Camp Thirlby’s Guide to Getting Out of Your Shell This Cancer Season
Illustration ℅ Annika Bjerke
I really wasn’t vibing with Cancer season until I found myself shaking my ass to Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” in my kitchen while roasting sweet potatoes the other night. Okay, fine — this divine feminine thing might be alright after all.
(Upon later research, Carlos Santana IS a Cancer. Oh, I love it when that happens.)
Cancer season begins at the Summer Solstice, the transition from the waxing to waning half of the year when the sun hands over its power to the moon and nights grow longer and longer for the following six months. This Summer Solstice, like everything else this year, was an unusual one, as it coincided with a solar eclipse; so, the sun and the moon seemed to hold hands as they both transitioned from playful, chatty Gemini into soft, homey Cancer.
While the sun embodies the extroverted, outward-facing qualities of divine masculinity, Cancer is ruled by the moon, which embodies the more mysterious and in-ward qualities of the divine feminine.
Cancer and its opposite sign of Capricorn are the parental figures of the zodiac; Cancer plays the domestic role while Capricorn is known for their role in the workplace. Don’t let capitalist ideas of productivity skew your prescriptive though — Cancers are just as hardworking and tough as Capricorns.
Like the crab glyph that represents them, Cancers protect their gooey internal selves with a hard external shell and they’re not hesitant to use their claws to protect those they care about. We love Cancers for their emotionally intuitive, nurturing ways, their romantic sentimentality, and their embodiment of sensitivity as a strength. Here’s our guide to getting out of your shell this Cancer season.
School and Work
If you are fortunate enough to still be working from home, there is perhaps no more a Cancerian sentiment than that. Like their fellow cardinal signs, Libra, Capricorn, and Aries, Cancers are driven, constantly looking to make moves and start new projects. Therefore, this is a great time to get out of your box and introduce new ways of thinking or doing within your role.
Yet, as a water sign, Cancer holds depths of emotional intuition that the other cardinal signs may lack. Embrace the empathy in the air to connect more deeply with your co-workers, peers, or creative partners. Sensitivity to the feelings of others is a vital strength in this moment, as in all moments, as many of us are increasingly burdened by societal, economic, and personal stressors. This is no time to dogmatically enforce expectations. Creating a safe and understanding environment for those you collaborate with will allow for more fulfilling relationships as well as results.
Relationships
Cancers are true romantics. They’re very aware of how to sweetly and demurely yield their sensuality in order to flirt with the suaveness of a Libra, but Cancers are more interested in happy endings than passing flings. Nurturing Cancer knows just how to make their partner feel safe and at home, something we can all aspire to. Take this month to treat your partner to domestic comforts and sentimental acts of service, like making them their favorite dinner or crafting a homemade gift (perhaps a mask sewn from scraps of fabric!).
While Cancer season reminds us of the importance of home, it is a great time to reconnect with your family, biological or chosen. Take extra care to make sure your loved ones feel emotionally at home as well. Check-in with your favorite people’s feelings and ensure them that they are safe to be vulnerable with you. Remember that all relationships are a necessary give and take and work to access and allow yourself to communicate your needs as well.
Free Time
This is an ideal time to spread your empathetic and nurturing abilities far and wide, as the world is sure in need of it. With the drive granted by the cardinal season, imagine ways to put your skills and resources to use in movements toward the greater good, such as the continuing organizing of Black Lives Matter. Whether you are marching, supporting mutual aid, curating care packages, contacting representatives, organizing a discussion group, or making political art, make sure to approach your efforts with compassion and tenderness for the needs of those around you and the good intuitive sense to center those who deserve to be centered.
After doing your part to better the world around you, take time to curate the spaces you retreat into. This is a good time to reorganize for maximum coziness, putting your favorite items where you can appreciate them. To return to an earlier sense of security, try baking recipes that run in your family while listening to music that brought you comfort as a kid.
Self
Cancers are unmatched in their ability to romanticize the past, so it’s likely that this month will find you in various states of nostalgia. Especially when the future is uncertain, it is tempting to retreat into memories. It’s important to allow yourself to grieve moments gone by and relationships that have ended; give yourself space to reflect on lessons learned and welcome some water sign waterworks before shifting your gaze forward to imagine a better future to come.
About the Author
Victoria Middleton (she/her) is a third year student at The George Washington University studying journalism and mass communication with a minor in women’s, gender and sexuality studies. She discovered her love for writing as a little girl, typing fairytale stories on her parents old Dell and printing them out before taping them into glitter-glue-encrusted cardboard covers. These days, she thinks honest and fully developed stories about women are even better than fairy tales. When she’s not scheming against the male hegemony of the media industry, she can be found thrifting, watching cult films and TV and badly dancing to good music. She has been known to get overly excited about intersectional feminism, astrology and David Lynch.
