Any idiot can face a crisis; It takes day-to-day living that wears you out.

THE SIGN OF
CANCER

Emotion is the pitfall of Cancer people. As changeable as their ruler, the Moon, these subjects may shift in minutes from stable, normal, "happy" individuals into victims of deep navy blue feelings of gloom and doom. There's a quality of charming despair in Cancerian moodiness which can not only break hearts, but can sometimes actually win them.

Cancers make fabulous partners for home-loving people. The Cancer's nest is where he feels safest and at his most secure. As security is the main preoccupation of most Cancers, a good home with comfy furnishings, a few kids and dogs and a built-in wall safe is about the best thing that can happen to them. In this atmosphere of cushions and curtains Cancer thrives. For the Cancer subject, home is love is home is love, etc.

Cancers are good at making money; they hold executive positions and assume responsibilities with aplomb. You will rarely find a poor-but-happy Cancer. Cancerians very seldom decide to throw it all up and become a hippie or a freelance bohemian. They don't necessarily like the system or the constraints it places on them, but of all the signs of the Occidental zodiac, Cancers are the most capable of placing nose to dull old grindstone and keeping it there. The Cancer wants comfort for himself, but he also enjoys providing for his family in a generous way.

Cancers are traditionalists. Where you might have hung a supremely abstract painting over your mantelpiece, the Cancer will have put portraits of his dour-looking grandparents, which he dug out of the attic because nobody else wanted them. They will surely be framed in antique frames and will hold the place or honor in Cancer's heart. Cancer prefers antiques to formica and longs for his son or daughter to become a doctor, a lawyer or a sure-fire accountant.

If you have a Cancer for a friend, you know what loyalty and devotion mean. Cancer people usually make their friends young and keep them for life. And, as Cancers are fairly intransigent, they are easily hurt if the friends in question do not return their devotion. They will forgive. But Cancers never forget.

If someone asked me to describe the worst aspect of Cancer subjects, I would not say "moods" or "grabbiness." Instead I would have to speak of the Cancer's tendency to hypersensitivity. Cancer is easily offended and susceptible to criticism the way six-year-olds are susceptible to chicken pox. A tiny word of criticism can bring on one of Cancer's legendary moods and the criticizer may go on the black list for quite a long time.

Cancers are jealous too. They own the people they live with and are possessive to a fault about their loved ones. They are not, however, tyrannical about this weakness. The idea is not "I bought you and therefore I own you." No. It's more like "I love you so much and care so profoundly that I cannot believe you dared be attracted to that other (less serious) person." Cancer is also easily hurt by cutting remarks. In love, Cancer gives his all. It's impossible for him to understand someone who doles out their love in tiny eye-dropper doses.