Cancer Full Moon: Where the Heart is

On Christmas Eve, Buffalo NY was being pummeled by the worst blizzard in recent memory. Snuggled at home with his wife, Alex Campagna heard frantic knocking on the door. There stood two shivering South Korean tourists hoping to borrow a shovel to dislodge their vehicle from a gigantic snowdrift.

Knowing it was hopeless, Campagna invited all ten of the party inside and offered to put them up overnight on couches and air mattresses. The relieved guests, eager to repay his kindness, prepared several yummy South Korean dishes. Luckily the Campagnas love Korean cooking, so they had some of the more exotic ingredients on hand. The impromptu family spent Christmas Eve eating, swapping stories and watching football games. The next day, drivers picked the tourists up and took them to New York for some last-minute flights.

At that time, Mercury (ruler of travelers) was in trickster mode, on the verge of turning retrograde. Weather, flight and luggage-related mayhem was rampant. Yet Mercury in tough-it-out Capricorn went into reverse mode near caring, socially-minded Venus. And thanks to one big-hearted couple, a harrowing trip to Buffalo turned into a beautiful memory for ten visitors.

Coziness, family fun and the kindness of strangers are not normally associated with businesslike Capricorn, the sign the Sun is currently trudging through. Yet the Full Moon in Cancer (Jan. 6, 3:08 pm PST) is about to call forth Capricorn’s opposite sign – motherly Cancer – and re-emphasize the need for a safe place to retreat from a cold, harsh world. Snuggling up with a cuddly pet or making food to share with family members (or strangers) can be balm for the soul now – especially in wintry weather.

Yet wily mover and shaker Mercury is still in the picture, conjunct the Capricorn Sun at the Cancer Full Moon. (Hopefully by Friday, all that misplaced luggage at Southwest terminals will have been returned to its rightful owners!) Whether or not rain and snowstorms are still raging, it’s wise to take your time and move slowly into the future. We often leap into the New Year with high hopes and big plans, but the real beginning to 2023 won’t kick in until the Jan. 21 Aquarius New Moon, after both Mars and Mercury have turned direct (the former on Jan. 12 and the latter on Jan. 18). More on that New Moon, which coincides with the Chinese New Year of the Black (Yin) Rabbit, in my next essay.

Meanwhile, we have a tender, sensitive Cancer Full Moon, making favorable aspects to Uranus in Taurus and Neptune in Pisces. This helps us take any unexpected retrograde changes in stride, and trust the process. The Capricorn-Cancer axis is about dealing with the practicalities and difficulties of life while also nurturing ourselves and others. With retrograde Mercury within one degree of the 16 Capricorn Sun, there may be misunderstandings or wrinkles to smooth out around this time. Look to the past for solutions; what has worked well before? What strategies did you learn when something similar happened?

The ancients felt that by acknowledging the mistakes and misdeeds, wounds and losses that troubled us in the year that’s passing, we could clear the way for a renewal of life. If you haven’t already, do a Year in Review and write down your accomplishments, no matter how small, as well as your regrets for 2022. Feel into what you’d like 2023 to be about for you and the world at large. Clear out the debris and clutter of the Old Year and prepare to move on. As wise Cancer knows, it all starts at home – where the heart is.