Happy Birthday, Cancer!! -- It's time to celebrate your time of the year! -- Part 2

Part 1

Cancer is the Summer Water Sign.
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Sensitive to life's highs and lows ...

It's a quality almost bi-polar in its expression sometimes that for all the positive reasons to recommend a relationship with a Cancer can make daily life with one of them quite a trial. The misty, vague, and malleable energy of Water element really doesn't make a lot of sense to the rational, intellectual Air types, or the sensible, pragmatic Earth types. And Fire types can find Water element is the biggest wet blanket under the sun.

The upshot is that Water element signs -- Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces can feel misunderstood a lot. They're not being paranoid or self-pitying in that conclusion. (Well, not without reason anyway). They are hard to comprehend -- and it's simply hard to get around that fact as well. The special pain for Cancer is they are often so "public" -- meaning obvious -- in their extraordinary personal sensitivity.

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... like all the water signs

Pisces will pull back and nurse its wounds in solitude where the pain isn't noticed easily. Scorpios are far too private and far too proud to let any emotional wounding show -- to anyone. But Cancer is Cardinal Water -- active in its expression of moods, feelings, intuitions, emotions, and sensitivities.

When their feelings are hurt, when they are in a sulk, everybody knows it. And usually they just have to put up with it, too, because when Cancer wants to hear its own sad song, everybody has to listen.

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A special kind of spirit

It's hard too, for the other signs to give advice, or feel the hurt, or offer comfort the way Cancers themselves can, and sometimes do need themselves!! Feelings just don't submit to logic -- the Air element's strategy for handling upsets. You might as well ask a Cancer to sprout wings and fly as counsel them to "be a little tougher, get a little more hard-hearted" -- which is what Earth element would counsel.

And the Fire types, who naturally bounce back fast from a scuffle over turf, or status, or whatever the row was about and who are so pushy from the cradle to the grave they're used to folks pushing back from time to time just do not relate to the vulnerability and thin skin of Cancer.

In Astrology, Cancer is ruled by The Moon.
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Navigating life in their own way ...

To a Fire sign who believes "no guts, no glory," the changeable, passive, shy side of Cancer that can feel slighted way too quickly and that fears ridicule as the worst kind of psychic pain is a baffling mystery it often doesn't care to solve. Fire signs can see Cancers as risk-phobic, timid, and security-conscious to the point of paralysis. (Yes, they have some uncomplimentary opinions of the other Water signs, too. Fire and Water, after all ... make steam.)

No wonder Cancers often feel unappreciated and misunderstood. They are. But just acknowledging the problem doesn't do a lot to help either ... because of this scarcity of common ground. When it comes to the mysterious workings of the Water signs, it really can take one to understand one. That's just a fact of life. All of them operate on a special wavelength in their minds, where it's virtually impossible to separate thoughts from feelings.

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... on invisible currents and tides

They all read the emotional currents and atmospheric tides in the people and situations around them the way other people deal with things like color, sounds, and smells. All the Water signs are cryptic creatures. As I said, Cancers just let this show a little more openly -- which may not always be a wise choice.

But there is a reason for this apparently strange combination of qualities that resides in the other primal interest of Cancer, besides attending to the symphony of its own inner senses and sensibilities -- and that is the care, support, and perpetuation of the family.

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Devoted to family and loved ones

Cancer energy is the purest kind of maternal, nurturing, protective energy --not just that of mother and child, although that's certainly a large part of it ... but the care, feeding, maintenance, backing and defense of all its family members.

In this role, Cancer needs to be able to read the messages from loved ones who sometimes cannot articulate what is going on with them, what they need, and what they feel. That's where the empathy comes in ... the amazing Cancerian ability to be with a loved one intuitively and closely, and know what they know, feel what they are going through, and be an ally in the situation -- whatever that may be.

Part 3

Thank you for stopping by!

If you've always known there was more to Astrology than Sun Sign material and the three line daily horoscope in the newspaper, climb aboard and follow this blog. You'll find a world of wisdom detailing how you were designed to work with life ... and why you are the way you are -- all in quick-to-read, easy-to-digest-and-remember, written-in-plain-English essays that offer plenty of food for thought.

Little by little, I'm doing a set of articles that talks about all the elements in your horoscope and what they have to say about you. If you "know something" about Astrology -- or know something about your chart placements, that will help you get more from this material.

If you don't ... well, this is one place you can learn. We all have to start somewhere ... because we aren't born knowing this stuff. Meanwhile, if you've never seen your horoscope ... and don't have a clue how to work with it, maybe it's time to find out. There are lots of "chart services" on the internet -- some of whom produce decent, readable charts "for free" and some are so awful and confusing that even I can't read them easily -- and I've worked with charts for decades.

One extremely user-friendly chart site is here: AstroLabe. I recommend them if you want a simple, easy-to-read chart. I think they even give a reasonable little interpretive reading of your horoscope as part of the package. You'll need to know your birth information -- day, month, year, time and geographical place. Without all that your chart will have limited accuracy.

Or, if you want to get serious and really talk about this, upvote this post and start a conversation in the comments section sometime in the next six days from the time of publication. We'll go from there depending on what you want to know.

Questions about any of this? -- Upvote this post and talk to me in comments. It's a terrific way to build value for yourself and the community ... and it will give me ideas of what to write about in future posts. Believe me there is lots to say about the way The Sun, The Moon -- and all the other elements in a horoscope, all the other components of Astrology -- work together to interpret you and your story -- and what it all means to the person you've become.

This is who I am.

About the art in our visual essays ...

Although sometimes the background pictures in our visual essays support the topic and text, they don't always. Sometimes the connection is clear. Sometimes it's symbolic and subtle. Sometimes, there's no connection at all.

The scenes depict landscapes and natural features, buildings and wildlife. They were chosen because they show something lovely or interesting ... or simply because the photo appealed to me.

Our spectacular and remarkable planet is changing at astonishing speed. Rarely are these changes for the better. Few people seem to know ... or care ... or have the will and power to do anything about this. It may not be long before the world humans have known and lived in for centuries is forever lost. We certainly won't be able to make repairs as fast as we destroyed it.

So a few years ago I began collecting pictures of the way things were ... and still are for now, a record of the beauty we have while it is still ours to love and honor.

The photos here are part of that collection, with sincere thanks to the artists who saw these moments ... and with their cameras ... preserved them. All of us at Enchanted Spirit are profoundly grateful to them for their generosity and skill ... and for the added grace, depth and dimension their art brings to ours.

Original images used under this Creative Commons license or this Creative Commons license and modified by added text.

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