Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Zodiac Sign Cancer, Solstice, & Edward Hopper

Reviving here paragraphs from Ingrid Lind's little book Astrology & Commonsense (1962) to discover her take on the sign ruled by the Moon ~ Cancer:



The conflict here is the busy, active cardinal quality as part of an otherwise entirely emotional, negative and intuitive nature, The signs starting from Aries are alternately positive and negative. Taurus has many negative or feminine characteristics and this is true of Cancer. Here, to carry on the picture of gradual expansion from primitivity, woman has now fulfilled herself in motherhood, Whereas in Taurus her man came first, it is now her child and her home; and her energy is expressed in the effort to protect and preserve these.

Thus, in men or women whose charts show strength in Cancer there is a pronounced love of home or family and great loyalty to these. Just as a mother instinctively knows the need of her child and senses the approach of danger, so the Cancerian is intuitive and aware of surrounding atmosphere and public feeling. During the period of gestation any woman increases in sensitvity; she protects the child in her womb and has a natural feeling of self-importance in this act of creation, Cancerian women seem to have much of these feelings as a normal part of their emotional makeup. It would possibly be taken amiss if I were to suggest that Cancerians are like permanently pregnant women; but indeed it is true that much of the hypersensitivity and tendency to take things personally is typical of this sign in men and women.

Cancerian Qualities
Tenderness
Intuitiveness
Sensitivity
Thrift
Protectiveness

Cancerian Faults
Possessiveness
Fussiness
Touchiness
Hoarding
Taking things too personally

Earlier posts about zodiac sign Cancer can be easily accessed via the Label Cloud in the sidebar - just click on "Cancer".


Cancer also stands at the gate of Solstice, Summer Solstice in the northern hemisphere, Winter Solstice for our southern cousins. There was a good article on Solstice in a rather unexpected place yesterday: Common Dreams. Written by James Carroll : A Solstice Approaches, Unnoticed. He begins:



ONCE, HUMANS were intimate with the cycles of nature, and never more than on the summer solstice. Vestiges of such awareness survive in White Nights and Midnight Sun festivals in far northern climes, and in neo-pagan adaptations of Midsummer celebrations, but contemporary people take little notice of the sun reaching its far point on the horizon.

We know, don't we, that there's still a coterie of astrologically aware people who keep an eye on the sky, and who are quite often ridiculed for so doing?

And he closes thus:

As our sense of the complexities of life quickened and deepened, our destructiveness of life also quickened and deepened. Through ambitions of unlimited growth, consumption, competitive manufacture, and self-expanding technology, we humans have become a mechanism of extinction. When we stopped noticing Earth, we began to destroy it.

Intimate awareness of nature and its cycles, as we saw, was an ancient mode of survival. But survival is at issue again. Noticing the length of light now, reveling in the sun’s achievement, rejoicing in Earth’s perfect balance, honoring the summer solstice — loving it: This is how we became human, and it is how we stay human.


Solstice Greetings to all passing readers, in both hemispheres.




One of the best examples I know, of a Cancerian-type displaying his astrological credentials in his art, was American painter Edward Hopper. Born 22 July 1882, Nyack, New York. No birth time available - chart for 12 noon.




Much of Hopper's artwork reveals two things - a feeling of loneliness and isolation, and the stability of a home. He loved to paint houses - homes. He also liked to portray the isolation which can come from city life. In some of his paintings there's also more than a hint of love of the sea - yachts, lighthouses. How could the sign represented by a crab not love the sea? He also was fond of painting aspects of summer - some examples below.

Hopper's natal Sun and Mercury in Cancer reflect his very obvious attraction to houses - homes, together with an ever present feeling of isolation or withdrawal. The sign of Cancer is well known as being the "homely" sign of the zodiac, Cancerian qualities also include shyness and withdrawal (think of a crab disappearing into its shell).

Saturn and Neptune in Taurus with Venus, Mars and Uranus in Virgo bring a lot of Earthy element to his chart - another hint as to why he was so attracted to portraying houses, homes, buildings, something solid, stable and reliable.

Pluto and Jupiter in Gemini. Moon is certain to be somehwere in Libra whatever the time of birth. These placements provide Airy lightness and a nice balance in his personality.

Pluto in Gemini brought forth so many great communicators, both verbally and pictorially - Hopper is certainly one of these. Lloyd Goodrich wrote of him:
No artist has painted a more revealing portrait of twentieth-century America. But he was not merely an objective realist. His art was charged with strong personal emotion, with a deep attachment to our familiar everyday world, in all its ugliness, banality, and beauty.














His best known painting: NIGHTHAWKS


And a video for good measure, with Benny Goodman playing along ~





9 comments:

Gian Paul said...

If there is an influencial Cancer women (very "family" she says, including in it "all progressive Americans") it must be Arianna Huffington. Not only does she have Sun/Moon conjunct in 69 but also Uranus. Funny that R. Murdoch also has Uranus in 69. But conjunct to his North Node. Makes for a kind of different concept of publishing!

Gian Paul said...

Sorry for a confusion I created, even turning Murdoch into over 100 years old: Had in my memory that theman had something "explosive" in 69. Now I verifyied: It's not Uranus but Jupiter conjunct Pluto. Which is why his press is so manipulative...

PS. Huffington's is so to, but not just going after the lower instincts of her audience.

Twilight said...

Gian Paul ~~ Arianna has Saturn sextile her Cancer planets which reflects her acute business sense.
I don't see her as a progressive, GP. She's a businesswoman who found a niche in the supposedly leftwing of media.

Watch what happens as we approach the 2012 election. If she was truly progressive she would NOT be supporting President Obama, she'd be urging a challenge from the left.

Her Cancerian bits like comfort too much to be bothered to try making things better for the down-trodden.

As for Murdoch - yes he has Mars Jupiter and Pluto in Cancer in trine to Pisces Sun. We don't know him personally - or at all really, maybe in his home life he's a warm sentimental old git.
LOL!

Are we disproving astrology here?
Is the traditional definition of Cancer a bit adrift?

Murdoch has Saturn sextile Sun - he's basically a businessman - making money is his aim in life.

Anonymous said...

Agree that both, Huffington and Murdoch are business first people. How else could they make money in this world?

Anonymous said...

The previous comment was not from anon. Was Gian Paul, but since I have a Google mail, those baggers (some pimple faced bonus hungry youngster) try since ever to force me into using their G-stuff which here I do not want.

Sideline: I was shocked the other day that on this blog (which is Goggles) my personal e-mail address was filtered down to some Linked-in type organization. It's becomming as little discret here as with Facebook. Another pimpl-faced organization!!!

Twilight said...

Anonymous (Gian Paul) - sorry for your difficulties with Google etc.
If you comment as Anonymous, but sign off your comment with GP or Gian Paul it'll be fine by me and save you problems.

Yes, business people make money. That's fine. The problems arise when they accumulate so much money - enough to buy the power they need to manipulate public opinion, then feed their advertisers to perpetuate same, never go against what the corporations demand.....that's when problems begin with business people.

James Higham said...

Thus, in men or women whose charts show strength in Cancer there is a pronounced love of home or family and great loyalty to these.

Can Aquarians feel any home love, Twilight?

Those Hopper snaps were great. Love him.

Twilight said...

James Higham ~~

Re "Can Aquarians feel any home love?"

All so-called Aquarians are different, James. Although those born with Sun in Aquarius are now, in a kind of shorthand, called Aquarians - it's misleading.

For example - I have Sun in Aquarius but Cancer rising (sign on the horizon as I was born) which puts Cancerian characteristics into my "blueprint", and Moon was in Aries - so already there are two strong modifiers of a true Aquarius nature. There are many other potential modifiers too.

But taking the question in a straightforward way, simple Sun in Aquarius (which doesn't really exist) = mentally-oriented, rather reserved, keen on social reform (or whatever they see as social reform), naturally clever, often inventive, love of humanity in general rather than only close relatives, though they are as loyal to these as any human is - and more, and keen on anything futuristic. some are rebels, depending on where Uranus, planet ruler of Aquarius is found.

But, as already pointed out - it doesn't end there, that's just one facet of a person's nature.

Sorry to go on!

James Higham said...

Glad you did.