Excerpt from Astrology and the Wheel of the Year by Beith-ann
Summer Solstice / Lammas 2008 issue
Summer Solstice / Lammas 2008 issue
As we go through the Great Gateway to Summer, we are going to look at the signs that the Sun is going through in that season and the element of Water, the element of the sign, Cancer, which is at the height of that season.
The Element of Water
Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces.
Throughout time WATER has symbolised emotions. This is exactly where the Water signs live, within their emotions. If you think about it, we use quite watery language to describe emotions. "A love as deep as the ocean, as wide as the sea" `Tides of emotion' `sea of love' `cry me a river' `emotional depths'. I could go on, and perhaps you could think of a few more.
In order for this element to be kept under control it needs to be contained and is liable to take on the shape of its container. It can also take on a form of two of the other elements, (using the third, or lack of it, as a catalyst) in the form of ice (solid, earth) or water vapour (gas, air). Therefore it is the most versatile of the elements. As Liz Greene points out in her book 'Astrology for Lovers' (Rubbish title, great book) "The greater percentage of the human body - something like 85% - is composed of water. Water covers two thirds of the earth's surface. And from water, the Koran tells us, all life begins"
There is an almost primitive power with Water, underrated because there is a tendency to equate the watery type with being wet. However, when you look at valleys formed by the erosive properties of the river you can see that there is a persistence with water which will not be ignored. I have a pervasive image from a film of a dam being burst after it was weakened by just making small cracks in the structure. Water finds weakness and takes advantage of it, breaking down the structure, wearing it away or bursting through.
Water finds its identity within an EMOTIONAL relationship with others, either being dependant or having someone to depend upon, usually both. It's like the patient needing the nurse in order to get well, but the nurse needing the patient in order to validate them. If there is one thing that Water needs, it is that sort of containment, to feel needed for something. Why else should they get the reputation for self-sacrifice? Cancer is the ever devoted mother (even the men), Scorpio tends to become enveloped in intense emotional experiences (and yet they are scared to death of them as well) and Pisces just wishes to make the world a more acceptable place for everyone, but chiefly for themselves.
Like the creatures that symbolise the water signs, the members of the water trinity can live in places that are inhospitable to humans. Not only in the physical sense, because water can endure hardship beyond all other signs, except perhaps for Capricorn, but also existing within the realms of instinct and feelings, something that the other signs find harder to cope with. The experience of life is the most real to them. It doesn't matter if you cannot theorise about it or touch it, if it can be experienced it exists. Water signs have a well honed sixth sense that the other elements have buried through lack of use.
Because of this existence in the world of the intangible, Water signs tend to have a better idea than most what is real and what is imagined, but sometimes prefer to escape into a world of imagination. Don't ever underestimate how much water signs really know, they have a wisdom that comes from an inner knowing and a connection with all realms, sometimes not even knowing where their thoughts and 'knowings' come from.
These signs tend to get a bad press now days because what they are concerned with is not the concern of society in general. The psychic realms and areas that are covered by instincts and feelings are something that tends to be knocked out of people at a young age. We live in a Fire/Air orientated world whose priorities are not those of the Water signs. Their empathy makes them the healers and the prophets, the counsellors and the psychotherapists, the nurses and even the prison warders of this world.