tuning in to what others need, and then employing their active imaginations to bring it into form. Many excellent writers are born under this sign, displaying an intuitive ability to tune in to what the public wants and needs.

Other Cancerians have an uncanny sense of business timing, knowing when and where to act. Many tycoons are born to this sign, and Cancerians often have a specialized business flair. In all of these domains, the ability to imagine realistic yet original outcomes is a powerful trait, and one Cancerians can draw upon easily. Their active imaginations and intuitive responses mean they tend to ‘pick up’ on new ideas all the time. Then the natural impulse to take action coupled with capacity to sense what others need means they are in an excellent position to act at the right time and place. The Cancerian knowledge of how to appeal to public tastes and emotions is one of their best assets.

As the imagination is often strong for those born under this sign, it can also denote psychic abilities. At its best, imagination is an image-making faculty that allows us to perceive a concrete inner vision of something that we can then choose to bring into form. With a powerful ability to absorb impressions and memories through the feeling nature, Cancerians can display remarkable empathy and retention. Being able to access feelings and intuitions, Cancerians often ‘know’ what others need. Using the imagination to its fullest will often mean learning to first process personal emotions, and then remain focussed in the present.

When Cancerians employ their sense perceptions with some degree of objectivity they are especially insightful and profound. They can respond to passing impressions with uncanny precision and accuracy. Cancer is a deeply sensitive sign, so that learning to listen to an internal and rhythmic sense of timing is most important. Feelings tend to ebb and flow like the tides. Accepting this is fundamental for Cancerian well-being. As Cancerians learn to distinguish intuitive perceptions over emotional projections, they tend to find their niche in life. Through their imaginations, they can then ‘see’ the perfect solution or way forward that will perfectly meet the immediate need in their own and other’s lives.

When the imagination is denied, or instead allowed to run riot, it can lead to all sorts of toxic situations. Cancerians can also use their emotional sensitivity and powerful imaginations to apparently ‘interact’ with the world outside them, imagine what they believe is going on, and then decide not to participate. What tends to happen is that they cling to the familiar and the known rather than risk new experiences or information. At times like these, that famed Cancerian imagination works against them. The propensity to imagine the worst means they can come to very inaccurate conclusions, and feel hurt by situations that may not even have occurred. Reliving past emotional hurts and upsets can take precedence over what is actually happening now. Cancerians then become the emotional casualties of all sorts of imagined slights and social grievances that become excuses for not leaving the comforts of home. This can lead to an emotional disconnection from others, which is the opposite of what they truly seek.

Cancerians tend to be easily influenced by whatever is happening around them, and want to be actively connected to others emotional lives. In many ways, they are likely to be reacting to the constant ebb and flow of emotional undercurrents in their own and others lives. Thus Cancerians can be under the sway of an ever-changing current of moods and energies as they respond to the flux of life through a sensitive feeling nature. Accepting this sensitivity and acknowledging that they may from time to time overreact or misperceive something opens the door for them to communicate with others and get a more objective perspective on what is actually going on.

As the sign most connected to the past, Cancerians can remain under the influence of past hurts and upsets well past their ‘use-by date’. Reliving the past is a very Cancerian tendency. The imagination takes over, and Cancerians find themselves re-experiencing what has happened to them as if it is still happening now. This can lead to a form of moodiness and irrationality that is hard to bear. It becomes difficult for Cancerians to act decisively when they are torn by conflicting feelings of guilt, sympathy and your super-sensitivity to how others will react in a given situation. This sensitivity to others emotions and psychological states means Cancerians may be reacting more from the past than the present, and can end up seeming to others even more defensive, or “crabby” on the outside, which makes everything even worse. Leaving behind toxic emotions, past upsets and feelings of obligation and guilt is necessary for growth and development. Taking themselves out of the familiar zones (usually home) where their memories and feelings reside is a healthy way of keeping the emotions and imagination in check. On this note, Cancerians often thrive on change and new environments, reflecting the Moon’s quality of waxing and waning as it travels through the sky. As long as they have somewhere safe to come back to, they are likely to enjoy a variety of environments to refresh their emotional and imaginative lives.

With the Sun in Cancer you are gifted with extraordinary emotional and intuitive insight. This can be turned to your advantage by taking action to support and foster those you hold dear, or to develop projects that you wish to get off the ground. Acknowledging your sensitivity and imagination means you can wield both as highly effective tools. Although you are likely to respect continuity and stability in your emotional life, you must also remember to let go of the past. Tendencies to attempt to assume responsibility for others emotional needs or states of mind should be kept in check, or you will notice outright resentment from those you care most deeply about. With your fine-tuned intuition and concern for other’s needs, you are often the most caring and family-oriented of souls. Your concern for others welfare can make you an uncannily prescient confidante, and an especially beneficial partner or spouse.