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Compatibility
Cancer Tiger and Aries Monkey

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, 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 TIGER and ARIES MONKEY 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 Tiger
Chinese Zodiac sign, the Monkey

Chinese Zodiac

Tiger and Monkey

Compatibility overview

Chinese astrology is well known for severe judgements about potentially unstable energy. The match between firsteast and secondeast is considered one of the most seriously challenging, with a significant likelihood of tension, miscommunication, and outright conflict. There are counterbalancing positives—indeed, these two are capable of prodigious achievements and attracting extraordinary attention. Actually enjoying their time together, however, could require plenty of delicacy and effort.

Tiger and Monkey - Relationship Horoscope

Read more about the TIGER and MONKEY zodiac signs...

Read more about the CANCER TIGER and ARIES MONKEY combined zodiac signs...

Diametrically opposed across the Chinese zodiac wheel are six Opposite combinations. One of these is the Monkey and Tiger. This energy is said to be eternally difficult to reconcile.

Not only do these signs have little in common, but they often take great pride in those aspects of their character that are most repellent to their opposing sign. Brilliantly skilled and energetic, the Monkey is a born agitator, a spirited mischief-maker whose brand of extreme creativity emphasizes irreverence, wicked humor, and versatility. The Tiger, on the other hand, is serious-minded and self-reliant, deeply committed to their personal ethics of service and humanitarianism, and resolved to achieve greatness for themselves and their communities. Clashes are almost inevitable.

The Monkey tends to find the Tiger hilariously pompous and overbearing, and will find it difficult to resist any opportunity to poke fun or cut them down to size. Meanwhile, the Tiger may see the Monkey as interminably exhausting, wasting their talents on pointless game-playing or selfish acts of rebellion. This essential incompatibility tends to bring out the weaknesses of both signs. The Monkey can be manipulative or rude, and when confronted may experience profound rejection, disappointment, or isolation. The Tiger, on the other hand, is likely to become increasingly infuriated and rash, often exposing themselves to risks and dangers they would never countenance in a less disturbed state of mind.

Remarkably, all this troubled energy can yield some quite astounding benefits. Just as the separate yin and yang elements combine to form the symbol of a perfect circle, the contrasting personalities of the Monkey and Tiger together form a complete spectrum of energy. The result can be mesmerizing for others, and may compel the two signs to stunning achievements, separately or together. Collaborations, competitions, even feuds between these signs may prove spellbinding for their community, indeed the world at large.

It may be difficult for the two signs themselves to feel unqualified enjoyment about the outcomes of their relationship, such is the threatening nature of their connection. Yet with more harmonious energy on the Western side, or concerted sympathy and understanding, it may be possible to harness the potency of this match at least for a time, and to reap the extraordinary, if demanding, gifts it offers.

Celebrity Tiger/Monkey Pairings*

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

Bill Murray and Harold Ramis
Bill Murray and Harold Ramis (click for attribution/s)

Bill Murray (9/21/1950, Virgo Tiger), Harold Ramis (11/21/1944, Scorpio Monkey) : The actor and actor/director collaborated on six classic films that have been called "extreme comedy", including Stripes, Ghostbusters, and Groundhog Day. After an altercation on the set of Groundhog Day, Landis and Murray did not speak for 21 years, until shortly before Landis' death Murray visited him in 2014. Landis described in 2004: "It’s a huge hole in my life, but there are so many pride issues about reaching out. [Murray] would give you his kidney if you needed it, but he wouldn’t necessarily return your phone calls."

Alec Guinness (4/2/1914, Aries Tiger), George Lucas (5/14/1944, Taurus Monkey) : The actor and director collaborated on the original Star Wars trilogy, with Guinness' Obi-Wan Kenobi becoming one of the most iconic characters in movie history. Guinness, however, was repeatedly critical of the project. While working on the first film, he described, "[N]ew rubbish dialogue reaches me every other day on wadges of pink paper—and none of it makes my character clear or even bearable." In his memoir, A Positively Final Appearance, Guinness wrote: "A refurbished Star Wars is on somewhere or everywhere. I have no intention of revisiting any galaxy. I shrivel inside each time it is mentioned...[A] sweet-faced boy of twelve told me proudly that he had seen Star Wars over a hundred times...Looking into the boy’s eyes I thought I detected little star-shells of madness beginning to form and I guessed that one day they would explode."

Bo and John Derek
Bo and John Derek (click for attribution/s)

John Derek (8/12/1926, Leo Tiger), Bo Derek (11/20/1956, Scorpio Monkey) : The actor and actor/writer/director were married from 1976 to 1998. Their relationship began when John Derek was married to actor Linda Evans, and Bo Derek was 17 years old—they lived in Germany to avoid prosecution in the US. They collaborated on films including Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981), Bolero (1984) and Ghosts Can't Do It (1989), which received negative reviews—Bo Derek received a Golden Raspberry award for Worst Actress for each of these films. Bo Derek has described: "That still breaks my heart, being part of breaking up a marriage is a horrible thing and I still can’t believe I was a part of it. I’ve said it before, but I’ll never forgive myself...I look back at that time in my life as a terrible mistake...Now, when I look back at the photos of me, I was young — 17 is young...There was no Me Too-ing with John. But yeah, I’m very conflicted about it when I look back on being 17 with a 46-year-old man. As I said, I thought I knew everything. It felt right at the time. I was so in love with him and we ended up together for 25 years. I’m just so grateful he was a good person."

Oliver Lynn (8/27/1926, Virgo Tiger), Loretta Lynn (4/14/1932, Aries Monkey) : The talent agent and country singer were married for 48 years and had six children together—three before she was 17. Their marriage was famously turbulent, inspiring songs by Lynn including "Fist City" and "Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)". Lynn's 2002 memoir, Still Woman Enough—referring to her husband by the nickname "Doolittle"—described: "Lots of women have asked me how in the world I stayed with a womanizin’ alcoholic who could get violent like he sometimes did...I got taught that there wasn't no such thing as divorce among decent folks...[but] there’s something else made me stick to Doo. He thought I was something special, more special than anybody else in the world, and never let me forget it."

Julius Erving and Larry Bird
Julius Erving and Larry Bird (click for attribution/s)

Julius Erving (2/22/1950, Pisces Tiger), Larry Bird (12/7/1956, Sagittarius Monkey) : The two basketball legends shared a famous rivalry, including an on-court fight in 1984 that resulted in both players being ejected. They also appeared together in the iconic 1980s video game, One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird. Erving was quoted in 2021: "We have some great wars over the years. We'll match up in the playoffs four times between 1980 and 1986, with the winner going on to the finals every season...[W]hen Larry says, as he has, that Michael Jordan was the best player he ever faced, I find it a little disrespectful. We beat them up pretty bad in some playoffs, and they got the better of us in others, but those are the toughest matchups for both of us. I don't think it's fair for Larry to say Michael is the best based on one great playoff game, the 63-point performance in Boston Garden. But then, Larry is always playing mind games, so he's probably still trying to psych out Magic [Johnson] and me."


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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