We have finally arrived to the first representative of the water element: the Cancer. Compared to the intellectual and extroverted Gemini, this sign represents a very different, much more emotional and introverted quality. In the Kyanite Alliance it is magistra Artemesia Patientia, the master of healing who embodies the archetype of Cancer.
The Cancer is especially sensitive and susceptible to other’s sentiments. As a raging storm, a sweeping ship or a rock thrown into a lake smooth as glass can disturb the water and create waves, the Cancer can also take over other people’s vibes. This extreme empathy can be useful if we think of the archetype associated with the Cancer, the Mother. At the same time this ability might be exhausting as well because the Cancer takes everything to their heart, they can’t set boundaries or look at other’s „baggage” only as an external spectator.
The Symbiote
On this low level the Cancer’s motto could be: go ahead on the back of others. One of their biggest problems is the lack of initiative and brave action. The other problem is emotional attachment. If something touched them once, they can’t really let it go anymore. They basically have a very strong need of emotional security and warm familial atmosphere. But the more deeply they withdraw into this comfort zone the more their desire for freedom becomes. And they often resolve this ambivalence by childish daydreaming and nostalgia. In this state the Cancer tries to make their way in life by shifting responsibility to others. And if this tactic doesn’t work, they try to manipulate people in their environment directly by playing the „poor me” role in order to provoke a sense of guilt in them and extort some results. This pattern appears with young adults who don’t want to leave the familial nest or enter into the world of work because of comfort or fear. But parents who don’t allow their children to start their own life also represent this lowest level of the Cancer archetype.
Hesitant
On this level the Cancer is still anxious, shy, too adaptive, sensitive and thin-skinned. Sitting on the fence is their main strategy for survival. Thus they don’t go into any risky venture and avoid conflicts. If they run into an obstacle, they shy away from it, hide and flee into their past. They are still afraid of initiative. Mercurial emotions, suggestibility and self-pity are typical of them and these block responsible self-fulfilment. On the one hand, they try to answer the requirements of outside world very hard, on the other hand they don’t want to take responsibility even for themselves.
Empath
On this developed level the Cancer is typified by empathetic care and sympathy. They know that they have to care for their fellow- beings in some way – either by creating and maintaining the warm of home or as a healer. They feel intuitively that their main mission in life is to live superior sentiments. On this level, they can finally take their destiny in their own hands, moreover they undertake noble quests to help other people. They have the most important tools for this as their intuitive-empathic ability is strong and their sixth sense is advanced enough.
Magistra Artemesia Patientia
By arriving to the Cancer, the previous tendency of inverting masculine and feminine qualities is restored. The archetype of Mother is embodied by an old magistra, Artemesia Patientia.
Actually Artemesia doesn’t possess any magical abilities. So her name will go down in the history of the Kyanite Alliance by becoming a magistra from a helper. How is it possible? Of course it is due to her selflessness and caring instinct lived in the purest quality. Her agname, Patientia means patience which refers to her biggest strength, the ability of eternal love and care.
When Artemesia’s daughter, Olivia had been chosen to join the Kyanite Alliance, the woman escorted her to the island of Roanaa. As a recent widow nobody and nothing bounded her to the world where she was born. Therefore she decided to consecrate the rest of her life to the support of Olivia and the Kyanite Alliance.
While Olivia learnt, then later joined the family of Charmers and set off on different planes of existence, Artemesia took care of the children of the members of the Kyanite Alliance as a nanny and immersed herself into material and transmaterial sections of healing. In the end, she became such a great expert of the topic that magister Silvanus elevated her into magistra and asked her to transmit the knowledge she had collected for many years. Thus Artemesia’s life is the perfect example that one can become great by „only” creating the peaceful hinterland for others.
