Brenda Makani Keau
Spiritual Advisor
Brenda Makani Keau
Spiritual Advisor
Cancer
The sense of 'Me'
If Cancer could talk, what would it say? "My home is my castle. I take it with me wherever I go. I just want to be myself and protect all the things I care about.I’m a mirror. I can feel just what it is you need. My sensitive nature makes me a natural as a parent and provides me with strong
emotional ties to my family. Still, I tenaciously guard my privacy.
I must have some quiet time or my mood turns sour. My relationships can fall apart once they discover how selfish I can be. I tend to go deep inside and disappear for a while into my own world. I am a sweetheart when I love someone, though. I wish them the best just as I wish it for myself and nothing makes me happier than to show how much I care. I offer encouragement for I understand insecurity. I want to nurture the family of humanity".
Color: Silver
Motto: “Make It Personal”
Object: A secret garden
Activity: Putting one’s child into bed
Style: Receptive, introspective, and caring
Ancient symbol: The Crab
Mode/Element: Cardinal Water (Urgent emotionality)
Anatomical part: The Breasts and the Stomach(Giving and receiving nourishment)
Famous Personalities: Princess Diana, Jacques Cousteau, Dear Abby,
Henry David Thoreau, and Mary Baker Eddy
Places in the World: The United States, Canada, Scotland and
New Zealand
As we look up at the northern sky on the summer solstice, we see the Sun reaching its highest place in the heavens. It is at its apex that the solar light appears to cross over the boundary into the segment of the sky we call Cancer, the span of the ecliptic that ranges from 90 to 119 degrees on the 360 degree zodiacal circle.
Spirituality flourishes in this sign, as pure feeling reaches its greatest fullness of expression and consciousness expands to encompass previously unimagined possibilities. Metaphysically speaking, Cancer is the most receptive to the light, which is why Jupiter and Neptune, the planets that support the maximum spiritual growth and development, are said to be exalted in this sign.
On a more mundane level, Cancer shares its most natural affinity with the Earth’s Moon. Both sign and luminary are symbolic of the ability to receive and internalize energy. On a collective level, the Moon and the sign Cancer represent the changing tides of emotion that sweep the populace. Thus if Aries creates, Taurus produces and Gemini markets the product, then Cancer is the buyer.
The sign of Cancer represents the consciousness that is most in touch with the emotional climate of society and all of its shifting moods. Cancer has an instinctive sense of what the public wants and what is motivating them to want it. It knows as well that the public is fickle and what is hot today can easily turn cold tomorrow, only to have something entirely different replace it. In the mass market place, members of the public buy whatever feeds their ego. Buying for the public then is a job that someone with parental qualities handles best.
What makes the public want what they want? Quite simply, people long to feel better about their lives. They want to feel secure and loved, protected and respected. When times are tough, they want to hold on to the belief that better days are just around the corner.
As reflectors of other people’s light, Cancerians tune in to what those around them are seeking. They can walk into a room and imbibe the energy that prevails. They are intensely aware of the emotional energy in their environment. If the surrounding energy is on the upsurge, Cancer flourishes; if it is downgrading, Cancer sinks into a malaise.
The resolution for Cancerians is to establish a center of serenity within their interior landscape and overcome their tendency to fluctuate in response to external occurrences. Before this feat is accomplished, Cancerians usually put themselves through a great deal of pain. They overreact to other people’s words and deeds and put themselves at the effect of life rather than operating at cause.
This is the sign associated with giving birth to new life. Birth can be the most painful event the human body can experience. Then again, it is also the most joyous.
No sign can be as self protective and defensive as Cancer. If you do something that results in their feeling hurt, they may never want to speak to you again. Fortunately, the more evolved of this sign forgive though they do not forget. They are the historians of the zodiac who seldom fail to remember anything that anybody ever said or did. Cancerians can easily enter a state of deja vu, bringing up a vivid picture of the past and reliving it over again. Thus, it takes them time to heal their feelings of being wounded. It is in the process of healing that their serious nature and their penchant for self examination enables them to take personal responsibility for their pain rather than make other people the source of it. While the complementary opposite sign, Capricorn, a consciousness oriented toward the external world, takes responsibility for its position in society, Cancer, the sign most oriented toward its internal reality, learns to assume responsibility for its reactions to society.
This is the sign that teaches us that everything that we do reflects our responsibility to ourselves.
Cancerians enjoy living in seclusion with hardly any human intervention to disrupt the flow of their inner life. They are the most introspective of all human creatures. They are capable of a consummate intimacy not only with self, but with the special few who they let into their private world. Nonetheless, as this is the sign associated with the changing moods of mass consciousness, Cancerians often wind up receiving public attention, even though they are seldom comfortable with it. It is far more natural for them to operate from the home front where they can tend to their near and dear with tender loving care and thus keep everything under their auspices.
Like their astrological symbol, the crab, these folks can seem hard on the outside, but they are inevitably soft in their interior. Thus when they feel they are running on empty, they fill their stomachs with food. Then again, there are times when they do not wish to eat at all.
Cancerians are here to learn to honor their feelings, as well as the feelings of others. These individuals eventually detach emotionally from any situation or relationship where they feel caught up in a destructive pattern. They can be the most selfless individuals, caring for and nurturing their loved ones with a depth of commitment that is unique to the role of parent (whether it is an actual role or a surrogate one.) They can also be the most selfish and make their feelings and their needs more important than anything else. Their selfishness, however, is somewhat justified for no sign is kinder or more caring once it has found emotional peace.
If it were not for this sign, then home and family and parental love would not have the significance in our lives that they do. Cancer’s greatest gift is tenacity and its amazing power to sense everyone’s emotional state can hold a family, an organization and a country together, as it momentarily forgets itself and caters to the immediate needs of all those needing to feel comfortable, secure and safe in their skin.