Today is the Summer Solstice, one of the four major turns in the Earth’s rotation that occur each year. It is the longest day of the year — when we experience more daylight than darkness.
This is a turning point. The Sun has reached the peak of the arc it makes through the sky. From now until the Winter Solstice, the days will gradually grow shorter as the Sun’s arc declines.
The Summer Solstice also marks the moment when the Sun enters the sign of Cancer, initiating the summer season. Cancer is a cardinal water sign ruled by the moon.
After the fiery spark of Aries, the earthly groundedness of Taurus, and the buzzing curiosity of Gemini, Cancer season introduces the emotional element into the mix.
Cancer Season: Emotional Territory
Both water and the moon are associated with emotions, making Cancer an emotional hot spot of the zodiac.
This is the sign of care and nurturing, of home and family, of long-term memory and ancestral roots.
Cancer’s water is often thought to be the waters of the womb from which we emerge.
It’s perhaps inevitable that the dominant stereotype of Cancer is a “crybaby.”
Like the moon, which is constantly changing, or the tides, which are ebbing and flowing, the Cancer archetype is often shamed as being “emotional,” “moody,” and “fickle.”
But this may be more a reflection of a culture that is uncomfortable with emotional expression — a culture that wants everyone to be “happy” and “joyful” but doesn’t know what to do with sadness or grief.
Cancer is more comfortable with emotional expression and with the variability of emotions.
As a Cardinal sign, Cancer initiates change, but it doesn’t cling to what it started the way fixed signs do. Cardinal signs start something, and when they’re over that first thing, they move on to the next thing.
This includes emotions.
The Pattern in the Variability
Cancer is symboilzed by the crab, which lives in the temperamental tidal waters. The ebb and flow of the tides can offer protection and then sudden exposure, just like the waxing and waning of the moon can give us both the bright light of a full moon and complete darkness of a new moon.
From the surface, the waves and the moon look fickle, but if we zoom out we see that their variability is not random. There’s a clear pattern and rhythm to their movements.
Cancer’s Lesson About Emotions
This is the lesson that Cancer teaches us about emotions. Cancer is comfortable with the full range of emotions because it knows that emotions are just like the waves and the moon: there is a pattern to them, a rhythm, an ebb and flow.
If you’re in the ocean and a wave approaches, it’s safer to dive into the wave than to try to swim away from it. Eventually the wave will catch you and knock you over.
Cancer, a sign that seeks to protect, knows that the safest way to handle the approaching wave is to dive into it rather than try to escape it. It teaches us that we can can maintain safety by learning how to ride the waves of our emotions rather than suppressing them.
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