Cancer Season

the Solstice, the Crab, and the practice of letting go

Photo by Raimond Klavins on Unsplash

The sun has nearly reached its zenith now, the lightest week of the year. Ironically, it’s been mostly rainy and gray, fitting my introspective mood. Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of my sister’s death. Five years without her doesn’t seem possible. Our family has grown and changed and moved on. Next week she would have been turning 20. But Friday is the Summer Solstice, falling on the same day this year as it did the year she died. Just as the Winter Solstice—the Darkest Day—is a celebration of Light, the Longest Day is a celebration of Darkness.

On the Summer Solstice, the sun enters the astrological sign of Cancer, the sign ruled by the moon and associated with water. Cancer season is emotional, introverted, and self-focused in healthy ways. It’s a time to gather close your special people, eat well, rest, do the things that feed and nourish your body and soul. Cozy up and let the memories flow. It’s going to be OK.

The sign of Cancer is represented by a crab, hard shell, soft interior. I felt like that all last month, the opposite of cuddly, claws out, many legs spread out for stability. On our last night of vacation my husband and I went out hunting ghost crabs, not to catch but just to watch their pale forms skittering across the sand and disappearing down holes. I wrapped myself in silence that night, bathed in the constant rumble of the surf, unwilling to leave. We came home to find foot high black locust saplings already growing in the yard and the thistles in full bloom. Armor, boundaries, and reclaiming old territory: this is part of the cycle of healing.

In Stephanie Campos’s Seasons of the Zodiac: Love, Magick, and Manifestation Throughout the Astrological Year, the author describes the focus of the season as one of both cleansing and a kind of emotional and spiritual reset:

In Cancer season, we find the seeds of manifestation in the release of that which no longer serves us. It’s the perfect time to use our memories as a springboard for letting go of the past so that we can manifest a more positive reality. Whether it’s grief, shame, guilt or fears, it’s time to clear out emotional baggage so we can create space to birth something new. The old stories we tell ourselves are often skewed or not grounded in reality, and they tie us to a past version of ourselves that elicits shame, regret, or guilt. It’s through this process of deep reflection and making the conscious decision to forgive and extend compassion to ourselves that we are able to move forward.¹

To aid us in the cleansing and reset of the season, Campos offers the following ritual: “Grab a piece of paper and write down some of your most painful memories. The more detail the better. At the end of your petition, write ‘I choose to release this story now. And so it is.’” Once written, place your story outside under a glass of water and leave it to charge overnight in the moonlight. If possible, this should be done during a waning moon, the optimal time for releasing or warding negativity (the moon is currently waning, and will be until the New Buck Moon next Wednesday). The following morning, dispose of the paper by burning or burying it (or burning then burying or flushing the ashes, or add them to your compost). As you do so, repeat the closing phrase: “I choose to release this story now. And so it is.”

Solstices are liminal times, when the veil between worlds is thin, so the Longest Day (and the Cancer season it ushers in) is a time for grounding through the roots of our history and ancestors. For those of us, like me, for whom the phrase “generational curse” rings almost literally true, this is not easy to do. Yet, as Dr. Tererai Trent points out in her book, The Awakened Woman, those we hold as ancestors—those who “came before” us—do not necessarily have to be directly related to us, for we are all connected.² Recently, though, I have been feeling a desire to “make friends” with my past. This is best done, according to Campos, through a focus on gratitude and forgiveness, which can be accessed through the “letting go” ritual described above. Campos offers a follow-up cleansing ritual with a more physical component than the previous one:

Submerge into Your Subconscious

Tapping into the water element, Cancer season’s ritual involves drawing yourself a cleansing bath. In curanderismo, a spiritual practice from various Indigenous people from Mesoamerica, baños espirituales are a practice you can use to cleanse yourself from unwanted energies. You may consider looking to your personal ancestry to make the most of this ritual and think about how your ancestors used the element of water to cleanse themselves spiritually. Here’s a simple ritual for preparing your own cleansing bath that includes herbs that will ground, protect, and tend to our soul and to your body’s emotional and physical needs.

• Bath

• Prayer/intention

• Rosemary (3 clippings)

• Basil (3 leaves)

• Bay leaf (1)

1. Steep the herbs in a pot of water on your stove for 30 minutes. Then strain and let cool.

2. Before hopping in the bath, write a prayer to your wise and well Spirits and ancestors—or even to the Universe if that’s more comfortable. It doesn’t have to be long—just a few sentences. What do you wish to ask their assistance with?

3. Draw a bath and set an intention of what you’re eager to release. When you’re ready, cleanse yourself with the mix of steeped herbs and pour it over your head. Then read your prayer out loud. Submerge your head three times in the bath water to fully take in the energy of your cleansing herbs.

4. Follow up with a cold shower cleanse. Rinse yourself in cold water to wash all those unwanted energies away.

5. When you step out of the shower, imagine you’re entering a new reality or timeline, free of whatever you decided to release.