Cancer Full Moon 2023

Cancer Full Moon on Jan 6 2023, at 4:07pm MST; with energies perfecting at 16 degrees Cancer

Jan 1, 2023. Edmonton, Alberta.
Photo: Stephany Steele

Happy New Year everyone! As we kick off 2023 with the releasing energy of a Full Moon, this brings an exciting vibe and theme to the year!

We also have Mars in Gemini slowing down in his retrograded (backward motion) to pivot into moving direct (forward motion). As always these planetary motions are and Earth-centric perspective, the Starry bodies themselves never actually move backwards- this is just how it looks and feels for us- a good note worth considering as we deepen our perspective and journey to understanding ourselves and the world around us.

Speaking of perspective, Mercury in Capricorn is also retrograde in our view and in this moment under the Sun’s beams, also called combust. We cannot see Mercury as an evening or morning star, the Sun is over taking our view of Mercury. I find profound meaning in this symbolism- what does it feel like to have our thinking, communication and connection overtaken by another’s light?

Grandmother Moon, please help me understand the energy around me and within me as I work to remove what blocks me from my real self in this Full Moon in Cancer.

As I settle in, the new intention for this calendar year feels right. Changing the language triggers something else, forcing myself out of old mental and emotional patterns.

The middle degrees of an astrological sign remind me much of what it feels like to be in a fixed sign. Capricorn and Cancer are cardinal signs and initiating energies, in their start up movement they are moving become fixed on their path. So what happens when you need to pivot? You’re going on a path and already are noticing the twists and turns in what you felt would be a straight forward movement. It’s got this ‘now what?’ vibe to it.

In all earthiness of the Sun In Capricorn, a practical example: why New Year’s resolutions never work. Do I really want to do the work out program so I can become physically different? Do I really want to give up that food/behaviour that I actually really like doing? These are the kind of road blocks on the journey that need to be encouraged to sense out in ourselves. Which leads us into the Wateriness of the Moon in Cancer essence: what really nurtures and mothers my soul? Does this movement schedule (workout) really leave me feeling like myself? What does it feel like in me to move my body? What is it about this food that I know mentally is not good for me and yet still makes me what to keep eating it? What it is about this emotion that I am trying to have in my life that makes me act the way I do? These are the Cancer questions that can help us release and unblock movement during this Full Moon.

This is that wintery pause where we ask why. Why am I doing what I am doing? Truly. Honestly. There is a stark nakednesses and vulnerability when you have to accept and assess the path you have initiated for yourself. What is working and what isn’t.

As we are in the middle of the winterist part of the cycle of seasons, that 6 weeks of long nights and colder weather for the Northern Hemisphere, we have this moment to slow down. I think about the reality of driving a car, the shifting of gears and the use of brakes. The frustration we all feel when one foot is flooring the gas while the other is on the brakes. Ease off the gas. Moving forward or in reverse requires you to take your foot off the gas and slow down in order to reflect, change and pivot (if necessary) in your direction. It is necessary to at least reflect, even if things are moving well, reflecting keeps you connected to yourself. Things will not work otherwise.

I reflect on how often I try to pivot and shift my own life while still moving. It just doesn’t work. Then something happens that forces me to stop. Even when things are moving well, there is this moment in my day where I just stop moving and breathe, take it all in. Taking in whats working and not working both require the same action- stopping/pausing.

In this moment I wonder what could happen in my life if I build in slowing down and stopping moments? Not in a rigid way. In a way that is fluid but firm in my intention. A fluidity that mirrors the firm movement of day into night, or the seasonal shifts that move us from winter into summer and back again.

When we become wiser to the movement of nature, we reach a form of eldership in ourselves. That’s a Capricorn essence that is being uncovered- the true nature of eldership or maturity. When we reach this kind of awareness slowing down has to reflect on its deep purpose in our lives, we look to bring more of into the way we live. Its part of the axis to Cancer’s nurturing essence, the more wise we choose to become about a loving way to move through life, the more wise we become about how to nurture ourselves.

One of the things it seems that blocks me from me is the way I understood how to move through time and space. The natural reality is that every moment, hour, day, week, month, year has this wintery moment of slowness to it. That if I don’t firmly make space to pause and reflect while I’m moving in my direction, I’ll miss an opportunity to reflect and maybe do the necessary shift. It also doesn’t have to be about shifting and pivoting. It’s also about the deep inner Connection and awareness from within that allows us to deeply connect and be aware of what is happening around us.

I also realize in this moment that part of my intention is to remove what blocks me from connecting and flowing with nature. The remorseful glimpse of the harm done by disconnecting and choosing an artificial existence. The practical reality that when we don’t take our vacation time from work (one example) we don’t create space to pause. That part is totally about me, and I share it as I also hear the similar sentiment that as a culture we struggle to take a step back, take a moment off from our doings.

I leave this moment wondering why I am so afraid of winter? Of being cold? Of being hungry (that primal trigger of having to live lean, as that is what happens in winter)? Can I really survive on my inner warmth? Of stillness? It seems as I keep going on this, I realize where my faith is not. Its not on stopping and reflecting- I have no faith in it working for me. Stay busy. That is what my environment says. Days off- what can I get done?! It seems that whole “sleeping when i’m dead” will come to me a lot faster than if I took regular winter breaks in my life.

Warm love and light,
Stephany