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Sun-sign compatibility · water and fire · one sign apart

Cancer and Leo compatibility

Cancer and Leo are one sign apart on the wheel, a semi-sextile of about 30°: water and fire, one cardinal and one fixed. 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 Cancer from 21 June to 22 July and in Leo from 22 July to 23 August. 9 famous couples in StarMap's dataset are a Cancer and a Leo, where chance would give about 6.2: Meryl Streep and John Cazale, Roman Polanski and Emmanuelle Seigner and Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady among them. Among the 537 couples with both Sun signs certain, that makes this the 20th 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: Cancer and Leo, with its dates to the minute, its traits and the famous people born under it.

9 famous Cancer and Leo 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 Cancer and Leo

Signs next door to each other share nothing by element or by modality, and astrology reads neighbouring Sun signs as two people who grew up on either side of a fence: close enough to see each other every day, far enough apart to have learnt different lessons. The later sign is traditionally taken to have been shaped by what the earlier one left unfinished, so each tends to be good at what the other finds hardest.

The reading is of a pairing built on difference rather than likeness. There is little automatic understanding to fall back on, and more to find out, which some people find restful and others find like work. Astrologers often say these pairs make each other more complete than comfortable: the relationship is where each learns the step that comes next in the zodiac.

Water with fire

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 fixed

One sign is cardinal and one is fixed: a starter and a keeper. The tradition reads the pairing as complementary, the cardinal sign supplying new directions and the fixed sign holding to the ones worth keeping, and as a contest when the one that starts wants to start again and the one that holds has only just settled.

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.

Cancer in love, Leo in love

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.

Leo

In love, Leo is romantic in the old sense: grand gestures, open admiration, a wish to be adored and to adore back. It needs appreciation the way other signs need space. Its lesson is that affection shown quietly counts too, and that a partner is not an audience.

483 famous people have the Sun in Cancer for certain and 520 in Leo: every Cancer Sun and every Leo Sun, each with a birth chart.

Famous Cancer and Leo couples

Of the 537 spouse and partner pairs in StarMap’s dataset whose Sun signs are both certain, 9 are Cancer and Leo. From the share of each sign among every couple’s members, chance alone would give about 6.2, a ratio of 1.45, which makes this the 20th most common pairing of the 78. Their sky match, from the angles between the two charts, averages 64 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 one sign apart the way they read the two Suns above, as a semi-sextile 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 Leo and the Moon in Cancer have pages of their own.

Questions people ask

Are Cancer and Leo compatible?

By Sun sign alone, astrology reads Cancer and Leo as a semi-sextile, one sign apart: water and fire, cardinal with fixed. 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 Cancer and Leo, against about 6.2 that chance would give, a ratio of 1.45. 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 Cancer and Leo?

9 of the 537 couples in StarMap's dataset with both Sun signs certain, Meryl Streep and John Cazale, Roman Polanski and Emmanuelle Seigner and Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady among them. Chance alone would give about 6.2, which makes it the 20th most common pairing of the 78. Their sky match, from the angles between the two charts, averages 64 out of 100 against 67 for every couple counted.

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

21 people in StarMap's dataset have the Sun in Cancer and the Moon in Leo, Tom Hanks, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Nancy Reagan among them. 26 people in StarMap's dataset have the Sun in Leo and the Moon in Cancer, Dua Lipa, Roman Polanski and Steve Wozniak 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.