Cancer Full Moon January 2023: Time to check in with your emotions

WORDS Clarisse Monahan PHOTOGRAPHY Unsplash PUBLISHED Wed, 4 Jan 2023 - 10:30 am

The Holidays are over for us, but it seems that the Stars never stop with their partying. We have a celebratory Full Moon in caring Cancer, coming up January 7th at 10:09 am AEDT. It will be opposite the emotionally distant Capricorn Sun, providing us a little respite from the Goat’s tight-lipped smiles and somewhat cold shoulders. If Capricorn season is for setting New Year’s Resolutions and getting down to business, this lunation is asking us to check in with our feelings about all these plans. How so?

Unlike New Moons, which cast no light, Full Moons function to illuminate. But the important thing to note is that all this lunar wattage reflects the sunlight of the current season, in our case that of the Goat. Saturn-ruled Capricorn wants us to make long term moves – law school, purchase home, marriage – but the Full Moon in super intuitive Cancer is now saying: what’s in your heart, not your head?

Such a question is crucial because our heads are filled with thoughts that come from elsewhere–mom, dad, school, television, film, and all the other myriad and subterranean forces that wend their way into how we see the world and our place in it. To add to this, there is a social pressure element at work during Capricorn season. It’s our cardinal earth sign, meaning its goals are achievement-oriented. Cap’s energy pushes us up toward some notion of “success,” and there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, we should welcome that influence in our life, especially right now, as the New Year starts and we need a goal and direction. But we should make sure that we want to trek up the right mountain for us–not because the world, with its bourgeois demands, has planted a flag there that we think we should follow.

This is where the Full Moon in Cancer makes its appearance. While Capricorn season could be the best time for thinking long-term about reality, this Moon, which rules the Crab, attunes us to what we might call “feel-ality.” Are we ok with this or that goal on an emotional level, the voice of reason notwithstanding? If so, green-light your resolutions; if not, refine, discard, or re-draw them.

Advice for getting through the Full Moon in Cancer in January 2023

Think about getting together with people you trust and having a little New Year’s Resolutions pow-wow with them. Full Moons are for celebrating, ultimately, while Cancer energy is about being with those closest to you and processing. To align even more with the Moon’s energy, it wouldn't hurt to be near places it especially loves: water, brooks, havens of the sea, fountains, open fields. Talk through your plans in a location that suggests fluidity to reach the kind of emotional clarity we’ve been mentioning.

Now, this notion of “emotional clarity” can be a bit of an oxymoron in that emotions are somewhat messy and unclear. We often talk about needing an objective eye to help us see through the tangle of our feelings. But with a Full Moon in Cancer right now, the Cosmos is saying that perhaps what we need instead is a subjective view on things to helpfully complicate the arid, untangled rectilinearity of “big plans.” If, in the end, the way we feel and the way we think align, move forward. If not, it’s time for a recalibration on New Year’s decisions.

The need for slowing down a bit and re-checking the messages we are sending to ourselves in the form of resolutions is further supported by the fact that we have a Mercury Retrograde occurring in Capricorn. Mercury relates to the intellect. It’s supremely analytical. People usually associate it with messaging and communication, but it is also the nerd of the Zodiac. It’s really into getting precise about numbers, facts, and figures. With Mercury retrograde, its rational function is getting cosmically shut down somewhat at the moment. The Stars are saying, in a double sense (Cancer Moon+Mercury retro), that feelings need to take precedence over hyper rational sense-making. Put the realm of fact and figures (Mercury) and big picture plans (Capricorn) on ice for the day, while you let the Cancer Moon cook a bit before deciding on the goals to work toward for 2023.

Want to see what else is in store for the year 2023? Read your 2023 horoscope predictions for the year ahead, or discover you love horoscopes for the new year.