Cancer midheaven people harbor a loud need for safety. They seek comfort and protection.

I know that we are used to the midheaven representing our goals and our vision of how we would like to impact the world around us. Yes, the midheaven does have that meaning after the first Saturn return. But before you turn thirty? The midheaven represents how you need to be nurtured, how you are parented, and what prepares you for living as an adult with goals.

What Cancer midheaven looks like for you will depend upon the position, sign, and phase of your Moon. Your definition of safety is unique to your experience.

When a Cancer midheaven enters a new workplace, they are not usually looking for risk. Instead, they are trying to figure out how they fit into what already exists. They care about belonging because belonging is acceptance and is safety. Now, a Cancer midheaven might experience paradox in their concept and sensing of safety. They might believe that safety is passivity and that safety is fierceness at the same time. We’re talking about a Moon ruled midheaven here.

I think that the thing that tends to differentiate a Cancer midheaven from other midheavens is its attachment to recurring patterns—cyclical, repetitive patterns that change little by little spiral formation rather than all at once the way a line changes. A Cancer midheaven despises logic. It will rebel against the role that it feels it has been assigned while trying to cling onto that role out of the need to belong. Recurring cyclical patterns make emotional sense once you have lived the cycle a couple times through.

“I need you.” “I don’t need you.” Cancer midheaven feels both, simultaneously, about their work, about the world, about their parents.

“I didn’t know I needed you.” “I don’t want to need you.” “I need you to need me.” That’s the Cancerian torment. Cancer midheavens feel the Cancerian torment for their parents, their work, and for the world.

This is a highly vigilant placement. Cancer midheavens are always watching out not just for themselves but for everyone who they have trusted enough to allow into their shell. They are keen to survive. They can tell the difference between a worse contract and a better one. They are on the lookout for dangers that may arise. They understand that work is not a neutral space but one with a long history of exploitation and ethnic cleansing. They look for the dangers that may arise between office politics and contractual codes. Cancer midheavens are fearful about being harmed.

So, that’s the hard Cancer shell and its little pincers too. If you try to hurt a Cancer midheaven, then ouch! They will get you back.

But, inside? These people are softies. They can be remarkably simple.

All you need to do to make a Cancer midheaven show you their most brilliant and creative selves, all you need to do to make them believe that they are capable of making an impact on the world they live in, is to nurture them every single day. Cancer midheaven people want to be comforted consistently, to be told that they are safe and protected everyday, to feel that someone else is watching out for them, and that they live in a world where people reliably care. That’s it.

Comfort makes a world of difference. Comfort isn’t extravagant. It’s a stuffed animal stored in an office drawer. It’s a warm mug of tea for sipping on during breaks. It’s coworkers who care and trade hours with you when they can. It’s simple togetherness. Reassurance and food.

When Cancer midheaven feels comfortable, they’re probably the most creative and productive people in the world. This is the Moon we’re talking about, the lesser luminary who lights up half of time. They are sensual. Generative. Lustful. Funny. Cancer midheavens have sharp, sharp instincts and they’re usually right about how to proceed.

But I won’t lie. I think that, with the state of the economy, not many of us feel that much security around work. Right? So, Cancer midheaven turns into an overworker. They pile up job after job, saying yes to everything because they’re afraid that they will go through a scarce period. They cling onto work that they should really have left long ago because they’re fearful about saying goodbye. Under conditions of insecurity, Cancer midheaven can become a hoarder of visions, goals, and opportunities.

And that can be confusing. How would you feel if you thought that you could not let go of any of the dreams that you had as a child, a teen, a young adult, up to now?

As we mature, we have to let go of goals. We are supposed to shed our ideas about what success is as we outgrow those definitions. Once upon a time, we thought that success meant getting good grades. Then, we grew up and learned that credentials don’t matter. Once upon a time, we thought that success meant finding your dream job. Then, we grew up and realized that work promises no authenticity. We grow up thinking that success means providing for our parents and then we grow up and realize that we grew used to rehearsing deeply ingrained patterns of codependency.

Cancer midheaven is a collector of goals. They accumulate and store. They rarely discard. Their childhood dreams, their adolescent rebellions, and their young adult anxieties clash and chord together within their psyches whenever they face the question of “What should I aim to do next?” This is why Cancer midheaven has a very hard time making up its mind about what they want to do next.

What am I working towards? What do I want to build? How can one answer such a cruel question when you still feel the security cravings that you felt at every single age intimately inside of your body? To build a future is to depart from the nest of the past. To depart from the nest of the past is to grieve everyone who could not come with you to the now.

What makes me feel secure? At what age? You wear your childhood needs still and, because it is your midheaven that is in Cancer, you wear them on your sleeve. You experience your cravings for comfort at work. You want true belonging and acceptance from larger society. You seek familiarity when you push yourself in new environments. You become emotionally attached to structure.

Again, Cancer midheaven is one of the most productive and ingenious midheaven placements. You have to keep in mind that Cancer is the sign that exalts the greater benefic. A Cancer midheaven can always impress. They’re often very good students, very successful, and maddenly creative. However, a Cancer midheaven is simply not able to or unwilling to produce all the time. They take long breaks from work. They become obsessive about projects. They leave projects incomplete because they fell under a bad temper. It’s just that sometimes, out of the blue, because they are mad and talented geniuses, they shock and impress.

They are moody. They are truly moody because, again, when they confront a deep need to feel secure and comforted and protected when they must work. And they really don’t want to work. They really don’t want to work! Out of all of the midheaven placements, Cancer midheaven is the one who is more intuitively creative but the one who wants to work the least. No, they do not want to work. They want to stay at home where all of their creature comforts live.

That’s the push and pull. This is a gifted person, someone who cares about everything. They don’t want to work. They seek everything from work, every security need, and they feel troubled by workplace boundaries. They also don’t want to work. They want to stay at home. They drag themselves to work where they face all of their feelings and they just really don’t want to do it. They know that they are capable of doing incredible work and they prefer to keep it all inside. Because they are unsure about the world outside.

They will work if you mother them. But they really don’t want to do it. Responsibility? Please, no! But they will take it on and they will do a fantastic job. They just don’t want to.

Careers that work well for Cancer midheaven: family businesses, any job that allows you to stay at home, cult follower, otaku, farmer, and mafia member.