Cancer
The best time to hunt for human crabs is by the light of the silvery moon. It's usually easier to recognize them at night, when they're all dressed up to go dreaming, wrapped in vivid imagination. Moonlight becomes them beautifully. It goes with their many moods, and it matches their changing emotions.
You'll gather lots of clue to the Cancerian nature by doing some moongazing on a clear night in the country. Notice the moon's changing shape and appearance. As it waxes and increases in light, it slowly grows into a perfect, round ball in the sky. When it wanes, it gradually disappears, so there's nothing visible but a thin sliver of light with a faint, silver shimmer.
The Cancerian's passing moods are synchronized to the moon, answering to the same mysterious lunar influence that causes the tides of the ocean to flow in and out. Yet the moon doesn't really change at all. It just seems to. Likewise, the Cancerian remains the same person through all his fluctuating highs and lows. Such dependable periodicity - constant in its inconstancy - makes the crab easy to recognize, once you know the phase he's in when you see him.
You may first come across him when he's laughing the "crazy lunar laugh". It's inescapably contagious. In his life-of-the-party mood, you'll have no trouble finding the Cancerian. He'll be the funniset one in the room, a laugh a minute. If he's not performing himself, then he'll be grinning at someone else's antics. No one likes a joke better than a Cancer, and his funny side is all the more startling when it pops up so incongruously from his normally quiet, gentle personality. Lunar humor runs deep. It's never shallow or superficial, because it stems from the sensitive observation of human behavior. Cancer may not wear his lunar laugh every day, but he can always dig it out of his old trunk in the basement at a moment's notice.
These people don't pant after the spotlight like the extroverted Leos or clownish Sagittarians, but Cancerians have an uncanny sense of publicity, when it pleases them to be noticed. Don't let that unassuming manner fool you. They secretly enjoy attention. You won't find Cancer pursuing fame with passion, but he certainly won't shrink from it. Cancer may hide from things, but you can be sure appreciation is not one of them.
Cancer can turn bluer than an inkwell, and drown you in depression deeper than the floor of the ocean. His fears are usually well-covered by the nutty lunar humor, but they are always with him, haunting his days and nights with a vague sense of nameless danger, lurking in the shadows. Pessimism is never far away, always ready to spoil those beautiful flights of fancy. A Cancerian can take the dreamiest trip to the stars on the gossamer wings of his imagination, if he learns to ignore that harping inner voice which keeps nagging him and warning him he might get lost in outer space. But until he learns to conquer his fears, they form his Achille's heel, and they hurt every time he starts to fly too high.
His tears are never crocodile tears. They flow from the deep rivers of his fragile and vulnerable heart. You can wound his sensitive feelings with a harsh glance or a rough tone of voice. Cruelty can bring on brimming eyes or a complete withdrawal. It won't be easy to spot the crab in this mood, because when he's hurt, he disappears into reproachful silence, hiding under his protective shell. In the midst of uncertainty, despair and sadness, Cancer people seek retreat and solitude. Just like real crabs.
That's another mood Cancerians have: crabby. The person who gave you a cranky answer when you asked for the time, the one who nearly snapped your head off when you asked him to pass the salt - was probably a Cancer person going through one of his occasional crabby spells that makes him hate the world. He's not angry with you. He's disappointed with life. He'll get over it, and be his own sweet, gentle and understanding self when the moon changes.
There are two basic Cancer types. The first kind has a handsome round face, soft skin, a wide, grinning mouth, almost circular eyes, rather a baby-faced look. Think of the man in the moon. The second type is more common. The unmistakable "look of the crab" is immediately noticeable in the face. You'll see a fairly large skull, an over-hanging brow and high cheekbones. The brows themselves will seem to knit together in a sort of permanent frown which, strangely, isn't offensive, but rather interesting. There's a pronounced jaw, and the teeth are rather prominent or irregular in some way. Sometimes you'll see a Cancerian who combines both the lunar face and the crab face. All lunar people have enormously expressive features. A thousand moods play fleeting across their faces in the course of a conversation.
Cancerians have such control of imagery, and their moods are so intense, they can make you feel them, too. Their imagination seizes joy and despair, horror and compassion, sorrow and ecstasy, and holds each emotion fast with a retentive memory. Like mirrors and cameras, they absorb images and reflect them faithfully.
He's also a well of secrecy. People automatically confide their secrets to the crab, but with his sensitive emotions he already knows what's on their minds. Cancerian compassion is deep and highly intuitive. There's hardly a secret he can't strip naked, if he chooses. It's a one-way street, however. He'll eventually soak up all there is to know about you, but you'll never guess his own private thoughts. He guards his inner feelings carefully from prying eyes. The typical Cancer person doesn't like to discuss his personal life, but he's delighted to hear about yours, as his lunar imagination lets him easily guess the parts you leave out. Cancer seldom judges, however. He simply gathers, absorbs, reflects.
Although the crab gives back emotions like a mirror, he won't give up tangible things without a struggle. When he grabs an object, he'll hang on for dear life. He'd rather lose a claw than let go. If the crab does sacrifice a claw, he grows a new one, so he can grab hold once more with the same tenacity. Take a few more notes on the customs of the real crab. The way he walks, for instance. First, he moves backward a few paces. Then he moves sideways. Suddenly, without warning, he crawls to the other side. He always appears to be moving in the opposite direction. But he's watching every second. Then he'll move straight forward and grab what he was coveting. The human crab imitates these tactics precisely. Cancerians never go directly after what they want.
They behave much the same way when it comes to generosity and giving. Cancer's heart is too soft not to be touched by someone's need. He truely cares and he wants to help. He'll let you go down twice, but he'll save you just before you submerge the third time. He's too kind to watch you drown, but he's certainly not going to get all wet if there's a lifeguard around! It's self-preservation, not selfishness or unkindness.
Male or female, the Cancerian loves his home with a respect bordering on reverence. His home is where he plays, lives, loves, dreams and feels safe. Sometime make a point of noticing the expression on the face of a crab who has just returned home from a long trip. Pure ecstasy!
No matter now much money he piles up on reserve, Cancer never feels really secure, and no matter how much love he gets, he always needs more. His emotions never let him become sure enough to relax completely. He's always piling up tangibles against some imaginary future disaster. Notice the bag he carries along everywhere. It contains all his "essentials". Just in case.
You'll often find the Cancerian on the water. If he's not swimming, he's waterskiing or at the very least, wading. It's as though the Cancerian has a special, private dream that's been lost out there somewhere in the deep waters, and he keeps seeking it.
Cancerian emotions can be stronger than the physical body. Worry and apprehension can make him ill, and cheerfulness can make him well. If they get a firm grip on happiness and refuse to let go, the crabs have the power to cling to life with the same tenacity that they cling to those old newspaper cuts and pot holders. Cheerfulness, optimism and laughter, taken daily in large doses, will keep their minds and bodies healthy. No other sogn is so prone to let negative thoughts bring on illness, yet no other sign can create such miracles of self-healing.
A child will never fail to move him to part with cash, but he'll come down hard on a grocer who overcharges him two cents on a can of beans! Food somehow represents security to Cancerians. Just talking about it brings a rosy glow to their expressive face, and stories of starvation will actually horrify him. Wasting food is a crime to Cancer. You'll get all the second helpings you want, but be sure you clean up the plate!
The crab's sensitive nature is covered with a hard shell, and he's wise enough to avoid the stormy seas. Half the time he lives up on dry land, the other half in deep waters. He wears the luminous, pale gold and shimmering colors of moonlight, and hides his powerful emotions behind the pale green, mauve and lavender tints of modesty. If he's gruff, yet kindly, a fascinating conversationalist with deep wells of creative imagination, that person was probably born in late June or July.
There's a touch of moon madness in every Cancerian. He knows a wild and secret place where two lilies and seven white roses grow among the iris. Sometimes the memory of this faraway garden causes him to explode with laughter. Now and then it causes him to weep with sadness. Cancer patiently gathers the emeralds, pearls and moonstones carelessly dropped in the sand by others, as he waits for the tides to wash his silver dreams ashore...
There's no doubt about it. In the beginning, you'll have trouble deciding if your Cancerian girl is a gentle moon maiden or a wild loony-bird. In the end, you still won't know.
During the rainy season, she'll drown you in her sorrows. When the sun peeks through the clouds again, she'll double you up with laughter, and touch you with tenderness. Sometimes the tune is lively and gay; then it gets melancholy and blue. The music is variable, to suit the occasion, never stagnant or monotonous. So it is with the Cancer girl. She's just a little mad, slightly sad and superbly imaginative. She also knows how to save the shekels.
You can safely make a bet she probably has an ols sock under her mattress, stuffed with green bills and silver coins. When you give this girl an expensive gift, and she says, "You shouldn't have done it," she means it.
To take her mind off insurance, mortgages, rent, bills and her Christmas club balance at the bank, bundle her off to the seashore at midnight for a walk in the moonlight. That's when she'll be at her best. The moon will pull out all her secret dreams, and the nearness of the water may loosen her four hundred and three inhibitions. You're liable to see her whole range of emotions in the space of an hour. A strange transformation will take place when you get the typical Cancerian girl alone on a beach under a full moon. That cool and reserved lady you see in the daytime, or even the giggly, outrageous flirt you notice on an occasional evening in a restaurant or theater, will suddenly become a creature from another world when the magnetic rays of the moon shine in her eyes and the compelling sound of the surf fills her ears. She'll turn into a sea nymph, who can soar with you as far as your imagination can reach. It will work nine times out of ten, and the tenth time you probably picked a new moon. That won't accomplish the same purpose. She'll be shy and sweet when the moon is waning, but the full moon will arouse all her latent talents. Under its spell, she can write a poem, compose a song or tear the veil off mysteries the philosophers have pondered for centuries. Naturally, she makes an interesting conversationalist at these times. To say the very least.
You should know that there are two distinctive approaches when a Cancerian female is in love with you. The first is gentle and womanly, shy, modest and pleasantly trembly. The second is rather sticky. This kind of Cancerian woman can be a real threat to true love and happy homes. Fortunately, she is in the minority.
As you know from the other Sun signs, few women are perfect. The Aries girl is always running around hailing her own taxis and butting her head against brick walls, the Sagittarius girl is shockingly outspoken, the Scorpio girl can frighten you, Gemini can be fickle, Leo too proud - and so on. Cancer women ordinarily have none of these faults. Nevertheless, there are some "don'ts" to remember with her. She hates to be criticized, she is deeply wounded by ridicule, and she just can't stand being rejected. They're basics.
Seldom openly aggressive, the typical Cancerian hesitates. You'll have to make the first move. If she moves anywhere at all, it will be backwards or sideways. With her basically shy nature and fear that she won't be accepted, she echoes the male of the same sign.
Never read her five-year-diary. It probably has a lock and key, anyway. Cancerians like to keep secrets. The fears of your lunar lovely can really hang you up, along with her. She's afraid she isn't pretty enough, she isn't smart enough, she isn't young enough or she isn't old enough. It makes no difference if she has a figure like Venus de Milo, a face like Helen of Troy and a mind like Aristotle: she'll still feel inadequate. She may even be afraid she's not a good cook, which is utterly ridiculous, because the typical Cancerian woman can make a French chef look like the mess sergeant you had at boot camp. Cancer women are very friendly with their ovens.
In addition to the obviously unjustified fear about her culinary skill, she may be afraid you don't love her enough. Go ahead and prove it - as often as you like. She'll be beautifully receptive, a true water sign. Once you've turned on the green light, she'll happily recognize the signal, which may remove her feelings of inadequacy, but which creates a new problem. Truthfully, after you've won the Cancerian female, she may be just a little tenacious. It's brutally unfair to toy with the heart of this girl, because she'll love, honor, obey and nag you a little with sincere devotion. There's nothing shallow or superficial about the sentiments of a Cancer woman. When she owns a man or a teacup, it's hers forever.
She may not overwhelm your friends with her vivacity and sparkling flattery, but she won't fail to impress you with her charm. July women prefer to save their deepest emotions for people closest to them. The trickiest aspect in handling her is to keep her from crawling into the always handy, tough Cancerian shell. Her feelings are so sensitive and tender, the slightest unintentional remark can wound her harshly. She may not show it openly or she may cry a lot, depending on what type she is.
Females born under the sign of the crab aren't necessarily stingy, but they have this little habit of saving things. She'll seldom throw away a piece of string, buttons, jars, cans, old socks or friends. She might need them later. She treasures the things she owns. She's not so much as jealous as possessive. There's a shade of difference.
The Cancer girl usually feels nothing can be changed or overcome by getting all stirred up. When things don't go her way, she may shed a few quiet tears alone, but her normal reaction will be to folds her hands serenely and wait patiently for things to right themselves. Patience is one of her loveliest virtues. When she's depressed, however, you'll have to find a way to take her out of herself. Try to catch her before she has burrowed too deep. She does have a way of wanting to be babied. But don't be fooled by her weakness during these episodes. That helpless little baby who seeks your big, strong arms to keep out the cold, cruel world, is perfectly able to manage by herself, if she must. There's no end to the heroic sacrifice a Cancer woman will be capable of for those she loves. The bravery she can't seem to muster for herself and her own fears is there shining when someone close needs her to be strong. She'll never let you down when things get really dismal, and then she'll remind you more of a gigantic, rugged rock than a fragile, silvery moonbeam. Her children will also find her a tower of strenght and refuge. She'll help them find their way with sensitive understanding. But be careful not to let her spoil them too much. Nothing is too good for her family.
It's her strange brand of possessiveness that's unshakable, but never aggressive. She knows, in her secret heart, that no matter how far away you go to follow your dream, you'll always come back again and she'll be there patiently waiting. Her eyes will still be beautiful with the moon magic you remember, the kitchen will smell delicious of warm spices, and she'll ask you hos things went, how you feel. If things went badly and you feel miserable, she'll tell a joke to get you to laugh. Then she'll fill your stomach, and after you're relaxed, she'll gently smooth away your worries with her sensitive advice and her rich humor. Later, in the firelight, you'll look at her serene face and ask yourself all over again, "Is she really a moon maiden from some misty garden or a loveable loony bird?" But the answer won't seem very important.
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