Cancer season and the anatomy of a shell

Cancer season begins today. Tropical zodiac has always been a profound fascination for me, because, unlike what other astrology enthusiasts might have you think, tropical did and still does gauge some liege of effect, powerful as one might strain, not at all obsolete and, in my opinion, valid to this very day. Astrology has always dealt with the interpretation of human kind to the celestial bodies and their apparent movements in the sky.  

It is called ‘apparent’ because our peripheral vision is so deeply flawed, limited and unreliable, that when compared to the scientific findings of such observations, we discover a large gap between our understanding of reality and the real reality. Mercury does not actually move backwards, but from our point of view, it reaches a point so close to the sun that it appears that it has begun circling backwards and away before returning to its forward movement. 

An expendable eye out in the universe would lead you see that, in truth, mercury and any other celestial body for that matter, follow a strictly and rather boringly predictable motion around the orbits, like a slow moving train whose tracks have been drilled so deeply, the wheels have become the sole substance and engine of its very own path. 

Yet this gaping flaw is what makes the lands upon which we imagine and conjure up outcomes fertile, and long-lasting enough for generational inheritance. Our species developed machinery that helped us detect, measure plains of skies to an infinite amount of degrees in order to capture how vast is the scope of our universe which we know so little about. It is impossible for the human eye to comprehend or process the magnitude of such scale, yet it is naturally possible for us, earthlings, to draw and detect, deduce and categorize patterns that help us grow and survive, whether in agriculture or psychology. 

Tropical astrology signifies a very special niche of zodiac understanding primarily related to seasons. The earth’s equinox might or might not be pointing at what we thought of as the beginning of spring. The north star changes degrees every 24 thousand years or so. 

The science is recorded in the books, telescopes have been advancing each and every day communicating to us the most accurate depictions of earth’s movements and its axis in relations to the fixed stars. Yet, earth itself, ironically, doesn’t concern itself with the wobble of the cosmos, as much as it makes sure that it gets ripe in the harvest season, dry in the hottest, and yielding in the next.

Seasonal fruits appear whether you developed an appetite for them or not, they’re meant to appear in that specific time of year, depending on either side, northern or southern hemisphere. 

Earth has obeyed the circular motion of gravity around the sun for millions of years and would remain at it for the next zillion, and each and every day, with the moon being the auxiliary neighbor, the sun rises and falls, and our days and nights punctuate the very lives we lead. 

From this perspective, it shouldn’t matter the least if the earth’s new beginning of summer or spring, or at any solstice point doesn’t align with any of our former understanding of the zodiac. 

In sidereal astrology, mostly used in Vedic context and other asian or Arabian practices, the summer solstice where the earth’s axis is closest to the sun, marking the full bloom of summer season and the longest day of the year happens within the confounds of Gemini. 

Since the earth’s axis moves slowly by degrees over the years, the zodiac apparent motion shifts backwards. In ancient times where astrological maps were drawn, and since humanity awoke to the wisdom of the skies, this point of the sky has always been given to Cancer, and tropical zodiac, unlike Vedic astrology, still argues that this is a Cancerian event, rather than Gemini’s. 

You see, tropical zodiac follows the inner motions of the earth and its relationship with its closest star and the pearl-like moon within the nucleus of the earth itself. A threesome of magnetic field that ensures the flow of light and dark, the falling of snow, the blossoming of flowers, and the winds that blow against the currents and the waves. 

As intelligent species living within the realm of Gaia, mother earth, Tropical zodiac argues that we should not expel ourselves and our experience of life from the inside, there is arguably less need to station ourselves out in the cosmos, far removed from the very grounds we call home. Because this could risk a dangerous kind of detachment that would drastically change our understanding of the seasonal flow and that of our own. Tropical astrology is beautifully, deeply rooted in the human experience, authored by it, observed and cherished by it without canceling nor denouncing and otherworldly mechanisms so alien and light years away from us. 

Cancer energy is of water, it is the drinkable kind of water. Not the murky one of scorpio, nor the salty one where the fish harbor. It is also a cardinal sign, it begins things and shifts the title to a new chapter in the year. It is the beginning of summer in tropical zodiac year cycle. 

This is indicated by the sun reaching up to its highest point in the sky, soon to be throned in the solstice event. Across so many cultures, solstices were necessary occurrences viewed with the utmost reverence. Not only was it celebrated for its exact measuring degrees in which day and night elongates or shrinks, but it also hinted at an honest reflection of reversals of fate. 

You could imagine or transport yourself back to an ancient past life where elders sat around fires and discussed the symbolism of death of a star, death of light, and how both gradual and abrupt we come to perceive it. 

Because as soon as the sun is cheered for its glorious ascent, the descent is bound to happen and the dark hours take a crown of their own, signaling from that moment of time a complete shift in constellation and perspective. It is no longer in the sun’s power to wield any sort of praise in this narrative, it had its moment in the light, and now the darkness comes to devour it bit by bit, until it is fully and totally submerged in the underworld by winter. 

The next season shall go more about the golden descent of the sun in the most hottest time of the year with Leo. There will be a detailed discussion of the apparent connection between beast and notion and how certain animal traits ended up imparting themselves in the psyche and understanding of zodiac wheel. 

But for the purposes of this month, we are looking closely at how a crab moves. Sideways, alert, quick and gentle on the sands. Cancerian personalities do the same while navigating a social scene. They might be agile with words and quick witted, but they remain soft and, against their core values sometimes, their visions either decay or take on short-lived aspirations. 

Most Cancer personalities dare less, they have complex inner worlds, lots of complex arrows shooting at every direction, yet their demeanor would have you think otherwise. And the more of that apparent calmness of soft blue water engulfing their aura, the more it cast a shadow over their heads, making them miss on opportunities in life for fear of being ridiculed. 

Cancerians think more than they speak, probably because they hear their own voices as muffled and unintelligible, like speaking from under the water, their wishes sometimes at the risk of such emotional evasiveness drown by the depths while they remain perfectly alive, forced to count the many lost entires they’ve missed by which they could have climbed up to the surface. 

Yet Cancers nourish their people, their friends and any creature around their proximity. I should argue that the main aim of any Cancerian person is to nourish. 

Nourishment here can come in so many ways, tangible or intangible, I don’t think many of us, Un-cancerian people would have survived world wars or heartbreak or even a simple finger cut if not with enough Cancerians in the world. 

They make the world steady with emotional intelligence, and they know that power comes from love, exhibiting it, showing it, living it and giving it. It is the act of love giving and nurturing that make pearls appear inside the hard shells of crabs. It is rather a divine gift for some select people to process suffering and turn it into a glowing object that disarms with its simplicity and beauty. 

Cancerians know how life can be contingent, life is not always kind to any of us. Cancerians know it as well, and that’s why they’re designed with an impenetrable hard shell. Hard shells aren’t meant to diffuse or reject, nor to maim or injure, but to protect. 

People with Cancer as their sun sign are often blamed for their unreliable character, and that is mostly due to the natural ruler of Cancer. Being it a water sign, Cancer is ruled by the moon. The moon, being the fastest satellite closest to earth makes it the most volatile of all rulers. 

It also controls the waves of the sea and the winds and the air. The moon has been interpreted to be the last plane through which a soul descends, receives divine knowledge on how to proceed to do good and have a decent life before being born on earth. 

The moon is said to be the plane where souls select their bodies and choose their ways of death, the dark moon syndrome. The moon has always been associated with the mother in interpreting the astrological chart, since it is the lands of emotions and the private face we rarely bring ourselves to show strangers. 

In here, we could deduce that a Cancer sun sign person is not one thing or the other, but many wild and incompressible things matched all at once. It is somewhat of a gateway between two worlds, the worlds of souls and matter, the world of sun ascending in its power and the climax of no return when the sun descends. 

Cancer is a sign of separation. No wonder why Cancer season falls right in the middle of the year, splitting the 12 months into an even fraction. It is worth mentioning too, that the constellation of cancer is one of the dimmest constellations in the sky, meaning that it doesn’t house many bright fixed stars in its midst. Altarf otherwise known as Beta Cancer remains the binary bright orange star that illuminates the depths of darkness at the edges of the universe. Gemini begins the procession of the sun’s glory, signifying the end of spring, and Cancer leads to the beginning of summer promising to carry the bright star’s to its destination, but the procession at this point is tinted with melancholy and the knowing of a journey soon to collapse. 

It is the farewell syndrome that predates and invades happiness cutting it short, reminding us to appreciate the light while there is still room for it, and ponder the nature of impermanence that permeates all the living things, be it an ant colony or a giant solitary palm tree.