CANCER: THE NEXT 2 YEARS (and a few famous names)

In my last piece I looked at how the next 2 years might pan out for Aries, Taurus and Gemini, using a combination of Sun sign astrology and the outer planets plus Saturn.

Today I’ll look at just one sign, Cancer. When I did this 2 months ago using just one outer planet, Pluto, I wrote more on each sign as I went through them. I think that's partly because I got into the swing of it, and it is experimental; but also I think it's because the signs develop in complexity as you go through them, you begin with new-born Aries and end with old soul Pisces. But being complex doesn't necessarily make you better!

CANCER
Solar Houses: Pluto 7th, Neptune 8th, Uranus 9th, Saturn 3rd.

As with Aries, the outer planets are occupying one entire quadrant of the chart, and in this case it’s the 3rd quadrant, the 7th, 8th and 9th Houses. In this quadrant, we come into relationship with other people (7th), our ego is broken down through merging with the other (8th), and there is a subsequent broadening, reawakening and re-visioning of the self in the 9th.

So the key area for Cancerians over the next 2 years is transformation through your relationships with others. It is time to come out of that shell. That shell is healthy and necessary, for it protects you, but you take it too far. You mistake the shell for yourself, and you hope that others will also (they won’t.) In the process you can lose sight of who you are, the shell of professional success or whatever takes over.

So with Pluto coming into your 7th, it is time to let others in; it is time to be in that place of moulting that crabs go through, when they are very vulnerable for a few days between shells. As you let others in, you will remember who you are beneath the shell, that essentially caring, helpful, nurturing person: that is what is important about you, not your achievements (Cancer is the opposite sign to Capricorn, and can have some of its need for standing and success).

So this is the empowerment that Pluto is beginning to provide for you: self-remembering through your relationships of all kinds. That is what others value you for, the tenderness beneath the shell. As Pluto busts through the shell, so you become able to merge, to be transformed by your relationships, to connect with others in ways you have never done before. This is Neptune in your 8th, and it’s worth remembering here that Cancer at its best is a psychic sign – hence its esoteric ruler Neptune – so you will be finding unexpected riches as you let your defences down: you will have a heightened sensitivity to others, you will be able to explore their dark places and secrets with them, you may become quite mediumistic.

If your shell really is hard and inflexible, Pluto may give you a very difficult time, you may have some unpleasant people come your way, and you may get deeply - financially? - involved with someone who is not what they seem (Neptune). But you can learn from that!

With Uranus in the 9th, your vision of life, what gives your life meaning, is being transformed by your relationships with others, and you will have unusual and original insights coming to you: it might be a good time for Cancerians to take up reading Composite charts, for example. With Uranus in Pisces, these insights will be of a watery nature, you will be able to suddenly grasp the whole of someone’s personality, for example (like a 12th House astrologer I know who feels she becomes the chart).

There’s a lot of water flying around in this 3-fold transformational process, so it is just as well that Saturn is in the airy 3rd House of communication, thought and ideas. So use your mind, think about your experience, get objectivity on it, and that will mean you can do something with it.

Here are a few well-known Cancerians who might, or might not, reflect this process: Prince William, Princess Diana, George Bush, OJ Simpson, Richard Branson, the Dalai Lama.

Certainly with Prince William the transits to his natal chart suggest, actually insist, it is soon to be make or break time with Kate Middleton. Princess Diana is admittedly dead, but the press remain obsessed with her 10 years on, and in the UK we are in the middle of an inquest into her death: how's that for Neptune in the solar 8th, the call (Neptune) from beyond the grave (8th)? What remains after her death (8th) is an idealised image (Neptune). And central to it all is a relationship (7th), in which both people died (Pluto). The solar 9th House, the place of understanding, is Uranus in Pisces, and here we find the Aquarian (ruled by Uranus) Mohammed Al Fayed, and his desperate, unhinged conspiracy theories.

Richard Branson, the man behind the Virgin empire, looks like he is about to buy the stricken bank Northern Rock. This won't be just another sexy brand for him, you are dealing with people's pockets and their security, it's more serious. So you can see the 'other people' connection here.

George Bush will no longer be President in a year. He has a classic Cancerian tough-guy shell. But other people will no longer view him like that when he loses power, there is nothing quite so 'ex' as an ex-leader. He will need to adjust. Maybe through more God (Uranus in the solar 9th)?

The Dalai Lama is also going into retirement, not in the sense of not being the Dalai Lama, but handing over the political part of his work. He doesn't seem to have the big shell that a lot of Cancerians have, but inevitably political work involves a shell, involves appearing a certain way in your relationships with others.