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Sun-sign compatibility · fire and water · three signs apart

Aries and Cancer compatibility

Aries and Cancer are three signs apart on the wheel, a square of about 90°: fire and water, both cardinal. Astrology reads the angle between two Sun signs as the first measure of a pair, and the rest of the two charts as the rest of the story.

This year the Sun is in Aries from 20 March to 20 April and in Cancer from 21 June to 22 July. 9 famous couples in StarMap's dataset are an Aries and a Cancer, where chance would give about 5.4: Gerald Ford and Betty Ford, Meryl Streep and Martin Short and Isabelle Adjani and Warren Beatty among them. Among the 537 couples with both Sun signs certain, that makes this the 21st most common pairing of the 78. A Sun sign is one placement of ten, and the two whole charts say far more than the two signs.

Each sign has its own page: Aries and Cancer, with its dates to the minute, its traits and the famous people born under it.

9 famous Aries and Cancer couples, scored chart against chart.How do your two charts compare?Compare two whole charts, free: every angle between your planets

What astrology reads for Aries and Cancer

Three signs apart is the square, and astrology reads it as friction with a purpose. The two signs share a modality, so both want to act in the same way, by starting, by holding or by adapting, but from elements that do not mix, and each tends to feel that the other is doing the right thing in the wrong manner. The tradition is plain that this angle is felt: these are the pairs that argue about how.

It is also, in the same tradition, the angle that gets things built. Two Suns at a square give each other something to push against, and astrologers read the pairing as one in which both people grow because neither can settle. What the reading asks is that the friction be aimed at the task rather than at each other; the rest of the two charts, the Moons and Venus especially, says how easily that happens.

Fire with water

Fire with water is read as the pairing of two strong feelings that do not speak the same language: fire shows what it feels by acting, water by sensing. The tradition reads the pair as intense, with a pull that is easy to feel and a rhythm that is hard to find, since fire tends to move on from a mood that water is still in. Astrologers read it as the pairing most changed by the rest of the two charts.

Cardinal with cardinal

Both signs are cardinal, the starting signs of their seasons, and the tradition reads two cardinal people as two leaders in one relationship: both want to set the direction, and the question is who goes first on which day. The reading is of a pair that gets a great deal started and has to decide on purpose who finishes.

These are readings of the Sun signs alone, written for reflection and entertainment. They describe tendencies the tradition assigns to an angle, not two people, and they do not say whether a pair lasts.

Aries in love, Cancer in love

Aries

In love, Aries pursues. Interest is shown early and plainly, the chase matters, and the sign is at its best with a partner who can hold their own rather than one who gives way. What it needs to learn is patience: desire arrives before tenderness, and the relationship lasts when the second catches up with the first.

Cancer

In love, Cancer commits. It wants a home with someone in it, and it shows love by looking after: the meal, the blanket, the message to check you got back. It is easily hurt and slow to say so. Its lesson is that a partner cannot read the mood it is hiding, however well it reads theirs.

532 famous people have the Sun in Aries for certain and 483 in Cancer: every Aries Sun and every Cancer Sun, each with a birth chart.

Famous Aries and Cancer couples

Of the 537 spouse and partner pairs in StarMap’s dataset whose Sun signs are both certain, 9 are Aries and Cancer. From the share of each sign among every couple’s members, chance alone would give about 5.4, a ratio of 1.67, which makes this the 21st most common pairing of the 78. Their sky match, from the angles between the two charts, averages 67 out of 100 against 67 for every couple counted. With about seven couples a cell, a ratio between a half and double is what chance produces; the counts describe the dataset, not the signs.

3 more on the couples page. All famous couples, each scored from both birth charts.

Both signs in one chart

The two signs also meet inside one chart, when the Sun is in one and the Moon in the other. Astrologers read a Sun and Moon three signs apart the way they read the two Suns above, as a square between how a person is seen and how they feel.

Only people whose Sun and Moon signs do not depend on an unknown birth time are counted. The Moon in Cancer and the Moon in Aries have pages of their own.

Questions people ask

Are Aries and Cancer compatible?

By Sun sign alone, astrology reads Aries and Cancer as a square, three signs apart: fire and water, both cardinal. That is a reading of one placement of ten and not a verdict on two people. In StarMap's dataset of famous couples, 9 are Aries and Cancer, against about 5.4 that chance would give, a ratio of 1.67. The angles between two whole charts, Moon to Moon and Venus to Mars among them, say more than the Sun signs can; the comparison is free on StarMap.

How many famous couples are Aries and Cancer?

9 of the 537 couples in StarMap's dataset with both Sun signs certain, Gerald Ford and Betty Ford, Meryl Streep and Martin Short and Isabelle Adjani and Warren Beatty among them. Chance alone would give about 5.4, which makes it the 21st most common pairing of the 78. Their sky match, from the angles between the two charts, averages 67 out of 100 against 67 for every couple counted.

Who has the Sun in Aries and the Moon in Cancer?

27 people in StarMap's dataset have the Sun in Aries and the Moon in Cancer, Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin and Heath Ledger among them. 28 people in StarMap's dataset have the Sun in Cancer and the Moon in Aries, Muhammad Yunus, Larry Sanger and Pamela Anderson among them. The Moon's sign depends on the day and often on the hour of birth, so only people whose Moon sign is certain are counted.

Sun signs are computed from the Sun’s position with the astronomy-engine ephemeris, checked against Swiss Ephemeris, in the tropical zodiac. Birth data and relationship data come from Wikidata; birth times, where StarMap has one, from Astro-Databank with their Rodden rating. A couple is counted only when the Sun was in one sign for the whole of each birth date. Readings describe what the tradition assigns to an angle, for entertainment and self-reflection; StarMap predicts nothing. Compare two whole charts.

Photo credits (17 photos from Wikimedia Commons)

Each link opens the photo’s page on Wikimedia Commons, which states its author and licence.