Symbolically, the moon as an archetype reflects our emotional body, our deepest vulnerabilities and our most profound capacity to connect with others. Full moons amplify energy and emotions, and this Moon suggests a cathartic release of pent-up or stagnant energies. Although Cancer is often associated to comfort and security, it also represents our deeply psychic and intuitive worlds. This moon is all about allowing the energetic release that is often unexpressed, becoming a vehicle to fundamentally recognize where boundaries need to be drawn to enable a secure foundation for truth to flow.
We're jumping into current transits, followed by how this full moon affects each moon sign.
FULL MOON in the SIGN of CANCER
The raw elemental power of Pluto intensifies this lunation, by conjoining the channeling force of the Sun and reflecting off the subconscious emotional depths of the Moon. This Sun-Pluto opposition to the Moon suggests parsing through struggles with the energy we give to family versus social obligations, and any problems with how we care for our own needs over the needs of others who depend upon our life energy. It also suggests confrontation with an inner or outer authority figure who would like to unduly influence our lives, presenting us with a choice around how or with whom we will build upon our future. We might be called to consider things such as, are we dispersing our energy across too many projects or demands? Are we chasing phantom threats, and wasting energy on fights which do not actually serve us (but maybe feed negative elements of our ego)?
Mercury Retrograde
with Saturn Square Uranus
The Full Moon will transition to immediately opposing a retrograde Mercury and a problematizing Saturn, and squaring unpredictable Uranus (Jan. 17-18), suggesting confusion about our direction or path or choices, and injecting a feeling of urgency to make the right choice. Ruminations on our past and its perhaps challenging relationship to the future are prominent throughout this potent Mercury retrograde, which revs up as Mercury appears to stand still in the sky on Jan. 14. Because over the next month, Mercury will light up the long-term world transit of Saturn square Uranus that spans Dec. 2019—Jan. 2024, showering our consciousness with cascades of uncomfortable tension and release of tension, reversals of decisions and trajectories, the sudden reappearance of problems we thought were solved, and breakdowns in communication or understanding.
We may also get a hard look at those whom we associate with, and think about clearing out or changing some relationships in order to make room for those which are more supportive and in alignment with who we are now (versus who we were, when we first made those contacts). This includes our relationship with sources of information, and how we process that information—what do these relations feed within us? What do they stifle or deaden within us? While it can be a useful reflection to consider the ways that we are interdependent with others and with information sources, we may become overly critical of ourselves and others, demanding an impossible level of perfection.
It is therefore advisable to bring in some balance and equanimity to our reflections, and focus the power of Mercury’s retrograde motion on making achievable improvements in the way that we take in information, and how we think about problems. For example, some of us have deficits in feeling or relating emotionally to our environment, while some of us could bring in more objectivity and intellectual analysis. It is possible to drill down into these details of our thought processes now, and re-evaluate how we bring order and meaning to our experiences—we just might break out of a few outworn thought patterns and access a fresh new look at our lives and its possibilities. Uranus is returning to direct motion (Jan. 18), emphasizing its revolutionary and innovative powers, as much as its wildly unpredictable nature. So don’t expect your explorations and re-workings to go in a linear, direct route! We might consider Nietzsche’s idea that “One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.”
Venus Retrograde
Some of the re-evaluation of how we think and the impacts of our actions upon others will involve some serious re-visitations of our past. Previous romantic relationships, business partners, friends and colleagues can re-emerge under the twin retrograde energies of Mercury and Venus (Venus is retrograde until Jan. 29). Whether these figures re-appear in physical form or only haunt our heart’s memory, it is likely to send us sorting through old regrets and failures, and activate psychological coping mechanisms that formed very early on in our lives. These encounters, both inner and outer, can form opportunities to see through and dismantle some old and perhaps unhelpful stories about “what happened” or “the way I am” or “the way others always treat me.”
The purging power of Pluto is heavily involved in both the Venus retrograde—which started in a conjunction with raw, elemental Pluto—and the Mercury retrograde, which will end on Feb. 3 in a conjunction with Pluto. Pluto can both suppress and bring hidden things to the surface, but social Venus’ and mental Mercury’s retrograde motion implies a revelation, going into the deeper, obscured places for greater truths. These discoveries sometimes bring complications. Many of us will be pressed to make big decisions on whether to completely change plans based on this new information, or to rather incorporate new realities and understandings into our current relationships, plans and life structures (job, home, transportation, etc).
Sun enters Aquarius
Fortunately, achieving broadened understandings and taking a high-level view is a trademark of Aquarius, which will play host to the warming energies of the Sun starting on Jan. 19 through Feb. 17. Many of us will receive key insights when the Sun conjoins the messenger Mercury (Jan. 23), and can begin to piece together a larger picture out of the many fragments of information which have surfaced over the last month or so.
Part of our considerations will center on how the desire for growth and expansion meets with the limiting forces in our lives. The planet of optimism and expansion, Jupiter, entered the divinizing sign of Pisces on Dec. 28 and will be there through May 10, bringing a real boost to our hopes but also adding to our impatience with material constraints. Jupiter is happy in Pisces and we can enjoy greater freedoms and an exaltation of our dreams and greatest ideals. But the strength of limit-setting Saturn, especially while the Sun saunters through Aquarius, asks us to proceed with care. There are details to attend to, and unexpected disruptions to contend with on our way to sustaining or making our hopes and dreams a reality.
THIS CANCER FULL MOON AFFECTS
YOUR MOON SIGN
The Moon represents who we are before we even think about who we are. It describes our deepest vulnerabilities and our most profound capacity to connect with others. Full Moons amplify energy and emotions, and this Moon suggests a cathartic release of pent-up or stagnant energies. Let’s see how the Cancer Full Moon impacts your own Moon placement!
Aries Moon
You might be mixing it up with the boss or colleagues under this lunation, Aries Moon, as your own subconscious needs for power or control are reflected to you by others. You may also be forced to consider how your home and family life supports or undermines your work in the world, while also reconsidering the amount or kind of support you give or receive from friends and associates.
Taurus Moon
The power of your convictions and faith or belief may stir you to sort carefully through your emotional responses and feeling states under this Cancer Full Moon. Communication patterns—including the habitual ways you listen or do not fully listen to others—are under scrutiny, and some surprising thoughts or feelings you didn’t know you had, may be unveiled.
Gemini Moon
Tender revelations may be on the menu for you under this lunation, Gemini Moon, as you deal with some challenges to your self-esteem or sense of self-worth. Looping thoughts could try to box you into negativity, but it will help to create some stillness to connect into the deeper sources of insight, knowledge and guidance. You could also try mantras or the memorization of emotionally evocative poetry to channel thought loops.
Cancer Moon
This is your full moon of 2022, Cancer Moon babies! And it packs a wallop, churning up issues around the ways you experience your identity through relationships with others. Expect to encounter the topics of controlling behaviors, the price of belonging to family, and a reckoning with how you have idealized or romanticized your past.
Leo Moon
Issues around entitlement and obligation may be stirred under this lunation, Leo Moon. Are you entitled to receive the attentions of others? Do you feel unfairly obligated to give attention to others? You may receive an unflattering look at some of your more primitive drives and motivations, but don’t turn away—risk the vulnerability of noticing what you might not want to admit to. The truth will free you and offer you the influence you seek.
Virgo Moon
You may ask yourself: Why don’t people appreciate my fine sense of aesthetics, my hard work and dedication, my creativity? These irritations are probably a distraction from the most grueling work of all, though—recognizing your dependence on the support, friendship and belonging to others. Accepting this can bring you so many benefits, though, Virgo Moon—and maybe a better question will emerge, such as, why can’t I accept the praise and gratitude of others?
Libra Moon
This full moon may be illuminating some seething conflicts in your subconscious, Libra Moon, which interfere with the gifts you have to offer the world. Your way of being as a gift, the work you perform, your greater calling, all of these may be a little rattled by what is unresolved and conflicting within your own nature. Has your pursuit of pleasure been a distracting escape hatch to flee deeper feelings of inadequacy or fear of your own powers?
Scorpio Moon
Inconsistencies between what you say and what you believe may be a source of curiosity or conflict under this lunation. Others are likely to reflect these inconsistencies to you—as they become evident in your actions—and while that may strike at some core wounds around acceptance and rejection, curiosity about these inconsistencies might offer a path to greater self-knowledge and self-acceptance.
Sagittarius Moon
Are you somehow possessed by your possessions, Sagg Moon? Or maybe a little more needy than you want to admit? This lunation may turn up insecurities around material possessions and how they may have more importance to you than you quite realized. Even the well-seasoned adventurer needs a base to call home—how does home dwell within you?
Capricorn Moon
You may find yourself brooding over your body image or self-image under the Cancer Full Moon. It may be that you are exploring new territory around sex and sexuality, or simply trying out new recreational activities, and discovering how much influence others’ thoughts have over you. But is it the thoughts of others really? Or some thoughts or beliefs hiding within you?
Aquarius Moon
The ways in which you are in the grips of the past may come wriggling out of the murk, Aquarius Moon. It may be difficult to discern, but certain routines, patterns and habits which you’ve inherited from ancestors and culture are trying to make themselves visible—they are ready to be discarded. Understanding that even your deeply freedom-loving and unique ways are not immune to inheriting things of history may be the hard won lesson of this lunation.
Pisces Moon
The creative beast in you is clawing at the doors of your unconscious mind, Pisces Moon. It seems beastly because your inspirations maybe put your social acceptance at risk. Or maybe you need to risk expanding beyond your initial hopes for a specific project or undertaking. To move forward with your creative urges, you might try mimicking the subtle power of water—it does not yield, but flows over obstacles, shaping them to its will over time.
