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Compatibility
Cancer Rooster and Aries Dog

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, Cancer
Western Zodiac sign, Aries

Western Zodiac

Cancer and Aries

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!

Cancer and Aries - Relationship Horoscope

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

Read more about the CANCER ROOSTER and ARIES DOG 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 Cancer/Aries 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 Rooster
Chinese Zodiac sign, the Dog

Chinese Zodiac

Rooster and Dog

Compatibility overview

Chinese astrology is far less equivocal about matches considered to attract bad energy than its Western counterpart. Unfortunately, the combination of firsteast and secondeast is one of the six notorious Adversary pairings, which generally have the worst reputation of any in the Chinese zodiac.

Rooster and Dog - Relationship Horoscope

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

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

The six Adversary matches along the fourth degree axis are well known for their potentially unstable energy. In the case of the Dog and Rooster, the earnest diligence of the Dog runs headlong into the Rooster's endless enterprise and panache.

If the sensibility of the Dog is captured in a single concept, it is their love and support for the underdog, for causes that are undervalued and neglected by society at large. The Rooster is almost incapable of fulfilling this description. Rooster natives tend to be larger than life from the moment of first impact, fashionable to the hilt, with energy to burn. Hence these two will likely clash from the beginning. In the eyes of the Dog, the Rooster may appear to be all pomp and no substance—a noisy, posing, and superficial distraction from people and projects that are truly deserving. For the Rooster, meanwhile, the Dog can be an interminably boring worrywart, a judgemental handbrake on the kinds of expansive enterprise that make life worth living.

Initial friction can become especially damaging over time. As a duo, these two will tend to take turns at being hypercritical, overanxious, wounded and bitter, or patronizingly antagonistic—oftentimes all at once. The hallmark of this energy is that hostility is more indirect than direct. Fury is thus more likely to fester than explode, and instability can persist without ever building to a direct confrontation. Attempts to defuse the tension are likely to achieve little more than rehashing the same old disputes, so contrary are the instincts of these conflicting personalities.

As ever in astrology, success is not foreclosed by such troublesome energy. But strongly positive influences on the Western side, or sophisticated strategies for conflict resolution, may be necessary for these two to find happiness together.

Celebrity Rooster/Dog Pairings*

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

Madonna and Mariah Carey
Madonna and Mariah Carey (click for attribution/s)

Mariah Carey (3/27/1969, Aries Rooster), Madonna (8/16/1958, Leo Dog) : A longstanding feud between the two music superstars has seen them exchange harsh criticisms. Said Madonna, "We have to realize that the same country that acquitted O.J. is the same country that...buys Mariah Carey records. It's this homogeneity. But it's got nothing to do with art." Carey responded, "I really haven't paid attention to Madonna since I was in seventh or eighth grade when she used to be popular."

Tucker Carlson (5/16/1969, Taurus Rooster), Donald Trump (6/14/1946, Gemini Dog) : The 45th US President and media personality had appeared to have a supportive relationship, with Carlson being described in 2020 as, "[P]erhaps the highest-profile proponent of 'Trumpism'." However, private messages revealed in early 2023 revealed Carlson's antipathy towards Trump. Carlson's messages included: "All of [Trump's business ventures] fail. What he’s good at is destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that."; "We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait...I hate him passionately."; and "[Trump's] a demonic force, a destroyer. But he’s not going to destroy us. I’ve been thinking about this every day for four years."

Prince William and Meghan Markle
Prince William and Meghan Markle (click for attribution/s)

Meghan Markle (8/4/1981, Leo Rooster), Prince William (6/21/1982, Cancer Dog) : The complex relationship between Meghan Markle and Prince Harry and other members of the British royal family, particularly Harry's brother Prince William and his wife Princess Catherine, has become one of the most famous feuds of all time. During the Netflix documentary series, Harry & Meghan, Markle spoke about a senior aide to William who gave unfavourable evidence in a lawsuit she brought against an English tabloid. "It's your brother," Markle said to Harry on screen. "Not gonna say anything about your brother, but it's so obvious."

Quincy Jones (3/14/1933, Pisces Rooster), Michael Jackson (8/29/1958, Virgo Dog) : The producer and musician collaborated on the celebrated albums Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad. Since Jackson's death, Jones has been outspoken in his criticisms of the "King of Pop", saying, "Michael stole a lot of stuff. He stole a lot of songs...The notes don’t lie, man. He was as Machiavellian as they come. Greedy, man. Greedy."

Priscilla and Elvis Presley
Priscilla and Elvis Presley (click for attribution/s)

Priscilla Presley (5/24/1945, Gemini Rooster), Elvis Presley (1/8/1935, Capricorn Dog) : The musician dubbed "The King of Rock and Roll" and the actor/businesswoman met when Priscilla was 14. They later had a famously troubled marriage. Both reportedly had multiple affairs. Priscilla described how Elvis stopped being attracted to her after their daughter was born, as he "had a hard time dealing with me being a mother and the little girl that I was to him", and referred to herself as "Elvis’ living doll, to fashion as he pleased."

Errol Flynn (6/20/1909, Gemini Rooster), David Niven (3/1/1910, Pisces Dog) : The two actors from Hollywood's golden age were frequent co-stars and lived together for a time. Niven's memoirs included seriously unflattering descriptions of Flynn. "The great thing about Errol," Niven wrote, "was you always knew exactly where you stood with him because he always let you down."

Minnie Driver (1/31/1970, Aquarius Rooster), Matt Damon (10/8/1970, Libra Dog) : The two actors were a high-profile celebrity couple after they began dating while co-starring in Good Will Hunting. Driver has claimed that Damon effectively broke up with her by announcing on Oprah that he was single: "It seemed like a good forum for him to announce to the world that we were no longer together, which I found fantastically inappropriate. Of course, he was busy declaring his love for me on David Letterman a month previously."


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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