You are a Cancer

Whether it's an old plastic bottle, an old lover, an old house, an old belief, an old memory, Cancer hangs on. One of your strongest urges is the urge for security, and security usually means clinging to the past. It's an emotional motivation, not a practical one. Beneath the Crab's tenacious penchant for not letting go of anything lies one of the most sensitive and vulnerable of all the zodiac signs. Moon-ruled, your apparently solid and conservative nature is perpetually washed by a cyclical ebb and flow of moods, desires, feelings, fantasies, dreams, fears and intuitions.

Yes, conservative. You Cancers know all about conservation. You'll carefully nurture and protect those tender feelings and creative imaginings beneath a bristling fortified wall of multiple bank accounts, share certificates, insurance policies, old photographs, family traditions, childhood friendships, and sometimes a super-rational attitude which appears to reject everything that lies on the invisible side of life.

Cancers are closet mystics, with poetry in their soul and the light of distant, dimly lit horizons in their eyes. Admittedly, not a lot of people may know that about you, and maybe you don't even know it about yourself. Except when the Moon changes phases and those secret dreams and imaginings rise up with the ebb and flow of the tide.

Yours is traditionally the sign of the family. That doesn't mean every Cancer wants, or should have, a family in the conventional sense. But a feeling of continuity with the past is terribly important for you. With roots firmly in the ground, you can indulge your wandering instinct, because there's something to come back to. And Crabs never move directly toward what they want. They circumambulate. "What, me? Interested in that? Don't be silly." But when you grab for the prize and those pincers close, you don't let go.

You dislike analysing motives, especially your own. You intuitively avoid possible rejection and humiliation - hence the often misread coolness which you present in situations where you feel vulnerable. But you're not cool, just intensely self-protective.

It's been said that Cancers are manipulative. This is absolutely true. You generally get what you want quietly and diplomatically, and half the time other people don't even realise you wanted it. Maybe sometimes you don't even realise yourself, until you've got there.

It's also been said about Cancer that the right hand often doesn't know what the left hand is doing. Of course you know, deep down. It's just that things are easier when they're dimly lit by the light of the Moon, not exposed for all to see in the harsh light of the noonday Sun.

Cancer is a water sign, with a gift for working subtly with feelings. Yes, you know how to use manipulation - atmospheres, hints, innuendoes, subtle ways of inducing guilt - to keep your loved ones close. The negative side of this is a propensity to employ emotional blackmail. But the positive side is a wonderful ability to guide and nurture without invasiveness. And behind even the most subtle of emotional ploys is your powerful need to be needed.

Your sensitivity, gentleness, shrewdness and delicacy can be beautifully expressed not only in the caring professions, but in business, family life, or a work of art. Although you need people, and need to be needed by them, you also long to retreat into solitude from time to time. It's those lunar phases again. Sometimes you simply have to withdraw in order to refresh your spirits and commune with those boundless imaginative depths. But you also need a lot of closeness and reassurance, and a cold atmosphere can be almost physically painful for you when you want to be close to someone.

Yours is a complex personality. You're instinctively secretive, yet always compassionate and responsive to others' unhappiness. You're capable of being snappish and irritable when the mood is on you, yet you're also able to brim over with joy, warmth, and sheer wild unbridled fun. Sometimes Cancers have to wait a long time before their real creative potential is realised. But the creative fruit you'll bring forth is worth waiting and working for.

You are a Cancer

Whether it's an old plastic bottle, an old lover, an old house, an old belief, an old memory, Cancer hangs on. One of your strongest urges is the urge for security, and security usually means clinging to the past. It's an emotional motivation, not a practical one. Beneath the Crab's tenacious penchant for not letting go of anything lies one of the most sensitive and vulnerable of all the zodiac signs. Moon-ruled, your apparently solid and conservative nature is perpetually washed by a cyclical ebb and flow of moods, desires, feelings, fantasies, dreams, fears and intuitions.

Yes, conservative. You Cancers know all about conservation. You'll carefully nurture and protect those tender feelings and creative imaginings beneath a bristling fortified wall of multiple bank accounts, share certificates, insurance policies, old photographs, family traditions, childhood friendships, and sometimes a super-rational attitude which appears to reject everything that lies on the invisible side of life.

Cancers are closet mystics, with poetry in their soul and the light of distant, dimly lit horizons in their eyes. Admittedly, not a lot of people may know that about you, and maybe you don't even know it about yourself. Except when the Moon changes phases and those secret dreams and imaginings rise up with the ebb and flow of the tide.

Yours is traditionally the sign of the family. That doesn't mean every Cancer wants, or should have, a family in the conventional sense. But a feeling of continuity with the past is terribly important for you. With roots firmly in the ground, you can indulge your wandering instinct, because there's something to come back to. And Crabs never move directly toward what they want. They circumambulate. "What, me? Interested in that? Don't be silly." But when you grab for the prize and those pincers close, you don't let go.

You dislike analysing motives, especially your own. You intuitively avoid possible rejection and humiliation - hence the often misread coolness which you present in situations where you feel vulnerable. But you're not cool, just intensely self-protective.

It's been said that Cancers are manipulative. This is absolutely true. You generally get what you want quietly and diplomatically, and half the time other people don't even realise you wanted it. Maybe sometimes you don't even realise yourself, until you've got there.

It's also been said about Cancer that the right hand often doesn't know what the left hand is doing. Of course you know, deep down. It's just that things are easier when they're dimly lit by the light of the Moon, not exposed for all to see in the harsh light of the noonday Sun.

Cancer is a water sign, with a gift for working subtly with feelings. Yes, you know how to use manipulation - atmospheres, hints, innuendoes, subtle ways of inducing guilt - to keep your loved ones close. The negative side of this is a propensity to employ emotional blackmail. But the positive side is a wonderful ability to guide and nurture without invasiveness. And behind even the most subtle of emotional ploys is your powerful need to be needed.

Your sensitivity, gentleness, shrewdness and delicacy can be beautifully expressed not only in the caring professions, but in business, family life, or a work of art. Although you need people, and need to be needed by them, you also long to retreat into solitude from time to time. It's those lunar phases again. Sometimes you simply have to withdraw in order to refresh your spirits and commune with those boundless imaginative depths. But you also need a lot of closeness and reassurance, and a cold atmosphere can be almost physically painful for you when you want to be close to someone.

Yours is a complex personality. You're instinctively secretive, yet always compassionate and responsive to others' unhappiness. You're capable of being snappish and irritable when the mood is on you, yet you're also able to brim over with joy, warmth, and sheer wild unbridled fun. Sometimes Cancers have to wait a long time before their real creative potential is realised. But the creative fruit you'll bring forth is worth waiting and working for.