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The combination of seashore dwelling crab (Cancer Sun) and the ocean going fish (Pisces Moon) make for a Sun/Moon pairing uniquely attuned to both the actual ocean and the oceanic realms of emotion. In his book Heaven Knows What astrologer Grant Lewi describes this pairing in distinctly sea-faring terms:

You have a sailboat personality; you track with the wind and tide, shift your ballast, alter the top rigging, and keep in cahoots with the weather conditions as you find them. This makes for progress whether on the high seas or on the sea of life. (Source)

In their 1994 book Sun Sign Moon Sign, astrologers Suzi and Charles Harvey offer a similarly sea-faring description of this pairing, explaining that it’s at its best when working with imagery involving the oceans:

You are remarkably intuitive . . . Acutely receptive to hidden messages, you easily act as a barometer of the environment. . . . your subtle powers of observation and mimicry could pay off in some way. By stealth, intuition and shrewd manoeuvre, you usually end up exactly where you want to be. A simple life amidst rural beauty where you can commute with nature suits you best. Or better yet, right near the ocean where the sparkling scintillation of light would inspire your artistic side. (Source)

To illustrate: using its launch date as its date of birth, NASA’s legendary 1978 oceanographic space satellite known as SeaSat One is a Cancer Sun, Pisces Moon. (Chart) True to its Cancer/Pisces pedigree, SeaSat was a “remarkable barometer of the environment” whose “subtle powers of observation” and “receptivity to hidden messages” totally revolutionized how we study the oceans.

If you haven’t heard of SeaSat that’s okay as even the most remarkably astonishing of Cancer/Pisces individuals can easily slip into the background. In short, pretty much everything we’ve learned about the oceans during the last thirty plus years stems from SeaSat. A NASA article celebrating the satellite’s 25th anniversary explained:

“SeaSat served to vault Earth science to where it is today”, said Dr. Frank Carsey, JPL research scientist. “It collected more information about the oceans in 100 days than had been acquired in the previous 100 years of shipboard research . . . it was astonishing.” (Source)

An AllBusiness.com article entitled “SeaSat’s Legacy” explained that, “in a manner of speaking, SeaSat sired a series of satellites that continue today.” (Source) Here, for instance, is an image of Hawaii captured by EnviSat using the remote sensing technologies first demonstrated by SeaSat. The white dots are ocean waves not clouds:

Take a look at this much higher resolution version of the above image for a truly wonderful visual treat. (Make sure to right click on the “magnify” icon to get the full view.) Here’s another image taken by EnviSat employing the technologies first used in space on board SeaSat. This one is of the Canary Islands, the green plumes are part of an active underwater volcano according to the ESA Multimedia page.

What’s amazing about SeaSat’s sensing technologies is that, technically speaking, SeaSat was blind. It did not have an on board optical camera nor did it rely on the availability of light to capture images. Instead, it remotely detected what was going on deep beneath the ocean’s surface by using the echoes of radar waves to sense through the water, similar to what a medical intuitive does when they detect what is going on with your body by seeing into and through it. A 1996 NY Times article describes SeaSat as being akin more to a space-age psychic antenna than simply a camera lofted to high-altitude:

. . . SeaSat was [essentially turned] into a vast antenna stretching over dozens of miles of space. Rather than treating the satellite as an ordinary camera that takes a single snapshot, the new technique, in effect, keeps the shutter open as the satellite moves over wide regions of space. The step greatly increases the number of incoming radar echoes thus sharply enhancing the resolution . . . (Source)

That doesn’t make it “psychic” in a literal sense but SeaSat’s astonishing imaging capabilities can certainly be analogized to a technological version of extrasensory perception. Keep in mind it did much more more than absorb and send back images. From 500 miles above the earth it was also able to remotely sense wave heights, wind speeds and direction, sea temperatures, coastal conditions, and even to discern what was going on hundreds of feet beneath the water’s surface. NASA’s original SeaSat launch press release states, “the spacecraft has all-weather capability and can see as well at night as during the day”. (Source)

Helen Keller is also a Cancer Sun, Pisces Moon. (Chart) Like SeaSat, she was technically blind and deaf yet she too could see (sense) as well at night as during the day. Keller didn’t posses ESP or remote sensing technologies nor was she known to be psychic. However, she adapted to her limitations in a manner so phenomenally intuitive that it might have seemed downright magical. According to her Wikipedia entry:

. . . Keller was very in touch with the outside world. She was able to enjoy music by feeling the beat and she was able to have a strong connection with animals through touch. She was delayed at picking up language, but that did not stop her from having a voice. (Source)

Given this pairing’s attunement to the watery realms of emotions maybe it’s no surprise that the first word Keller was able to communicate was “water”. (Source) The moment Keller was able to spell out “water” was famously dramatized in the 1962 movie Miracle Worker:

According to astrologers Suzi and Charles Harvey, a metaphoric image for the Cancer/Pisces individual is, “An artist teaches recuperating patients to paint images of their dreams in soft water colors.” (Source) That’s an uncannily accurate metaphor for SeaSat. It’s obviously not a literal artist who teaches recuperating patients to paint with water colors but its technologies have enabled scientists to produce incredibly moving images of the Earth’s oceans. Should the patient – in this case humanity – ever commit to recuperating the oceanic realms that comprise 70% of our planet’s surface then SeaSat’s legacy will play a role similar to that of the artist in the Harveys’ image. Thirty five years after it was launched, climatologists and oceanographers are still combing through the wealth of information it generated for information on how we might go about helping the oceans recuperate from the devastation that’s been wrought upon them. (Source)

The Harveys’ second metaphoric image for the Cancer/Pisces individual is, “A lone sailboat offshore . . .” (Source) Take a look at NASA’s original drawing of SeaSat, pictured above, as it matches up nearly literally to the Harveys’ metaphoric image for this pairing.

Cancer Sun, Pisces Moon: Encounters with the Grim Reaper, Monsters in the Closet, and Ancestral Secrets

If SeaSat was so effective and managed to sire so many subsequent satellites then why did it operate for less than four months? That’s where things get murky. The official story is that SeaSat abruptly stopped operating on October 9th, 1978 due to a massive electrical short circuit. (Source) Many, however, believe the satellite’s power was ordered cut off when it begun detecting things it was absolutely not supposed to detect.

What we do know is that SeaSat detected the undersea waves generated by nuclear armed submarines as well as the tell-tale shadows of experimental stealth aircraft which at the time were still an unacknowledged “black project” being run out of Area 51. According to Peter Westwick, author of Into the Black: JPL and the American Space Program, officials back at the Pentagon darn near went ballistic when they learned what SeaSat’s unexpected powers of discernment had revealed. (Source)

Recall that one of the Cancer/Pisces individual’s strengths is “the ability to detect the hidden”. This is also one of its greatest liabilities. What happens, for instance, when a person as tuned to other realms as a Cancer/Pisces native detects or encounters something more intense then their sensitivities are able to handle? What happens, for example, if they detect or encounter the Grim Reaper?

It’s an apt question to ponder as the Grim Reaper is exactly what SeaSat inadvertently came in contact with. On a metaphoric level, submarines carrying nuclear ICBMs are a fitting stand in for the “bringer of death”. On a more literal level, the experimental stealth aircraft detected by SeaSat were flown by the 4450th Tactical Group, a highly classified test squadron known as “the Grim Reapers.” (Source) Take a look at the squadron’s flight patch to see the true nature of what SeaSat managed to detect:

Speaking of encounters with the occult, astrologer Linda Goodman warns the Cancer/Pisces combination as follows:

It’s best that this combination stays a healthy distance away from experimentation in black magic, hypnosis, seances and other fringe areas of the occult, because the combined sensitivities of can easily allow them to drown in matters which are deceptively exciting – and may prove tragic. (Source)

I wouldn’t go so far as to advise this pairing to stay way from such matters all together but I would say the Cancer/Pisces natives should only enter occult waterways under the tutelage of a very experienced mentor (navigator) or if they feel confident in being able to apply discernment to what they find “out there”.

For instance, author Annie Jacobsen is a Cancer/Pisces whose made a career out of this pairing’s “ability to detect the hidden”. (Chart) She’s best know for applying the intellectual acumen and forensic skills of an investigative reporter to occult topics such as secret bases, government sponsored seances, and high level experiments involving magic, mind control, and hypnosis. Cancerians are known for their elephant like memories while Pisces Moons are nourished by the mystical and the magical. Jacobsen is, in effect, a historian (Cancer) of our government’s attempts at interacting with the ghost worlds (Pisces Moon). Like Seasat, she too has experience with matters pertaining to Area 51 while more recently she wrote what may be the definitive account of the U.S. government’s investigations into psychic spying and paranormal phenomena:

Bizarre coincidence: Using its release date as its date of birth, the 1983 hit song “Secrets that You Keep” by The Romantics is also a Cancer Sun, Pisces Moon. (Chart) The song includes the line, “When I hold you in my arms at night, don’t you know you’re sleeping in a spotlight?”. Take a listen to the song, then take look back at NASA’s original drawing of SeaSat embedded above and see if you don’t notice something extremely uncanny about that image as it relates to the lyrics:

The song could be a theme song for SeaSat as the chorus “I hear the secrets that you keep when you’re talking in your sleep” describes exactly what SeaSat did during its operational lifetime. It’s also an accurate assessment of the role Ms. Jacobsen plays in our culture as she has accomplished with writing books something similar to what Seasat accomplished via imaging in space. Jacobsen’s a Pullitzer Prize finalist in history while Seasat is a history making oceanographic satellite; both have shined spotlights on secrets carried out while the rest of us have been asleep or kept in the dark. Among other similarities, acobsen’s conclusions regarding the truth about what happened at Roswell, New Mexico during the summer of 1947 are every bit as unsettling as Seasat’s encounters with the 4450 “Grim Reapers” squadron. (Hint: they’re far more disturbing than just space aliens.)

Seasat’s imagery has proven enormously popular with scientists researching the health of ecosystems beneath our oceans while Jacobsen’s books have become best sellers among citizens concerned about what our government(s) are doing behind closed doors. She is, in effect, an intuitively inclined merchanteer of history books (Cancer) about phenomena so strange they mystify the imagination (Pisces Moon).

Mercury/Jupiter in the 8th House: Seeing the Monsters in the Closet

Assuming the 6:12 pm launch time cited in NASA’s final 1980 report is accurate, SeaSat’s Mercury (communication) and Jupiter (expansion) were both in its 8th House. In Western astrology, the 8th House is the house of “other people’s resources.” Astrologer Dana Gerhardt refers to the 8th House as where “monsters in the closet” are kept hidden. (Source) Nuclear armed ICBM loaded submarines lurking beneath the ocean’s surface and classified black projects being flown out of Area 51 certainly fit the description of “monsters hiding in the closet”.

The 8th House is also considered the house of “ancestral legacy”. (Source) It’s where we keep those matters that “the family simply doesn’t speak about”. Although SeaSat was a civilian craft on a mission of peace, most of the technologies it carried on its insides could be traced back to classified military projects. When SeaSat detected those nuclear submarines it was, in a manner of speaking, glimpsing the secret history of its own ancestry.

Mars/Uranus Transit: Accidents, Authority Figures, Electrical Explosions

Astrologically, SeaSat’s demise coincided with the transit of Mars (explosions) directly over its natal Uranus. (Chart) In western astrology, Uranus is considered the ruler of electricity both out in terms of technology and the electrical impulses that run through the human body. It’s not uncommon for people going through a Mars/Uranus transit to experience “overload” in either their body’s electrical systems or in their chakras. Both mental breakdowns and kundalini awakenings are associated with Mars/Uranus contacts. SeaSat, of course, is not a human but it did have an electrical nervous system not totally unlike what humans have. Consider, for instance, the language astrologer Robert Hand uses to describe a Mars/Uranus transit and see if it doesn’t parallel what happened to SeaSat:

No other transit is more conducive than this one to surprising incidents. Energy seems to burst out all over the place and in surprising forms. This is a transit of rebellion an often indicates others might try to limit you in some way. Your relationships with authority figures are not likely to be very good [during this time] . . . (Source)

Even if SeaSat’s early demise was entirely coincidental there’s no doubt that A) energy did burst out all over its electrical system and B) the authorities were none too pleased with it and certainly hoped to place limits on it.

The transiting Mars to natal Uranus contact that coincided with SeaSat’s demise was in Scorpio, the sign most associated with covert operations. It took place right on the cusp of SeaSat’s 12th House, the “House of Secret Enemies” in traditional astrological parlance.

Mars in Virgo in the 9th House: Florence Nightingale Takes to the Wild Blue Yonder

Mars is a person’s inner warrior. SeaSat’s Mars is in the 9th House, the House of long distance travel, philosophy, expanded horizons, and higher education. People with Mars in the 9th will often fight (Mars) for social reform (the 9th House). SeaSat was not a person fighting for social reform but the technologies it demonstrated have certainly served to deepen levels of environmental awareness.

SeaSat’s Mars is in Virgo, the sign of duty and service, due diligence and detailed analysis, professional competency and technical wizardry. Astrologer Sue Tompkins says Mars in Virgo “conjures up the notion of military service, ambulance driving, or involvement with organizations such as the Red Cross.” (Source) Perhaps then it’s no coincidence that SeaSat’s technological offspring such as the EnviSat and the ERS were instrumental in organizing relief efforts following the Haiti earthquake of 2010 as well as understanding the global wide impact of the Fukushima earthquake in 2011. (Source)

North Node in the 10th House: Point of Destiny in the House of “Gifts to the World”

The North Node represents destiny, should the native choose to accept it. SeaSat’s North Node is in Libra, the sign most associated with maintaining an appropriate “balance of power”. It’s in the 10th House, which is considered the world stage. Astrologers Steven and Jodie Forest tell us that when the North Node is in the 10th House, “the essence of the evolutionary strategy lies in simply launching themselves into the white water of life lived in the context of the community . . . (Source) SeaSat wasn’t launched into the (literal) “white water of life in the [world] community” but it did go bravely into the dangerous world of outer space from where it studied the white water of life in the oceans.

Although no longer transmitting data, SeaSat is still “up there” dutifully orbiting the Earth. A member of the Heavens Above satellite tracking project managed to capture a glimpse of it above the Brighton AIDS Memorial in London as recently as August 2010. (Source) That SeaSat would last be seen above an AIDS memorial seems fitting. At its highest expression, Cancer/Pisces is very attuned to the alleviation of unnecessary suffering.

About the Author: Matthew David Savinar is a California licensed attorney (State Bar #228957), voluntarily inactive as of June 2013. He can be reached for questions, comments, or astrological consults at his contact page.

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