Your (Medieval) Cancer Horoscope

It’s phlegmatic season. Here’s what you should know for the month

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A detail of an illumination. A lobster-like creature is inside a golden circle, surrounded by red stars

By Meg Butler, Sarah Waldorf, Larisa Grollemond

Jun 20, 2024

Happy June, medieval Cancer

Get ready for a month with some ups and downs. Cancer season is a good time for fighting, but a bad time for planting trees, building new houses, or anything to do with fire.

For the next 12 signs, Getty medievalist Larisa Grollemond will be sharing astrological guidance from the Middle Ages in anticipation of the upcoming exhibition Rising Signs: The Science of Medieval Astrology.

The exhibition and the series will shed light on the mysteries of astrology through illuminated manuscripts and early printed books that are rich in material related to the zodiac.

Now on to the forecast.

  • An illuminated manuscript with blue, red and brown text. At the bottom are two squares. One has a picture of a man in a red tunic mowing the lawn with a scythe; the other a large, brown lobster

    June Calendar Page; Mowing; Cancer, early 1460s, Workshop of Willem Vrelant. Tempera colors, gold leaf, and ink, 10 1/16 × 6 13/16 in. Getty Museum, Ms. Ludwig IX 8 (83.ML.104), fol. 6

  • A page of a medieval manuscript. Above the text: a sun with a face sits inside a wheel with roman numerals. Below: a lobster-like drawing in a circle surrounded by red stars

    Diagram for Monday; Cancer, shortly after 1464, German. Watercolor and ink, 12 1/16 × 8 11/16 in. Getty Museum, Ms. Ludwig XII 8, fol. 53v, 83.MO.137.53v

  • An illuminated page. A large drawing at the top features a man with a hoe beside a body of water. A brown lobster-like creature, roughly as large as the man stands next to him. A castle and forest are

    June Calendar Page; Mowing; Cancer, early 1460s, Flemish. Tempera colors, gold leaf, and ink, 10 1/16 × 6 13/16 in. Getty Museum, Ms. Ludwig IX 8 (83.ML.104), fol. 6

Do NOT Plant Any Trees

In medieval Europe, as well as today, people believed that the movements of the celestial bodies prescribed ideal times to do certain activities.

Medieval illuminations, like the ones above, gave pictorial reminders of what activities were good to pursue under a certain sign.

“Cancer season was believed to be a good time for fighting and mowing. But a bad time for planting trees, building new houses, or anything to do with fire,” advises Grollemond.

So feel free to prune your garden or play a few games of Multiversus but wait until after July to build that shed out back... or burn your existing one down.

“And just an FYI, you’re good to go for bloodletting from the arms.”

If medieval medical practices are your vibe.

An illuminated page with text and decorated margins. In the right corner, a red, lobster-like drawing in a blue circle

Julius Caesar; Zodiacal Sign of Cancer, probably 1170s, German. Tempera colors, gold leaf, silver leaf, and ink, 11 1/8 × 7 7/16 in. Getty Museum, Ms. 64 (97.MG.21), fol. 6v

“Cancer is represented by the crab," Grollemond assures us, "which sometimes looks a lot more like a lobster or a crayfish in medieval manuscripts.”

Advice for Phlegmatic Signs

Medieval Cancer, you tend to be stubborn, devoted, and passionate. Because of your phlegmatic humors.

While the elements fire, air, earth, and water are associated with astrology today, the humors–blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm–were associated with the signs in medieval times. Like the elements, the humors were thought to influence your personality traits… and how much blood, bile, and phlegm affected your day-to-day life.

For now, that’s it for your Cancer horoscope. Stay tuned for Leo season, a good time to take a bath.

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