Cancer Season and the 4th Sign in the Astrological Wheel

Cancer Season and the 4th Sign in the Astrological Wheel

 As the 4th sign in the zodiacal year, Cancer season invites us to submerge ourselves in the Cardinal element of Water. Cardinal energy can be conceived of as “source” energy, the kind that springs up or springs forth into the world. It is the beginning or origin of energy. In the case of Cancer, Cardinal or source energy bubbles up from the wellspring of our emotions. From the heights of the summer solstice on June 21, 2022 until July 22, 2022, the healing waters of Cancer call to us. Water holds the space for our laughter and our tears, our creative impulses and our capacity to reconcile our desires or wants with what we actually need to feel the wholeness of our hearts. 


Cancer, with its Cardinal Water energy, makes its home in the 4th house. It builds upon the fire of new beginnings that is Aries, the grounding balance of Taurus and the flexibility of Gemini to communicate thoughts and ideas so that it can reestablish its roots to create a strong and stable foundation. Cancer and the 4th house embody the essence of home and family. Like the four legs of a chair or the four walls of a house, the 4th sign offers us the steady protection of a sacred place to process all that we feel. It also connects us to the spacious grace of our hearts through its relationship to the 4th Chakra, the Anahata, or Heart Chakra. It connects us to the infinite well of love, the source of all our beginnings, the home of the soul. In The SWT, the Suit of Water is called The Healer. Within this curative Suit and within the sign of Cancer, we can process and release emotional patterns that no longer serve. We can begin to nurture more understanding of and love for ourselves which, in turn, will help us expand our capacity to find more compassion and love for others.


Cancer speaks to our vulnerability, to the tender parts of ourselves that, like the crab - an ancient symbol of Cancer - we hide beneath our “shells”. During the season of the crab, consider how you might honor your vulnerabilities instead of thinking about them as weaknesses. When you are able to be vulnerable, you open yourself up to new ways of feeling and new perspectives that may actually lead you to discover your strengths. You can work with crab energy to help you shed negative emotions and develop more faith in your intuition to guide you. Meditate on home and family - biological or chosen - and the roots and foundations of your life. What qualities within these aspects of your life need more encouragement? What needs to be cleansed and released? Cultivating sacred spaces - both exterior and interior - can help you access your own sacred essence, your unique soul’s essence. Creating an altar dedicated to the energy of the 4th house - to the kind of home or family that you want to nurture - is a concrete and creative act that can amplify the power of the Cancer season to heal and expand our hearts.


The Moon rules over Cancer and, during this watery time, it can be especially helpful to look to our dreams - those that come to us in the night and those that arise out of our hearts - for sustenance and guidance. Keep a journal by your bed so you can write down your dreams and let their messages gestate. Give them space for quiet reflection and time to develop without any pressure to make sense of what shows up. Try to slow walk through your days without judgment. Like the Moon with its waxing and waning phases, the messages that come from your subconscious and from the quiet, intuitive voice that lives within need time to reveal their riches to you. Their evolution can lead to greater awareness of how and why you feel the way you do. Call upon the mother archetype as the original source of life and that is associated with Cancer and the Moon to help you let go of judgment and nurture more unconditional love in your life. Trust in your inviolable heart to guide you home.


Considerations For Cancer Season:

  • Create an altar dedicated to your family or to your dreams.
  • Keep a dream journal to record their complicated beauty. 
  • Tarot Cards to work with:
    • IV Majesty (aka The Emperor): as the 4th sign of the zodiacal wheel, consider how Cancer season corresponds to the 4th card in the Major Arcana. Majesty can help you architect a life of meaning by helping you access your own sacred power, the kind that serves to uplift all beings.
    • VII The Chariot: ruled by Cancer, this card invites you to pause and assess where you are in your life right now and what you wish to seek or pursue in the future. It encourages you to spend more time simply “being” instead of constantly “doing” so that you can feel into yourself more fully and root yourself more deeply into the wellspring of your purpose.
    • XVIII The Moon: encourages you to surrender to the infinite potential of now by cultivating a practice of presence. Take time for meditation or sit at your altar in quiet reflection. Draw a tarot card as a focus for mediation or journaling.


 



 




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