For you, Cancer, the theme for 2008 is balance. This kind of balance applies to you and what you want to do just as much as to your relations with those around you.
However, when this was first mentioned, your mind probably went to thoughts of others first, to what you need to do for those you care about most.
Actually, during 2008, things will be different, and much of that balance will involve you allowing others to do things for you.
During the last three months of 2007, Mars, the planet of ego and initiative, was in your sign. This gave you an opportunity to think about you and your life, to focus on yourself — alone, not in terms of your relations with others.
You'll have thought about what you want to do, about your existing goals and new objectives. And you will have given serious thought to what you don't have enough of in your life.
As 2007 ends, Mars departs Cancer. So as 2008 begins, you'll have a chance to think about what you've learned. That way, when Mars returns to your sign on March 4, to remain for about six weeks, you'll be ready to put some of the decisions you've made into action.
Ideally, during the first two months of the year, you'll have talked with others about these ideas and you'll have listened to their advice and, in cases where it arose, accepted their offers of support. It's this balance that's essential to the year.
This also applies to taking advantage of wonderful and often completely unexpected changes in the lives of those around you. Ordinarily you'd offer them whatever support you can, without expecting anything in return. But during this year of balance, the good deeds you do will come back to you, and often in ways as wonderful as they are unexpected.
In late January, on the 26th, the planet of transformation, Pluto, actually moves into your opposite sign of Capricorn, joining the expansive Jupiter there.
Pluto remains there until mid-June, and during this cycle you'll find that not only are others willing to help you, what they're able to do is extraordinary. Yet, you'll find that sometimes you resist this. The lesson that comes from this resistance could be as important as the process of discovering what you want to do.
What's more, with Saturn, the planet of focus, forming a powerful alliance to the inventive Uranus, throughout the year, you'll be given good reason to consider ways you could open up your world. It's an invitation to explore via new ideas and new encounters.
This could involve going to unfamiliar places and pursuing studies that previously simply wouldn't have crossed your mind. If there's any trick to this process of exploration, it's to keep in mind that this is a time that is about broadening your horizons, not about making any lasting commitments.
Similarly, with the year's eclipses — which take place in February and August — accenting the use of your resources and indicating often sudden changes in those resources, you'll find that where before you felt you didn't have support, suddenly you do, and where things seem to be stable, there's a need to make changes. This is part of the year's theme of change, both because of your own initiative and in response to circumstances. And it indicates that keeping things the same isn't always the best idea.
However exciting and intriguing the year's developments and encounters are, keep in mind that it's about exploration, not about settling on any one plan. So tempting as it is, by no means should you commit to any single plan — especially one you can't change — until the year comes to a close. This may seem unwise.
But by the end of the year, when Mars, which began the year in your sign, closes the year in your opposite sign of Capricorn, and actually meets the uncompromisingly honest Pluto, on December 28, not only will your mind be clearer about what you want to do, the situation of others will be clearer as well, enough that you'll be able to turn what once seemed unreachable dreams into part of your everyday reality.
