Combined Western and Chinese Zodiacs
Cancer Horse

The fourth sign of the Western zodiac, Cancers are forever imprinted with the time of early adulthood. Like a twenty-something beginning to make their own way in the world, Cancers find their attention continually shifting inward. On the physical plane, this manifests as a priority to establish and care for their own home and family. On a more abstract level, it means a fascination with individual identity, empathy, and the formation of close personal bonds. As with all three Water signs, Cancer has a natural variability, a tendency to hide away at times in darkness, yet at others to fill the horizon like an ocean. As a Cardinal modality, Cancer represents Water at its most essential, fluid, reactive. Thus Cancers are sometimes accused of being easily disturbed, yet when at peace they can enter effortlessly a rich dreamworld, filled with compassion, sensitivity, and reflection.

The seventh sign in the Eastern zodiac is the dazzling Horse. (Legend has it that fear of a cemetery caused the Horse to slow to a snail's pace during the Jade Emperor's race.) The Horse is by nature a performer: bewitching, idealistic, and fearless. Skilled orators with energy to burn, Horse natives are comfortable in any role where they are free to captivate an audience, from sports to the theater to politics. Above all else, the Horse craves independence. These free spirits are famously more intellectual than emotional. Indeed, they can occasionally be accused of insensitivity or selfishness. But given physical and emotional freedom to indulge their expansive personalities, they can be breathtaking performers, inspirational rebels, or—like that most famous of Horses, James Dean—both.