Blain Bovee - Sabian Symbol Specialist

Cancer 10: A large diamond not completely carved

A diamond in the rough...

Cancer 10 is a 5th degree symbol suggesting creative genius and a knack for pulling things off.

The  uncarved diamond image suggests inner potential just waiting to have its many facets released.

Individuals with this symbol in their horoscopes will almost certainly be familiar with experiences that get off to a rough start... but once they are in motion, a beautiful and natural grace emerges.

This is like seeing beauty in someone , from a certain facet. Imagine seeing an attractive but not especially naturally beautiful woman in a cafe. You glance up and notice, the way a glint of light suddenly catches your eye off a perfectly carved diamond, a facet of her that reveals great beauty within. 

Insistence on perfection is not a happy path to follow in Cancer 10. But a little helping hand can set someone in full flight, beauty and grace.

Blain Bovee

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Cancer 9: A tiny nude miss reaching in the water for a fish

The naked truth...

An ancient fable tells how Truth and Falsehood were bathing in a pool of water. Falsehood got out first and stool the clothes of Truth, leaving behind his own clothes.

When Truth emerged from the pool, and seeing what had transpired, she went naked rather than wear the clothes of Falsehood.

Nakedness brings a degree of shy innocence forward. It also suggests extremes of manner: extremely intense because of being naked; extreme naturalness because that is the truth of the matter.

The 9th degree cancer is one of the most fascinating of Sabian symbols. Individuals can experience the greatest extremes of being hooked by tension... the more you wrestle, the more you are caught.. and the most sublime flow and ease.

Blain Bovee

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Cancer 8: Rabbits dressed in clothes and on parade

Clothes make the man...

... would be one way of entering into the meaning of the Sabian symbol Cancer 8.

Clothing in general does more than just cover the body. And even if you are not a fashion hound, there are legitimate dimension of 'what not to wear' or 'dressing for success'.

But 'dress' is not the only thread of sense within this degree. There can be an understated shyness... timidity regarding feeling at home in your own skin or feeling slightly out of place while attempting to appear, dress, like others.

And let's not confine 'dress' to clothing. You can dress yourself up in ideas and ideals just as well. You can furnish your home, cultivate your yard and garden, you can go to that social event where a different group of people gather.

Just think of the full range of experiences that can arise from any of those situations. Awkward, shy, timid, confident, uplifted, ready for take-off into a new dimension of reality.

Blain Bovee

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Cancer 7: Two fairies on a moonlit night

Something shining calls...

This series of symbols, Cancer 6-10, seems very much to address the comforts of domesticity... and the annoying way that all attempts to be domesticated are foiled ( a silvery pun) by wilder instincts.

The main dynamic in this degree symbol, for instance, seems to be one of a sudden awareness of 'something else'. 

Imagine going on a walk on a moonlit night. All seems normal and wonderful when suddenly a light shines briefly from off the path. What is there? 

It is that sudden sense that something else is about that seizes the attention. 

On a positive take, this speaks to an alertness and a facility for not taken things at face value.

On a perhaps not so positive note, one may be the teeniest bit paranoid about the slightest sound , rustling or glimmer of light that lies outside the safe boundaries.

And moonlight may induce extra-ordinary experiences...

Blain Bovee

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Cancer 6: Game birds feathering their nest

Thatch-work warmth...

One interesting motif within Cancer 6 and all 6th degrees symbols has to do with a construction theme, usually one involving structural geometric shapes such as triangles or arches, or cruxes or buttressed cantilever arches.

A game bird builds a nest of twigs, grasses and so on. The shape is always concave facing skyward. the actual nest is thatched with twigs and other materials in a criss-cross patterns creating roughshod triangular shapes.

If you watch birds building a nest, you will notice an amazing earnest intensity to make it warm, secure and sturdy enough for the clutch of eggs that soon will lay there.

It is this purpose that comes through the Sabian symbol for Cancer 6: a secure and sturdy home, comfortable and safe. 

The challenge, if there is one, would be to venture into the unknown. See the opposing Capricorn degree, "A dark archway and ten logs at the bottom". 

Perhaps it isn't so much a challenge as an ambivalence: the comforts of home or the adventure into the unknown.

Building a nest egg may seem the safe way to go about life, but then again, they are 'game' birds.

Blain Bovee

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Cancer 5: An auto wrecked by a train

Being at cross-purposes and getting away with it...

Many are dismayed by the word 'wrecked' in the Cancer 5 symbol.  Does sound rather extreme. one can envision a car crushed by the powerful force of an on-coming train. 

But this is a 5th degree symbol and there is an inherent knack for pulling things off in all 5th degree symbols. So the sense of 'wrecked' may be more a matter of losing your individuality by going along with the conventional track(s).

Look at the word 'auto'. Marc Edmund Jones changed 'auto' on the original notecard to 'automobile' No big deal... right?

Well no, it isn't a big deal unless you miss the core sense of 'auto' meaning 'self'. The key is to feel the tension, in this symbol often exhilarating, between an individual and the prevailing social tracks.

So in this light, picture an individual racing a train to the crossing. Going cross-purposes with the collective direction, but maintaining a strong sense of individuality. Sure, that may be a project that can wreck for time to time. But this is not a big bad scary symbol. I have never found anyone with a big bad story to tell about how this symbol manifests in their lives.

We note that Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett passed over yesterday. Another sense of crossing the tracks ?

Blain Bovee

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Cancer 4: A cat arguing with a mouse

Spit and polish...

'Argument' is rooted in 'argent'... silver. The idea is to polish your silver, make it shine.

People can be argumentative with placements in this degree, argumentative in the sense of polishing the statements of others. It is not so much disagreement, although naturally disagreements can occur, as it is injecting that one up improvement to better the point. 

Like polishing the family silver, there can be a tendency to labour over-long on a matter. And, when there is an absence of intensity, a devilish tendency to toy with matters, people, words, positions, opinions.

Like a cat arguing with a mouse.

Blain Bovee

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Cancer 3: A man all bundled up in fur leading a shaggy deer

Shaggadelic...

'Bundling' is a core image/metaphor, found at the very roots of the human psyche. 

It refers to a creative process of bringing things together, tying them up such that something is creatively generated.

One way to enter the meaning of this symbol is through the aspect of need. What do you need to live? To survive/ To be safe and comfortable?

Imagine having to gather only a few things before a long trek across a barren land. What would you take. Is it not likely that attention to polish, detail, grooming, all the niceties of polite civilization, would be of little concern?

Basically, being bundled in fur is not necessarily a fashion statement. It could be just smart choices to stay warm and dry in a hostile environment.

Blain Bovee

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Cancer 2: A man suspended over a vast level place

In the interests of fairness...

A level playing field is an oft invoked image appealing to fair play, equal opportunity and unbiased assessment. 

Of course, it is all a bunch of horse pucky.

Whenever there are sanctimonious calls for study assessment in order to look at an  a candidate for the purpose of priority and suitability and so on, it is sure to be a pile of crap, much of which is thrown like stones in the direction of the one under review.

Politicians are good at this. It is a talent to use 'fairness' as a weapon, or as an excuse to do nothing.

Another trend that often comes through the 2nd degree Cancer is the willingness to make mistakes in order to get something important moving. Or the willingness to take a few critical shots from others while moving forward with something worth while.

I often think of Supreme Court Judge nominations when this symbol comes around. This is where a candidate is grilled with often over the top interrogation that razes the candidates character as if they were the most vile human ever known... all in the name of fairness. 

Blain Bovee

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Cancer 1: A furled and unfurled flag displayed from a vessel

Something to be known for...

As an Aries point, Cancer 1 involves a public thrust in the sense of something new being brought for others to see. 

Often, what one brings out on an Aries point, is what one will be remembered for. But not everyone has something new to launch on the solstice day. So, the more generalized sense of the Cancer ingress is the major themes and feel for the next three months.

A furled and unfurled flag clearly points to a time of transition. In the Northern hemisphere, it is summer solstice... the longest day of the year. From this day on the decline into winter has already begun as measured by the apparent motion of the Sun and shrinking daylight time. 

But it is a high point of awareness... the time of least shadow... resonant with contemplation and a sense of secure ease. Even the ancients said "Be not sad. Be like the Sun at midday."

happy Solstice to all!

Blain Bovee

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