Cancer - Zodiac Sign - Plant-Based Ivory Pendant

Position in the zodiac: from 90° to 120°

Sign: cardinal

Gender: female

Corresponding element: water

Symbolism

It symbolizes the fourth house of the zodiac, the phase of youth, the full blossoming of personality.

It is the time of maximum creativity. Nature is at the peak of its maturation effort.

The sign thus expresses the fertilized maternal womb in which a new life was conceived and formed.

The planets in Cancer: the Moon is in its domicile, Venus is exalted, Uranus and Saturn are in exile, Mars is in fall.

The animals: cat, swan, crab

Perfume: lilac

Metal: silver

Color: white

Lucky day: Monday

Lucky number: 2

Nations, regions, and cities of the sign: Scotland, Netherlands, Mauritius, North Africa, Paraguay. Algiers, Amsterdam, Milan, Bern, Genoa, Istanbul, Lübeck, Manchester, New York, Pisa, Stockholm, Tunis, Venice, York.

The Myth

The Moon, mistress of the unconscious and imagination, has its domicile in this sign. It is well known that Cancer is the most moody of the zodiac signs. Just as the Moon alternates four different phases in a month, so the Cancerian has imperceptible mood swings. Ancient astronomers, except those from Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean countries, soon discovered the link between the Moon and the tides. In medieval astrology, it was believed that the Moon controlled everything pertaining to water. Perhaps because it was thought that the Moon exerted influences, like the tide, on the liquids circulating in the body and particularly on the brain, it was believed for a long time that the Moon was connected with madness, making people precisely 'lunatic'. Science has also long ago demonstrated the existence of the lunar influence.

Mythology is full of them: lunar deities are indeed very numerous, but they all embody the archetype of the mother. Even the hunting goddess Artemis, the Roman Diana, known for her vengeance against those who, falling in love with her, sought her for her femininity, seems to have indulged her feminine maternal side by visiting the shepherd Endymion at night and bearing many children with him. Latona, the first wife of Zeus-Jupiter, represents the first of the Great Mothers and, like Hecate, is the castrating, oppressive, regressive, and selfish mother who prevents her child from cutting the umbilical cord. The problem of Cancer, often, is that of overcoming the relationship with the parents, accepting one's role, and experiencing reality with one's own eyes. Sicuteri says: "In this sphere are played out the archetypes of the mother and the son, man and the Moon, gestation and birth, the primary object relationship. If in the son always vibrates the ghost of Oedipus, in the Cancerian mother there is always a manifestation of Sophoclean Jocasta". Sophocles tells that Laius, king of Thebes, had a son from Jocasta, his legitimate wife, named Oedipus. Since prophecies had predicted that this son would kill his father by marrying his mother, Laius ordered his killing. Oedipus escaped his fate and was adopted by the king of Corinth, who hid from him that he was not the real father. When, as a young man, Oedipus learned of the predictions, he fled home so that destiny would not be fulfilled, but thus killed the real father, met by chance, and married his widow, Jocasta, the real mother, without knowing it.

In every Cancerian woman, therefore, there would be a mother ready to 'possess' her child in every way. Seasonally too, this sign corresponds to the triumph of the fertilizing, maternal, earthly forces; it is the time when seeds are formed, the grain ripens, and vegetation is at the peak of its splendor: it is the flowering of summer.

The Characteristics

Just as the crab proceeds unstably, now moving forward, now backward, so Cancer lives on memories while maintaining a sense of the present. It is well known that the little animal hides behind its fragile appearance a tenacity beyond the norm; it uses its hooked claws to cling on.

In the same way, the Cancerian is born with a tenacity that goes far beyond mere willpower. The shell, that is, the family, is something that is always carried with them, at least on an emotional and psychological level. They are extremely sweet, homebody individuals, predisposed to family and traditional values, but they are also endowed with an extraordinary analytical and introspective capacity: not for nothing do so many writers belong to this sign.

Material

Corozo, or "Vegetable Ivory" or "Tagua", is made from the dried seed of the tropical plant "Phytelephas macrocarpa", commonly known as the elephant plant (Phytos = plant, elephas = elephant).

The plant, similar to that of the coconut, grows in the humid equatorial belt of central South America (Ecuador).

Each plant produces 8-10 inflorescences per year, each containing 250 seeds. When fresh, they contain a milky white liquid which, after 9 months of maturation, solidifies and transforms into a white material entirely similar to animal ivory.

After drying, corozo nuts are cut into slices. The turned slice becomes a regular roundel.

The original color, from optical white to antique ivory, must be considered "the natural" par excellence.

Dyeing with natural earths emphasizes the shape and highlights its unique and extraordinary grain, very similar to that of burl wood.