Hi little coven, how’s your Cancer season going? Mine has been teary, quiet and cleansing… just as it should be.
Cancerians thrive when they’re in their feels, soaking up whatever mood they find themselves floating in. Leaning into this astrological season’s particular brand of creative energy means making space for your authentic experience and expressing yourself from where you already are, instead of trying to fit into anyone else’s mould for what a creative should look like or how your creative work should be presented or perceived.
The work of Cancerian creatives like Lana Del Rey and Frieda Kahlo embraces a certain obtuseness that opens up space for nuance, depth, wonder. Artists like these prompt their audience to step into the unknown and absorb the experience, even when you can’t articulate the logic; they’re not concerned with correctness but with fullness.
Antoine de Saint Exupéry, the author of the dreamy and resonant Le Petit Prince and a Cancerian, once confessed: “Here is my secret. It is very simple. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” These words sum up the creative vibes of Cancer season perfectly: it’s about getting beyond the facts of your physical reality and opening yourself up to the primal, often inexplicable but always rich, energy of the heart. This takes a willingness to look beyond the exteriors you experience and find the tender secrets underneath.
You don’t need to be born under a Cancer sun to embrace Cancer energy — you simply need to be willing to step into the space beyond what your eyes see and linger there. Don’t force yourself to act; instead, allow yourself to be.
We can look to two Cancerian archetpes to help us understand, accommodate, and make the most of Cancer energy this season: the Zodiac Crab and the Chariot tarot card.
The symbol for Cancer season is a crab, and I’ll admit that I’ve always found it a little hard to crack. But, in some ways, I think that’s the point: that impervious outer shell guards a hard-won tenderness inside.
The shell is central to any interpretation of Cancer iconography: the season has also been represented by a scarab beetle, a tortoise, and a lobster1. Cancerian energy can feel inscrutable and obtuse until you peer beyond the challenging, invulnerable exterior and look beyond.
In myth, the Cancerian crab finds its way into the sky when Hercules crushes the shell beneath his feet. What lies beyond the exterior, what fills the vessel of the shell doesn’t just remain, it is drawn to the sky where it shines, brilliantly.
This season, invite yourself to look at whatever obtuse, complex, hard-to-crack experiences not as barriers, but rather as vessels for the beautiful, vulnerable depths they guard.
To recall Saint Exupéry: you’ll really see what this season has to offer you when you look with your heart, not with your eyes.
Looking at this season’s tarot card with your heart, rather than your eyes, is critical to understanding the rich message it holds.
On its surface — its shell — this card appears industrious, and proactive. But pause for a moment and allow yourself to really look at Pamela Coleman Smith’s artwork and you might recognise a very different kind of energy: stillness, pondering, presence.
The chariot is not in motion, after all. Its standstill is made apparent by the fact that the sphinxes aren’t yet yoked to it. And behind the chariot: still waters.
I’ve always seen this card as a liminal space - the moment between commitment to a creative idea and the activation of it. An opportunity to stew in the idea, to imagine the different directions you might go, to get comfortable with the depths that emerge at the intersection of what you know and what you feel… to allow yourself to get beyond what’s written in any instruction manual and adjust your vision so that you’re setting out to follow the path of your heart, rather than following the obvious next steps.
This season, to get beneath he surface, to crack the hard shell of Cancerian complexity and find the value that Cancer has to offer, take the Chariot’s advice and take your time. Don’t rush into the most sensible option, but allow yourself the time and space to peel back the hard layers of what appears correct and focus on what feels right and authentic for you.
Seeing with your heart takes patience and practice - this season, you’re invited to cultivate both.
Bonus prompts, creative ritual suggestions and an exclusive tarot spread are available to full-access subscribers of The Shuffle here.
Share this post