On January 17, 6:48 PM ET, we witness the first Full Moon of the calendar year, also referred to as the Wolf Moon. This cosmic event is taking place at 27°50’ of the sign of Cancer, the lunar domicile, and it is guiding us on a path to personal and collective empowerment.
The Moon in Cancer opposes the Sun and Pluto in Capricorn, intensifying our experience of feelings and emotions and inviting us to explore the way we deal with them, showing us what we need to transform and alchemize.
To celebrate the arrival of Full Moon in Cancer, on January 17 9:45 PM ET, we are hosting Global Live Full Moon in Cancer Meditation on our YouTube channel. We invite you to join us, and invite others to meditate together with us. Tap here to find our scheduled live meditation.
Full Moons bring clarity and facilitate understanding.
The light of the Sun completely illuminates the Moon, bringing awareness of our emotional world, subconscious patterns, and habitual reactions. At this time of the month, the truth can be perceived, and mysteries may be revealed. We tend to experience a strong emotionality and some degree of polarization between contrasting drives, as the Sun and the Moon activate opposing and complementary energies.
As the intentions we set on the New Moon may manifest, Full Moons mark the maturation and culmination of the lunar cycle. They inaugurate two weeks of slowing down and decreased momentum, a moment to share what we have been working on with others and release what we no longer want to carry.
The Full Moon of January is also known as the Wolf Moon due to the fact that, at this time of the year and in the Northern part of what today we know as the United States, it was very common to hear howling wolves at night. This has inspired many stories and legends of ancient folklore centered around the connection between wolves and the Full Moon. Wolves remind us of the power of community and mutual support and the importance of being part of a Soul family that has our back in moments of crisis.
Full Wolf Moon in Cancer: There’s No Place Like Home
As an intense Capricorn season culminates, the Full Moon in Cancer highlights our need for safety, softness, belonging, nurturance, and comfort. The Moon is at home here. She expresses herself with great sensitivity and incredible intuition while reflecting an urge to withdraw into our private, inner world to come back to harmony.
While the Moon is in the sign of the Crab, we gravitate towards the familiar, the known, what feels secure. There is a spontaneous attunement to the environment and a natural connection to the surrounding atmosphere. Cancer is the sign relative to family and domestic realms: a Full Moon here is likely to bring these areas of our lives into the spotlight, reminding us that there’s no place like home.
Full Moon opposite Pluto: Finding Internal Security
The Moon correlates with memory, particularly with emotional memory. Her condition reflects how we try to get our emotional needs met and generate conditions of safety. When the Moon forms a hard aspect to Pluto, there can be a tendency to do so through emotional and psychological manipulation of others and the environment. Often, we do so to maintain a connection or a sense of predictability, to avoid feeling threatened from insecurity and the risk of not having our needs met.
Moon-Pluto aspects are about letting go of unhealthy emotional attachments we are dependent upon for comfort and security, and that don’t allow us to develop a sense of safety coming from within. All oppositions bring revelations and understanding, and this Full Moon opposite Pluto has the potential to help us gain clarity on the psychology behind our emotional states and reactions and the expectations we, more or less consciously, place on other people.
Sun conjunct Pluto: Taking Responsibility for our Power
On this Full Moon, Pluto has indeed a prominent role. This faraway planet, considered to be the force of evolution, exposes what is decaying, decomposing, and deteriorating to promote a radical, complete metamorphosis. Since it entered Capricorn in 2008, Pluto has been bringing up all the shadows of society, institutions, and established systems. Meanwhile, this transit invites us to become aware of the conditioning we have internalized due being exposed to these structures.
Pluto is now tightly conjunct with the Sun. The Sun meets Pluto once a year, calling for a deep transformation of our sense of self, purpose, identity, and expression. This alignment is an invitation to take responsibility for our power and don’t be afraid to embody and express it.
Sun-Pluto aspects encourage us to discover the limits of our will, challenge our fears, and explore matters of personal identity, self-confidence, self-affirmation, and exposure. In Capricorn, this alignment invites us to establish our individual identity in the context of the changing social structures. We may reflect on how to contribute to the creation of systems that allow the full expression of our creativity while generating value for the collective.
Full Moon trine Neptune: Opportunities to Heal
The Moon is in a Water trine with Neptune in Pisces, a flowing aspect of ease and harmony. This alignment suggests powerful intuition and ease of connection with the emotions and feelings of others. An immense capacity for empathy and compassion facilitates forgiveness and supports our capacity to put ourselves into someone else’s shoes. During these days, increased emotional openness may help us heal and process something still unresolved.
A desire to save another, to be saved or rescued could come up during this lunation. Neptune in aspect to the Moon erases the boundaries between self and other. It increases our inspiration and our desire for creative expression. Channeling our feelings into art can feel incredibly healing and rewarding. During these days, we may also be careful of not self-sacrificing or dismissing our needs in favor of other people’s needs, which may lead to experiences of disillusionment later on.
Mars square Neptune: Aligning Dreams and Actions
Neptune is quite prominent in this lunation as, besides being aligned with the Moon, is also in a square aspect to Mars in Sagittarius, an energy that has been active for the entire week. Hard aspects between Mars and Neptune always generate some amount of frustration. Squares reflect a tension between two celestial bodies trying to go in different directions and that, in doing so, block each other’s way.
Mars and Neptune have very little in common. While Mars is about action, decision, reactivity, and sharpness, Neptune is about passivity, blurriness, confusion, and receptivity. Their square can reflect some difficulties matching our dreams, ideals, and wishes with actual actions directed towards a specific goal in the material reality. We may feel unmotivated and lethargic and come to believe that our efforts don’t lead to any tangible result. We may feel frustrated if change doesn’t happen fast enough, or have the impression that our life force dissipates in multiple directions.
All Mars-Neptune aspects underline the importance of aligning our actions and choices in the material reality with our spiritual path. They challenge us to resolve any incongruencies between our ideals and values, how we act, and what we do. At their best, Mars-Neptune contacts bring out the most exquisite artistry, creativity, and inspiration, allowing us to connect with our capacity to be a vessel for Spirit and reach deep states of flow.
To help you harness this energy Full Moon in Cancer brings we have created Full Moon printable channeled “Path to Empowerment” journal and guided meditation audio. We invite you to use these Full Moon in Cancer Ritual tools: journal and meditate together with Moon Omens Soul Family. Tap here to learn more and gain access to ritual tools.
Full Moon in Cancer: Path to Empowerment
During this pivotal moment of human history, we are becoming more and more aware of what power is and what power isn’t. By witnessing destructive, corrupted examples of authority and leadership, we are being challenged to develop and embody constructive, healthy ones. As we get to understand what we do not want the world to become, we can envision and build a better reality, both for ourselves and for future generations. Everyone is now called to take responsibility to do their part.
We are about to experience two important astrological shifts. Tomorrow the Lunar Nodes change sign and Uranus stations direct, catalyzing an acceleration of events and inviting us to step up to new evolutionary challenges. The Cancer Full Moon reminds us of our task of learning to hold ourselves, parent ourselves, and take care of ourselves emotionally, spiritually, but also financially and materially.
This potent lunation marks a turning point in our path of personal empowerment and emotional maturation. As we deepen our self-knowledge and our understanding of our internal dynamics, we have a chance to embrace a new level of personal responsibility. Refining our self-regulation habits will help us feel stronger, more grounded, and more self-secure, and ultimately navigate the upcoming changes optimally.
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