Cancer (astrology) - Wikipedia

See also: History of astrology

Cancer is the fourth sign of the zodiac, which the sun enters at the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere Those who are born from approximately June 22 to July 23 (depending upon the year) are born under Cancer.[2] Individuals born during these dates, depending on which system of astrology they subscribe to, may be called "Cancerians".[6] Cancer is a northern sign, and its opposite sign is Capricorn.[7][8][9] Cancer is a cardinal sign.

Water is the element associated with Cancer,[10] and, alongside Scorpio and Pisces, it forms the water trigon.[11] The water trigon is one of four elemental trigons in the zodiac, with the other three being fire, earth, and air.[12] When a trigon is influential, it is said to affect changes on earth.[12] Cancer is said to be the house of Neptune and the exaltation of Jupiter, both astronomical bodies over those born under Cancer.[7][8] Its ruling planet is the Moon.[13] Due to the negative associations of the word "Cancer" with the disease of the same name, some astrologers refer to persons born under this sign as "moon children".[14][15]

Divine associations with Cancer in Renaissance astrology are Luna/Diana, both goddesses that represent the Moon, Cancer's ruling planet.[10]

In Hindu astrology, the sign of Cancer is named Karka and its ruler is Moon.[16]

Early history

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"Cancer" is an ancient word of Indo-European origin, derived from a root meaning "to scratch."[5] In ancient Egypt, the sign of Cancer was conceived as a scarab beetle, while in Mesopotamia it was represented by a turtle.[5] In each case, the animal representative of the sign was perceived as "pushing" the sun across the heavens, initiating the summer solstice.[5]

Latin cancer is the generic word for 'crab'.[5] According to Greek myth, the symbol of Cancer—often a crab, though sometimes a lobster—is based on the Karkinos (Greek: "Cancer"), a crab crushed under the foot of Heracles, and whose remains were placed in the sky by Hera, forming the Cancer constellation.[6] In Roman variations of the story, it is Juno—Hera's counterpart in Roman mythology—who places the crab in the sky.[17] Naturalist Richard Hinckley Allen, in 1899, deemed Cancer the "most inconspicuous figure in the zodiac," adding that its mythology "apologizes for its being there by the story that when the Crab was crushed by Hercules, for pinching his toes during a contest with the Hydra in the Marsh of Lerna, Juno exalted it to the sky."[17]