The word that always comes to mind whenever I think about Cancer and Virgo together is the word crafty. I’m talking about textile arts, knitting and embroidery and also weaving. I’m also talking about cooking, food preparation and preservation, and nurture.

Cancer is a blanket. It’s something you can hide under not forever but just for a moment. You’re not hiding because you actually want to disappear but because you just want the comfort of not being seen for a moment here or there. As soon as you are under the blanket, you can get as wild and comfortable as you want. Cancers help people let loose.

Virgo is a thinker. Virgo knows the way to get there. It knows the shortcuts and also the scenic routes. Basically, Virgo is the sign in the zodiac that is most responsible for technique and finesse. This is why Virgo is so impressively exacting.

What if I told you that these two signs are incredibly similar? That they work so well together because they are so similar?

Out of all of the signs of the zodiac, Cancer isn’t known for its efficiency per se. We tend to see Cancer as a flamboyant and goofy sign. Cancer wants people to be comfortable so it keeps a comfortable persona. But that’s just the surface. Cancer appears to be very silly but it’s a sign that always keeps track. Cancer knows exactly what has been said, what it’s given and what it’s received. Cancer has the greatest memory of the whole zodiac.

This is why, even though Cancer isn’t known for its efficiency it still moves fast. Cancer is cardinal. It grows in spurts, buoyed by the memories that form its experience.

On the other hand, Virgo is known for its skill. We know Virgo to be an efficient sign, one that sits down to problem solve how exactly something can be done the best way possible. But we also know Virgo to be busy. What’s up with that? If Virgo were so skillful and efficient then wouldn’t they be less busy?

Virgo’s interest in problem solving isn’t a mark of cold calculation. A lot of the time, we assume that intelligence is earned by becoming more rational rather than emotional. This isn’t the case. Intelligence comes from emotional awareness. It doesn’t arise from lack of feeling. What does this mean? It means that Virgo isn’t just interested in practical problems. It is interested in emotional and philosophical ones. Virgo isn’t just interested in mechanics. It’s interested in putting words to experiences skillfully.

This is why Virgo is often busy. Busyness is a sign of feeling out of control. Virgo is human. Even though Virgo may be reluctant to show its own disorientation, it sometimes feels out of control too just like the rest of us.

Cancer is also attuned to its own feelings of control. But Cancer is different from Virgo. Cancer is willing to perform raw emotionality and show that it has lost control. This is how Cancer appears from the outside. Again, Cancer has amazing emotional awareness and control on the inside. In fact, Cancer as a sign is about emotional dominance.

Both Cancer and Virgo are wonderfully perceptive. They hear not only your main message but read between the lines of what you claim. They both keep score. Virgo writes it down. Cancer doesn’t need to. Both signs are wonderful question askers because they truly listen to what you are saying and remember where you are coming from.

What happens when these two signs come together?

For one, Virgo becomes more realistically expressive. When it comes to opening up, Virgo is primarily concerned about someone’s competency. Is this person competent in holding, listening, and asking to properly hear me? Cancer is. Remember, Cancer is about emotional dominance and nurture. I’m not saying that every Cancer is like a trained therapist. They’re definitely not. It’s just that Cancer will give you a response and this responsive pattern tends to make people feel heard.

What is Cancer concerned about when developing feelings for something? Cancer is concerned about adequate sensitivity. Will this person be sensitive enough to all that I am seeing and feeling and expressing in order for them to not minimize my experiences? Virgo is a very sensitive sign. Again, it’s just as perceptive as Cancer. Virgo is willing to hold a magnifying glass to a situation or dynamic and read it over carefully.

Cancer and Virgo are sextiled. When two signs are sextiled, astrologers tend to think of them as compatible. The sextile just means that they catalyze each other’s expression. When you put Cancer and Virgo together, you get a partnership that cares about communicative connection and the detailed manner of true understanding.

These two can do great things together. They will research well together. Cancer and Virgo are the type to spend hours and hours just talking things over with their feet huddled together on the couch. There’s a sense of expansion here but it’s not the travel the world and then some more type of expansion that we see in other signs. Cancer and Virgo expand through a riveting conversation. They know that they can open up a whole new world by putting their whole attention on a topic for an enduring amount of time even if they stay right where they are.

In the end, that’s why Cancer and Virgo are so perceptive. They’re not surveilling you. They just care about you. Sometimes this can make people uncomfortable. They want to know everything about someone when they care about that person. That’s why they work so well together. Both of them enjoy careful, almost scrutinizing attention.

This is about nurture. Cancers and Virgoes nurture each other. Nurture isn’t a task that is over and done with at any one point. This is why both signs tend to be busy. Nurture is never over. You never stop paying attention to someone when you nurture them. You may take breaks but you never stop.

So, why is it that Virgo is always seen to be so busy even though it is known for its skill and efficiency? The same reason why it’s always so hard to get off the phone with anyone with strong Cancer placements. Virgo wants to be busy. Cancer doesn’t want to get off the phone. They want to keep connecting. The work of nurture is never truly done.

A partnership between Cancer and Virgo is emotionally intelligent and inquisitive. It is also patient. Cancer and Virgo have the patience needed to focus on things that don’t need to be solved. These things include love, devotion, and even habits.