It may be asserted that imagination is the Cancer quality. 
                 There is imagination and imagination. 
                 There is the morbid kind and there is what we may call the 
               harmless kind...just happy daydreaming and building castles 
               in the air; this, provided it is kept within bounds, is 
               often pleasant.  Some Cancerians build quite substantial 
               castles, with lovely surroundings attached, and there they 
               can retreat from the unkindness of the world and live an 
               imaginary life of their own making, from which every 
               disagreeable feature of actual existence is banished. 
                 But above both of those there is a very noble 
               faculty...the Creative Imagination, and we shall see its 
               work in the achievements of many great artists, poets, and 
               prose writers. 
                 The morbid imagination, often the result of a square or 
               opposition between it and the other cardinal signs, 
               especially Libra, reflects the dark clouds rather than the 
               bright sky in its perturbed waters, and torments itself and 
               depresses others with its gloomy forebodings of the future, 
               or sad memories of the past. 
                 One may realize how absurd one's fears and delusions are, 
               and yet one cannot get rid of them. 
                 Cancer, cardinal-water, is a river and the more smoothly 
               it can run its course, the better.  Else we may have 
               unhealthy stagnation on the one hand, or disastrous floods 
               on the other. 
                 I should say that Sun in Cancer is better than Cancer 
               rising, and of course the Moon in Cancer is good.  Not only 
               kindly, but shrewd. 
                 It is not difficult to understand why it is not a very 
               good ascending sign. 
                 Of course, as I am never tired of pointing out, it all 
               depends on what means by "good." But the ascendant and 
               midheaven are the most exposed parts of the figure, and it 
               seems on the whole desirable to have strong signs there.  In 
               these latitudes  Cancer rising usually brings Pisces on to 
               the meridian and so one gets an unusually sensitive 
               personality. 
                 Now Cancer is certainly timid.  Like the crab itself, it 
               is apt to scurry to its hole on the appearance of danger. 
               Yet, paradoxically, it is a lover of travel.  This appears 
               racially in the Chinese and Scots, who settle all over the 
               world and thrive, but never break their link with the 
               homeland.  I suppose the symbol of the river helps again: a 
               river must keep flowing but is dependent at all times on its 
               source. 
                 Cancer is the quincunx to Sagittarius, and so one would 
               expect them to be unlike, but they are both travellers.  At 
               least, tradition call the 9th sign the sign of travel 
               abroad.  Actually I should say it is more explorative than 
               Cancer; it has an urge to find what lies beyond the ranges 
               but Cancer is perhaps rather the tourist, or commercial 
               traveller. 
                 But how many exceptions do we find in Astrology!  No 
               sooner does one put down a statement than cases that 
               contradict it spring to the mind. 
                 Let us turn to M. Barbault's admirable book on Cancer.  He 
               has, as readers of the reviews in Astrology will know, 
               written, with the help of collaborators, books on several of 
               the signs that would seem to cover every point of view, 
               garnishing his dish with all sorts of illustrations. 
                 He writes: 

                 "If one bears in mind that Cancer comes none months before 
               the first sign, the Ram...symbol of birth, one will grasp 
               the essential value of Cancer; symbol of conception and 
               fecundation.  To be exact, the season to which it 
               corresponds is that of the formation of seeds, the vegetal 
               sap begins to swell the tissues of life and of nature in 
               full fecundity.  Triumph of the birth-giving maternal 
               forces, conception, gestation, maternity: such is the 
               Cancerian process in its alimentary, digestive, formative 
               context.  In retrospect, one may say that it is in Cancer 
               that the germ, produced from the union (Gemini) of the ovum 
               (Taurus) and the spermatozoon (Aries) transforms itself and 
               ripens; there it is that the individual is formed, the 
               personal cellule." 

                 He goes on to draw attention to the birth of all life from 
               the water...and Cancer is the first of the aquatic trigon. 
                 Indeed, "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the 
               waters." 
                 From this we may readily see that, whether we like to 
               think of Cancer as a somewhat humdrum sign or not, it is in 
               fact by no means least among the Twelve. 
                 Perhaps we are too apt to take mother and motherhood for 
               granted. 
                 Moreover, modern psychology seems to be "agin the parent," 
               whether male or female. 
                 Not satisfied with making mother a target for criticism of 
               all sorts, we are now planning to shoot the Moon in earnest 
               and smudge her silvern face, beloved and sung by so many 
               poets, with atomic explosions.  There is something 
               definitely symbolic in this, and for my part I dislike what 
               it symbolizes. 
                 Perhaps, like Cupid's love-shaft, these rockets will be 
               "quenched in the chaste beams of the wat'ry moon." 
                 At all events, since this matter of lunar bombardment has 
               been under discussion, we have had the Little Rock and 
               Notting Hill troubles, the negro races being traditionally 
               under Cancer.  I daresay something analogous has been taking 
               place in other regions, too. 
                 Formosa, no doubt, is under Venus but the Chinese mainland 
               is another Cancer territory, and it looks as if that great 
               country will loom very large indeed in the near future. 
                 We have spoken of Cancerian sensitiveness and its 
               imagination. 
                 These qualities make it very sympathetic.  It is sorry for 
               itself and it is sorry for others.  However, even this is 
               sometimes held against it.  As every homeopath knows, some 
               people resent sympathy; they don't want tears shed over 
               them; it irritates them. 
                 Then again, Cancer is motherly, but some people don't wish 
               to be mothered. 
                 According to an American who was to be seen and heard on 
               TV lately there is a dreadful development in the U.S.A. 
               called "togetherness," the idea being that every family 
               should all stand together, and do alike, think alike, and 
               feel alike.  We know how strongly the U.S.A. is under 
               Cancer...Sun, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter there...and this is 
               often evident from their reactions. 
                 As for the Chinese, one doesn't know how it is now, but in 
               the old days the family mansion simply grew and grew as the 
               sons and grandsons got married and just came along and built 
               an annex, the whole being ruled by the eldest female, who 
               could only be approached with the most elaborate ceremonies 
               of respect. 
                 Nearer home, the cult of the Great Mother flourished in 
               Crete and the Near East generally.  Then the Nordic tribes 
               came south with their Father God, and for a time there was 
               conflict, until the "Holy Marriage" took place at Argos in a 
               solemn religious ceremony. 
                 As we know, the inner longing for a Mother-Goddess of pity 
               and consolation has produces the Cultus of the Virgin Mary, 
               which appears to be gathering momentum everywhere in the 
               Roman Catholic world. 
                 For Cancer is not easily thwarted and put down.  Unlike 
               the quincunx sign Sagittarius with its sudden enthusiasms 
               and changes of interest, Cancer holds on.  Even if its claw 
               is torn off, it grows another.  When it succeeds it is 
               usually due to this doggedness, a word not inappropriate 
               actually, since both Sirius and Procyon fall in the 
               longitude of the 4th sign! 
                 In fact, though the constellation Cancer is a poor sort of 
               affair, and no more like a crab that a broomstick, the sign 
               is rich in fixed stars falling in Cancer longitudes. 
               Sirius, Canopus, Pollux and Procyon are all of the 1st 
               magnitude, Alhena and Castor of the 2nd. 
                 We might as well look at these "redeeming features," if 
               such they be, in Cancerian mediocrity:
 

 
               I cannot claim to have closely studied any of these, but
               the three that fall in constellation Gemini...Alhena, Castor 
               and Pollux...all have qualities appropriate to that group, 
               according to my conviction that stars take their flavour 
               from their constellations, not from the signs that have the 
               same longitudes. 
                 Many well-known writers are natives of Cancer and this may 
               be ascribed, not only to the fact that an active imagination 
               is an asset, indeed a necessity, in many forms of 
               authorship, but also to these Geminian stars. 
                 Sirius and Procyon might be thought to indicate a passion 
               for dogs, but this I have not observed, nor does it seem to 
               me that these animals are particularly Cancerian.  It is 
               their masters, not their homes, to which they are chiefly 
               attached.  Even a watch-dog would probably say, if he could 
               express his feelings, that it was master and master's 
               property he was guarding, not the house as such. 
                 Sirius is, of course, the brightest star in the heavens 
               and very beautiful it is, on a clear frosty moonless night, 
               see Tennyson: 

                            "And as the fiery Sirius alters hue, 
                             And bickers into red and emerald, shone 
                             Their morions, washed with morning, as they came." 

                 I believe a prominent Sirius makes for bigness, in some 
               form or other.  Magnitude of body, of aspirations and 
               ambitions, and so forth. 
                 But regarding Procyon I have nothing to say. 
                 Canopus, invisible in our latitudes, is Alpha Argus, and 
               Argus, of course, is the first ship, in which Jason and his 
               comrades set out on the quest of the golden fleece.  This is 
               just one of many "Grail" legends, the search for something 
               mystical and wonderful.  So perhaps Canopians have this urge 
               particularly pronounced in their souls, manifesting 
               according to their spiritual development. 
                 Canopus is so close to Sirius in longitude, though not in 
               latitude, that the two stars would tend to operate together. 
                 Cecil Rhodes had his Sun in 12 Cancer and here we have the 
               vast ambitions of Sirius combined with the spirit of quest. 
                 I have spoken of Cancerian mediocrity.  This is being 
               harsh.  But I have a notion that a good many of the people 
               whom the thoughtless are apt to stigmatise as "worthy but 
               quite uninteresting" are natives either of Cancer or of 
               Virgo.  Indeed Cancer is not supposed to be gifted with good 
               looks or a distinguished appearance.  But we shall find 
               exceptions. 
                 It is the sign of the masses or of the common people, in 
               contrast to Leo, the sign of royalty and nobility.  You know 
               how tradition tells us that a lunar eclipse, if malignant, 
               falls upon the people at large. 
                 However, Cancer has its share of pleasant qualities. 
                 One is a charming smile, gentle and kind.  A rugged or 
               commonplace Cancer face is frequently suddenly transformed 
               by a smile of this kind, and this is a "signature" that 
               often aids in rectification. 
                 Another is a soft and sympathetic voice which can be 
               persuasive. 
                 Socially Cancer has a valuable card in its powers of 
               mimicry.  Why crabs should be good mimics I cannot say, but 
               natives of the sign certainly are.  For example, they can 
               render dialects excellently, and they have the rubber face 
               that can twist itself into an endless succession of 
               grimaces.  I am told that the expressionless faces of 
               monkeys and apes are caused by lack of facial muscles; well, 
               Cancerians are well endowed in this respect. 
                 Talking of monkeys and therefore being reminded of Gemini, 
               one would suppose that the difference between this sign and 
               Cancer would of itself dispose of the sidereal zodiac 
               heresy.  For I have never met a native of the Crab who could 
               possibly be mistaken for Gemini and vice versa. 
                 Still, one must get combinations of the two, and in the 
               animal kingdom this brings one to Squirrels, Geminian in 
               movement, but Cancer in their prudent provision for the 
               winter. 
                 For the Mother-Sign is the sign of prudence and 
               thrift...once again note the contrast with Sagittarius.  It 
               is also by no means averse to hard work.  In many respects 
               it is the businessmen's sign.  More shrewd and painstaking 
               in its preparations than Leo and more ambitious than Virgo, 
               being after all a cardinal sign.  It is by no means a 
               stick-in-the-mud but its progress is apt to be slow and 
               cautious.  It likes publicity and yet, owing to its shy 
               sensitiveness, it may suffer agonies on the platform. 
                 Indeed, Cancer has other traits that are prone to be in 
               conflict and cause pain. 
                 It is sympathetic, and yet it has a strong sense of 
               self-protection and family guardianship, so that it cannot 
               find it easy to part with cash for those outside its family 
               circle, when they present their supplications for a little 
               "ready." 
                 It wants to get on, but it has not the "thick skin" which 
               protects others ambitious signs. 
                 And, of course, as an affectionate parent it suffers when 
               the nestlings take flight and imagines them in all sorts of 
               dangers. 
                 Byron, who had Mars, Moon and Uranus in Cancer and may 
               have had it rising, exemplifies some characteristic 
               features: a cruel and bitter-tongued mother, intense 
               suffering because of physical deformity, violent changes in 
               public opinion...he "awoke to find himself famous" and then 
               again had to leave England because of a scandal involving a 
               half-sister. 
                 Perhaps a few words might now be said as to Cancer and 
               Marriage. 
                 So far as data go, I have little to go upon, and in such a 
               matter, this is good: it means that Cancerian marriages are 
               usually quiet homely affairs as one would expect, founded 
               upon sincere affection and a certain shrewd appreciation of 
               material factors. 
                 I remember a case that illustrated the Cancer attitude. 
                 A lady, no longer young and in a secure post, carrying 
               with it a good pension, announced her intention of marrying 
               an elderly widower.  When the wisdom of this was questioned, 
               she assumed that what was in the querent's mind was not the 
               disparity of age, but financial security, since she would 
               forfeit her pension.  She replied that she had consulted the 
               Lord and He had confidently assured her that the prospective 
               bridegroom had a pleasing portfolio of sound investments as 
               well as the freehold of several properties.  So the marriage 
               took place and I am sure it was satisfactory to both 
               parties, if not rapturously happy.  Cancer would not let you 
               down...or let you go. 
                 I suppose Cancer women tend to marry men older than
               themselves, invalids or ne'er-do-wells: that is, those who need
               mothering. 
                 In any case, as in marriage so in all else, one of the principal 
               virtues of Cancer is its tenacity. "Never say die" is Cancerian.

                 Coming now to famous natives of Cancer, or persons with 
               strong lunar representation, we may begin with one who is
               supreme in his own field and a moulder of modern thought: 
               Albert Einstein.  His ascendant is in the longitude of Sirius and
               great indeed are his conceptions. 
                 Van Gogh is an example of the Cancerian neurotic genius. 
               He cut off an ear in remorse at having quarrelled with a friend
               and finally shot himself.  But what a legacy of sunshine he has
               bequeathed to us! 
                 In his case Pollux as conjunction the ascendant in longitude. 
                 Then we must mention Sir James Barrie who wrote a book 
               about his mother and created "Wendy": Venus rising in Cancer. 
               Then his play Dear Brutus is a wonderful example of lunar imagination. 
                 Cancer represents the negative side of thought, as Gemini 
               stands for the extroverted mind.  And so it is not strange that it
               is often related to psychology, and in particular, to the psychology 
               of the unconscious. 
                 I believe Freud had Cancer rising. 
                 Alfred Adler had this sign on the ascendant, with Uranus, and
               Dr, Jung had Mercury conjunction Venus in it, in the 6th,
               sextile the Moon and Pluto. 
                 It would not surprise me to find that a large proportion of those 
               who betake themselves to the psycho-analyst have strong
               Cancer elements. 
                 M. Barbault gives highly interesting studies of celebrities with 
               strong Cancer elements in their nativities.  Most of them are
               French but have an international reputation.  I cannot claim,
               however, to know much about them, but others will be better
               informed than I. 
                 Jean Cocteau was born at Maisons-Laffitte, July 5, 1889, at
               one in the morning.  Sun and Mars are in Cancer. 
                 Next we have Camille Corot, born July 16, 1796, 1:30 a.m.,
               with Sun and Mercury in Cancer and Moon on the descendant.
               "For a long while his timidity kept him in the toils of the 
               academism of his masters; he kept numberless 
               masterpieces in his cupboards for fear of giving offence to 
               public opinion." 
               Later "he abandoned himself to his genius.  Then the countryside
               became for him a state of his very soul which reflects his
               melancholy and he gives the first place to sentiment:'I interpret
               with my heart as much as with my eye.' He no longer paints
               Nature but the love he has for her." Again, "the deep source 
               of his genius is the perpetual renewal of infancy.  Life has
               neither palled upon him, nor disgusted him; it has left him the
               freshness of purity and an innocence that astonishes and
               ravishes." "The lake of the Ville d'Avray becomes for a 
               time the center of his dreams." 
                 The next name is Salvador Dali, born at Figueras, May 11, 
               1904, 8h.45m. a.m. 
                 Then comes Debussey, August 22, 1862, 4h.30m. a.m.,
               Saint Germain en Laye. 
                 The Moon is with Venus in Cancer trine Neptune...
               a most significant formation. 
                 Now Christoph Willibald Gluck, born July 2, 1714, hour unknown. 
                 Sun and Mercury in Cancer, both in trine the Moon. 
                 "It is not to Cancer that he owes the fact that he was a musician of
               the opera(but doubtless Venus in Leo) but it is as a
               Cancerian that he conceived dramatic music, and the revolution to 
               which he leads brought about the triumph of the values
               of Cancer." 
                 La Fontaine comes next, and he had Mercury, Saturn, Venus 
               and Sun in Cancer. 
                 Barbault remarks "La Fontaine belongs to the type Primary
               Cancer (Moon in Fishes, trine Mercury-Cancer, trine
               Mars-Scorpio). All his life he will be the child lodged, petted,
               and nourished by lady friends who will protect him.  The eternal
               dreamer, fugitive, not to be grasped, ever wandering and upon the
               wing." 
                 We do not know his ascendant, but the map is really striking: Sun, 
              Mercury, Venus and Saturn in Cancer, all trine Mars
               and (probably) trine the Moon, but also all square Neptune.  This last 
               body is in Libra, trine  Jupiter in Gemini. 
                 He was indeed an example of the "inconstant Moon" of the poet. 
               That inconstancy that seems so incompatible with the
               tenacity that is attributed to the sign Cancer. 
                 Pierre Larquey (born in Dordogne, July 10, 1884, 19h.) 
               is described as one of the most Cancerian of the French "stars."
               One recognizes the type in the traits of "bonhomme, simple and
               familiar" with a quavering voice, often surrounded by a
               cortege of children, of whom he is the kindly father. (Barbault) 
                 We have the great Italian poet Leopardi; then Ludwig I of Bavaria
               (Uranus rising in Cancer) who lost his throne thanks to a
               highly Cancerian lady...Lola Montes, who had Sun and Venus 
               in Cancer and Moon in Fishes, and flitted through Europe
               causing scandal after scandal. 
                 Next name is Amadeo Modigliani, with Sun-Mercury-Venus in 
               Cancer, and once again, Moon in Pisces. 
                 We go back a long way to Montaigne, who was born with Saturn 
               rising in Cancer, as he himself records.  M. Barbault sums
               him up: "Montaigne is the man of movement towards the self(interior) 
               and of movement into the past, as witness his
               character, his life, his spiritual outlook, his work." 
                 We find next Marcel Proust.  The day is July 9, 1871, towards midnight,
               at Paris.  The time is not given, but ascendant
               probably Aries. 
                 One could well devote an evening to the study of this map. 
                 M. Barbault quotes Maurice Sachs" "He believed in a paradise that 
               lived itself in the body of the mother and up to leaving
               infancy, for is delights were not set in a life to come, but in a life that 
               had been and which could never be again." 
                 Barbault himself adds: 
                 "To simplify the matter a little: here then is a native of the inharmonious 
               Cancer-Neptune type...if one considers the
               dissolvent character of his spirit rejoicing in dissociation and decomposition, 
               the irresistible attraction that twilight conditions
               exercised over him, his tastes for drugs, his unsophisticated amorality,
               his unwholesome inquisitiveness as a voyeur, his
               inversion and the more secret aberrations of the sexual instinct, 
               one identifies the signature of Neptune without difficulty." 
                 However, Barbault does not appear to pay attention to the
               sextiles of Pluto. 
               It would be interesting to seek to discover their significance 
              in this strange being. 
                 In the novel A la Recherche du Temps Perdu..."seeking the time
               that is lost,"we are told that all the personages are
               "prisoners of the swamp"...a most Cancerian image.  For if the healthy 
               Cancer is a running stream, so an unhealthy one is
               indeed a swamp. 
                 Three more names of note: 
                 Rembrandt, Sun and Mercury in Cancer, the former in trine to the
               Moon in Scorpio. 
                 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Sun in Cancer, with a double sextile to 
               Moon-Neptune in Taurus. 
                 Franz Schubert, ascendant Cancer, Moon nearly on the M.C. 
                 All and every one of these, as treated by our French colleague, 
               would make an evening's study, especially for those who
               are familiar with their writings and other products of their intellects.
               They tell one pretty well all there is to know about the
               intellectual and artistic side of Cancer. 
                 We may last of all mention William Blake, Moon rising in Cancer,
               who was a strange genius if there ever was one.  A man
               who openly exalted Imagination above Reason and Science: 
                 His vision, he wrote, was "fourfold in his supreme delight" and 
               "twofold always"... 

                       "God us keep from single vision and Newton's sleep." 

                 An unkind dig at a great thinker who himself had Moon in Cancer! 
                 Thus I must conclude that Cancer, with its double symbol, is a sign
               of paradox.  There is a commonplace kind and there is
               a formidable array of genius in the world of art and literature. 
                 As I have said, I am inclined to ascribe this to the prominent stars
               whose longitudes fall in the sign Cancer, itself an unimpressive
               constellation. 
                 I do not think Cancer is a happy ascendant, but it is plain from 
               what has been said that it can be a gifted one, and perhaps
               Sun in Cancer is better still. 
                 So I cannot carry out Mrs. Rodgers' suggestion, when she asked 
               me to write on this sign, that I should "give the creature a
               bashing" or words to that effect! 
                 Only the most debased will vilipend their mother...and Cancer is 
               the Great Mother of us all, or at least her signature in the
               zodiacal script.

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© Astrological Lodge Lecture  -§-  6 October 1958
© Astrology Quarterly  -§-  Vol. 33/1

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