Cancer

Cancer spans 17.15° of the Sun's path, the third narrowest of the thirteen bands. Gates 15 and 52 sit wholly inside it, and it shares Gate 12 with Gemini and Gate 39 with Leo. In the tropical zodiac the name Cancer marks the month that opens at the June solstice. Tradition calls it cardinal water, the temperament of the protective opening. That is history attached to the name: the band itself is a coordinate, not a character, and the meaning lives in the gates.