Each zodiac sign tells a story in three chapters- or decans. This month tells the story of Cancer the cosmic Crab.
Most of us know a bit about our zodiac sign, but do we know which decan we belong to and the picture it paints? Your decan provides a more in-depth look at your zodiac sign.
The wheel of the Zodiac is 360 degrees and was divided into the twelve signs we know today by the Greek mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer Ptolemy in the second century AD.
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Each of the signs represents a 30-degree slice of this ‘pie in the sky.’ And each of the zodiac signs can be sub-divided into three blocks of ten days called decans. Your decan provides a more in-depth look at your zodiac sign.
This month we are in the zodiac territory of Cancer.
The Cancer Personality
All zodiac signs are archetypes. An archetype is something that is considered to be a perfect or typical example of a particular kind of person or thing,
All zodiac signs are archetypes, painting a portrait of a person born at a particular time of year, in a particular season. This might seem like nonsense until you really think about it. A baby born in high summer for example, as with a Cancer sign baby arrives into a different environment from a winter born baby, and this may produce physical and other wide-ranging effects.
The baby born during Cancer, for example, is born into longer, warmer days than a Capricorn baby, with higher vitamin D exposure, and when in bygone times fresh food was more plentiful for the mother, and so on.
Of course, there is no such thing in reality as THE Cancer personality. You are a unique personality. Your zodiac sign (also known as your sun sign) is a major keynote but it’s not the whole story.
However, these archetypes are based on many thousands of years of people-watching and other observation, and the Cancer personality is complex, elusive and riddled with contradictions.
The water sign of Cancer stands for both mother and father. It is THE zodiac sign of the nurturing parent. Cancer famously adores babies and animals, and these generally respond very well to the Cancer-born person. The empty nest can be an especially bleak experience for the Cancer parent.
The Tarot court card representing Cancer is the gracious, refined, Queen of Cups, as shown below from the Rider-Waite deck.
The Crab, while sometimes dramatic in its own particular way, longs above all for reliability, security and comfort from their life partner.
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They can be, well, somewhat crabby at times, but kindly, reliable and trustworthy. They can sparkle in company, attracting admiration- when they choose. Reclusive, retiring, at times remote and withdrawn, they never lose their sense of fun.
Moon-child Cancer is more than averagely musical or artistic, and may also have a strong intellectual side, or a scholarly bent, with a flair for detail; good at financial and other administration. Many Cancer subjects are drawn into the fields of teaching, counseling, psychology, and behavior sciences.
The Decans
If you were born on the cusp between two of these decans, you might feel pulled between these descriptions, or you might feel more at home with one decan than the other, but they are all just aspects of the Cancer persona.
The first decan subject of any zodiac sign is the most ‘typical – archetypal. The Moon is the overall ruler of Cancer, but the first decan gets a ‘double dose’.
First Decan Cancer 1 is sensitive, emotional, moody, imaginative, but it’s also good at defending itself, even over-defensive at times, and tough, – remember that shell. The first decan crab can be aggressive when provoked. Yes, these folk are devoted to their family, and their instincts are mostly kindly, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are always easy to get along with.
They can be touchy, quick to take offence. They tend to back away when upset, but follow them, get them backed into a corner, they are liable to come out fighting. Ignore those pincers at your peril. They will not be hounded, threatened or disrespected.
First decan Cancer is about the partnership of equals. It will buckle on its breastplate if need be, to fight for its loved ones. It will also stick up for the underdog. This decan can get into a mindset of wanting to save the world, a do-gooder, or even an activist. Cancer, though so often described as gentle, domesticated, and all about family, is actually a whole lot more than that. Cancer, like Aries, Capricorn and Libra is a cardinal sign. These are the signs that usher in the start of a new season, and these signs- yes, even quiet Cancer have special leadership potential.
The water of Cancer and the fire of Mars make for a steamy combination- and potentially a sting in the tail when you get on the wrong side of a Decan 2 Cancer subject. Second Decan Cancer is sultry, moody, charismatic, sociable, and sparkles at social gatherings – when it is in the mood. This decan is, somewhat more than the other decans, liable to overdo things now and then; with food for instance, or alcohol, or on spending sprees on non-essentials.
Second decan Cancer is somewhat reserved, also possessive, with a higher than average story of more than one marriage. But though they can be forceful, they are still essentially tribal or familial, and stay close to home, or close to their chosen clique as their number one place of safety and support, even though they are also quite self-contained in many ways, and even if they are not necessarily happy there. They like to be left in peace- but not to be left alone.
And they are sensitive, yet resilient. They are generally sensible about money, good with finances, reliable and trustworthy, and helpful to their relations, but they expect the same in return and do not easily forgive or forget a slight. They have a reputation for holding grudges. Feast and famine, these are the divas of Cancer.
This decan is traditionally understood as the moodiest of the crabs. Dedicated and devoted to their loved ones, they remain something of a mystery, sunny one minute, unapproachable the next, and at times intense.
Third Decan Cancer has a rich inner life and may be something of a visionary, but may from time to time feel restless and dissatisfied, bored by mundane realities yet unsure what to do about it, while haunted by the sense there is somewhere else they should be, something important they should be doing.
Jupiter, the ruling planet of this decan is all about the big stuff. Nelson Mandela was a third decan Cancer.
They need to feel family around them, they really do, but they also need plenty of space, outlets, they need their work, artistic or scholarly, and can build amazing sandcastles with those industrious pincers. They are both shrewd and efficient.
As with the other water signs, Scorpio, and in particular Pisces, Cancer physical energy levels can be erratic and variable. They are strong but they can fatigue quickly. They are somewhat prone to delicate stomachs- as are all decans of Cancer. Take care of The Crab, it will take care of you, and not let you down.
Katie-Ellen Hazeldine, BA Hons, Cert Ed, is an intuitive Tarot reader, consultant, and variously published writer in the UK. She has been reading the Tarot professionally since 2006 and has been featured for this work in “Fate and Fortune” magazine.
