Mars in Cancer

A warrior on the moon

A swashbuckler with a wide brimmed hat and a panache, fights with a sword and holds a baby with his other arm. 

Hello friends! I was quite pleased when this picture came up to illustrate Mars in Cancer. Mars is in detriment in the sign of mothers and babies. It’s not easy to fight a reckless Aries or a half suicidal Scorpio Mars with a vulnerable little treasure to protect as you go. 

 

However, the Cancer Mars warrior may win the fight. Being in detriment is a handicap, it is not the end of the story. 

The swashbuckler with a baby is not the last word in terms of interpretation of Mars in Cancer either. Once I found it, it became the tree that made me miss the forest for it. I couldn’t come across Mars in Cancer without automatically thinking of it, and as a result, of nothing else. 

Automatic thinking is THE trap. The best inspiration of yesterday becomes mindless repetition the following days.

Mars and Cancer are symbols. The realities they symbolise belong to the great river called the collective psyche. 

We can’t know them once and for all, they are too fluid for a fixed meaning. 

Do you know “Haroun and the sea of stories” by Salman Rushdie? It is said to be a children’s book, but the metaphor is profound. Our lives and the symbols that talk about them emerge from a dimension akin to the Water element.

With symbols, the sceptic and the sarcastic would say that anything can mean anything, but that’s not true. There is a certain level of coherence between meanings. The good old Hermetic philosophy talks about “sympatheia”. We could translate this word as “affinity”.

Rather than meaning anything precise and well defined in earthy fashion, the meanings are connected as if they belonged to a common field. What best describes what unites them is the law of analogy. Mars in Cancer is like a warrior with a baby in one arm, which is like a mother fighting to protect her baby which is like a baby living the experience of being fought over or taking part in the fight…  

Metaphorical pictures can be nothing but illustrations though. 

We need various illustrations to hopefully get an intuition of what a placement means in spirit, at the level of before taking any particular form. 

It’s a real challenge to switch off a picture you love. Letting the swashbuckler fade away required mindfulness - the antidote to automatic thinking. I had to be confronted again with my own ignorance, and let the symbols speak again. 

Mars in Cancer. What else ? 

Cancer and the Moon speak of cycles. There are peaks and troughs. Mars speaks of energy and willpower. Sometimes full force is available, sometimes you’re just weak. Sometimes every day is a bit better than yesterday; your lover, family, friends, coworkers and boss encourage you, but you always end up disappointing them. They have to accept the fact that you are cyclical. You have to accept it in the first place. 

There is a way to surf the waves, but it’s only for those who accept that they have to surf waves. Mars in Cancer folks, stop believing that you should be like Mars in Aries or Capricorn. It’s a great quality to feel your environment whilst being active in it. There are things only you can do well. 

Those who don’t accept to be the way they are may feel like victims or act (Mars)  in childish or lunatic (Moon) ways. 

My own Mars is not in Cancer, but in Scorpio, but… making a trine aspect to my Cancer Rising. Even without this trine, all my energies, Mars included, are expressed through Cancer when I am doing me. When I am leading a class, I am constantly aware of the atmosphere in the group, and adjusting to my perception of what is needed.

 

Here is another lead: the Moon is the archetypal feminine energy. Mars is archetypically masculine. We are in 2024 and these questions of gender are sensitive. Let’s put on our eggshell shoes. 

Mars is an energy that feels masculine in terms of gender role. A man with Mars in Cancer may not feel as confident about “being a real man” as a man with Mars in Aries or Leo.

Let me repeat, even though it’s boring, that we can’t jump to conclusions on the basis of a single placement taken out of context. In a chart where other placements would suggest power, Mars in Cancer would simply bring a welcome touch of softness. 

A woman with Mars in Cancer may feel comfortable about asserting (Mars) her womanhood (Cancer) but she may also feel attracted to Cancerian men, for the better or the worse. 

Cancer is the sign of family and tribe. In Cancer we belong. Mars there feels that the masculine role consists of protecting and providing. 

In a tribe, the hunters and gatherers go together. Fighting is group business. Join the army, protect your family!  

If you talk with beggars, sometimes you come across guys who spent many years in the foreign legion. They have never learned to do their own admin or to have self discipline when left to their own devices, as they were entirely taken in charge, food, shelter and life structure. 

It is puzzling to think that a tough guy, trained for the battlefield, can be at the same time dependent like a child. Life is complex, and as I said, fluid. Mars in Cancer is a spirit. From the soldier who is like a child, we can think of child soldiers, and from there, wonder. Maybe Mars in Cancer suggests having to fight when young? Mars makes emotions flare up! 

In Cancer, a sign of emotions and sensitivity, Mars’ philosophy of assertiveness may be:

Dare crying in front of others, if this is the truth of how you really feel! 

Some people may think you’re weak, but it is real strength… 

Jean-Marc, storyteller, astrologer.

I offer super affordable readings, so you can taste me: the ‘spontaneous reading’ is a first impressions reading. I don’t prepare, but I know my trade well enough. It’s £50 for seventy five minutes, or £15 for fifteen minutes.

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