Cancer and Leo: Compatibility in Love, Sex and Life

When Cancer and Leo come together for love or any kind of relationship, it’s a balance of stage manager meets superstar. These two family-oriented signs both love to entertain, making for some epic holidays spent at your casa. A Cancer-Leo relationship will also need to compromise, since your energies are as different as night and day.

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Cancer and Leo: Your compatibility clicks and clashes

Where you click:
Behind every superstar (Leo) there is a highly intelligent manager (Cancer), and the two of you become a force to be reckoned with. Let Leo play the ingenue while Cancer makes shrewd deals and plays agent. Not that the Crab can’t be a star in his/her own right—and together you can cut a dramatic figure, keeping your clan and crew entertained for hours. Both signs are devoted to family and long for a large, noisy brood to play with. With your shared love of party planning, you two might just wind up hosting Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter at your house.

Where you clash:
Cancer is ruled by the moon, and Leo is ruled by the sun, and indeed the two of you can be as different as night and day. While you’re both Alphas, Cancer prefers to rule the roost with quiet control, while showboating Leo turns every announcement into a flashbulb popping media circus. Leo should create opportunities for Cancer to shine every now and again—particularly in the company of Cancer’s closest friends. Make sure your relatives mesh well before you start booking wedding dates. Otherwise, arguments over where to spend the holidays could send you sailing right to divorce court.

astrotwins compatibility horoscope guide

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Love and compatibility by element

Cancer is water and Leo is fire

Too close for comfort? As an astrology love match, fire and water signs can have wildly different needs. To succeed as a couple, compromise is essential. Water signs are soothing and nurturing, prone to fluctuating moods. They deeply crave security and comfort. By contrast, Fire signs can be aggressive, independent and often seek discomfort in the name of adventure. While water signs are nostalgic and tend to live in the rosy-hued (or overly maligned) past, fire signs are pioneers who get most excited about sculpting a future of their own creation.

Differences push you both to grow and step outside of your own experience.

So, how can the traditionalist water sign and the risk-taking fire sign happily coexist? The fire sign will have to enter the water sign’s world of family visits, downtime at home, returning to the same vacation spots and hanging with a small crew of lifelong friends…even if that feels limiting or stagnant. In return, the water sign will have to embrace adventure, travel, meeting new people (and being social when they do!), risk and changing up their comfortable routines from time to time. Parents can be a big sticking point, as the water sign partner is often dutifully close to theirs while the fire sign may have left home at 18 and never looked back. In nature, water can put out a fire, which can either control a raging wildfire (good) or douse a vibrant flame (not so good). Fire can warm up cold water, but it can also make it boiling and steaming mad! Too much fire can even cause water to evaporate, just as an overly dominant fire sign can cause the less aggressive water sign to “disappear” in the relationship.

There are four elements in astrology: fire, earth, air and water. Each one plays an important role in the greater whole of humankind. A love match with someone from of a different astrological element can be challenging, but also a beautiful opportunity to evolve. After all, differences push you both to grow and step outside of your own experience.

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Cancer is cardinal and Leo is fixed

In astrology, the “qualities” or “triplicities” reveal the role you play in a relationship or collaboration. Are you a starter, a doer or a finisher? Do you like to take charge and have a plan, or do you prefer to go with the flow? Cardinal and fixed signs are both “take charge” in their own right. Cardinal signs like to lead and initiate—which is fine as long as they don’t tread on the fixed sign’s turf. The nature of fixed energy is to stand firm and resist change unless it’s really necessary. Fixed signs are set in their ways, while cardinal signs are a touch more fluid, though stubborn in their own right! The cardinal sign may introduce too many new ideas into the mix, or worse, try to “improve” on the fixed sign’s ideas by giving unsolicited criticism. This feedback, no matter how well-intended, could threaten the fixed sign’s pride, leading to a major ego battle. The fixed sign could also seem “boring” to the cardinal sign if they want to do the same thing week in and week out. In this love match, the fixed sign will have to be more open to “trendy” over tried-and-true. When the cardinal sign scores reservations at a buzzy new restaurant, resort, club or event, the fixed sign had better clean up and GO. In return, the cardinal sign must patronize the mom-and-pop bistro, the favorite karaoke bar, or another dinner with the fixed sign’s family. The fixed sign’s more traditional approach to romance can seem clumsy or heavy-handed to the discerning cardinal sign. So, cardinal sign, you got a conventional Tiffany locket instead of an Alexander McQueen limited-edition ring? Suck it up and say thanks—or start dropping hints a lot sooner before your next birthday!

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Cancer is yin and Leo is yang

In astrology, every sign has a “polarity”: you’re either yin (feminine) or yang (masculine).  In your sign match, Cancer is a receptive yin sign and Leo is an assertive yang sign. When you play to your strengths, you balance each other out, each on contributing a different but complementary skill set. When things are off, you can become polarized. The yin sign can be too passive (or passive-aggressive) and sacrificing, while the yang sign may act domineering, aggressive and selfish. To rebalance, the yin sign needs to work on being more open, direct and confident, while the yang sign should cultivate more patience, tolerance and sensitivity.

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Cancer and Leo are semisextile (one sign apart)

In astrology love matches, we also measure compatibility by the aspect, or distance, between the two signs. Your signs are semisextile, or one sign apart. Like next-door neighbors with a completely different style of decorating, gardening and living, the signs on either side of yours can stir up an instant love/hate vibe. Of course, all that friction can lead to explosive sexual chemistry, even an obsessive quest to figure each other out (you never will). Some astrologers believe that each sign is an evolved version of the one before it. The sign after yours is a teacher. However, like a rebellious teen seeking emancipation from a parent, you may never admit that this person has taught you anything. This cosmic combination can make for painful breakups, and a seething sexual tension that lingers for a lifetime.

MORE LOVE HOROSCOPES:

Love Matcher: See all compatibility matches

Cancer Love Horoscope

Leo Love Horoscope

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The AstroTwins

Identical twin sisters Ophira and Tali Edut, known as The AstroTwins, are the founders of Astrostyle.com and the authors of multiple bestselling astrology books. Their horoscopes reach millions here and through their resident astrologer column at ELLE Magazine.