Preface
If your birthday does not
fall during the Cancer timeframe for the year you were born, this DOES NOT mean
that you do not experience the energy of Cancer, because somewhere in your
natal birth chart, it is present. All twelve signs of the zodiac are expressed
in your being, although some signs, and therefore their corresponding energies,
may be more emphasized than others. The Sun sign is about your essence, your
vitality (what makes you feel alive), and your self-image. Whatever your Sun
sign, you are on a life-long journey to discover and fully embrace this sign’s
energy.
The Sun began its transit of the sign of Cancer on June 20, 2013
at 10:03 p.m. PDT.
Cancer Energy at a Glance
Here are some of the descriptive terms used to
describe the characteristics of Cancerians:
*Sensitive
|
*Intuitive
|
*Nurturing
|
*Emotional
|
*Upholder of traditions
|
*Brooding
|
*Helper
|
*Domestic
|
* Security
Seeker
|
*Sympathetic
|
*Tenacious
|
*Protective
|
*Possesses a Good Memory
|
*Vulnerable
|
*Imaginative
|
*Tender
|
*Supportive
|
*Mothering
|
*Long-suffering
|
*Manipulative
|
Cancerians Speak
Anthony
Bourdain
Cancerian Chef
and TV host of “No Reservations”
Born June
25, 1956
“To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage,
organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living.
Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, an
affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food.”
Angela Merkel
Cancerian
Chancellor of Germany
Born July
17, 1954
“Our birth rate is now half that in 1965 ... When I am
chancellor, family values will be enshrined in our taxation system.”
Andrew Wyeth
Cancerian
Visual Artist
Born July
12, 1917 and died January 16, 2009
“Let’s be sensible about this. I put a lot of things
into my work which are very personal to me. So how can the public feel these
things? I think most people get to my work through the back door. They’re
attracted by the realism and they sense the emotion and the abstraction — and
eventually, I hope, they get their own powerful emotion.”
Elizabeth
Warren
Cancerian U.S.
Senator from Massachusetts
Born June
22, 1949
“I'm still very connected to my family, to the world I
grew up in. I understand what it means to be afraid that you can't pay a
doctor's bill. Or to have to make the choice between buying a band uniform for
a seventh-grader and making the insurance payment on time. That will never
leave me. It was how I lived until I was well into my adult years.”
Diana
Spencer
Cancerian
Princess of Wales
Born July 1,
1961 and died August 31, 1997
“I will fight for my children on any level so they can
reach their potential as human beings and in their public duties”
What Astrologers Say About the Sign of Cancer
Cancerian Symbolism and Rulerships
Astrologer Deborah Houlding informs us that the symbolism for
the zodiac sign of Cancer has its origins in ancient Babylonia and Greece. More
widely known from its Greek origins, the crab came to represent the sign’s
characteristics of loyalty, persistence, and determination. As the mythological
tale goes, the goddess Hera had intentions to kill the mighty Hercules. Hera
managed to manipulate Hercules into committing a great crime, for which he was
“sentenced’ to performing various labors in order to be forgiven. One of his
tasks was to kill the nine-headed water serpent, Hydra. While he was engaged in
a contest with the Hydra, Hera sent a crab to assist Hydra. The crab
successfully bit Hercules’s toes, but because of the hero’s strength, he
smashed the crab’s shell and killed it. As a reward, Hera placed the image of
the crab in the heavens. Another version of the story has Hercules kicking the
crab into the night
Above
is the glyph for the zodiac sign of Cancer. The glyph
drawing resembles pincers extending themselves from the shell of the crab.
Astrologer Bruce Nevin contends that the image represents female breasts and
the stomach, parts of the anatomy ruled by Cancer. Nevin says that from an alternative
viewpoint, the glyph looks like a nest with two eggs in it.[3] In whichever way one perceives the symbolism
of the glyph, it clearly is associated with nurturing, emotional security, and
protection.
In astrology’s system
of rulerships, the Moon rules the sign of Cancer. According to Nevin, the
Moon’s psychological associations include memory, the subconscious mind, the
development and release of habits, one’s conditioning, one’s insecurities, and
how you nurture and reassure others.[4]
The Moon’s territory is the instinctual and subliminal mind.
Do you recall the
passage from William Shakespeare’s Romeo
and Juliet, when the female protagonist begs her lover,
O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.
Juliet’s response to
Romeo, Capulet’s Orchard[5]
««««««««««
In the above passage, Juliet aptly captures the qualities of the
moon, the luminary in astrology that symbolizes changeability, emotionality,
sensitivity, moodiness, nurturance, protection and ties to the past. It is a
yin energy that females understand at a deep level, since the cycle of the
female menses coincides roughly with the cycle of the moon. In artful language,
Juliet is telling Romeo that she wants their love relationship to be an
emotional tie that she can count on— one that is NOT like the moon. Perhaps
this represents an inherent contradiction in the nature of the sign of Cancer,
ruled by the inconstant moon. Cancer, with changeability in its nature, craves stability
and emotional security. Interestingly enough, Cancer does get a “monogamous
commitment” from its ruler, the Moon. Unlike most of the other planets in both
traditional and modern astrology, the Moon only rules Cancer.
Cancer begins the season of summer at the solstice, and it is
associated with the cardinal principle. As the season initiators, Cardinal
signs are pivots or turning points of the year. This classification of signs
represent a new energy to propel the movement forward.
As the fourth sign of the zodiac, Cancer rules the fourth house
of the natal chart. Nevin notes that the fourth house begins the quadrant of
the dependent family experience that influences and affects our conduct and
direction in life. This familial experience affects our personal sense of security
and our ability to nurture others. It can serve as a rich source of strength
and purpose as we navigate our lives.[6]
How Cancer Energy Manifests In the
Personality
After the intellectual
whirlwind adventures of the preceding sign of Gemini, the succeeding sign of
Cancer wants to go inward into its home and focus on the subjective world of
feelings. Gemini represents
externalized, outwardly focused male energy (although some say this sign is
androgynous). At the summer solstice,
the cycle precipitates a change to the female energy of Cancer. This is a
completely new realm of exploration, and it suits the Cancerian just fine to
burrow in this challenging, but comfortable world of caring for others and
forging bonds.
A primary concern for those
with a heavy emphasis of Cancer energy is the need to be taken care of, or
conversely, to be the nurturer and the one whom others depend on. Cancerians are
the quintessential mothers. It can in fact be their reason for existence. In
order to fulfill their mission at a competent level, Cancerians need to build
an appropriate home or nest of some type. This represents their need for a
secure environment, a place that is personal, and where people important to the
sign are nourished.
In her usual eloquent style,
astrologer Dana Gerhardt elaborates on the nature of the sign by observing the
life of the crab. Gerhardt asks why the
crab didn’t evolve to swim full-time in the sea, or why it did not evolve to
live on land’s hard surface. Gerhardt
says that crabs must have a love or need for both form (land) and formlessness
(the ocean). The crab lives between the
rhythmic sea and the surfaces of cliffs and sand. This astrologer says that
this unstable living environment explains the protected shell, the sideways
movement, and the clawing pincers. Cancerians, as represented by the crab, seek
security because the watery world of feelings is constantly shifting.[7]
Cancer has natural instincts
about other people’s needs. While all people vary in their need for
domesticity, each of us has a “minimum daily requirement” for a home, a
reliable place where we rest and surrounded ourselves with items we value and people
we cherish. This is where we nourish our bodies and our souls. Some sayings must have been derived from the
innate wisdom of a Cancerian, like “there is no place like home.” Or perhaps a
Cancerian first uttered the adage, “the fastest way to a man’s heart is through
his stomach.” This sign extends its protective tendencies to its love of
country, and it wouldn’t be surprising to hear patriotic utterances from those
who have Cancerian energy highlighted in their natal charts.
When I think of motherhood
and its association with Cancerians, I am reminded of the story of Evelyn Ryan,
captured in a book authored by her daughter Terry Ryan, who entitled this
memoir The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio:
How My Mother Raised 10 Children on 25 Words
or Less. A movie was later made
based on the book, which included a perfectly cast Julianne Moore as mother
Evelyn Ryan. Evelyn is married to an
alcoholic who often spends his paychecks on liquor rather than on the family’s
necessities. When Evelyn seeks guidance from the parish priest about her
husband’s problem and its impact on the family, her concerns are essentially
minimized by the priest, who is quick to excuse the alcoholic father. To bring
stability to the family’s finances during the 1950’s and 1960’s, Evelyn enters
contests that challenge participants to devise jingles for various consumer
products. Clearly, Evelyn has
communication and marketing talents, and she becomes successful in winning
contests, securing both valuable items for the family, as well as prizes that
are more amusing conversation pieces. Despite overwhelming challenges, Evelyn
makes the best of her difficult situation with an upbeat attitude and deep
affection for her children, meanwhile contending with an envious and abusive
husband, and no moral support from her religion’s institution. Regardless of what any mother’s sun sign may
be, if she is “doing” motherhood, she is activating the Cancer energy in her
being. Like Evelyn, many mothers operate
on the octane of “love” to overcome enormous obstacles while raising their
families.[8]
Like the other water signs,
Cancer’s personal boundaries are fluid and therefore encourage the expression
of the emotions and ties to others. In astrological terms, the element of water
is passive and receptive. When you
envision water, you know that it can take on many forms, from a hot vaporized
steam to an extremely cold slab of ice. Similarly, the nature of Cancer takes
on many personalities, from a moody, weepy, plotting personality, to the
native’s state of soothing, protective warmth. Like other cardinal signs,
Cancer does not tend to give up ground, but rather will persist with a goal she
believes is worthy of pursuit. This is
not the aggressive pursuit of an Aries, or the duty bound plodding of a
Capricorn. Cancer maintains her power with resistance. Think of the many years Cancerian Nelson
Mandela spent imprisoned with the vision of a South Africa free of apartheid. Another
Cancerian, the fourteenth Dalai Lama, the exiled Buddhist leader, has also
utilized peaceful resistance to gain support for a free Tibet. On a less
political note, Cancerian Princess Diana (“shy Di”) won the hearts of the
British public with her averted gazes and her low-key utterances about the
stifling environment created by the Royal family. I read that Diana, in
addition to her devotion for providing care to children, loved to do housework.
What a Cancerian!
The human being’s journey
around the zodiac is a process of incorporating various aspects of our
humanness. In each zodiac sector, we
have the potential to learn how to assimilate the lessons of that way of being.
Astrologer Dana Gerhardt helps readers of The
Mountain Astrologer learn the zodiac sign archetypes at a deeper level by
telling the mythical story of the twelve labors of Hercules, the lessons that
are analogous to those experienced by each of the signs. Gerhardt says that in Cancer we must learn to
put intellect (Gemini) aside to listen to our inner self, our emotional
self. This requires learning the quality
of receptivity. This process involves vulnerability and opening ourselves to
our pain, which then opens the heart, and ultimately the healing process. From
this process, the qualities of empathy and compassion emerge, and these are the
real treasures of mastery for the sign of Cancer.[9]
Endnotes
[1] Deborah Houlding. Skyscript.co.uk. Star Lore of the Constellations: Cancer the Crab. Retrieved on 6/17/12 from: http://www.skyscript.co.uk/cancer_myth.html
[3] Bruce Nevin (1982). Astrology Inside Out. Rockport, Massachusetts: Para Research, p.79.
[4] Nevin, Op.Cit., p.57.
[5] Shakespeare, William. Romeo and
Juliet, Capulet’s Orchard, Act 2, Scene 2.
Retrieved: http://shakespeare.mit.edu/romeo_juliet/romeo_juliet.2.2.html
[5] Dana Gerhardt. (2009, June/July). Cancer’s Labor: Meeting the Goddess. The Mountain Astrologer, Issue#145,
pp.11-15.
6. Nevin, Op.Cit., p.19.
7. Dana Gerhardt. (2009, June/July). Cancer's Labor: Meeting the Goddess: The Mountain Astrologer, Issue #145, pp.11-15.
[8] Ryan, Terry. (2001). The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio: How My
Mother Raised 10 Children on 25 Words or Less. New York; Simon & Schuster.
[9] Gerhardt, Dana. Op.Cit.
Revisiting the Natal Chart of Julian
Assange: the Cancer Sun Working Closely with the Scorpio Moon
Julian
Assange
Wikileaks
Editor-in-Chief and Cyber Hacktivist
Born July 3,
1971
In the wake
of the latest intelligence information leaks in June 2013, I was intrigued by
the notion of revisiting the natal chart of Cancerian Julian Assange, who I
briefly profiled in an article this time last year. My motivation for a second
look at his chart was also prompted by having recently seen the documentary “We
Steal Secrets: the Story of Wikileaks,” directed and produced by Alex Gibney.
This work not only explores the actions of Julian Assange and his colleagues but
to a certain degree also probes Assange’s psyche.
Assange’s
natal chart appears at the end of this article. Although his natal chart
appears in Astro-Databank, I recalculated his chart based upon the birth time
information revealed by The Mountain Astrologer staff who posted a revised
birth time (originally given as around 3:00 pm but has now been revised
somewhere between 2:05 to 2:09 pm) from a source they considered reliable.
Brief Biographical Profile
Julian Assange is known as the founder of WikiLeaks, a
website that published information from whistleblowers regarding the government
and military actions of various countries. Assange was born on July 3, 1971 in Townsville,
Australia. His biological father, John Shipton, met Julian’s mother Christine,
at an antiques shop on his way to an anti-war demonstration. The relationship
ended before Julian was born, and father and son did not meet until Julian was
25 years old. By the time Julian was one year old, his mother had married the
theater director, Richard Assange, from whom Julian adopted his surname. During
his early childhood, Julian accompanied his parents as they toured with a
theater group. His stepfather characterized Julian as "a very sharp
kid" with "a keen sense of right and wrong.” "He always stood up
for the underdog ... he was always very angry about people ganging up on other people."
The couple divorced, and Christine married Leif Hamilton, by whom she had
another child. They broke up in 1982, and Hamilton pursued custody of his son,
Julian’s half-brother. Christine fled from her ex-husband’s pursuit by hiding
for several years, and she moved with her sons continuously around Australia.
Julian Assange later commented that he had lived in 50 different towns and
attended 37 different schools during his youth.
In 1987, Julian, then 16, became involved in computer
hacking, forming a group named the International Subversives. He developed
rules for this subculture, which earned him a reputation for being “Australia’s
most famous ethical computer hacker,” as dubbed by the Personal Democracy
Forum. In 1991, Assange was discovered hacking into the local
telecommunications systems. After three years of amassing evidence, the
Australian Federal Police charged him with 31 counts of hacking and other
crimes. After six charges were dropped, Assange pleaded guilty to 25 charges of
hacking and was released on bond with a fine for good conduct. As it turns
out, Assange’s unstable childhood became an asset when the judge proclaimed
that Assange would have gone to jail for up to 10 years if he had not had such
a disrupted childhood. Years later, Assange demonstrated his ability to work
with law enforcement by assisting local police authorities in identifying the
perpetrators of child exploitation.
As a computer consultant, Assange helped establish one
of Australia’s first public internet service providers. Privately, he developed
open source software, and he became an expert in encryption, with the goal of
assisting human rights organizations protect their privacy. Although he studied
at the collegiate level for a few years, he never completed a degree.
Believing that freedom of information serves as a
necessary condition of democratic self-rule, Assange started WikiLeaks in 2006.
He has stated that he prefers to be called the Editor in Chief of WikilLeaks,
and not its founder. He explained the rationale for its formation in these
words: "To radically shift regime behaviour we must think clearly and
boldly for if we have learned anything, it is that regimes do not want to be
changed. We must think beyond those who have gone before us and discover
technological changes that embolden us with ways to act in which our forebears
could not." Assange claims that WikiLeaks has divulged more classified
documents than the totality of the world press: "That's not something I
say as a way of saying how successful we are – rather, that shows you the
parlous state of the rest of the media. How is it that a team of five people
has managed to release to the public more suppressed information, at that
level, than the rest of the world press combined? It's disgraceful."
Although not everything released by WikiLeaks has been
a major revelation, there are documents that counter the official information
releases from governments. Wikileaks caused much furor in April 2010 when it
released the “collateral murder” video showing an incident on July 12, 2007
where a U.S. helicopter gunship in Iraq, without provocation. fired upon
civilians, including children and two Reuters journalists. Later that year,
Wikileaks embarrassed various governments with “Cablegate,” classified
diplomatic cables from about 150 countries that exposed the behind-the-scenes
actions taken by countries that contradict their press releases and demonstrate
unsavory behavior. Since these releases, individuals affiliated with Wikileaks routinely
have been detained at airports, have served as subjects for grand jury
subpoenas, and have been ordered to turn over Twitter accounts and emails.
Bradley Manning, an army private and the Wikileaks source for the “collateral murder”
video, is presently on trial and facing serious federal charges.
After the release of the Baghdad airstrike video,
Assange made public appearances across the globe. In mid 2010 it became known
that the Pentagon was interested in apprehending Assange. In late 2010,
Australia’s Attorney General indicated that he was investigating Assange for
possible crimes, but the Federal Police inquiry found that Assange had not
committed any crime. The U.S. Department of Justice subpoenaed Twitter for
WikiLeaks account. In December 2010, many banks and financial services severed
their relationships with WikiLeaks; these included Bank of America, MasterCard,
VISA, and PayPal.
The Swedish government successfully obtained a
European arrest warrant in 2010 to question Julian Assange in connection with a
charge by two Swedish women accusing Assange of sexual assault. For two years,
Assange fought extradition in English courts, during which time he had been
required to report to police daily and wear an electronic ankle tag. On May 30,
2012, the Supreme Court of England ruled that the Swedish official initiating
that country’s warrant was a legitimate official and had the right to issue a
warrant for Assange’s arrest. Assange’s legal team lost an effort to reopen an
appeal, thereby exhausting all legal avenues to prevent his extradition to
Sweden. He has argued that if he is extradited to Sweden, the United States
will pressure the Scandinavian country to extradite him to America to face
espionage charges.
In June 2012, Julian Assange sought and was granted
asylum by Ecuador, and has now taken refuge in that country’s embassy in
England. It has now been one year since Assange has lived within the confines
of the embassy, unable to leave because England has made it clear that he will
be arrested once he steps outside the building. However, this has not stopped
Assange from making public addresses from the embassy’s balcony and granting
interviews that appear on news programs across the globe.
In light of the fierce government reactions against
the recent intelligence leaks by Edward Snowden, it appears clear that there
will be no lessening of pressure against Assange. Time will tell what the
future has in store for his life.
Some
Observations About the Natal Chart of Julian Assange
When Jupiter is conjunct the ascendant, as it is in
Assange’s chart, it suggests the individual may experience some luck in
bouncing back from situations. Jupiter in this position also describes a person
with tremendous zeal, perhaps with an overzealous nature, or even fanatical tendencies. However, in
Assange’s chart, Jupiter does oppose Saturn, the energy of authority and
restriction. Assange’s freedom certainly is constrained by various authority
figures. This opposition also reflects someone who is neither overly optimistic
or overly pessimistic. The personality strikes a balance between constrictive and expansive energies. Additionally,
Mars, in his fourth house of roots, certainly explains the life of someone who is
always on the go, or someone who has to confront outward challenges on his home
turf.
Motivated by the concept of protecting people’s
privacy, Assange reflects the Cancerian concern for safeguarding. He believes
in the proper role of authority, if it derives from the informed consent of the
governed. In his view, the governed are not informed, and therefore government
authority is not legitimate. Assange’s mission is to develop systems, policies,
and ideals to protect people’s rights to communicate privately without
government interference and surveillance.
The ruler of Assange’s 8th house Sun in
Cancer is the Moon in the 12th house. Here we see a strong connection between these two luminaries, since the Sun is in the Scorpionic 8th
house, the sign in which his Moon resides. The Moon often signifies the public,
and in this context, Assange seems to be concerned with championing issues that
he perceives to be against the best interests of the public. He wants to protect
the public (Cancer energy) from having their private information extensively
accessed by governments and corporations, and he investigates and reveals
information (Scorpio energy) that he believes the public has the right to know.
The trine (aspect reflecting a harmonious flow) between
the Cancer Sun and the Scorpio Moon suggest that these qualities work well
together in Assange’s life. In fact, the Sun’s trine is the only major aspect
to the Moon, her only associate in the chart. Astrologer Caroline Casey says a
Cancer is just a Scorpio in a housecoat, or so says her friend Jayj Jacobs.
According to Casey, they both have pincers and share the maternal quality of
protectiveness.
I recently attended an astrology workshop conducted by
Noel Tyl, a master astrologer who has four decades of practice experience. In
Tyl’s astrological scheme, the Moon in the chart represents the individual’s
reigning need that must be fulfilled in all aspects of the life, and it
reflects the potential that unfolds over time. He says that when the Moon is in
Scorpio, the individual has a need to know and to control what he knows. The
need to know is clear in the biography of Assange, who calls for greater
government transparency. On the other hand, when the government pressure on Wikileaks
was at its apex, he asked his colleagues to sign nondisclosure agreements. This
sounds like a contradiction, but on the other hand, the government and
Wikileaks are not equal in power. Nevertheless, this is an instance where
Assange wanted to control what he knows (and certainly, this is a
responsibility of a journalist on behalf of confidential sources). Because
Assange has a Scorpio ascendant (the personality) as well, Scorpio energy is quite
pronounced in his chart.
Interestingly enough, Julian Assange, Bradley Manning,
and Edward Snowden, the three most prominent individuals associated with
government intelligence leaks in the past decade, ALL have their Moon in
Scorpio! It makes me wonder how often we might find the Moon in Scorpio in individuals
who have written journalistic exposes or who have been involved in some form of
espionage.
Still influenced by my Noel Tyl workshop, I could not
help but comment on a vastly different feature of Assange’s chart — his Leo Midheaven!
In contrast to the low-key and intense qualities of Scorpio, Leo is generous in
displaying its extraverted sense of drama and showmanship in search of
recognition and applause. In the documentary “We Steal Secrets: the Story of
Wikileaks,” observers comment that once Assange became a worldwide figure of
prominence, he was treated like a rockstar. He seems to thrive in situations
where he is in the public eye, displaying what might be characterized as an
ego-driven need for the limelight and for control. As is true of most of us,
there are many different sides of Julian Assange’s character.
Sources:
Caroline
Casey (1998). Making the Gods Work for
You. New York: Harmony Books, p.34.
