Mars in Cancer

With Mars in Cancer, your will to act is at the mercy of your intense moods, but when you find ways to act in sync with your emotions, you move others to tears or laughter. 

Mars in Cancer and Acting

Mars Cancer people play on and with emotions, making many of them natural performers. Actress Penelope Cruz (Taurus with Mars Cancer) says of her childhood, "I remember playing with some friends and being aware that I was acting playing with them--I would think of a character and pretend to be someone else." 

Penelope continues, "My parents also took me to ballet school, and there I was able to start communicating those feelings or emotions--I danced for so many years." 

On the stage of life, Mars in water sign Cancer acts within the atmospheres of feeling. 

Mars Cancer then acts with a hypersensitive awareness of reactions, and sometimes that's unsaid, like sensing a pair of judging or critical eyes. Actress Vivien Leigh (Scorpio Sun with Mars Cancer) said, "Every single night I'm nervous. You never know how the audience is going to react."  

Anger Management

Your sense of timing is guided by your ability to tune into the emotional scene. Unlike those that push to get reactions, you're one to back off when you sense someone is about to lose it.

This is a fine trait to have as it saves you from getting into a lot of needless conflicts. 

Sometimes, though, it can lead to becoming too passive in situations that call for confrontation. If you're in a toxic pattern with someone, your strategy can be a defensive, and yet, all the while you're building up ire until it can't be contained and have an emotional outburst. 

That's why some Mars Cancers seem to take a lot of abuse in a relationship before breaking up berserker-style. Mars Cancers tend to hold on to slights and resentments while not necessarily being open about it, and then finally acting in a dramatic way that others don't see coming.

You crave emotional honesty and will pick up on discord right away. You act to secure your life and relationships. A big draw is family, an intimate circle of friends, and a sense of place where you live. 

Your sexuality is enveloping, nurturing, seductive and emotional. You’re fiercely protective of those you love. Children are a source of inspiration, for play and freely expressing emotions. 

Crabwise Actions

You keep it cool until the moment is right. Others may not know what you’re planning until you actually do it.

Like the Crab, you prefer to sidestep up to new activities and people, rather than go toward them directly. You circle around what you want, look for inroads, and test the waters carefully.  

It’s hard for you to fake interest, if your heart’s not into it.

Your vitality fluctuates, and sometimes you're inhibited by insecurity. But you move mountains, with this cardinal Mars, when the mood hits. 

Moving with your feelings, like with dance, is a great way to wring out all that intensity. Mars Cancers like to move in all kinds of waves, like the aquatic kind. 

Steven Patrick Morrissey, formerly of The Smiths (Gemini Sun with Mars Cancer), has said this: "I swim when I can, but I don't work out." 

With Mars Cancer, you go with the flow. And if you don't feel like doing something, you clam up until the waters feel right again.