Mars in Cancer

A warrior with a sword, holding a baby with his other arm, engaged in a fight. That could be Mars in Cancer. 

He has promised a dying friend to protect this baby and here he is, fighting bad guys who would prefer this little one dead. A question of inheritance or succession, poor baby. 

Mars is in fall in Cancer. Planets in detriment face a special challenge: the conditions are not favourable to the full expression of their energy. It’s certainly more difficult to fight holding a baby. Mars in Cancer has a particularly vulnerable side but it may win anyway. 

Symbolic language is the opposite of literal. The baby may be an inner child, with dreams, imagination and old traumas. 

Soldiers fighting to defend their countries have also a metaphorical baby on their arms. 

As for the Mafia, aggression and family are central values. I remember Al Capone had Mars in Cancer. At the time of writing, I googled “famous Mafia bosses”. I picked up two, randomly, Carlo Gambino and Paul Castellano, then searched for astro data. Both had Mars in Cancer. I tried another one, Toni Giancana. Mars in Libra… but a Cancer Sun, and Pluto in Cancer trine Moon. Frank Costello. Mars in Aries, but… Cancer Moon in the 12th, Cancer Rising.  This is not a valid statistical study, but a strong first impression: these five mafia bosses all had whether Mars in Cancer, or Cancer higher than Mars in the chart hierarchy. I wonder how much Cancer we would find in the chart of the Godfather. 

As an idealist, I hope that one day, people will know how to live without violence. Will Mars disappear from the sky? Probably not. There must be peaceful ways for Mars. The energy of the warrior in Cancer can also be the energy of providers, (hunters), nest builders, sport teachers for children, cub scout leaders… (Akela!)

Here is another series of pictures for Mars is Cancer: A baby playing with razor blades. Is it going to self harm or will it rather experiment with a little brother? It doesn’t know it’s playing a dangerous game… yet. 

A variation on this theme: a child with a loaded gun. Or a knife. Or his bare fist, I love dramatic pictures for entertainment and clarity, but it may be just a child fighting. 

Check the third house for clues about peers and neighbourhood. 

Now, a domestic abuser is nothing but a child in an adult body. Children need to test boundaries. Adult abusers are responsible for the actions of their inner disturbed child indeed. They should test boundaries in psychotherapy. 

There is no precise grammar with symbols. Mars in Cancer may take active care of the baby, or be the baby, baby. 

In other words, the same energy - and therefore the same symbol - can mean the abuser, the abused, or the protector. We can also be our own protector indeed, both fierce and vulnerable. 

In Cancer, energies can be maternal or parental, responsible, nurturing, providing materially and emotionally, or childlike, sensitive and imaginative, or even  childish, dependent, passive aggressive, manipulative and full of needs. 

They can also be tribal. Family or nation, with their codes and values may dictate how Mars should act. Individualism is in exile in Cancer. Mars is found there wearing a scarf, the colours of his team. Mars in Cancer has a family name and he is following a flag… 

The antidote to negative expressions of an energy is cultivating the positive side. Not cultivating the positive side is the equivalent of offending a god, the negative side will be the curse. 

There is a giving and a receiving end. Cancer is not traditionally considered a dual sign, but the glyph: ♋︎ shows a double design. We are used to thinking of it as representing a woman’s breast, or the eyes of a crab. We shouldn’t let the interpretations we already know get in the way. Symbols are magical doors. It’s possible to find out more. The doubled design looks like a 6 or a 9, could that be the beginning of a spiral? We can draw it turning from inside out or from outside in. One provides, one takes in. 

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The more challenged a Mars in Cancer is, the more likely it is to manifest as immature, driven by its own needs. If you’re reading the chart of an older person, don’t tell them they are still immature, how could you know? They may have  learned their lessons. 

Mars in Cancer may act with sensitivity, or be motivated by emotions, dreams, imagination or memories, it will know how to appeal to emotions when leading the team, it may manifest as a paternalistic leader or a strong minded woman, maybe a midwife… 

Now, if Mars is in Cancer, its ruler is the Moon. A planet in a sign loves and depends on its ruler. 

Signs are mindsets, houses are more concrete. If the Moon is in the fourth house, it will take the power of Mars in Cancer at home, if it’s in the fifth, it will appear as the rule of a game, in the context of creative endeavours, love life, or be expressed by a child. 

For now, let’s just imagine Mars in Cancer being ruled by a Virgo Moon. There is no precise grammar with symbols. The Moon rules, beyond that, let’s just let images mix. 

The warrior with a baby on his arm is fighting the energies of chaos. Hostile germs are waiting in ambush. The immune system is powerful. Well supported by Mars, good exercise and herbs, antibodies and life energy will shake off the disease! 

Or maybe it was an accident? Reeducation is a fight. 

This interpretation would be particularly relevant if Mars or the Moon, is in the sixth house, or rules it, or makes a strong aspect to a planet placed in the sixth house, or to the ruler of the sixth, or indirectly, if the sixth house is emphasised in the chart, I just don’t want to repeat this all the time!

A child with a loaded gun with the Moon in Virgo could be very skilled at hitting the center of the target - It’s a question of precision after all.  It may be a young chemist who knows what powders to mix and in what proportions to prepare his own explosives. Exciting! With a bit more maturity, he could be serving his country in the army as an explosive expert. 

Not everyone with Mars in Cancer and the Moon in Virgo will handle explosives in the army, even with 10th house (career) or 11th house (groups) emphasis of course. The Moon rules emotions, and if she rules Mars in a chart, there should be some metaphorical fireworks in the interpretation, unless Saturn blocks or dampens it all. 

I hope you enjoyed these pictures conjured up by Mars in Cancer and what comes up with a Virgo Moon. These are only illustrations. What I wish to convey is a sense of how to juggle with pictures to explore in search of relevant interpretations.

Jean-Marc 

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My teaching style is flexible. I love answering questions, because the best time to explain something is when the question comes up in the student’s mind…

How to develop your intuition with astrology

Symbols show what they mean. We can understand them directly.

Take Cancer. Let’s dive into the picture. Let’s pretend we know nothing. Where will this symbol take us?

It's a crab. There is an environment: the sea and its perpetual flux and reflux. Crabs appear on the shores when the tide is low. They disappear when it's high. Tides are following the rhythm of the Moon and like the Moon they come and go.… 

Let’s be carried away by the sound of the waves.

This makes us feel in a certain way. How is it? A bit nostalgic? Dreamy? There are days and there are nights, there are ups and there are downs, sometimes we’re strong, sometimes we’re vulnerable, like babies… 

Life is an eternal return. Women make babies, babies grow up, boys and girls become men and women. They make love, they found families. Women have babies, babies grow up, repeat.

Generations are waves. Waves speak of generations. Out of the water comes the crab, soon to be taken back in its embrace. 

When the Moon, responsible for the ebb and flows, shines over the sea, we enter a world of dreams. We may wish we had a shell like the crab to protect our sensitive mood. We’re swimming in the world of the soul, all pictures and fantasies, yet instinctive and sensitive…

Water is fertile. Water is full of creatures that can't survive out of their environment. Babies‘ world is an emotional bath: in the nursery, when one starts crying, another joins in and soon they are all crying together, it's liquid… Mothers sing nursery rhymes, they don’t try to reason with babies, soothing passes through presence, intonation, feelings. Baby calms down and falls asleep… One wave after another…

Letting our mind and soul be impregnated by symbols allows us to follow threads of meanings. 

Leo. A roaring lion, claiming power in broad daylight. After Cancer, that’s a completely different atmosphere! 

Symbols make us feel the meaning before we find words to describe what it’s about…

Reading the part about Cancer

Focusing on the symbols, we can conjure up the spirit of the energies. “Conjuring up spirits” are words that belong to magic, and yes there is something magical in this poetic approach. Imagination is a way to develop our intuition. Imagination doesn’t mean making things up: imagination simply means forming mental pictures.

However, we shouldn’t naively believe whatever comes up in our mind. Reality checks are necessary. 

Whatever we may come up with has to be consistent with standard astrological knowledge or be rejected. It may also be confirmed by the feedback we can get from others. Coming back to Earth is the healthy conclusion of the process. The alternative is drowning. Beware, Water is also a world of illusions. 

The same imaginative approach works to explore the meaning of complex configurations. This may lead to psychic perceptions at times. 

In a previous post, I used Venus in Leo square Mars in Taurus as an example of the method consisting of combining keywords to make meaningful sentences. Thinking in pictures is the “right brain” complement of this “left brain” technique. 

Venus in Leo. Can you see this beautiful girl? She is the kind that can’t be missed. There is a little crowd of admirers around her. She laughs at their lines when they are good, there is a constant banter going on, she loves it. She decides on every move. She says “Let's go to the bar!” or “Let’s go to the beach!” … They all follow. 

There is one who is not happy over there. It’s Mars in Taurus, her husband. He played the game, and he won. She found him different. He knew how to do beautiful things with his hands. He had a rooted style that fascinated her. She married him. He believed the game was over, but no. The game is never over. It’s just a game, but…

What happens next? I won’t tell you! 

Let the story fall into your mind like a seed. Let it grow like a plant. Play with ideas, let them go, forget about the whole thing, think of your characters again after a good night’s sleep. It’s not assembly-line work. 

Make an independent portrait of Mars in Taurus, before he met Venus in Leo. Love him, love her, understand how a square connection can be so exciting, in the beginning… 

Maybe, something will come up and make you laugh, or touch your heart. We can’t take it for granted but it may happen. Sometimes it takes days, sometimes a split second. Sometimes it’s a good metaphorical story, and sometimes, it’s spot on. 

I leave you to it. 

Jean-Marc

Thinking of taking a class? What I have been describing in this post and the previous one (Sentences with keywords) is a mental gymnastic. Understanding how things work is great, practising it takes training.

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How to read charts. Sentences with keywords. Leo Venus square Taurus Mars.

Yes it’s me, 20 years ago. I know astrology better now.

If astrology was yoga, I could say: Reading about postures is not the same as practising them! 

Astrology is mental gymnastics. We don’t need more and more information. We need to stretch our muscles. 

When you start learning, you read about placements… and you get confused. 

• Some authors give you various possible interpretations for a single placement. They use the conditional: “People with this placement may…..” We are drowning in uncertainty!  

• Various authors don’t tell you exactly the same things about the same placements. Sometimes they even contradict one another. 

• Try to Google “How will a Venus conjunct Sun in Leo squared by Mars in Taurus be expressed if the Ascendant is Scorpio and the Moon in Aries?” and you’ll realise that you’re all alone with the task of putting all the pieces together.

I propose two methods. One is powerful, easy, efficient but not as subtle as Pisces Mercuries could wish.

The other is subtle, results can’t be granted but it opens the door to intuition and can be, at times, downright magical. In this post, I’ll introduce the first method, based on keywords. 

Keywords are simplifications. Symbols are pictures for a reason. Now keywords are powerful. Just don’t turn them into dogmas.  

You pick keywords associated with the various symbols and you make sentences that make sense.  It’s a good game. It can be played with other students and you don’t even realise you're doing homework. Introverts can play on their own. 

For instance: 

Venus in Leo square Mars in Taurus. 

This person loves (Venus) being seen (Leo) but (square) acts (Mars) like a bull in a China shop (Taurus). 

Bull in the China shop is not a standard keyword for Taurus, but in this context, it wants to be there! Mars is in exile in Taurus, add a square to the exile, especially from Venus, and the outcome is likely to be somewhat awkward. 

This person loves  (Venus)  being seen (Leo) but acts (Mars) with conspicuous (Leo) greed (Taurus when squared)

Notice that the key words may slide along the aspect lines. 

This person values (Venus) art, fun, and glory (Leo) but (square) goes for (Mars) material security (Taurus) 

Or 

This person loves (Venus) art and creativity (Leo) and can’t (square to Mars) get security (Taurus) 

Or

This man desires (Mars-Venus) a high maintenance (Leo) woman (Venus) and can’t get no (square) satisfaction (Taurus) 

I wanted to say YES (Venus) but (square)  I said NO (Mars) 

(Sometimes, forgetting about the signs helps)

Singing (Taurus) is an energetic (Mars)  performing (Leo) art (Venus) - Don’t be too loud though (square) 

Desires (Mars-Venus) conflict (square). 

Sometimes, people in our life become actors of energies in our own chart. Sometimes we swap roles according to circumstances… 

To assert (Mars) good taste, hard work and common sense (Taurus) doesn’t work (square) when you bond with (Venus) a bling bling party animal (squared Leo) 

Go get (Mars)  the goods (Taurus) for Venus (she rules Taurus) but (square) luxury (Leo) items (Taurus) cost too much (square) money (Taurus)

We could go on and on… but if we play this game with friends, we better limit the time. 

Nothing will prevent the players from sharing the fantastic lines that may come up after the time is up during the next meal. (Imagine an astrology  retreat, a swimming pool, palm trees and good laughs…)

Next level: add the houses. We could have started with the planets in houses and added the signs next. Changing the order can help bring up new ideas. 

Venus conjunct Sun in Leo and the tenth house square Mars in Taurus and the seventh house. The Ascendant is Scorpio. 

This person is a socialite. 

Socialite: definition: a person who is well known (10th house, Leo) in fashionable (Venus, Leo) society (Venus, 10th house)  and is fond of (Venus) social activities (Venus) and entertainment (Leo).

But (square) 

This person is a drama queen! (Venus afflicted in Leo) 

She always argues (square, Mars) with her partner (seventh House) who has a reputation (10th house is connected with Mars through the square) of being violent (Mars afflicted), possessive (Taurus) and wasteful (Mars afflicted in Taurus) 

However, nobody knows what’s really going on behind closed doors (Scorpio Ascendant). They must get on very well in bed (Mars, ruler of the Scorpio Ascendant, in Taurus and the seventh house) to be obsessively (Scorpio) addicted to each other (Scorpio, seventh house). Drag me to hell! 

It’s better to play with imaginary charts for a start: not being anxious about being right or wrong, we can relax and be creative.

In spite of the various possible interpretations, the underlying archetypal pattern remains the same. Playing will develop our intuition of the archetypal realm. 

In a future post, I’ll talk about the other method I suggest, which consists of combining pictures instead of keywords. 

Have fun! 

Jean-Marc Pierson

If you feel like learning with me, I offer one to one or very small group online classes. You may have guessed that there are plans (eleventh house) of organizing retreats. Watch this space!

In the meantime, you’ll find plenty of keywords and key ideas in Magical Doors.