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How ya feeling?! Reminds me of being at a concert and they yell out to the crowd “How’s everybody doing tonight!” Ha!
Cancer, The Crab! Let’s take a look at the crab. It lives deep in the water, hides and has a protective shell with 10 legs to move and feel around with. It fears leaving the comfort and security of the it's home. These are just some of the themes of Cancer. I actually took that pic on the first day of Cancer! Amazing.
Feelings and Emotions
These two are connected with the element of Water. Cancer energy is one that is aware (not always) of their feelings and emotions as well of feelings and emotions of others.
These are empathic vibes. Cancer represents the archetype of The Mother. Caring, feminine, receptive, accepting, comforting, nurturing, compassionate, loving, the family, home life. This energy is also about the past. It seems to me that our emotional natures are something that is scary for the most part and uncomfortable especially in boys and men. I personally feel that there is a great lack in bringing up boys with a healthier emotional capacity and response and learning to be conscious of it. That’s a skill that everyone should learn regardless of sex though.
Cancer is associated with the Feminine. We all have this feminine energy in us regardless of gender, ... we all FEEL but have different ways of dealing with it. This sign is very human. Women have a special way of accepting, riding the waves, rolling with and expressing their emotions in a way most men don’t, that’s why emotions and feelings are connected with the Feminine
and with the Moon because of the ever changeability and connection with water and the tides that come and go. There’s a lot of fear and suppression that is natural for men in dealing with emotions and the result can be unhealthy resulting in anger and projection and rage among other things. Now, men certainly feel, but most would rather deny, escape or bury them deep rather than share or talk about them when they are more difficult. "That’s not “Masculine” is what we mostly hear and are taught. Well...it’s not, the Masculine is a rational, linear left brain thinker but this is where the balance of Masculine/Feminine energy works. It’s using both energies within us, consciously. Dealing with feelings and emotions (just as is it is in dealing with sexual nature in most cultures) is something that’s not learned or taught in schools, it comes from home (Cancer) from a parent,..maybe. And although women are usually naturals with these energies, they too as young girls, can miss out on expressing themselves if a parent is neglectful or unavailable perhaps. How we are brought up as kids makes a huge difference in how we are today and how we are with others.
Who likes to be vulnerable?? It’s actually a huge building block of any relationship to open up and show our deeper feelings, our realness, but oftentimes it’s the most scary because we fear being hurt, blamed, made to feel guilty, punished or abandoned. Many times we’re sharing our "humanness" and not our “divinity.” This can get us caught in the guilt/shame/unworthy trap. This is the softshell Crab out of its safe cave, exposed to feel. So there’s the Inner Child that still is a part of us carrying insecurities, hurts and emotional hang ons and hold ups that are largely unconscious and therefore can be played out in life either from oneself unbeknownst to us, or these vibes get projected onto others to experience them coming at them from outside when we don’t recognize these things or become conscious enough to work on them. When we find ourselves somehow experiencing the same lessons over and over again, there’s something there to be more conscious of and graduate from, to cross through evolutionary gates.
“How are you feeling?” People will react to this question differently. Some people answer with ease and some of us feel intimidated. It’s important to communicate. No one else is responsible for how we feel and how we feel let’s people know where we are at if we're honest. We also can’t expect others to make us feel better even though it’s nice when people show support, openness and offer to help nor can we control how another reacts to us.
Showing our Inner Child Unconditional Love
High energies of Cancer is mothering ourselves, parenting ourselves (check out my last blog on Father/Saturn) as well as creating safe space and caring for others (to an extent). People with a lot of Cancer in their chart will be very caring, mothering and nurturing to others very naturally to a point sometimes that they lose themselves and don’t take care of themselves. Care starts with oneself. Basic self-care is essential but here especially we are talking about speaking up about our needs and expressing them and having outlets to share how we feel to someone. Inward for all of us this Cancer energy asks us to be loving towards ourselves as well with others and learn that balance and learn about boundaries. With emotions that can be extreme, uncomfortable, guilty, happy, ecstatic or what not, it’s necessary to have a safe place (Cancer) to express them to others and to accept them with compassion for ourselves. I like to think of it as a child (our unconscious Inner Child) experiencing heavy emotions and a parent (our conscious higher self) who is not reacting but accepting and validating and loving unconditionally their child.
Cancer is our private life, our home life, the private life only we know inside and the life maybe our closest good friends know us as. It’s our roots and family and the conditioning we've gone through as a child. It's also the energies connected to us over generations through our lineage. It's where we feel most comfortable and secure. It’s also our physical home and living space and also sensing one’s environment and surroundings deeper and picking up on how others are feeling or a general vibe about a place. When we say something like "This doesn't feel right to me" or "I'm getting a really good feeling about this," that's Cancer/Moon energy.
Whether we are with someone or by ourselves, when we are made to feel safe with another we can share more openly but even on a basic level communicating how we are feeling helps other people understand where we are coming from and what our needs may be, and if we’re by our selves or even when partnered it’s important to observe, accept and feel how we are in a moment and be with our emotions and feelings. Expressing them moves the energy out of our bodies with ways like talking to a friend, partner, therapist, writing, painting, drawing, having creative self-expression, singing with mood matching music, dancing, doing something positively physical can be helpful.
Meditation
Being present with our own emotions is something that most likely needs to be practiced. Many times our feelings and emotions come from the body first in a feeling. That’s why suppressed feelings can be experienced sometimes as some sort of bodily ailment. Tapping into how our bodies feel is part of an intuitive way of being (Cancer/Feminine aspect). Meditation can be a good practice to be present with ourselves, our bodies and our feelings. In a sitting Zen meditation our practice is to accept and not label how we presently are and JUST SIT with whatever we got. We of course can be present with ourselves in many other ways, the point is to allow feelings and emotions when they arise without judgment and let leave naturally and release when they leave.
Men's Awareness - Using Cancer to support healthy Masculinity
When our female counterparts or partner is going through harder emotions we can think about Cancer energy. Like meditation, we can be present, be a loving presence, validate and respond. Easier said than done in the moment. These behaviors take practice. Think about being a loving parent in the moment, allowing expression, show that you're creating a safe space and understand not to take things so personally and that emotions, although real in the moment, can come and go. A lot can be learned here for both sexes. As for men as well, we can draw upon our strength and courage to be conscious of how we ourselves feel and share that with our partners or others we feel safe with. Owning our feelings first, taking responsibility for it, writing things out, exercise, creating, are all positive ways in which we can feel, acknowledge, move and transform emotional energy. Women tend to do this too more naturally. Men tend to bring the mind more into play sometimes more so but let’s, all people, acknowledge our humanness and give ourselves some more compassion in this arena at such times.
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