Mythology of the Zodiac

The mythology behind the Zodiac of Cancer can teach us a lot regarding revenge, family relations, loyalty, forgiveness, and honour. Holding onto hurt and revenge can harm those loyal to you, it can drive you to hurt others in the worst of ways, and it can cloud your judgment.

In the Zodiac mythology for Cancer, Hera (wife of Zeus), in a jealous rage of revenge, punished Herakles (son of an illicit affair between Zeus and a mortal) with madness. This led to him killing his wife and family. To atone for his crime King Eurystheus of Tiryns assigned to Herakles his twelve labours. The second of these labours was to kill the nine-headed Hydra. As fast as Hercules cut off one of the monster’s heads, another one would grow back in its place. To solve this problem, Herakles came up with the idea of burning the Hydra’s heads with fire. This worked and led to the Hydra losing eight of its heads.

Hera was watching this scene as Herakles dwindled the heads down to just one, so to distract him, she sent Cancer, a giant crab, which grabbed hold of Herakles’ foot and hung on tight. This distraction didn’t last long, though, and Herakles crushed it under his mighty foot! This made Hera even more furious, but she also felt a wave of pity for the crab’s sacrifice. To reward the crab for his loyalty, Hera put his image in the sky as the constellation of Cancer.

Like Herakles, I like to “burn away the many heads of the Hydra” to seek forgiveness (for myself or others who have harmed me) by writing down the many things I need to let go of. In this regard, I think it’s important to invoke Herakles for this Fire ceremony under this full moon in Cancer.