Chapter VII. The Individual and Personal Character of the sign Cancer

The Individual and Personal Character of the sign Cancer

The sign Cancer begins the maternal trinity. It is the first of the watery triplicity and the second of the cardinal signs. This sign governs the breast and stomach. It is one of the most sensitive signs of the zodiac, and belonging as it does to the maternal trinity, it governs all home and domestic affairs in which the feelings play a prominent part. Persons born in this sign are characterised as being slow but sure. They are best described by the crab, whose tenacity is proverbial ; this creature moves forward by going backward, and it has come to be looked upon as a sign of retrogression. The main feature, however, of this sign is the power of retentive memory. The Cancer individual has the most remarkable memory of any given by the twelve signs, and it is no difficulty for them to recall minute incidents of the past. This makes them somewhat antiquated, as they love to dwell on past events, or to go over in their memory through past occurrences, and through this they often become somewhat limited and hindered, particularly where attachment to family is prominent in the life. Their highly sensitive nature makes them feel very keenly everything that affects the other members of the family, and for them domestic affairs become a kind of brake on their own individual progress. They are rather approbative, love to be approved of, and always yearn for the sympathy of others. They are very timid, reserved, and shy, and fear ridicule or disapproval very much, and this makes them somewhat conventional, with a great dread and fear of public opinion. This binds them to clan or sect and makes them studious of ** Caste." When attached to the Catholic faith they are very sincere and earnest ill all ritualistic observances. They are also fond of banding together into sects, and when moving along the higher lines of conventionality, men become freemasons and members of occult and secret communities, and women are drawn to mystical and occult meetings. When fully individualised these persons are remarkable for their imagination, Lut when running to the personal side of their life they become very fanciful, romantic, superstitious, and fond of the unseen. From Sensation they work through feehng to the highest emotional, and it

becomes very difficult to find harmonious persons born in this sign ; on the side of feeling they are truly wonderful people, but this feeling may carry them into the worst forms of sensationalism or upward into the plane of the emotions. Being exceedingly Fensitive, their feelings are very easily wounded. They possess a psychic gift in their feelings, being able easily to feel the impressions around them. They are economical and very fond of saving, which trait runs into almost all the details of their life, as they are very fond of saving letters, books, and all kinds of cUrios. They hoard up curios to a remarkable extent, being fond of all that is antique and connected with age and the past. They can become very conservative and certainly respect age and custom. They are persistent and exceedingly tenacious ; they are apt, however, to live more in the personal side of their nature than is good for their well-being and that of those around them, but they possess a certain amount of tact, which assists them considerably. When fully individuahsed these persons possess a great love of power, and once having gained it they seem to have the ability to hold it. They are not so ambitious as they are lovers of fame and public recognition, and this they desire, as they seek a world-wide approval. They can rake up from the past things that others have long forgotten. When acfing along personal lines only they are inactive and inclined to be indolent and somewhat grasping.

As this sign governs the stomach, this organ will be a sensitive part of the system, and when the personal element is strong, we shall find these persons suflfering from weak digestion and gastric troubles. They require to be careful in diet, there being a tendency to suffer from fermentation in the stomach. Worry and anxiety with them are frequent causes of indigestion, which produces a defective circulation, and brings in its train constipation, congestion, rheumatism and chronic disorders. They are liable to suffer from fancied ailments, and to become hypochondriac.

They are always nervous when ailing, and generally fear the worst results of any functional disorders, and in this respect they become so morbid that they actually produce the illness they imagine themselves suffering from.

Their cure is a healthy imagination and freedom from all anxiety, especially with regard to domestic affairs.

A Cancer person is best adapted in life to those pursuits which

embrace the catering for the masses, and he should be engaged in professions in which the general public are largely concerned. They make splendid historians, being able to write up the past with a comparative accuracy. As the Aries types would do well as leaders in the military world, as captains, generals, etc., so will the Cancer types do well as naval captains and in all professions connected with the sea. They make good nurses, caterers and hotel keepers, barmaids, confectioners, actors and actresses, companions, cooks, laundresses, dealers in second-hand clothing, second-hand booksellers, dressmakers, matrons, midwives, mineral water manufacturers, researchers, stewardesses, and succeed best in all matters of a fluctuating and public nature, in commodities that change hands often, and in matters of small profits and quick returns.

In summarising the character of the Cancer portion of humanity > we may best illustrate the character of this type by observing that they are seeking to become perfectly individualised, and for this purpose tenacity is one of their chief characteristics. They are very reserved and sensitive, sympathetic and tenacious, persistent and impatient, impressionable and emotional. It is necessary for them to become at times what the world calls selfish that they may protect their individuality, but when this has been attained they are self-possessed, self-reliant and strong characters, in which power becomes the marked feature. This sign completes the first four signs in the zodiac, in which the four triplicities, fire, earth, air and water, co-mingle, as it were ; it is symbolic of the film or auric egg that contains the whole.