Full Moon in Cancer – The Last Full Moon of 2023

Full Moons Facilitate Awareness & Understanding

Full Moons are the peak and maturation point of the lunar cycle and mark the completion of a chapter of our life. At this time of the month, we witness the result of our work and reap what we sow since the previous New Moon took place, two weeks prior, but also throughout the last six months, after the New Moon in the same Zodiac sign now activated by the Full Moon.

Full Moons bring an energy of release, culmination, and conclusion, they show us how our efforts are coming to fruition. These events facilitate awareness and understanding: the Sun, at this time of the month, fully illuminates the Moon, facilitating glimpses of insight into our subconscious, our emotional world, our inner mechanics, and our deepest needs.

Full Moon in Cancer: the Home Within

Cancer is the lunar domicile, the sign where the Moon is at home. This is the Zodiac sign that is more strongly connected to the ebbs and flows of the tides, to the changing phases of the lunar cycle, and to the energetic and emotional shifts that happen throughout the day and month.

When the Moon is in Cancer, we are especially attuned to subtle shifts in energy, we are more sensitive to what is going on within us, around us, and with other people. 

Peaking amidst the holiday season, this powerful and emotional Full Moon can provide us with opportunities to gain more clarity on what we need and on the link between our childhood experiences and our habitual emotional responses, our insecurities, and our fears. 

During Capricorn season, a time of the year especially centered around cultivating self-discipline, building our legacy, mastering the space-time reality and the manifestation process, the Cancer Full Moon reminds us of the value of knowing ourselves emotionally, nurturing ourselves well, tending to our emotional needs, and having a support system.

The Cancer-Capricorn Axis: Journey of Emotional Maturation

Every Full Moon implies a Sun-Moon alignment known as opposition, a 180º angle that activates two opposite and complementary Zodiac signs. The current activation of the Cancer-Capricorn axis brings the spotlight on our emotional maturation journey. These signs are two sides of the same coin, two energies that need one another in order to be fully, wholly, and consciously developed and expressed. 

Through the Cancer-Capricorn axis, we learn to find harmony between regulating our emotions independently, taking care of ourselves in moments of emotional distress, and learning to ask for help and support, co-regulating with others. These signs teach us to honor both our needs and our responsibilities: they help us understand our past, our roots, and where we come from, they invite us to become a parent to our inner child and build our own family. It is through the Cancer-Capricorn axis that we work to build a sense of safety and security, both internal or emotional and external or material.

These processes will be in the spotlight around the time of this Full Moon in Cancer, which will shine a light on where we are at in our emotional and personal maturation journey. Family themes and family relationships are likely to be a significant area of focus for many of us at this time. These days, we have an opportunity to deepen our awareness of what family means to us, what security means to us, how we try to get our needs met and generate safety, and work on reparenting ourselves and establishing a sense of inner safety.

Full Moon sextile Jupiter & trine Saturn

The Cancer Full Moon is forming two harmonious alignments, a sextile and a trine, respectively with Jupiter in Taurus and Saturn in Pisces. The Moon-Jupiter sextile reflects an increase in our generosity and optimism and reinforces our ability to have faith in ourselves, others, and Life. This aspect inspires us to embrace a growth-oriented outlook about any process we may be going through and to trust the way everything is unfolding.

The Moon-Saturn trine supports our emotional maturation process, inspiring a grounded and conscious approach to handling uncomfortable feelings. This aspect facilitates the process of taking responsibility for how we handle our emotions and reminds us to be accountable for our actions and reactions.

Mercury conjunct Mars & square Neptune

As the Full Moon peaks, we are experiencing an interesting configuration involving retrograde Mercury and Mars, conjunct in Sagittarius, both squaring Neptune in Pisces.

The Mercury-Mars-Neptune square invites us to be cautious about how we communicate our opinions, ideas, and beliefs. As Mercury is still retrograde, there are more possibilities to experience misunderstandings and miscommunications at this time, and a lack of information may not allow us to see the full picture just yet.

The Mercury-Mars conjunction in Sagittarius can fuel ideological confrontations and indicates a trend toward blunt, tactless, and impulsive speech. An egoic desire to prove that we are right could emerge and, around this time, it’s important to be mindful of choosing our battles wisely and not indulging in unnecessary conflicts.

The activation of Neptune adds more haziness and confusion to the picture. Many of us may experience brain fog and feel disoriented at this time, many may find it hard to discern between what is true and real and what is a product of their imagination.

Venus trine Neptune & square Saturn

Venus is also quite active at the time of this Full Moon. The Goddess of Love is traveling through the late degrees of Scorpio, in a trine aspect to Neptune in the late degrees of Pisces, and approaching a square to Saturn in the early degrees of Pisces.

The Venus-Saturn square invites us to work on issues surrounding self-worth and difficulties in receiving love, care, and nurturance. It is an invitation to observe whether we are drawn to settle for less and avoid asking for what we truly need and want. This aspect is also an opportunity to contemplate our relationship to lack and scarcity, both financial and otherwise, and notice in what areas of life we are tempted to rely on a scarcity mindset.

The Venus Neptune trine, on the other hand, increases our desire to be surrounded by beauty, harmony, and romance, emphasizes the value of kindness, and invites us to nurture our intuitive and artistic side. This aspect reminds us of our interconnectedness with everything and everyone, supporting our capacity for empathy and compassion.

Full Moon in Cancer: Becoming Safe Space

The Moon in Cancer needs comfort, care, nurturance, and safe space. She needs slowness, warmth, and containment. She needs to feel safe to be vulnerable. She needs to feel at home. The Full Moon in Cancer offers us an invitation to become the safe space we are craving or searching outwardly, an invitation to become our own home and connect with the feeling of home and safety within.

The Full Moon in Cancer ends the year with a reminder to give space to our emotions, to honor our needs, and to pay attention to how we relate to what represents safety and security in our lives. This lunation offers us chances to observe our relationship to both self-regulation and co-regulation and to notice how we are used to dealing with and expressing uncomfortable emotions. The Full Moon in her home sign invites us to nurture ourselves as we wish others would nurture us or would have nurtured us in the past.

Around this time, we have opportunities to work on our relationships with our close ones, with our family, with our emotions, and with our inner child. We have opportunities to clean our inner home, to clean our inner closet, to face the ghosts of the past and break free from their grip.

Crystal Pick for Full Moon in Cancer: Larimar

Mercury is still retrograde and Larimar is a beautiful stone for the throat chakra to help you connect with your emotions during this Cancer full Moon and communicate them from the heart.

This rare crystal from the Dominican Republic is the color of the gorgeous Caribbean waters with very soothing qualities for this watery Full Moon. It brings calm and clarity to help you cope with and process big emotions and learn to grow from them.

Also known as the Atlantis stone, it soothes fiery tempers and emotions with serenity and peace, smoothing out rough or harsh communication, helping you connect with your inner ebb and flow and allow your intuitive, feeling nature to guide you. 

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