Cancer Full Moon: Take Care

When you recover

or discover something

that nourishes your soul

and brings joy, care enough

about yourself to make

room for it in your life.

Jean Shinoda Bolen

The Full Moon on January 3, 2026 at 12° Cancer

accentuates feelings and amplifies the desire for connection and emotional security. We may feel unstable (the Moon, Venus and Mars traveling Out of Bounds, outside the path of the Ecliptic), yet we can trust our intuition and earned wisdom to find ways that will satisfy our need for connection and well-being (Jupiter conjunct the Moon).

The Cancer Moon craves closeness. We may seek quality time with family, friends and those that support us. It is a beneficial time to express our love or appreciation for them in our lives. 

The Capricorn Sun craves dedication to a long-term goal, so we are encouraged to make a commitment to establishing or reinforcing a regular practice of select activities that nourish and increase our capacity to feel comfortable in our body, feel connected with others, and to live with joy in our heart. 

 Jupiter conjunct the New Moon

Mars and Venus conjunct the Sun

Mystic Rectangle: Sun trine the South Node, Moon trine the North Node

Saturn conjunct Neptune, trine Jupiter, and Apex of Small Grand Trine with Uranus and Pluto

Neptune square Mercury

Full Moons occur at the peak of each lunar cycle. The days leading up to the Full Moon bring increased momentum, activity and often mounting pressure. Something comes to a head and is experienced as crisis, clarity or breakthrough which can lead to resolution. During the two weeks following a Full Moon, we are completing the month's journey and distilling the wisdom of the recent lunar cycle, so we are ready for the invitation that is presented with the next New Moon.

The house where 13° Cancer resides in our natal chart indicate the area of life where we may have deep feelings and want to infuse with nurturing energy.

The house where 25 – 29° Pisces resides in our natal chart shows the area of our life where we are experiencing a big shift. With both Neptune and Saturn at the final degrees of Pisces,  we are completing and closing out something that has been part of our life so we can open to a new dream that we will endeavor to realize.

It is not what you first think.

There is no effort of will,

no firm resolve in the face

of this thing called living.

There is only paying attention

to the quiet each morning,

while you hold your cup

in the cool air & then

that moment you choose

to spread your love

like a cloth upon the table &

invite the whole day in again.

Brian Andreas

‘I Care’ expresses a Feeling

The Moon in Cancer conjunct Jupiter

Needs pertaining to home, family, and our needs around safety, belonging, nurturance and emotional security are emphasized with The Moon in its own sign of Cancer, making it the ruler of the Full Moon. Feelings around these themes are further amplified as the Moon is traveling Out of Bounds, outside the path of the ecliptic. The Full Moon is also a Super Moon as it comes as close as it can to the earth in its orbital path, which further serves to heighten our feeling nature. And finally, we have a tendency to be emotionally expressive and expansive (Jupiter conjunct the Moon). All this to say: it will benefit us to give space to our feelings, validate our needs, and to nurture what we love.   

Jupiter conjunct the Cancer Moon

For the last six months, since Jupiter entered Cancer we have been on a journey to identify what we are needing for emotional stability and well-being emotionally, and then to take steps to care for ourselves and our sense of connectedness with others and the world around. Jupiter, the planet of growth, spends one year in each sign, showing us where we can experience great results if we apply ourselves. Currently, it is half way through its year in Cancer. To reap the rewards of Jupiter here, we are to prioritize - not backburner - attention to our personal needs surrounding home, family, and nurturance.

The Cancer Moon is traveling next to Jupiter shining a light on our needs and what is wanting our attention. This may be accompanied by big feelings, big heart and a big expression of emotions. We are to be with people we love and feel safe so we have a way to share the big feelings we have. We might feel overwhelmed by feeling and need space to take it all in.

We are to celebrate connection and belonging. With feelings being accentuated, we may be more expressive. This is an optimal time to express our love and gratitude for the connections we have. With Jupiter’s influence, we may even be drawn to expand our sense of family and who we consider as family.

Eat bread and understand comfort.

Drink water, and understand delight.

Visit the garden where the scarlet trumpets   

are opening their bodies for the hummingbirds

who are drinking the sweetness, who are   

thrillingly gluttonous.

For one thing leads to another.

Soon you will notice how stones shine underfoot.

Eventually tides will be the only calendar you believe in…

Look, and look again.

This world is not just a little thrill for the eyes.

It's more than bones.

t's more than the delicate wrist with its personal pulse.

It's more than the beating of the single heart.

It's praising.

It's giving until the giving feels like receiving.

You have a life—just imagine that!

You have this day, and maybe another, and maybe  

still another.

Mary Oliver

Relationship Between Earth and Water

The Full Moon seeks to resolve a tension between the water of the Cancer Moon and earth of the Capricorn Sun.

Capricorn is Earth

Cancer is Water

Capricorn is solid and reliable

Cancer is fluid and without form

Capricorn is pragmatic and reasonable

Cancer is feeling and intuitive

Earth holds Water.  With every body of water - river, lake, stream, even the ocean - the water is defined by the land that encases it. A river cannot flow without riverbanks. A lake would cease to be a lake without a shoreline. To give space to our feelings, and to let them flow and to integrate, the earth element helps provide a container that helps us to manage and guide big feelings, rather than have them flood us. Our feelings provide guidance to help us understand what we need and want to have happen, but we call upon the earth element to ground, to stabilize and to help us manifest our longings.

‘I Care’ is expressed as an Action Taken

Sun in Capricorn, and Mercury, Venus, Mars and Vesta are in Capricorn

Capricorn brings an ambition to make things happen, to achieve the goals we have set. With multiple planets in Capricorn, we are called to take responsibility and make a commitment to some long range, practical goal. 

The goal we are to zero in on now is not around our work, financial wellbeing or status in the world. The Cancer Full Moon directs Capricorn’s industriousness to make a commitment to nurture greater satisfaction and pleasure at home, with family, and in the ways we experience intimacy, connectedness and belonging.

Every 6.6 years, the synodic cycle of Venus and Mars brings these two planets together with the Sun. It is a seed moment as the sacred feminine and sacred masculine merge in the sky to recalibrate and seek a new balance between the receptive and active, between beauty and power, between being relational and being self-determined, between being process-oriented and goal-oriented.

Venus conjunct Mars and the Sun brings a purification around how we experience leisure and the recreational activities we seek. Pleasure and enjoyment are inherent human needs and a good measure of fun and play serves to create a balanced life. There is a re-evaluation of how we seek pleasure; rather than activities that are a diversion, a way to escape or numb out, we can identify, shift gears and reach for activities that nourish joy and connection but don’t leave some kid of hangover.  We are reminded that as much as we feel a responsibility to our work and for being productive, we are equally as responsible for making room in our schedules for play and heartwarming connection. (Venus oppose the Moon). We may even remember something we once enjoyed and look to reincorporate it in our lives.

Mars conjunct Venus and the Sun. The drive to ensure that long term goals are realized is being fueled. Simultaneously, our frustration around some obstacle in our way is also being fueled. We are to be honest and talk about what we are feeling (Mars oppose the Moon). Speaking up for what we want and need may be important to successfully navigate current tensions. 

We are also reminded that our days are not just about getting things done. How we feel as we tend to daily tasks is at least equally important. We have a choice to love what we are doing, love who we are engaging, and to have our work be an expression of how much we care. We can rewire our sense of responsibility so that our daily lives are less burdensome and exhausting, if begin each day with a practice that acknowledges that the day is a chance to love and to care for what we chose or find ourselves doing throughout the day.

Winter is the time for comfort,

for good food and warmth,

for the touch of a friendly hand

and for a talk beside the fire:

it is the time for home.

Edith Sitwell

In Summary

In many ways, the message of the Moon is simple. It stirs our desire to love and be loved - the most basic of human desires. And yet, it is always something we are reaching for and so to have this in our life requires practices and commitment to foster the love we seek.

There are several ways we can honor the Full Moon and its invitation:

We can:

• Make time to care for ourselves by honoring what we are feeling and needing as we contemplate what we want to see happen in 2026. We can identify what would most nourish us and make a commitment to having this part of our daily lives. This can include new rituals around self care and how we can nurture all we care about. enhance intimacy, connection and belonging in our life.

• Assess how connected we feel to ourselves, our family, nature and the world. We can specify ways to enhance, intimacy, connection and belonging. We can have a spiritual practice where we feel gratitude for nature and all who live on our planet, and all creation as a way to connect to larger and larger circles of belonging.

• Look at where we find pleasure in our lives and commit to shifting out escapist or numbing behaviors in favor of activities and habits that truly nourish, helping us to embody comfort and wellbeing.

• Express our love, appreciation and gratitude to those who enrich our lives and give it meaning. We can look at ways to deepen the connection with those we love by either spending more time with them or introducing new experiences that can be shared together.

• Commit to a daily practice of mindfulness with the intention to engage our work, chores, and interactions with loving care. (And to extend that same care to ourselves when we fail at this). We can be mindful to not get lost in our heads, lost in some form of busyness or agitation and to instead engage life with love. 

  
  

In the end, The Cancer Full Moon reminds us that if we spend time loving what we love, we increase our experience love. If we foster connection, we feel connected and belong. The Full Moon arriving in the first days of the year notifies us what needs to be included as one of our key intentions for the year: We are apply ourselves to increasing the value of something that cannot be measured or quantified, something that is priceless and cannot be bought our sold. We have only to listen to our feelings to know what is lacking and then making a commitment for how we will choose to nourish, replenish and fulfill an emotional need around nurturance, connection and belonging.

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Astrology of 2026

90-minute webinar

Sunday, January 18

7 pm EST / 4 pm PST

$32

The webinar provides

*an overview of the year's dynamics

*an in depth look at the next four months.

*ways to harness the potential of the upcoming eclipses, retrogrades and the big movements of the generational, transformative outer planets.

Register for Astrology 2026 Webinar

WHEN REGISTERING, you MUST select January 18 in the calendar on the booking page

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The Art of Chart Synthesis

5-week Online Workshop

Mondays, January 26 - February 23

6:30 pm EST

$210

For those who have a working understanding of signs, planets, houses and aspects, this course will explore:

• how to blend the various elements and improve your interpretation skills.

• how to identify the chart's organizing principle and

• Practical prioritization techniques so you can navigate complex charts with clarity

• how to discover and tell the story of a chart

Class size is limited to encourage interactive and experiential engagement

For More Information and to Register

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