(This is a part of the “Astrology Of Love And Compatibility” series)

AKA: The Crab, Moon Child, That Schoolmarm Who Loves Kids But Is Always Cranky With Them

Ruling Planet: The Moon, which stays up all night orbiting The Earth, waxing and waning and worrying about things beyond its control.

Identifying Features: Frequently cheerful, creative and charming — or crusty and snappish (sometimes both in rapid succession), which cleverly masks a deep-seated concern about nearly everything in its environment.

How Many Cancers Does It Take To Change A Lightbulb? Why do you assume the lightbulb needs changing? Are you trying to tell the lightbulb how it should feel about itself? Did it ever occur to you that maybe the lightbulb doesn’t feel like working?

Reputation: Sometimes moody and irritable, but not afraid to fight to the death to protect the people and things that it loves… which it loves very, very deeply.

The Truth: Ultimately, Cancers are like crabs themselves: once you get past that armor they are filled with sweet, tender, delicious goodness. And if YOU were surrounded by people who knew that about you and wanted to eat it all up, you’d grow a hard shell and get a bit defensive yourself.

How To Get A Cancer’s Attention: Recognize their goodness and approach them firmly and confidently… but don’t make any sudden moves, be startling, or poke at their defenses. Cancers like soft and fuzzy things, so try to emphasize those qualities in yourself.

What’s To Love? Long before there were Rams and Goats and Fish and even Scorpions, Crabs scuttled successfully around the Earth. That’s because they are one of Nature’s toughest designs… and when they love you, they will pinch and claw to the death to defend you and protect you.

What’s Not To Love? One good spooking is all it takes for them to scuttle away and back into the ocean of their feelings, never to be seen again. Also, what you may consider to be “over-reacting” to a perceived slight is what they consider “standard operating procedure.” 

What Cancer need to let those who love them know: You’ve got a tremendous amount of love to give and can be fiercely loyal. That sort of prize comes with a price, and that price is “toeing the line and making a conscientious effort to not be a jerk, or appear to be one, or to in any way bear a resemblance to one.” Mess up once and Cancer remembers it for ages.

What you need to know if you love a Cancer: If Spider-Man proved that “with great power comes great responsibility,” then consider having a Cancer in your life as giving you some super-powers. If they love you, you’ll get the full benefit of their near-bulletproof shell, fierce ability to pinch an enemy, and near-indestructability.

COMPATIBILITY:
Fire Signs: (Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius)  Cancer can certainly benefit from the optimism and good cheer that comes from Fire Signs, but will have to overcome its fear of being boiled alive by them.
Earth Signs: (Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn)  The sense of stability Earth Signs provide to Cancer are highly appealing, but the relationship can become muddled without sufficient motivation.
Air Signs: (Gemini, Libra and Aquarius) Like Cancers, Air Signs are usually bright, and Cancers like that. But living in your head too much sets off the Crab’s warning systems… “what if you just THINK you love them?” they’ll wonder…

Water Signs (Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces) Your depth of feeling is exactly the sort of thing a Cancer is looking for, but can easily break down in the face of too much defensiveness, or if suspicions set in on either side.