CANCER

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Cancer is the sign of the summer solstice, and represents the sun at the highest point of summer. The constellation is identified with the crab, Karkinos, or Carcinus, that was sent by Hera to bite the foot of Hercules as he battled with the monstrous Hydra. Hercules crushed the crab with his foot. Hera placed the crab in the sky for this service. The crab is a symbol of powerful gripping and holding power. According to Chaldaean and Platonist philosophy, Cancer was the 'Gate of Men' through which souls descended from heaven into human bodies, or into creation. Its opposite sign Capricorn represents the 'Gate of the Gods' where souls of the departed ascended back to heaven. Kuhn in The Lost Light explains; "in sign of Cancer the crab is emerging from the water and in Capricorn the goat (half goat or land animal, half fish or sea animal) is in the water. The crab lives part of its time on the earth, and part in the water. In this constellation there is a configuration of two Asses, the Aselli (gamma, Asellus Borealis, and delta, Asellus Australis) outflanking a star cluster called the 'Manger' (Praesaepe). Some think this might be the origin, as seen in nativity pictures of the birth of Christ, of the positioning of a donkey always behind the manger. The baby born in a manger might relate to this idea of Cancer being the 'Gate of Men'.