Cancer and Scorpio compatibility

Love and romance comes to 70, the joint lowest facet, level with shared activities. The angle weighs most here and is at full strength, but the rulers have a larger weight in this facet than in any other, and for this pair they add nothing.

The trine, with the sextile, is one of Ptolemy’s two harmonious configurations. They are called harmonious, he writes, “because they are constituted between signs of the same kind; being formed between either all feminine or all masculine signs.” Cancer and Scorpio both stand in his fourth triplicity, of which he says “the signs which compose this triplicity are feminine”.

Alan Leo, writing about Scorpio, brings Cancer in himself: “They have remarkable powers of attachment and seem to contain in themselves the silence of Pisces and the tenacity of Cancer, Scorpio’s companion watery signs.” He is describing a trait of Scorpio people, not a match between the two signs; reading it as a link between this pair is ours.

Trust scores 73. The angle and steadiness share the largest weight, and a cardinal sign with a fixed one brings steadiness to three quarters.

Alan Leo writes of Scorpio people: “Their somewhat suspicious nature causes them to be distrustful, but amidst all their apparent evil traits of character, they have that grit and backbone which enables them to make higher attainments than those born in the other signs.” The sentence sets a fault and a strength side by side.

Communication comes to 71. The element weighs most and counts in full; adaptability, at a quarter, adds little.

Alan Leo says Scorpio people “can be very abrupt and brusque when they wish, but they are always amenable to approval.” Of Cancer people: “They are very timid, reserved, and shy, and fear ridicule or disapproval very much”. Approval matters in one sentence and disapproval is feared in the other; we put the two side by side, he does not.

Emotions is the highest facet, at 75. The element has a larger weight here than in any other facet, and two water signs give it its full value.

In William Lilly’s lines, which give qualities for judging a chart rather than portraits of people, Cancer is “Watry, Cold, Moyst, Flegmatick, Feminine, Nocturnal”, and Scorpio is “a cold, watry, nocturnal, flegmatick, feminine Signe”. Five words recur; the count is ours.

For Alan Leo, the Cancer nature is easily hurt: “Being exceedingly sensitive, their feelings are very easily wounded.” Of Scorpio people he writes: “They can be very jealous, severe, hard and cruel, but when all this force is turned upward and the passions have been conquered and temperance learned” (the sentence runs on). Sensitivity next to severity is a contrast we draw.

Values is second highest, at 74. Steadiness counts again, and the element carries the largest weight.

Alan Leo writes: “We might sum up those persons born in the sign Scorpio as very determined, reserved, tenacious and secretive.” Of Cancer people he says “They are persistent and exceedingly tenacious”. The word tenacious is in both chapters, and noticing it is ours; Alan Leo’s own link is the Scorpio sentence quoted under love, which says Scorpio people seem to contain “the tenacity of Cancer”.

Shared activities scores 70, joint lowest with love. Adaptability counts here, and of this pair’s inputs only the rulers stand lower.

Ptolemy places the Sun’s summer turn in Cancer, a season of the northern hemisphere, and counts as fixed the signs that follow a tropical or equinoctial sign; by our application of that rule, Scorpio, after Libra, is fixed. In a fixed sign, he writes, the season “renders all things more strongly affected by its influence.”

Alan Leo says Scorpio people “are generally marked for their very dignified manner, and though always affable and courteous, they are ready at any moment to stand upon their dignity.”