Question 11, The Shining Fish:
Hints for approaching the Cancer Treasure Story, “The Shining Fish:” (No astrology background required.) 1) Is this a happy couple? 2) They suffered a loss that accentuated their financial fears. What was it? 3) Do you think they still communicate verbally, or do both seem to be reading their partner’s minds? 4) C.G. Jung suggested that since we’re living longer now, it’s likely that more people will have two marriage partners, one for their parenting years, and another, after their children are grown, a companion who shares their interests for the remaining years. If the couple in “The Shining Fish” lived now and had this option, might one or both of them be happier starting over with someone else?
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They are not communicating with each other very well - I can't help feeling they have got so used to their routines, that they have given themselves away - I keep thinking of the man that he is trying to find himself - and gaining external recognition - ie being given physical gold - and hiding it from his wife in case it is taken from him. Like she will use or undermine his value in some way. But the story kind of implies what he sees as undermining is actually her use of intuition - finding gold in the muck and that which is to be thrown away, her success of making house perhaps he feels threatened by returning to it. Perhaps she sees his inner 'gold' after all. Eventually he learns he has to look within too - find his intuition and trust in someone outside of himself - and do something seemingly bizarre to bring about the actual wealth and comfort into his life he wants. They seem happy after this.
Perhaps if all the characters are one persons psyche - its the transition between; feeling that we need to have money to survive; to trusting that if we follow our inner guidance, and make the most of difficulties, we do eventually create the life we want. Attracting abundance almost magically.
I like the frogs being sold for the fish too - like this is the transformation that has to take place in our masculine side to sell our transformatory power in order to find spirit - the fish. Which we then allow all to see. Its like he goes from making money to feed the family to transforming into someone who has something to offer others that is not directly about feeding the family - but about feeding the soul perhaps - he gains wisdom.
Their loss was of their children, and possibly their roles as mother and father along with that, they needed to embrace being the elder and honour that they had wisdom and their role was important.
Yes! Another way of interpreting the story is to analyze it as if it were a dream, with the man as the dreamer's masculine side and the woman as the feminine side. As an old age dream. On one level, it's about looking within.
And, yes, she must have been very excited to find the gold, and twice!
This story is a good lead-in to Neptune, the esoteric ruler of Cancer, for exactly the reason you mention, we need to trust life and other people--the Angel, (like Blake's Angel in his poem) or the Mysterious Stranger-- while moving along the same path we take everyday.
As we get older, Ego's ambition and its competitive nature wane, but there may be a compensatory blessing. Many older people often have an intuitive awareness that younger people lack, after years of experience, they know that their intutiion has worked for them in difficult situations in the past, so, it's wise and practical, to trust it again.
Neptune (instinctual ruler of Pisces, the Sign of the two Fish) is about trust, sometimes even blind faith in Life, that our story will end happily. It's about sacrifice (symbolically, Isherward's year of living in the ashram as a celibate, or some other personal sactifice.) Neptune required Greek sailors to honor him with a sacrifice as well as invoke his aid before setting forth on an ocean voyage; we know what happened when Odysseus forgot! Cancer Rising, Moon and Neptune, are about the feminine appoach.
Without Neptune's power to dissolve the Crab Shell, Cancer Rising stores slights, hurt feelings, ("my grandkids forgot my birthday again." etc.) Assaglioli and Blake both described this tendency to store grievances with toxic results. Blake's "Poison Tree" need not be watered and nurtured; old negative emotions can be released. We can stand at the shore of any body of water and cast them out!
Yes, abundance often comes almost magically if we follow our intutiion. Many things we do now, for instance, will help us when Jupiter enters the Sign of its Exaltation. People who have Jupiter in Cancer at birth often mentin "magic" occuring for them on the Jupiter Return yerars, starting as early as agse 12 and 24, when important mentors have entered their lives, adults who believe in them and their talents.
I love what you wrote about his transformation from frog to Shining Fish! Soul Wisdom that helps others, not simply himself.
Like many modern couples, the masks of spouses and parents may no longer be enough, not even the grandparent mask, especialy when the grandchildren live at a distance. Intuition, Inspiration, creativity must come from within, from Soul
Hints for approaching the Cancer Treasure Story, “The Shining Fish:” (No astrology background required.) 1) Is this a happy couple? 2) They suffered a loss that accentuated their financial fears. What was it? 3) Do you think they still communicate verbally, or do both seem to be reading their partner’s minds? 4) C.G. Jung suggested that since we’re living longer now, it’s likely that more people will have two marriage partners, one for their parenting years, and another, after their children are grown, a companion who shares their interests for the remaining years. If the couple in “The Shining Fish” lived now and had this option, might one or both of them be happier starting over with someone else?
(1) The old couple was neither happy nor unhappy with each other. They each knew their jobs and places in each other's lives.
(2) They had lost a source of support they had counted on, three sons. Among many other meanings, the number three symbolizes sufficiency; and they'd lost it at an age when they were very vulnerable.
(3) I think the old couple communicated about the same way many couples do after years of living together as in not at all. They had been married a long time and had heard each other's stories since before they were married. Remember, he wasn't going to share the gold pieces he was given with her; but when the wife found the sack of coins, she spoke in terms of 'it will keep us comfortable.'
(4) Would they be happier living their older years with someone else? Yes, they would be happier but not a chance that they would leave each other - their personal ruts were too deep.
I think, though, the Shining Fish that saw to their needs in later years was something they'd always had access to; as far as we know from the story, it was their sons they depended on and never looked for other resources. Who knows what is available once we are able to extend our vision to include what may have seemed impossible before.
Yes, they wore their familiar husband and wife masks to the end, sticking to their familiar roles.
That's an interesting comment about insuficiency, is it from numerology?
True, the woman's thinking was attuned to the "we"--"it'll keep us comfortable in old age." Excellent answer to part 4, the Shining Fish was always out there for them, but they were accustomed to depending upon their sons.
This Ascendant often mourns for years after the loss of a spouse or child, while opportunities brought by the Angel or the Stranger pass them by. Healing seems to take longer.
Cancer Rising is about Imagination, which includes the ability to "see" alternative options. For this couple, leaving each other wasn't a practical option.
On question 4, though, I would add, "the Times They are a'Changin'," as CG Jung anticipated. In the late 20th century, it was usually men who chose to divorce their wives. They usually married a younger woman who wanted children, and soon had two families to support.
What's happening according to recent studies might have surpised Jung. Many women in their 50's and 60s are filing for divorce, preferring to live alone and join in activities with women friends and relatives. Question 2, about communication, is one reason. As you say, they've heard each otthers' stories, and while silence is sometimes golden, it's also good to go to a play with a friend and then discuss it, while their silent husband is sitting in front of the TV watching a sports chanel, or an action movie he's seen many times. Some women in the survey respionded, "I'm a golf widow," he gets his meals prepared and laundry done; I exchange maybe 2 sentences a day with him. I like doing things with my grandchildren in the city, without rushing back to fix his meals. At the end of our marriage,I was leaving him TV dinners to heat up' we eventualy decided to move on." Finances, particularly pensions allow women the freedom to follow their interests and pursue happiness elsewhere. For Cancer Rising, Moon at the top of the horscope, women friends and former co-workers are often as companions in old age.