The Full Moon in Cancer perfects on December 26th at 6:34pm CST. The Sun is in Capricorn and the Moon in Cancer are opposing at 4º creating a Full Moon. These are culminations, the climax of an annual cycle whether by fate or by our own hand. You may notice that New and Full Moons dominate our monthly experience, but they also work in 6 month cycles, the events that take place this month will integrate themselves completely by the New Moon in Cancer on July 5th 2024. The purpose of these articles is to hone a deeper understanding of these cycles, articulate the archetypes we may see as a collective, and to advise any challenging astro weather for a calmer mind and spirit. If you enjoy these, you can subscribe to my newsletter to be notified when a new post is uploaded. Let's get into it!
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Delineation:
The Full Moon in Cancer comes less than a week after the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year, followed by the rebirth of the Sun and its ingress to Capricorn.
The birth of the Sun pulls us up and out of darkness, slowly sacrificing us to the light each year to reveal what has escaped us. Visions and prophecies can only go so far until sweet clarity beckons, a hard truth is like cold water on a sleeping face, but it is still better than dreaming.
Since childhood I have found myself fighting in my dreams, like full on fist fighting, but for some reason the blow never lands. It's like some invisible force slows the speed of my arm swing, softening the hit– it's as if I'm punching a pillow and it is... utterly unsatisfying if you ask me. It's a good reminder that in our dreams, in our delusion, in our ignorance, we are powerless. Facing the truth is the only thing that can satisfy in the end, even if it does feel like the tangible pain of a swift punch.
The Solstice is about truth, the banishment of obsession, anxiety, and paranoia. An omen of understanding, except it often comes delayed or just a little at a time. That is the nature of Capricorn season. The Solstice is the moment it's all set in motion but it takes time, a few months even, to unfold entirely. With the rebirth of the Sun comes a rebirth of collective identity and focus, this is often the season I find myself adding something to who I am or at least, finally acknowledging what has always been there under layers of darkness.
During Capricorn season, I'm often announcing. I declare things like: I now have 4 siblings instead of 3. We broke up, I'm single again. I am moving to Chicago. I'm looking for a few roommates. I've just been hired for that gig. I'm quitting school, I can't take it anymore. I think I'd like to become a vegetarian. I've been asked on a date. I could try this, but I'll have to drop something else to make the time.
Maybe these aren't our typical core identity matters, but they are often the beginning or ending of experiences that make up an outer layer of identity and maybe overtime, this does reflect, create, or awaken a more significant and previously dormant inner identity. This is a time of deep clarity about who you are, what you want, what isn't working. Tears are likely– but at least they carry wisdom. I think tears burn more when they are confused, but when fueled by veracity, they feel like the release of a breath that you've been holding for too long. It is no coincidence that we always have our annual Full Moon in Cancer after the Solstice. If we think of lunar transits as a wave in the ocean, it begins to build at the New Moon in Cancer just after the Summer Solstice in June, climaxing and kissing the sky near the Winter Solstice, and then beginning its descent, feeding its newfound sky wisdom back into the ocean fueling another wave.
The domicile Full Moon is a conduit for guidance from the stars in the sky, it's the most potent time for answers, but it's all very: grab a surf board or drown. Emotional clarity is different from a logical clarity. It's the moment you know something is over or that something is just beginning, you may not be able to explain it in logical terms, but you can say, "yeah, I've felt that coming for awhile." It is a quiet confirmation, an acceptance of the undeniable, the pound of flesh owed for running on borrowed time. Mythic time, kairos, is at play here. It's not linear or sensical, it simply feels right.
There is often a finality to whatever change the clock strikes. Not because we don't have the freedom to change again later, but because each change requires that we leave behind our former state. We may change, evolving again and again, but never returning to the exact same condition or timeline. You will never be who you were again before The Truth. The Decision. The Change. Every decision creates a multiple of you, though the essence stays the same. Even when you were in your dream state, protected by the womb of your mother, the Universe, every decision was there before you. Every pivot had already been made. There in the great potential of you– and for that reason, you couldn't fuck it up even if you tried. There is a kind of solace in this, even though you can never really go back, you're not failing like you may think you are. Failure doesn't exist the same way when we embrace nonlinear timing.
There is always a lot of fear and frustration in the air around this time of year. Especially for those who are making big changes, are about to, or want to but don't know how. There's a risk or a calling and it requires you to leave the dream state of the womb to be born. This familiarity– the fear of leaving your comfort has been here since the beginning of you and yet, everything has somehow worked out before. You can only stay surrounded by the familiar for so long.
What I like about this Moon? It's nicely aspecting Saturn and Jupiter— Jupiter who is about to station direct.
Jupiter is still. Almost completely stationary. It could be a sign to let it all incubate just a bit longer. When Jupiter begins moving forward again in January, we may find more travel, movement, and guidance. Saturn and Jupiter are close in their sextile still, this has been one of the dominant stories of 2023 perfecting about 6 months ago on June 19. Now that Jupiter is about to begin moving forward again and Saturn right on its heels, we may be reminded of the most recent conjunction between these two back in December of 2020 where a new cycle began. It's likely that some kind of resource (in our Pisces and Taurus houses) is coming in soon to aid us in whatever seems to be formulating in the Aquarian sector of our charts.
Saturn-Jupiter meetings often represent a shift in our personal and global culture and since the last conjunction was in Aquarius, we are all getting very radical, very distant from how things used to be, setting a new standard for community, individuality, technology, our future. We saw some baby steps toward this with Jupiter in Taurus and Saturn in Pisces Summer of 2023, again, both personally and collectively. These zodiac signs indicate that we've had to first revisit a problematic standard of the past to even attempt future radicalization. By the time Saturn and Jupiter meet in their first square since the conjunction in August of 2024, we will be ready to start zooming out on the old way and take bigger steps toward new ideas, profusive information, since Jupiter will be in Gemini by then (copresent with Mars), it's a massive deconstruction of the mind, an exploration of the details we haven't yet evolved to grasp. With Saturn in Pisces, we will genuinely question what is real and what is not. It will not be comfortable trying to adapt this quickly, but the square is where we see the most growth as a result in the long term.
I bring all of this up because Full Moons are activation points. This idea that Capricorn season and the Winter Solstice is generally about status changes, the initiation and termination of projects that can fundamentally change our identity is a small piece of this puzzle. Still, it takes just one step, one tiny decision to put us in place for these giant leaps being made in 2024 and on. The Full Moon may present us with clarity, guidance, direction, or resources to create the boarder for the larger picture. This "details versus the big picture" business is most certainly the doing of Mercury retrograde and Mars in Sagittarius nearly conjunct. Ideas will be flying! Many uncovered and rediscovered from the past, but this internal-timeline-traveling-sort-of-clarity is exactly what we need to fill in the blanks.
So, you know, give it time. Don't expect some massive thing (though, massive revelation is still possible with Pluto in Capricorn accentuating the season), but acknowledge these tiny pivots and shifts too, they'll be important for later. As with any transit to Cancer, we may see the home, family, and inner world as the most prominent themes, though it will depend on your personal chart.
The unknown is calling you! One step is all it takes.
Happy Full Moon.
Your friendly neighborhood astrologer,
Katie