First Decan of Cancer (0°–10°)

Venus at the threshold of the Moon's sign

The first decan of Cancer runs from 0° to 10° of the sign, beginning at the June solstice when the Sun reaches its greatest northern declination. In the Chaldean order Venus follows the Sun, so it takes this face. The triplicity scheme gives the first face of Cancer to Cancer and so to the Moon, its ruler. Venus also rules the water triplicity by day, which gives it a second link to the sign. Cardinal water starts things through feeling, and in this face the feeling is affection.

Venus brings attraction, pleasure, beauty and the wish to unite. The Moon brings care, memory, the body and the need for safety. Together they make a face that is open-hearted and receptive, quick to sense what others feel and eager to make them comfortable. Planets here lean toward bonds, hospitality and the home. The same openness makes them sensitive to rejection. Mars, the other water-triplicity ruler, holds its terms in the first degrees, which shows that Cancer's softness has a protective edge from the start.

The young woman with the crown

Agrippa, following the Arabic image lists that the Picatrix carried into Latin, describes the first face of Cancer as a young woman in fine clothes wearing a crown on her head. The image, he says, gives sharp senses, subtlety of mind and the love of people. It is a gentle picture after the weapons and quarrels of the last Gemini face.

The crown and the fine clothes are Venus: beauty, grace and the honour given to someone loved. The youth of the figure is the Moon at its fresh start, the beginning of a summer sign. Her gifts are those of perception, the ability to read people and situations closely, which is what makes her loved. She does not win affection by force. The Golden Dawn title for the face's card, Lord of Love, gives the image a partner: the senses and the subtlety turned toward one other person and a bond between them.

The sky goddess and the stars she carried

In Egypt the decans were thirty-six stars that marked the night hours, each for about ten days, listed on coffin lids from about 2100 BCE. The same lids picture Nut, the sky goddess, arched over the earth. In the later sky texts the decans travel along her body, and the Sun passes through her each night to be born again at dawn.

That picture of a mother carrying the stars and giving birth to the Sun is close to how astrologers read Cancer, the sign of the mother and the home, with the Moon as its ruler. When the Hellenistic astrologers fitted the decans to the zodiac, the first face of Cancer began at the solstice, the Sun's highest point. Which Egyptian star stood behind this face cannot be named with confidence, since the lists vary. The page on the Egyptian decan gods tells the story of Nut and her stars.

The Two of Cups, Lord of Love

In the Golden Dawn system the Two of Cups is Venus in Cancer, the first decan of the cardinal water sign, and Book T calls it the Lord of Love. Behind it stand The Empress for Venus and The Chariot for Cancer.

The Rider-Waite card shows a young man and a young woman facing each other, each holding a cup, as if making a pledge. Above them floats a caduceus topped by a winged lion's head. The scene is the decan almost word for word: Venus's attraction and the Moon's wish for closeness meeting in an exchange between equals. Read through this face, the card shows a bond formed by mutual offering, each person giving something and receiving something back. The caduceus, a symbol of healing, adds that a real bond restores both people. The card also implies a question for this decan: whether the pledge is freely made or born of a need to be held.

A Sun or several planets in the first decan of Cancer

A Sun here belongs to people born in the ten days after the June solstice. You tend to be warm, perceptive and hospitable, quick to notice how others feel and good at putting them at ease. Close bonds matter to you more than status, and home is where you recharge. You can take coolness or criticism to heart and may give more than you ask for in return.

Several planets in this face give a chart an affectionate, relational quality. Such charts often belong to the friend who remembers birthdays and the host whose kitchen fills with people. The common gift is making others feel they belong. The common difficulty is a need for reassurance, or merging so closely with a partner that your own wishes go unsaid. Look at Venus and the Moon in your chart to see how this decan's warmth is supported.

Working with the first face of Cancer

Host people regularly, even in small ways: a meal, a pot of tea, an open evening. In close relationships, practise saying what you want as clearly as you notice what others want. When you feel rejected, check the facts before reacting, since this face reads feelings fast and sometimes too fast. Keep one friendship or interest that is yours alone. Mark the solstice each year as a personal new year, the point where this face begins.