Bree mentions the crab. Here is some information I found on that:
The Capture of the Doe or Hind - Part 2
(Cancer, June 21st - July 21st)
Qualities of the Sign
Cancer is called the Crab and the Greeks tell us that it was the crab that was sent by Hera to bite the foot of Hercules. (Again we meet this symbol in the vulnerable "heel of Achilles".) This is an interesting way of expressing the liabilities of the incarnation process and of illustrating the handicaps which beset the soul as it travels along the path of evolution. It symbolizes the limitations of all physical incarnation, for Cancer is one of the two great gates of the zodiac. It is the gate into the world of forms, into
physical incarnation, and the sign wherein the duality of form and of soul is unified in the physical body.
Investigating this further, I found more information about Physical Incarnation. Maybe the ceremony has something to do with this:
A Memory From Eternity
http://21stcenturygnostic.tripod.com/id11.html
I can recall a period of intense rumination and declaration, which I will call the INTENTION COUNCIL. At this INTENTION COUNCIL, our Eternal Selves mulled over what areas of experience we wanted to have - what lessons we wanted to learn firsthand - what sorrows and losses, what triumphs and joys, and what transformations we wanted to have take place within our being.
First, we discussed these things as a group, then presented our plans individually to the Master Teachers who helped us each shape the general course of our pending incarnations.
At the end of this individual meeting with the Council of Elders, it was revealed to us that we would be given several progressively harder "tests" to pass as we accumulated experiential incarnations. These tests might lead us down a path of growth and evolution, or they might deflect us off into darker areas from which we might never return.
It was then explained to us that the ultimate goal of this entire process was to spontaneously awaken our Eternal Selves while still being manifest within a
physical incarnation. We were told that this was the most difficult task known to conscious beings and that only a very few of us would survive the "Crucible of Incarnation" to participate in the final REFLECTION COUNCIL, where we would review all the lessons and insights learned from each lifetime and integrate them into our eternal perspectives.
And, it was promised, if we did reach the end of our Journey, we would become Elders ourselves, free to travel and experience the pandimensional multiverse forever.
We were also reassured that there would be guides along the way, helpers that would give us gentle nudges in the right direction and protect us from any direct manipulation by the Dark Ones. But ultimately, the course we took was ours alone. We could choose the Dark Road or the Light Road.
The Elders then gathered us together, and one by one placed their hands on our Eternal faces and put us into a deep slumber. They gently lifted our floating spiritual bodies up and pushed them into some kind of void which swallowed us up and "inserted" us into the arena of the space/time continuum.
Thus began our adventure of physical incarnation. My sleeping Eternal Self was now incarnated into a physical body, and when that body died, my Eternal Self incarnated into another physical body and so on, retaining only the essence of the wisdom learned from the previous incarnation.