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Compatibility
Aries Dragon and Cancer Rabbit

It may appear to be something of an energy minefield, but there is real potential here—provided the famously disagreeable combination of firstwest and secondwest fulfills its potential for life-changing personal growth, and the precarious firsteast and secondeast match is carefully controlled.

Western Zodiac sign, Aries
Western Zodiac sign, Cancer

Western Zodiac

Aries and Cancer

Compatibility overview

The pairing between firstwest and secondwest brings powerful, swirling energy. This is not a match for the faint of heart! The Square aspect—where signs are three steps, or 90 degrees, apart—is associated with combativeness and tension, but also potency and progress. This powder-keg, contentious yet productive potential of Square relationships is never more apparent than when these two signs encounter one another!

Aries and Cancer - Relationship Horoscope

Read more about the ARIES and CANCER zodiac signs...

Read more about the ARIES DRAGON and CANCER RABBIT combined zodiac signs...

Chances are, the intense energy between Aries and Cancer will reveal itself immediately. For better or worse, these two find each other hard to ignore!

In the beginning, at least, mutual admiration or sexual chemistry is strongly indicated for these two signs. However, a rush of disputes, provocations, or clashes of wills is equally likely. Aries' element, Fire, is often said to be least compatible with Water signs like Cancer. Ambitious Fire souls can find themselves fizzling in disappointment, while normally more placid Water types may feel powerless to avoid boiling over. Aries and Cancer both represent the pure, initiating Cardinal modality of their respective elements, so there is none of the softening influence that complementary modalities can bring.

Surprising as it may seem at times, though, this relationship has real prospects for various successes. In a word, the secret for this highly-charged Square relationship is growth. The conflicting natures of Aries and Cancer can drive each party to assert themselves in ways that independently may well be impossible. Hence this is a fertile match for all manner of power couples, whether creative, professional, sporting, or romantic. Even feuds can yield invaluable life lessons. It may be trite to say, but whatever doesn't kill these two will almost certainly make them stronger.

Celebrity Aries/Cancer Pairings*

*Click on the names to see both Western and Chinese zodiac matches for that pairing.

Gerald Ford and Betty Ford
Gerald Ford and Betty Ford (click for attribution/s)

Betty Ford (4/8/1918, Aries Horse), Gerald Ford (7/14/1913, Cancer Ox) : The 38th US President and First Lady were married from 1948 until Gerald Ford's death in 2006. They had four children. Betty Ford had been married previously, and Gerald postponed their wedding because he was unsure whether voters would accept him marrying a "divorced exdancer". They had a famously charged relationship, with Gerald a conservative Republican (at one time Richard Nixon's vice president) and Betty expressing liberal views about equal rights, abortion, gun control, marijuana, and premarital sex. After Betty gave an interview in which she described Roe v Wade (the now-overruled US Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion) as a "great, great decision", Gerald Ford wryly commented that she had probably cost him 20 million votes. Betty was also known for saying about them sleeping together in the White House, "I guess if you’re president, you’re supposed to become a eunuch." Later, Gerald led a family intervention about Betty's alcohol and drug dependence, which led to the Betty Ford Center for rehabilitation. At Ford's inauguration in 1974, he said: "I am indebted to no man, and only to one woman—my dear wife—as I begin this very difficult job."

Pharrell Williams (4/5/1973, Aries Ox), Helen Lasichanh (7/22/1980, Cancer Monkey) : The musician and fashion designer/model have been longtime partners and married in 2013. They have four children together, including triplets born in 2017. While the family has maintained their privacy, Williams said in 2018: "I’m in awe of women and my wife. To carry another heartbeat inside your body for nine months — in my wife’s case she had four heartbeats — is beyond anything a man can give back to the universe."

Emma Watson and Malala Yousafzai
Emma Watson and Malala Yousafzai (click for attribution/s)

Emma Watson (4/15/1990, Aries Horse), Malala Yousafzai (7/12/1997, Cancer Ox) : The actor/activist and education activist share a mutually admiring relationship. In a a high-profile interview with each other, organized to open the Into Film Festival in 2015, Yousafzai described how she had been influenced by Watson's 2014 speech to the UN launching the "He for She" campaign: "[T]his word feminism, it has been a very tricky word. And I had, when I heard it the first time I...heard some negative responses and some positive ones, and I hesitated in saying, am I a feminist or not? And then after hearing your speech when you said, if not now, when, if not me, who, I decided that there’s no way, and there’s nothing wrong by calling yourself a feminist. So, I am a feminist and you all should be feminist because feminism is another word for equality."

Jackie Chan (4/7/1954, Aries Horse), Joan Lin (6/30/1953, Cancer Snake) : The two actors have been married since 1982 and have one child together. Although their relationship has faced challenges, including Chan fathering a child with another woman in 1999, they have remained together. Chan wrote in his 2018 memoir, Never Grow Up, "When I started to empathize with [Joan Lin], I came to respect her more and more. She is a strong woman, stronger than I am in so many ways."

Nelson Mandela and Jacob Zuma
Nelson Mandela and Jacob Zuma (click for attribution/s)

Jacob Zuma (4/12/1942, Aries Horse), Nelson Mandela (7/18/1918, Cancer Horse) : The first and fourth Presidents of South Africa shared a close connection as anti-apartheid activists and one-time fellow political prisoners at the Robben Island prison. In 2012, it emerged that Mandela had paid debts accrued by Zuma, apparently as a way of improving Zuma's political prospects. The author William Gumede, who wrote Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC (2007), described: "Nelson Mandela gave [Zuma] the money to pay off all his debts as a personal favour. It was in the hope that he would walk away from all those dubious benefactors. The idea was to say: 'You know what, I'm seeing and hearing all this stuff and it doesn't look good. There are no strings attached but I want you to clean up your act.'"

Akira Kurosawa and Ingmar Bergman
Akira Kurosawa and Ingmar Bergman (click for attribution/s)

Akira Kurosawa (3/23/1910, Aries Dog), Ingmar Bergman (7/14/1918, Cancer Horse) : These two legendary filmmakers shared a profound mutual admiration. In a letter celebrating Bergman's 70th birthday, Kurosawa wrote: "Your work deeply touches my heart every time I see it and I have learned a lot from your works and have been encouraged by them. I would like you to stay in good health to create more wonderful movies for us."

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Chinese Zodiac sign, the Dragon
Chinese Zodiac sign, the Rabbit

Chinese Zodiac

Dragon and Rabbit

Compatibility overview

The Chinese zodiac—with its emphasis on year-long rather than month-long time intervals—is known for not pulling punches. This is especially true for the so-called Adversary matches, which include the firsteast and secondeast. There is some deeply troublesome energy here, and clashes or brooding disquiet may be difficult to avoid.

Dragon and Rabbit - Relationship Horoscope

Read more about the DRAGON and RABBIT zodiac signs...

Read more about the ARIES DRAGON and CANCER RABBIT combined zodiac signs...

This is a case of conflicting styles, if ever there was one. Where the Rabbit is celebrated for their usually impeccable manners and peaceful disposition, the Dragon inspires through audacious intensity. Mixing the two together has the potential to bring out the worst in both.

In this combination, the Rabbit may become evasive, stressed, or fawning. The Dragon can be nasty, cruel, or obnoxious. The uniquely problematic nature of Adversary matches like this one arises in part because the energy is more ambiguous than direct. Rather than building to a head-on confrontation, the tension here is more likely to fester. These two tend to alternate uncomfortably between secretiveness and bluntness, doting and betrayal, reticence and attention-seeking. The quicksand quality to interactions between these two is a particular danger, meaning that even attempts at conciliation often wind up simply making matters worse.

In short, this energy combination can be a challenge for the parties themselves and those around them. Successful examples of this match will need strong counterbalancing energy on the Western side, or an admirable commitment to self-knowledge and conflict resolution.

Celebrity Dragon/Rabbit Pairings*

*Click on the names to see both Western and Chinese zodiac matches for that pairing.

Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Khodorkovsky (click for attribution/s)

Mikhail Khodorkovsky (6/26/1963, Cancer Rabbit), Vladimir Putin (10/7/1952, Libra Dragon) : The exiled businessman, once reputedly the richest individual in Russia, has had one of the most famous political feuds in history with the Russian President. Commentator Masha Gessen wrote in 2012, "At the root of the conflict between Putin and Khodorkovsky lies a basic difference in character. Putin rarely says what he means and even less frequently trusts that others are saying what they mean. Khodorkovsky, in contrast, seems to have always taken himself and others at face value."

50 Cent (7/6/1975, Cancer Rabbit), Ja Rule (2/29/1976, Pisces Dragon) : A feud between the two rappers has been described as one of the longest-running in Hip-Hop history. In 2018, 50 Cent claimed to have bought the first 200 tickets at a Ja Rule concert, so there would be empty seats in the front row.

Al Pacino and Beverly D'Angelo
Al Pacino and Beverly D'Angelo (click for attribution/s)

Beverly D'Angelo (11/15/1951, Scorpio Rabbit), Al Pacino (4/25/1940, Taurus Dragon) : The two actors were in a relationship from the late 1990s until 2003, and D'Angelo gave birth to twins in 2001. D'Angelo described: "I got pregnant at 48, delivered six weeks after I was 49, and by 51, I was looking at a landscape as a single parent." An acrimonious custody dispute followed. More recently, however, D'Angelo has said positively: "You have to accept differences and all the things that led to a break-up in a way that allows you to move forward. And out of my support system and people I know and love, I’ve created [in Pacino] the ideal (parenting) partner."

Quentin Tarantino (3/27/1963, Aries Rabbit), Harvey Weinstein (3/19/1952, Pisces Dragon) : The director and producer were longtime collaborators before Weinstein's imprisonment as a sex offender. In the wake of the allegations against Weinstein, Tarantino said: "There was more to it than just the normal rumors, the normal gossip. It wasn’t secondhand. I knew he did a couple of these things. I wish I had taken responsibility for what I heard. If I had done the work I should have done then, I would have had to not work with him."

Sarah and Todd Palin
Sarah and Todd Palin (click for attribution/s)

Sarah Palin (2/11/1964, Aquarius Rabbit), Todd Palin (9/6/1964, Virgo Dragon) : The US politician (including 2008 Republican nominee for Vice President) and oil field production operator were married for 30 years until 2020 and had five children together. Despite years of tabloid speculation, the marriage appeared strong until Todd Palin reportedly filed for divorce on his 55th birthday in 2019, citing "incompatibility of temperament". Sarah Palin learnt of the divorce filing in an email she received a week after their 31st wedding anniversary. She later described: "It's not easy to talk about. It was devastating. I thought I got shot."

Johnny Depp (6/9/1963, Gemini Rabbit), Sherilyn Fenn (2/1/1965, Aquarius Dragon) : The two actors dated for two and a half years before either found fame. Fenn has indicated on Instagram that she thinks fondly of her relationship with Depp, but the two do not keep in contact: "Simply the very first love of my life...After so many years it would be fun to talk. Yet, memories are enough as well."

George Orwell (6/25/1903, Cancer Rabbit), Graham Greene (10/2/1904, Libra Dragon) : The two authors were contemporaries writing in postwar Britain. Orwell's review of Greene's novel The Heart of the Matter has become an archetype of scathing criticism. Orwell writes, "I have not parodied the plot of the book. Even when dressed up in realistic details, it is just as ridiculous as I have indicated..."


Combined Relationship Horoscope

Final Words

The Square energy between firstwest and secondwest is perhaps as contrary as any in the Western zodiac. However, while it may sometimes feel as if there is nothing these two cannot disagree about, their disputations can yield great positives, offering rare insight into their individual identities, and producing lifelong benefits. In this case, the greater challenge may be navigating the disturbing energy of the firsteast and secondeast, one of the Chinese zodiac’s most notorious combinations. Clear communication, independent roles in the relationship, and encouraging sensitivity wherever possible may be important for these two, if they are to maximize the available prospects for successful collaboration and affection.

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