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Compatibility
Aries Rabbit and Cancer Rooster

As combative and intense as any relationship under the sun—yet there may be critical benefits here, as firstwest and secondwest offer rare prospects for personal growth, and the firsteast and secondeast can provide extraordinary achievements and social impact.

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 RABBIT and CANCER ROOSTER 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 Rabbit
Chinese Zodiac sign, the Rooster

Chinese Zodiac

Rabbit and Rooster

Compatibility overview

Fair warning, Chinese astrology is known to take no prisoners when it comes to combinations believed to attract challenging energy. The match between firsteast and secondeast is famously oppositional, a clash between refinement and flamboyance that can produce all manner of tensions. It's not all bad news for this pair, however. Under the right conditions, struggles can yield important benefits for this original "odd couple".

Rabbit and Rooster - Relationship Horoscope

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

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

The match between Rabbit and Rooster is one of the six notorious Opposite combinations, where signs are directly opposed across the Chinese zodiac wheel. These pairings are classically associated with jarring confrontation and enduring instability.

In this case, the celebrated bravado and perseverance of the Rooster runs headlong into the Rabbit's uniquely sensitive refinement. The poor Rabbit, easily over-awed by the Rooster's in-your-face attitude, may feel endlessly wounded by apparent slights or heartlessness, causing them to run for cover at every available opportunity. The Rooster, meanwhile, is likely to feel as if they have to constantly walk on eggshells due to what they perceive as the Rabbit being thin-skinned and precious. Hence this combination can easily aggravate the weaknesses of both signs. Direct or indirect confrontations may lead to the Rooster becoming increasingly self-absorbed and brash, while the Rabbit sinks ever deeper into bouts of isolation or maudlin depression.

With Opposite matches in the Chinese zodiac, however, there is always an upside. In any joint venture, each of these two oppositional signs supplies an abundance of energy in precisely the area where the other is most lacking. Thus, if the Rabbit's aesthetic values can be channelled alongside the Rooster's enterprising spirit, there may be potentially fantastic prospects for success. Any kind of collaboration, association, even public conflict, is capable of attracting wild levels of attention. Sometimes, these two can be so different in their instincts they may tend to be dismissive of one another's successes.

With positive energy on the Western side, or highly-evolved self-knowledge, these two signs can come together in spite of everything to achieve other-worldly triumphs.

Celebrity Rabbit/Rooster Pairings*

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

Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee
Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee (click for attribution/s)

Quentin Tarantino (3/27/1963, Aries Rabbit), Spike Lee (3/20/1957, Pisces Rooster) : A feud between the two celebrated film-makers reportedly dates back to Tarantino's 1997 film, Jackie Brown, which Lee argued made gratuitous use of the N-word. Following the release of Django Unchained in 2012, Lee tweeted (using characteristic capitalization): "American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It Was A Holocaust. My Ancestors Are Slaves. Stolen From Africa. I Will Honor Them."

Les Paul (6/9/1915, Gemini Rabbit), Leo Fender (8/10/1909, Leo Rooster) : The competition between these famous inventors has been credited with inspiring the most important electric guitars in history, the Gibson Les Paul and Leo Fender's Telecaster and Stratocaster. After having an opportunity to play Fender's new sold body guitar, Les Paul reportedly told an executive at Gibson's parent company, "[I]f you don't do something, Fender will rule the world."

Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams
Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams (click for attribution/s)

Maria Sharapova (4/19/1987, Aries Rabbit), Serena Williams (9/26/1981, Libra Rooster) : The intense competitiveness between these two famous former world No. 1 tennis players has been described by some as a feud. Reflecting on their on and off court relationship, Sharapova has commented, "Serena and I should be friends; we have the same passion. But we are not. I think, to some extent, we have driven each other. Maybe that’s what it takes. Only when you have that intense antagonism can you find the strength to finish her off. Who knows?"

Saul Bellow (6/10/1915, Gemini Rabbit), Philip Roth (3/19/1933, Pisces Rooster) : These famous writers shared a mutual respect, with the older and more established writer, Bellow, mentoring the younger prodigy, Roth. After Roth's last ever interview, the interviewer Asaf Galay reported that, "[Roth said] he missed arguing with [Bellow] at the table, but that Bellow was not a good friend. He said something like: 'He wouldn’t be the first guy whose companionship I’d seek out in the afterlife'."

Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill
Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill (click for attribution/s)

Lauryn Hill (5/26/1975, Gemini Rabbit), Wyclef Jean (10/17/1969, Libra Rooster) : The two musicians were members of the band The Fugees and had a tumultuous affair during which both were involved with other people. In his memoir, Purpose: An Immigrant's Story, Jean describes the intense attraction between him and Hill as well as a relationship that was toxic. He writes: "You can hear the tension in the music, all of that impossible love...It was like we knew it wasn’t going to work from the start, but we couldn’t shy away...The way we related we couldn’t sustain because it was this whirlwind of creativity, this success, this performance."

50 Cent (7/6/1975, Cancer Rabbit), Jay-Z (12/4/1969, Sagittarius Rooster) : These two famous rappers have known each other for many years and were involved in a famous beef in 2009. 50 Cent has since described their relationship as strictly "business": "We are in the same business. We are not necessarily friends. We don’t call each other for no reason. It’s not like we have something against each other to make us enemies. Me and Jay will use each other. Repeatedly. For energy."


Combined Relationship Horoscope

Final Words

The Square combination of firstwest and secondwest may sometimes wonder if there is anything they agree about at all, yet this potent connection also offers rare opportunities for both signs to crystallize who they are and what they want out of life, and to cultivate greater self-awareness, patience and generosity in communicating. On the Chinese zodiac side, the energy between the firsteast and secondeast is similarly powerful and conflictive—though again there are countervailing positives, as few combinations can summon such a spectacular and impactful coalescence of energy. It may take a supreme effort to maintain this ferocious connection over the long term, but for as long as it endures, this is a recipe for a blazing, unforgettable relationship.

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