Cancer 113movement of a crab. For this reason this sign presides
over the crabs and allied beings of the animal kingdom.
The tortoise also comes under its influence.
Water represents volume without form. It changes
shapes according to the container, but it maintains the
perfect horizontal level on its surface. The lower mental
and the astral planes have all these properties. Hence
Cancer the watery sign governs the lower mind and the
astral body of man. If Gemini presides over the passage
of breath, Cancer presides over the process of respiration.
While Aries, the first cardinal sign rules over blood,
Cancer, the second cardinal sign rules its circulation.
Circulation and respiration are manifestations of
pulsation. Cancer presides over the activity of pulsation
while Gemini presides over permeation. The ebb and tide
of the oceans also come under the pulsation of Cancer.
The magnetic currents produced by So-ma through a
reflection of his activity in the various phases of the Moon
produce the ebb and tide of the etheric, the astral and the
water currents on this earth. When the disciple gains
mastery over Pra-n.a-ya-ma and tries to identify his mind with
his Pra-n.a, he gains control over the etheric, the astral and
the fluid matters as also the humours or moods of his
constitution. This is the role of Cancer in Ra-ja yoga, one of
the processes of which is purifying one’s lower vehicles.
In this case, the consciousness works through the heart-
centre, Ana-hata chakra.
On the mundane plane, which includes the
individual and the personal levels of man, Cancer denotes
mental activity. This sign governs behaviour, instinct,
impulse, sentiment and feeling in the ordinary man. These
levels of activity are connected with the heart-centre when
it is linked up with the solar plexus. Cancer rules over