Mary English - How to Care for a Cancer: Real Life Guidance on How to Get Along and be Friends with the Fourth Sign of the Zodiac

First published by Dodona Books, 2012

Dodona Books is an imprint of John Hunt Publishing Ltd., Laurel House, Station Approach, Alresford, Hants, SO24 9JH, UK

www.johnhuntpublishing.com

www.dodona-books.com

For distributor details and how to order please visit the Ordering section on our website.

Text copyright: Mary English 2013

ISBN: 978 1 78279 063 1

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publishers.

The rights of Mary English as author have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Design: Lee Nash

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

We operate a distinctive and ethical publishing philosophy in all areas of our business, from our global network of authors to production and worldwide distribution.

6 Easy Steps in Astrology

The Birth Charts of Indigo Children

How to Survive a Pisces (O-Books)

How to Bond with an Aquarius (O-Books)

How to Cheer Up a Capricorn (O-Books)

How to Believe in a Sagittarius (O-Books)

How to Win the Trust of a Scorpio (Dodona Books)

How to Love a Libra (Dodona Books)

How to Soothe a Virgo (Dodona Books)

How to Lavish a Leo (Dodona Books)

How to Listen to a Gemini (Dodona Books)

How to Satisfy a Taurus (Dodona Books)

How to Appreciate an Aries (Dodona Books)

This book is dedicated to Astrologer Donna Cunningham as without her wise counsel this series of books would never have been born.

I would like to thank the following people:

My son for being the Libran that makes me always look on the other side.

My Taurus husband Jonathan for being the most wonderful man in my world.

Mabel, Jessica and Usha for their Homeopathic help and understanding.

Laura and Mandy for their friendship.

Judy Hall for her inspiration.

Alois Treindl for being the Pisces that founded the wonderful Astro.com website.

Judy Ramsell Howard at the Bach Centre for her encouragement.

John my publisher for being the person that fought tooth and nail to get this book published and all the staff at O-Books including Lee, Nick, Trevor, Kate, Catherine, Elizabeth, Maria and Mary.

Mary, Oksana, Fiona, Denise, Octinur and Jacqueline for their welcome editing eyes.

And last but not least my lovely clients for their valued contributions.

The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes.

Dalai Lama

Why the title of this book? I didnt set out to write a whole series of Astrology books. I started with just one, about my own sign Pisces and I titled it How to Survive a Pisces as an instruction manual to help people understand my sign. And when my publisher accepted the book for publication, he took it on one condition, that I didnt write just one book. It was then that I realised Id got rather a long project on my hands! When I finished Pisces, my clients, friends and family all wanted to know when I was going to write about their sign. As Id started at the last sign of the Zodiac, I thought Id go backwards through the signs, in typical Pisces fashion, so here I am at Cancer, the sign of the crab.

The title of this book is designed to help you understand and care for the Cancer in your life. You might even be one yourself, or youve given birth to one, or youre dating one, related to one, or you are friends with one.

Millions of people every day read their stars for all kinds of different reasons. Some people want to know, briefly, whats going to happen in the next 24 hours. Some are just curious and others read their stars for guidance or inspiration, or when theyre feeling low as a little pick-me-up.

In a YouGov survey of 2,090 Great Britain adults in 2010 it was revealed that only 2% of participants didnt know what star sign they were. This means a massive 98% did.

And where, you wonder, did they get this information from? The top three sources of data were from newspapers, magazines and the Internet. But newspaper astrological columns only started in 1930, so people born before this date (my mother being one of them) are unlikely to know what sign they are, as they werent brought up having this information freely available.

However, Astrology was born a long, long time before 1930 and originated in Babylon over 3,000 years ago.

Christopher McIntosh, a historian, tells us in his The Astrologers and Their Creed:

The priests of this kingdom made the discovery, which developed into what we now call astronomy and the zodiacal system of the planets, which we call astrology today. For many generations they painstakingly recorded the movements of these heavenly bodies. Eventually, they discovered, by careful calculation, that in addition to the Sun and the Moon, five other visible planets moved in specific directions every day. These were the planets that we now call Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

The priests lived highly secluded lives in monasteries adjacent to massive pyramidal observation towers called ziqqurats. Every day they observed the movements of the planets and noted down any corresponding earthly phenomena from floods to rebellions. They came to the conclusion that the laws which governed the movements of the stars and planets also governed events on Earth.

In the beginning the stars and planets were regarded as being actual gods. Later, as religion became more sophisticated, the two ideas were separated and the belief developed that the god ruled the corresponding planet.

Gradually, a highly complex system was built up in which each planet had a particular set of properties ascribed to it. This system was developed partly through the reports of the priests and partly through the natural characteristics of the planets. Mars was seen to be red in colour and was therefore identified with the god Nergal, the fiery god of war and destruction.

Venus, identified by the Sumerians as their goddess Inanna, was the most prominent in the morning, giving birth, as it were, to the day. She therefore became the planet associated with the female qualities of love, gentleness and reproduction.

Eventually astrology made its way across the oceans to Greece, Egypt, Rome in Italy and then to the rest of Europe, changing little in meaning and delivery in that time. Early astrologers had to be able to read and write and calculate difficult mathematical placements of the planets, something that computers now do easily. You wont have to do anything difficult to make the birth charts were going to make in this book.

Id like to make a few distinctions about what Astrology is, and isnt. A lot of people seem to think that Astrology is all about prediction. As if all Astrologers do all day is look into the future. This is not entirely true. There are all sorts of Astrologers, just as there are all sorts of people. Some Astrologers are interested in the history of Astrology, some involve themselves in counselling, or business advice, or Sun sign columns in the media or personality profiling. Some are interested in psychology, health, relationships or politics but all, mostly, are interested in the whys of life and the reasons. They are interested in the