You need a compass to travel around this lunar lady's emotional landscape. If you don't have the right compass, you'll be totally lost in determining where you are with her.
When in doubt, remember this rule: She is very dependent on the support of those close to her, although too shy to express what she feels. And she has absolute horror of criticism, particularly of ridicule. Nothing wounds her more or seems more cruel and unjust. Her tenacious memory clings to the hurtful memory until she has a chance to wreak revenge.

Speaking on memory, hers is an engraving on steel plate. Almost nothing can erase it. She will continually astonish you with snippets of recall from previous conversations and meetings. I know one woman born under this sign who can remember almost every line of dialogue from her favorite movies. Even if she hasn't seen the movie for years, she will recite the lines an actor is going to speak before he says them.

One reason for Cancer woman's retentiveness is that she treasures the past. She would prefer to live there if it were possible, and if she has any belief in the occult she may actually think she did live there in some previous incarnation. She likes to read history, particularly about the last fifty to a hundred years-and will furnish her home with antiques of that period. She likes framed portraits of elegant ladies in turn-of-the-century gowns, for such mementoes of an ear-lier ear provided her a secure sense of continuity. Life for her is never merely the here and now.

She loves her home and will spend delightful hours in furnishing it to her taste. Her decorative sense tends to be a little old-fashioned, but it is never dowdy. Her kitchen is as warm and inviting as one in an old Dutch painting. For her there truly is no place like home, although she has no intention of letting it be so ever so humble.

No one goes hungry in this woman's domain. She's a great cook. Her refrigerator is stuffed to the bulging point with provisions and goodies. That's part of her overriding desire for security. She simply must know where her next meal is coming from-and her next dollar. Almost the first thing she learned about money matters is that it does.

She isn't a miser, but she will put money away against a rainy, sunny, warm, cold day-with a little extra in case a hurricane should strike. The only time she'll willingly part with cash is to use it as a balm for her bruised spirit. Some emotional traumas can be healed by a spending spree, but even then she tends to spree on the kind of items. Like diamonds, that have a redeemable value in trustworthy coin of the realm.

She is not a gossip. Tell her almost anything without fear of it being passed on. Where other people's confidences are concerned, she is virtually a grave of secrecy.

She is a marvelous story teller of another kind though. Listen to her on an evening with close friends where she begins to loosen up and tell anecdotes-probably cut out of her own past or her family's. She controls the mood of her listeners with just a slight alteration in tone, a change of nuance in the phrasing, and the word imagery with which she spins her tale would do credit to Nathaniel Hawthorne. One slight exception-she can't tell a funny story without giggling. When something strikes her as funny, the reaction begins and bubbles up to her lips. Sometimes-usually when someone else has amused her-it will break out into an open laugh. Her laugh is not her best feature. It has a silly, or semi-hysterical, quality, the kind that used to be referred to as "looney"-for good reason, since that refers to the lunar influence, and the Moon just happens to be her ruler!

She is loyal to friends and to the man she chooses to be her mate. Sometimes her loyalty takes on a clinging quality. In turn, she expects almost constant affection from her lover. She needs to be fussed over, snuggled, prized, doted on. She must be wooed with tender care and patient consideration, for she will retreat from an aggressive man.

It is difficult for her to give herself in love, although she is very attached to men because of her modesty, winsomeness, and sympathetic understanding of their personal problems. She is that shy, sweet, lovely girl in white organdy whose image every man carries in a secret locket somewhere in his mind. If you want to win her, don't overlook the roses, candlelight, champagne, and love sonnets. This is not going to be a quickie contest. In fact, it will more likely develop to where it's all or nothing, live or die, marry or part forever. Weigh your decision carefully. If you lose her, she will always be a vagrant, haunting memory.

There are two things this woman must have in combination-love and security. She reaches for the kind of love that is more than sex-that means home, children, and a stable relationship. You won't get into her bedroom until she's sure of your long-term intentions. She may be feminine, but she's no man's fool.

When she finds real love, she will go out for her mate, and she is fully capable of becoming the most satisfying sex partner in the zodiac! Her sincerity in the act of love makes her the worst possible candidate in any "play for pay" arrangement-whether as a prostitute, call girl, or simply a marriage arranged for material reasons. She can't fake a sexual response.

However, in the right circumstances, she can be a devoted mistress, provided she knows the man is truly unable to marry her or that he is genuine in his belief that marriage does not matter. She is passionately loyal once she has committed herself to a man. Any man who wins her for a mistress would be well advised to make her a wife-just to make sure he doesn't lose this treasure!

Not that he has to worry much about losing her. She is the prototype for the song "Stand by Your Man." She will stand by him even though he's an alcoholic, a bully, or a not-so-secret swinger. Some men complain that this kind of all-forgiving love can be smothering, and psychiatrists look for an explanation in her unconscious fear that she is unworthy and therefore cannot demand fair treatment in love.

Whatever the reason, Cancer women are often mistreated by men.