CANCER FULL MOON - 1 / 2 January 2018

Exact at 2.24am GMT, 1 Jan at 9.24pm EST

Emotions should well and truly be flowing during this Full Moon, as not only is the moon in the emotional sign of Cancer, but we also have a Grand Water Trine involving the Cancer Moon, Neptune in Pisces and Mars and Jupiter in Scorpio. The Moon is very much at home in her own sign and so we should find it easy to get in touch with and articulate our emotions, with some help from Jupiter and Mars in Scorpio who will be helping us to bravely face certain parts of ourselves that we may usually prefer not to admit to. It may be a bit uncomfortable, as we are prompted to have a look at our shadow sides and recognise our blind spots, but this Moon will help us to have the courage to be emotionally honest with ourselves and our loved ones and take the plunge into the depths of our psyches. With Neptune involved in the picture, we should be able to do so with compassion, forgiveness and kindness, and without losing sight of our true spirit and essence. Neptune will help us to put ourselves in another person’s shoes and to come from a place of empathy and unconditional love. Neptune is a very big player in this Full Moon, forming harmonious aspects to almost all of the personal planets, including the Sun and Moon, and Venus and Mars. This will help us to recognise that we are all one, and that what happens to one affects us all.

Full Moons always involve an opposition between the energy of the sign the Sun is in, which is Capricorn in this case, and the energy of the sign the Moon is in, which is Cancer. Oppositions tend to play out through our relationships, not to mention that Venus is sitting right next to the Sun for this Moon, which will bring the way we relate even more into focus. During the build-up to this moon, whatever has been simmering away below the surface of our consciousness may come to a head, demanding release. As ever, we are asked to find a healthy balance between the energy of the two signs rather than veering too far in either direction.  Cancer relates to our inner self, our inner home, and shows how we live within ourselves and our emotional body. It is our emotional foundation and reveals how our childhood experiences and family relationships impact the way we relate as adults. Whatever happened in our early life, the amount of nurturing we received and the degree to which our needs were met or not met, has a direct correlation to how well we take care of ourselves and how emotionally secure we are as adults. Any needs that weren’t met and have been left unresolved can create displaced emotions in adulthood, whereby we revert to childish behaviour in order to get our needs met.  

This Full Moon could well illuminate some of our more childish patterns and help us to become more aware of how they are operating in our lives and sabotaging our relationships. Sometimes we need someone else to show us the mirror so that we can see our blind spots. A Full Moon in Cancer definitely gives us that opportunity, and Neptune helps us to find compassion and unconditional love for these parts of ourselves, much like a mother has for her child. There is also a lot of Capricorn energy involved in this moon, and while Cancer holds the potential for emotional infantilism, Capricorn urges us to take responsibility for ourselves and our actions, and to pull our socks us and be a grown-up. In the extreme, however, Capricorn energy can cause us to suppress our emotions, holding them in for so long that they end up coming out in some kind of distorted fashion. While Cancer has the capacity to be incredibly vulnerable, Capricorn is the opposite and can cause us to hold back perfectly valid feelings out of a fear of feeling vulnerable or exposed, or of seeming “irrational”. However, anything that is supressed will always find a way out in the end.

This Moon could well bring a lot of emotional material out from under the proverbial carpet for us to see and examine. We could become all too aware of how our childhood conditioning is still running the show, but we have a beautiful opportunity here to look at is all with kindness and compassion rather than judgement or blame. If we are able to combine Cancer’s emotional fluency and awareness with Capricorn’s maturity and ability to take responsibility for our part in things then we have the potential for amazing insight, emotional maturity and the ability to move past our more crippling emotional patterns. We also have transformational and soulful Pluto heavily involved in this Moon, giving us the opportunity to metamorphose our relationships and our inner selves. This will help us to break down our emotional armour and allow old, outworn patterns and structures to fall away so that we are more aligned with our true, core self. Black Moon Lilith is also sitting right next to Venus in Capricorn, calling for us to express those parts of ourselves that have been disowned, suppressed or rejected and owning the darker side of ourselves that we might usually have more under control. We are invited to express our rage, our disappointment, our repressed emotions and anything we have been holding back out of the need for propriety.

The Sabian symbol for the Moon, at 12° Cancer, is: “A Chinese woman nursing a baby whose aura reveals him to be the re-incarnation of a great teacher”, which Dane Rudyar describes as “The revelation of latent worth in an experience once it is seen in its deeper meaning” and says that it “demands that we look beyond common appearances and try to discover the “occult” (i.e. hidden) character of every person and every experience” and are able to see “the essential meaning (or “message” and function) of the whole”. This symbol gives the feeling that we need to see beyond and recognise the deeper potential and greatness within all of us and to nurture the child within us all because we all have aspects of ourselves that we might not be able to see.  We all have untapped potential and it is very important to nurture and nourish the inner child and open ourselves to seeing beyond appearances to the divinity within all of us. There is also a message in this symbol that within every situation there is always something deeper going on that we might not be aware of at first glance.

This Moon does seem to be a perfect opportunity to get everything out into the open. It might not be pretty, but sometimes the truth isn’t pretty. However, it is better than holding back out of fear and allowing things to fester beneath the surface so that they subvert and sabotage our relationships with those we love. Every one of us had a childhood and every one of us learned how to behave during that childhood, and some of these learned behaviours and coping mechanisms are healthier than others! All of us have certain needs that weren’t met and all of us have the capacity to revert to being a needy child at times. We just do it in different ways, that’s all. With Jupiter and Mars forming a square to the Nodes of the Moon, we are invited to take a long, hard look at ourselves and have the courage to own our darker, hidden and rejected parts. It’s time to get that broom out and sweep under the carpet! If we can do this, we have the capacity for amazing soul growth. Luckily we have Neptune on our side, not to mention the Grand Water Trine helping us to get in touch with and articulate our true feelings. Neptune will help us to open our hearts with forgiveness and compassion and to see each other for who we really truly are, in all our imperfect perfection. What a wonderful way to start 2018!

Much Love

Amy

xoxo

Also, to remind you of the invitation to join us for a meditation on Compassion at 6am GMT on 2 January 2018. Here is the link: http://www.amybirdartandastrology.com/blog

Picture: Mother and Child by J. Kirk Richards

http://www.amybirdartandastrology.com/