Sun in Cancer: A Rising Tide

Image based on a photo of Okinawa's Kondoi Beach taken by Yasunon Koide in 2003

Every year, the Sun’s shift into Cancer heralds the onset of a new season: winter in the southern hemisphere and summer in the northern hemisphere. As someone who lives in California, the Sun in Cancer rings to me of hot days to come and hotter days to follow after that. With them will come all those balmy evenings which lure people outside to sit and chat by candlelight.

Sometimes I say that come June I disappear underground, ne’er to reappear until late October. But the truth is, summer has its charms – even to an astrologer with a greater passion for rain than shine.

Besides, with the dawning of Cancer comes a shift of zodiacal hemisphere. Cancer is where the Sun moves from the proactive side of the chart which is all about exploration and independent learning into the zodiac’s six signs which in their unique and variable ways are about responding to input and building on – or from – that which is ‘already known.’

Which of course includes personal experience.

 
Cancer being the first of the water signs, this is is a time of basics and basic responses to life and life’s necessities. When you think of Cancer in that light, it’s easy to understand why it’s the sign of family, home, culture, nationality and land. Less evident but no less basic are other Cancer ‘necessities,’ including sleep. Cancer is the sign of the dream we dream at night just as Scorpio is the dream we hope life will allow us to have and Pisces the dream beyond hope…the faith and the fantasy.

This year’s solar Cancer ingress has the Sun joining a Venus transit of the sign which is not just already in progress, but moving towards its end. This combination of Venus (that which creates results) plus the many basic drives, moves and instincts the Sun in early Cancer is sure to prompt is our seeing and going for that which needs doing. Our Venus eye is on the world around us, seeing where and how we can best fulfill our needs even as the Sun represents the laying out of plans.

For a week or so we go about filling our schedule with the aiming at checking off boxes and some very important lists. Or are they really important?

The Sun enters Cancer on June 21st at 5:05 in the morning, UT/+0 time. Mercury is heading for a retrograde which will begin in under a week, and as we all know from experience, the days just before Mercury hits its retrograde station tend to be filled with a sense of focused urgency.

Did I mention Mercury is also in Cancer?

The Mercury in Cancer part raises the emotional pitch of our thoughts. And maybe even the stakes. But maybe not. Maybe things just feel urgent because as we move towards Mercury’s station our mind wants to be rid of the increased awareness of our own thoughts. Humans tend to think best when they’re not thinking about thinking, and yet this year…

…Let’s just say that a lot of folks will be highly aware of their thoughts. And that will make many of them self-conscious in that singularly on-the-edge-of-frustration and susceptible to levels of angst which inhabits the realm of being half-past self-aware.

All this is courtesy of a highly unusual combination: Mercury heading for its retrograde station in the same sign Jupiter is about to ingress.

In fact, as the Sun enters Cancer, Jupiter is moving into 29 mentally impassioned degrees of Gemini.

So it’s the combination of Mercury and Jupiter which amps up the experience of early Sun in Cancerian.

Is that good or is that bad? It could be both, it could be neither. Whatever life is for the first week or so of this passage however, it’s the sort of period which for reasons probably inexplicable makes some kind of imprint on us. Whether it’s the silence of destitution, a strained but muffled period of boredom or the experiencing of your own frenzied pace as a dance ridiculous or precious, Jupiter’s pressing through the last of the zodiac’s originating sign of mentality is sure to enlarge some impression during these days.

Jupiter in Gemini is mentality blown open, blown apart or overblown, you know. But with Mercury – Gemini’s ruler – rolling towards stationing in emotionally impressionistic Cancer, the effect is all about making an effect on ourselves.

What you do with that…? That’s your (Gemini) choice!

All the normal things we would like to say about the Sun in Cancer of course apply: Cancer is a time for experiencing our place in the human race. In our world. In our family. In our home. In our mind. It’s a time for plans short and large…a day outing with the kids, getting those errands done, taking another few steps along your greater path of becoming You.

And this year, Jupiter will join the Sun in the expanding of our world, the expanded understanding of what it means to be part of this world. Some of us will ignore the realization, and life will in some way foist it upon us.

None of this has to be enormous.

But it could be enormous indeed.

Our feelings will stir us. Life will urge us. Jupiter’s entering Cancer is ‘empowered’ by the Sun’s presence. And thus we move through our days ‘enlightened’ by events and situations and people and possibilities, correlations and new understandings which wash over us like an ocean wave.

One of those quintessential photographs of an incoming wave breaking

as it heads for the beach

(photo credit: 'The Tube' by Misty, Dec 2007)

 
Because Cancer is the lower hemisphere (and thus personal and private) experience of the polarity sign of Capricorn, from Cancer we see the Capricorn goal. We feel what our lives would be like if we put ourselves to the task of attaining that thing, that goal, that state of mind or life.

And in Capricorn sits Pluto. One of the Neptunian minions, Pluto represents that which temps, that which daunts, that which we know we’re capable of for good and ill. If this was another year and Jupiter wasn’t entering Cancer we would know that the Sun’s opposition by would – taking 5 degree orbs to either side – give us about ten days of personal Sun-Pluto tectonics. With Pluto at 10 Capricorn, that would begin when the Sun hits 5 Cancer (on June 26, UT/+0 time) and end when the Sun clears 15 Cancer on July 7th (UT/+0 time).

Which is just what’s going to happen. But considering that June 26th is also the date that Jupiter enters Cancer and the date of Mercury’s station, the heart of this segment of Jupiter’s impending transit of Cancer (i.e., the earliest degrees) will be when the Sun ‘triggers’ the ‘by sign’ opposition of Pluto by Jupiter.

And what will that mean? For some it will be a time when you’re doing too much, or when there’s too much to do. This will be a classing time for ‘overdoing,’ too – however you apply the term!

For some, this Jupiter in Cancer / Pluto in Capricorn dynamic will involve some hefty outlays of money. Or maybe some hefty income!

But maybe most of all, this is an opportunity which at it’s core is about utilizing and feeling ourselves utilizing our very best attributes. Jupiter doesn’t oppose Pluto all that often. But when it does, it’s an opportunity to change. Hopefully that change will be for our betterment, though for some (let’s be honest) this won’t be a time of jumping for joy. Life has a knack of getting us to recognize who we are particularly in reference to our world…and sometimes that works.

And yet, sometimes it doesn’t. So even though the actual Jupiter-Pluto opposition (by degree) doesn’t begin until mid-July, the Sun’s ability to tell us when events will ‘trigger’ the essence of that transformative Jupiter-Pluto energetic suggests we are moving into a fateful time.

You may have already felt…or gotten involved with issues, actions or ideas which point to what will evolve from here. Mercury passed through this opposition-to-Pluto zone in early June, between the 3rd and the 11th. Venus has also passed through this zone – roughly between June 7th and June 15th.

Why not mention it then? That would be for two reasons. First and most universal is the idea that Mercury and Venus don’t tend to act as transit triggers. ‘Triggering’ takes energy, the kind of energy we associate with the Sun or Mars or the Moon. And second – which would include why the Moon’s presence in Cancer between June 9th and 12th (UT/+0) isn’t on the list – is because to act as a trigger, the major aspect being triggered needs to be actively (globally and independently) in aspect within a couple of weeks. Seeing that Jupiter and Pluto won’t come into orb of their opposition until July 16th, we’re even ‘pushing’ the limits of the Sun’s triggering abilities to say this starts at the beginning of its Cancer ingress.

But once Jupiter enters Cancer…? Seeing as that ingress happens at the moment (June 26th) when the Sun enters orb of opposition to Pluto, it seems worthy of our attention.

And attentiveness.

At some very basic level, this solar ingress into Cancer is the herald of a rising tide. Two of the five personal planets (Mercury and Venus) are already in Cancer, and Mars will dive into the zodiacal surf zone as of July 13th. Not known for grace in the Cancerian tide pool realm where water meets land, what we do now as the Sun enters Cancer is likely to set currents in motion such that Mars in Cancer becomes either smooth sailing or bucking against agitated life currents.

After all, by the time Mars reaches Cancer, the Sun will be in Cancer’s last ten degrees, providing energy and impetus to all which we don’t control but need to respond to and deal with.

The Sun entering Cancer marks the rising of an incoming tide. Even once the Sun reaches Leo come July 22nd that which is stirred up now will hardly cease. This is not necessarily life rising up to engulf us in froth and pounding waves. Those of us who are willing to utilize the enormous power of emotional water now have an opportunity to steer a course across rocky shoals, creating a path and passage which come the days of Leo will carry us far beyond our current life shores.

We are all swimmers and sailors in this unpredictable life and the ebbs and flows of emotionality which arise at this time are not about others – they’re about us. Our feelings are ours. They neither belong to nor are ‘caused’ by anyone else. The Cancer urge to snip or hide in our shells are sometimes manifestations of prudence.

A hermit crab emerging from its shell...tentatively, which we can all well understand

(photo credit: US Fish and Wildlife Service, Feb 2013)

But more often our effort to hide and be shielded is a defense against our own feelings. Or the possibility of having to feel and be vulnerable to the fullness of possible experience.

Yet in the end, that’s what we have to build with.

And on.
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Sun in Leo

Image adapted from a photograph of Tanzania's

 Ngorongoro Crater taken by William Warby (April 2008)

When the Sun hits 0 Leo on Sunday, July 22nd (at 10:02 a.m. UT/+0) life will move from the emotional tides and variable ‘surf zone’ actions of Cancer into the brightly sunny ‘I know what I want to do’ quality of Leo.

Much like the namesake lion, any object transiting through Leo tends to be in one of several modes: either they’re on the hunt...celebrating the hunt...having their fill...reveling in a snooze...defending territory (right or wrong)...or contemplating whether they really HAVE TO to get up and do anything about anything.

Add to that one more idea: Leo isn’t an ‘airy’ mental sign like Libra, Gemini or Aquarius, there’s a whole lot of thinking going on with anything Leo...though we may not hear about it.

Sometimes that's fine and sometimes that's not so fine...my Leo brother tends to insist he's had conversations with me that we've never had. Lucky for him, I'm an astrologer. So I understand what's going on - he's so in his head, he's imagining the whole of the conversation, he's figured out how he's sure it's going to go...

...He just forgets the 'telling me about it' part!

So what do I do when he does such a thing? I do what you would expect me to do - I tell him he's being a total Leo.

Me: You're being a Leo again...
Him: Yeah, and...?

As the second sign in the zodiac’s second quadrant, Leo takes the necessities and aims which Cancer's attention to the emotional 'basics' has defined and not only creates the plan, but generally makes the first stabs at bringing any plan to fruition.

After all, if Leo can be the hero, why not? Even with ourselves, we LOVE that moment when we can prance a bit and shake our tail (imaginary or otherwise) and say 'I did it! It's done!'

Through all this planning, trying, succeeding and (gasp!) not succeeding, Leo becomes the testing ground. And from testing comes....what?

Okay...so Leo can be a little testy, yes. But more to where I was going with this idea, Leo is the sign (and the 5th house would be the place) where we test and develop the plan and the basic abilities we think of as what we'll need to get us where we want to go. The tall hopes of Leo, the grand roars (of laughter and otherwise) which are so Leo, they're all about stretching our wings as individuals, about seeing who or what we think we can be or become.

Of course, all this is going on pretty much in our head. (Hence my brother's conversations with the me in his brain). Translating such visions to real life? That's another thing.

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That Cancer (and the 4th house of the horoscope) are defined as ‘family, culture, nationality and childhood’ (obviously not put in order of importance…) and the 2nd quadrant in general is the realm of pre-teen/early-teen sort of development tells us that Leo is the sign (and the 5th house is the place naiveté initiates the effort to encounter reality.

Take dating. Dating is a Leo and 5th house subject - as is competition. (We'll throw that one in too.) Both dating and competition require a lot of 'personal preparation.' There's psyching up which gets done, there's choosing the venue (or the person) you're going to date or compete against...in the 5th we think we can 'control' the parameters.

That's a Leo dream. But we try, nonetheless.

And then comes reality: our date is mortal, the day of the race is dawg nabbit hot and humid and things don't quite work out as we thought they would.

You know...when we were having that conversation in our head?

A middle ages rendition of Leo the lion as an

astrological sign

And that...right there is the big challenge to Leo. Where the vision which motivates meets the reality which isn't the dream, the result is often disappointment.
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Like the other two fire signs (Aries and Sagittarius), Leo is born to envision and imagine. Leo is the sign (and the 5th house is the house) of creating...the effort to make something happen.

Yet Leo is dangerous. Lions are magnificent creatures, to be sure. But let's not forget - a lion can eat you. Thus we come to the zodiacal dichotomy built into this sign - while life is a Leo picnic (carnival, vacation, buffet, etcetera...) to any Leo - and thus while the Sun is in Leo, there is a chance of "getting killed" not necessarily physically, but your hopes? Yes. Your plans? Yes. Anything which any sign is born to do that sign can also 'not do' or suffer in the 'doing of,' if you will.

And this is why the Sun's yearly transit through Leo can be so much fun...but can also spell such disaster.

You've heard me talk about Mercury retrogrades in Leo and how they can spell rocky times for the stock market. Mercury retrograde is a time of pulling back and  'reconsideration' and when that happens in Leo, we pull back on things which might be risky. Or which might not be the 'sure bet.'
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Link to Blog Post: Mercury Retrogrades in Leo

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And let's not even talk about solar eclipses. The last solar eclipse we had in Leo occurred in August of 2008. Anyone remember August of 2008 and all the economic chaos which ensued? Which we haven't cleared ourselves out of as yet?

But why is Leo so connected to economics? That's because Leo is one half of the Leo-Aquarius polarity, and Aquarius is the sign of all things social, systemic and societal, including the economy (and income, as a form of 'personal economy').

So...sunny and creative though the nature of Leo can be, the sheer strength of the Leo 'vision' can be so blinding that to call Leo ‘sun-struck’ (in honor of its ruling symbol, the Sun) would seem quiet sensible. When the Sun is in Leo, it's often hard time to see someone else's point of view. Or to even get any perspective on our own point of view.

(Or behavior, for that matter.)

NATAL LEO COMMENTARIES: There are two symbols noted as being particular susceptible to both the strengths and weaknesses of Leo in the natal chart. They are Saturn and Uranus. Why Saturn and Uranus? Because they are co-rulers of Leo's oppositional sign,  Aquarius.

With an orbital cycle of 27.46 years, Saturn appear in any sign more often than Uranus. Saturn’s latest Leo (ad)venture was from July 16, 2005 through September 1, 2007 and before that there was…

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- Saturn in Leo: September 17, 1975 through July 25,1978  (less January 14-June 4, 1976 which had Saturn retrograded back into Cancer)

- Saturn in Leo: August 2, 1946 through May 28, 1949 (less September 19 1948-April 2, 1949 which had Saturn playing footsie with moving on into Virgo)

- Saturn in Leo: October 17, 1916 through December 6, 1916, then June 24, 1917 through August 11, 1919

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Uranus is a different case. With Uranus having an orbital cycle of 84 years, the only time we’ve seen Uranus in Leo during the past century was from August 24, 1955 through January 27, 1956 and then June 10, 1956 through August 9, 1962.

 A 'false color' photograph of Saturn taken by Voyager 1

(photo credit: NASA-JPL)

Saturn in Leo seems prone to 'reading it's own press' - real or imagined. (Yes, it's back to that 'in their head' sort of thing.) Lack of responsibility and timeliness can also be a problem. On the plus side, Saturn in Leo can be righteously creative; this placement often figures prominently in the charts of people who are successful in many, many fields. They require room to operate and an opportunity to have input.

On the down side, they can come off as 'full of themselves.' The person with Saturn in Leo who says 'I don't have to listen to you' (or who acts that way) is going to be accused of being arrogant.

Yes, they will deny it. Tell them anyway. Don't get mad, just notify them and leave them to have that conversation with themselves. (They're going to anyway, so get your two cents in!)

Uranus in Leo tends to be less than practical. Sometimes they're just 'ahead of their time' and goodness knows they can be feisty and impatient! At times loveable and clever, this combination needs to balance 'alone time' with social time and for Uranus in Leo people, that isn't easy. Inside, they wonder who they're working for and against - and whose interests are really at stake.

 Constellation Leo, with it's famous Royal Star, Regulus

 

Such questions can provide insight - and such insight can lead to discoveries personal and valuable to others. But before that happens, there's usually a bit of chaos.

And that's the way of Leo, too. Where Leo sees not challenge they often make some, hence this signs association with 'drama.'

It's how Leo learns. In youth, Leo is the impulse which asks us to tests edges and limits...it's that thing which gets us to take chances so that we can see whether some 'danger' is real and whether life's 'rules' are really useful or merely some farce.

As we mature (mentally, emotionally or physically) we accept that some limits are there for a reason. We come to recognize the value of getting along with others for the sake of acceptance if nothing else.

It's a balancing act. If we give up our Leo spunk and individuality we sell ourselves out and end up hating our life. We we live totally for ourselves and our own will we eventually trip ourselves up.

Leo is about learning to try. It's not about being trying, but that does happen along the way!

Leo is about exploring and growing our Self - not at expense to others, but in their presence, learning through feedback. 

Yes, Leo promotes a lot of mental activity. We generally only hear part of it. Those who funnel and sort out their Leo (and 5th house activities) often come across as brilliant - 'brilliance' being a clearly Aquarian term.

It's all about connecting the dots...first inside, then to the world around us.

As the Sun comes into Leo, Mercury is already in Leo and counting back through degrees, being in retrograde. This is an interesting 'doubling up' of Leo energy which promotes figuring things out and recognizing how to make things work.

With Dionysus (sacred celebrations) at 0 Leo as the Sun enters the lion's sign, life supports  - even congratulates us for the mandatory we attend to and that we have done. Meanwhile, it discourages the frivolous...though yes, we may do that oh-so Leo thing and ignore all the warnings!

Given Mercury's Leo retrograde, some people will be thinking over how to do better, how to fix things which have gone awry and how to improve on plans going forward.

Will you be the self-willed one who does well? Or the person who ignores everyone? Do you really know what you're doing? Are you kidding yourself?

Sometimes - especially with so much Leo energy around - it's hard to know.

And what to do in that case...that's another Leo conversation to have with our Self...and yes, maybe others! Let's remember after all...though Leo is the sign of our innate internal ability to envision and create, Leo only triumphs when that creation or when that vision takes the opinions, needs and interests of others into account.

In other words, when you're in the Leo arena, others may well know (or know of) something which it would be potentially useful for you to consider.

 Dionysos holding out a kantharos

(c. 520-500 BCE, British Museum - photo credit Jastrow)

Meanwhile...as this ingress occurs there's still a lot of energy (represented by South Node, Vesta, Jupiter, Ceres and Venus) flowing through the Gemini realm of last May's eclipse. So though people seem to have discarded their interest in that eclipse as soon as it happened, its kinks are still unfurling.

Or in some cases, kinking us to the brink!

Also worth bearing in mind: Venus was IN Gemini at the time of the eclipse. At the time, Venus was retrograde. Venus represents 'results' - that which comes of whatever we do or are. So the 'results' of that eclipse were delayed. At the moment of the eclipse, Venus was 'sitting' (zodiacally speaking) at 23 Gemini.

And do you know...? It hasn't gotten back to 23 Gemini yet! That moment will happen on Tuesday, July 31st. And when that happens Mercury will still be in (Leo) retrograde, about to slow down and go direct on August 8, the Wednesday after.

But why connect these two? Well, for one, Venus does represent results. And Leo is about wanting to do things which we would like to turn out well for us. Even if our plan is to lie around the back yard, we want it to be a nice day!

More to the astrological point, Mercury rules Gemini. So this whole May eclipse, Venus retrograde...ALL of it was about how we think. And what we've been thinking.

And if we're been thinking things through.

With Mercury in Leo, and Leo being ruled by the Sun, the Sun's entire transit through Leo (July 22 through August 21st) will be focusing on whether we know how life works. Whether we can reach our goals. Whether our goals are realistic. There are some hard moments to come where fantasy gives way to reality, but at some point realities must be dealt with.

And the sooner we deal with them, the better. Mercury will remain in Leo for the whole of the Sun's passage through the sign. Those who realize what needs to be done - even though it might not be delicious - can use this time to set themselves up for a better future.

Of course, you could just go to the beach (the mountains, the back yard, the park, the office) as well.

But wherever you go, you may be assured your brain will be thinking.

Your job is just to know what's real...and what's a fantasy. And what to do with, and about each.