Sun in Cancer: Caring

The soft spring sun has turned on us, beating down on our tender skin. It is red. We are hot, blistering, aching for shade, water, and shelter. Care is needed now. Cancer offers us respite. 

As an archetype, Cancer uses its waterpower to quench, nurture, and protect. Its shell defends our soft, malleable insides from the harsh corners and hard angles of the world. It provides us space to feel, to experience the ebbs and flows of our emotions, and to let our tears wash us clean. Cancer embraces us, reminding us while all things change, we are safe. While our feelings might not make linear or logical sense, Cancer knows that -- within their chaotic and fluid motion -- they have power to nourish, heal, and renew us.

With its “birthday” traditionally set as July 4, 1776, it is ironic that the United States is a tender Cancer. We see what can happen when Cancer commits to defending and protecting, for better and for worse. Since its inception, the United States has been determined to create its own national family that shelters its members -- mainly white, heterosexual, able-bodied colonists -- from those it perceived as dangerous Others, such as Indigenous, Black, queer, disabled, and people of color, among others. For centuries, it has built its shell of borders, defense, and exclusion policy. For centuries, it has been afraid of exposing its vulnerabilities, afraid to admit that its dream may not be real, afraid to disrupt its comforting traditions of settler colonialism and militarization. For centuries, we have seen Cancer turned inward, focused on its own tribe, reacting to fears that are only shadows. 

Yet, as a Cancer, our nation has potential to nurture, to heal, to feel. It has potential to re-envision its national family and care deeply for all its members. I have seen glimmers of its potential in the past few weeks alone -- in demands for the care of Black people, for LGBTQ individuals in the workplace, and for DACA recipients. A tender Cancer, the United States has the potential to release, repair, and renew. What will we do with that? What will we do with another revolution around the sun? 

I do not know. But the Sun in Cancer asks us to shield ourselves from the elements, create spaces that hold our multitudes, and seek liberation within intimacy. Paired with a potent Solar Eclipse on June 21 that magnifies the vibe of Cancer season, it reminds us that counter-systems of care -- extraction, exploitation, and production -- separate us from our deepest human needs. It reminds us that nurturance is most necessary when times are at their harshest. 

Care is needed now, for ourselves, for each other, and for our world. Respond to Cancer’s call.