Full Moon in Cancer

In the darkest of moments arises the greatest reception of light. In times of despair, maddening corruption, harrowing oppression, overwhelming odds, and fleeting hope, the piercing horn of plenty thunders in response, motivating motion with the instantaneous transfiguration of a lightning strike. Zeus is the fertile creator divinity who wields lightning, and in astrology the star of Zeus stimulates growth and vitality, giving life to inspired ideas and purposeful visions that animate action. As the Full Moon in Cancer will illuminate the days following the stillness of the Capricorn Solstice when light begins increasing within the prolonged night of the northern hemisphere, Jupiter will possess an intensified presence due to stationing direct. Within the flowing cups of holiday cheer, the making of merry may bring fresh remembrance of vital vibrancy, the purpose and passion that nurtures perseverance and rallies resilience.

The Full Moon in Cancer on 26 December 2023 is in the exaltation of Jupiter, with the Moon mutually received by Jupiter in the exaltation of the Moon. Jupiter will station direct on 30 December at 5º34’ Taurus, amplifying the potency of setting intention as calendars flip from 2023 to 2024. With the Moon full of light in her own watery domicile applying to a harmonious sextile with Jupiter in her earthy exaltation of Taurus, the Cancer Full Moon will beam nourishing light into whatever forms of creativity, philosophy, spirituality, and devotional practices you are engaging. Jupiter has numerous significations that enrich life and fertilize growth, including fellowship, justice, prosperity, freedom, fidelity, generosity, charity, reverence, worship, understanding, authority and leadership. The coherence and affirmation brought by Jupiter will amplify the Moon’s capacity for reflecting upon our stories from 2023 and how they can inform the next chapters we wish to author in 2024.

As the Full Moon in Cancer illuminates the turning of the year, it is further fitting that just as Jupiter is at centre stage during the lunation, so will the star of Zeus be a central player in the stories that will swirl across 2024. After stationing direct on 30 December, Jupiter will thunder across the fertile fields of Taurus en route to a union with Uranus in Taurus on 20 April 2024. Every thirteen to fourteen years when Jupiter and Uranus unite, themes of technological invention, creative innovation, and political activism predominate. Their previous conjunction in 2010 and 2011 coincided with the eruption of the Arab Spring, while their much earlier union in 1900 correlated with the seeds of both depth psychology and quantum physics being planted. Worldviews alter and collective conceptions of reality bend when the Jupiter and Uranus cycle is activated, as their previous cyclical alignments have also correlated with developments in the heliocentric model of the universe by Copernicus and Kepler as well as the biological theory of evolution by Darwin and Wallace. The beginning of a new cycle between Jupiter and Uranus in 2024 signals that emancipatory waves of change will flow through collective events, making it an ideal time for changing the status quo and taking great creative leaps in personal work.

Yet the conjunction between Jupiter and Uranus is not the only reason why the star of Zeus will be important in 2024. After Jupiter enters Gemini on 25 May 2024, it will form a flowing trine with Pluto in Aquarius on 2 June followed by waxing square aspects with Saturn in Pisces on 19 August and 24 December 2024. Jupiter’s aspects with Pluto and Saturn are key phases of development rooted in the astrology of 2020, when Jupiter began new cycles with both Pluto and Saturn. The union of Jupiter and Saturn at the end of 2020 was especially important, as it heralded not only the beginning of their usual twenty year cycle but something even more epochal: our collective entrance into a two-century-long age of air in which Jupiter and Saturn conjunctions will only occur in air signs. Ages of air possess whirlwind symbolism, and since the union of Jupiter and Saturn in 2020 we have already experienced the dispersal of older orders as well as swiftly developing technological innovations that have quickly led to a new reality.

With Jupiter and Saturn initiating us into the critical phase of their waxing square in 2024, the time will be ripe for claiming the personal authority to fully pursue your creative purpose and contribute to the construction of mutual networks of support. The astrology of the rest of the decade promises even greater change moving at even greater speed, with 2024 serving as a threshold guardian to an intense buildup of astrological alignments that will take shape in 2025 and 2026. We can expect systemic unraveling and volatility to continue to increase, making it more important than ever to take responsibility in helping to build the world anew. Though the Full Moon in Cancer is illuminating a much smaller scale of time, take seriously whatever inner revelations of meaning you receive regarding the creative processes and directions you plan to set in motion during 2024. Soak in the silvery shining of the Moon, and let the manifold light of the starry night inspire desire to live in greater alignment with your most cherished values.

While the Cancer Full Moon forming a harmonious sextile with Jupiter can assist in shedding the skin of what you wish to leave behind at the end of 2023, the rest of the surrounding astrology harbors some challenges to face. For one, Chiron will station direct at 15º27’ Aries on the same day as the lunation. With Chiron and Jupiter stationing direct within days of one another, the roses of received revelation will also have thorns of protection. Sometimes when Chiron takes on an intensified presence we experience buried wounds of body and psyche arising into sharp awareness. Listen for the messages of soul in the symptoms and how processes of healing may further link to changes in larger life direction that need to be made. Chiron is also the cave dwelling mentor whose wise counsel helps us bridge between our present reality and the vision we hold of a more fulfilling and purposeful life. Chiron is in position to guide the necessary modifications and readjustments that need to be made at the turn of the calendar year, including our daily routines and rituals around caring for the health of our body and mind.

An even more dramatic aspect of the Cancer Full Moon will be the conjunction between Mars and Mercury retrograde in Sagittarius that will take place on 27 December at 24º23’ Sagittarius. The union between Mars and Mercury will stoke stories into a culmination of narratives that have been developing over the course of recent months, ever since Mercury began traveling with Mars in Scorpio on 21 October, a week before the Lunar Eclipse in Taurus. Mercury and Mars were in Scorpio together from 21 October until 9 November, and then after Mars entered Sagittarius on 24 November they once again occupied the same sign until Mercury entered Capricorn on 1 December. After Mercury stationed retrograde in Capricorn on 12 December, the star of Hermes backtracked into Sagittarius on 22 December to once again join Mars in the sign of the Archer. The Cancer Full Moon will illuminate their second conjunction in the sequence that began with their first conjunction in Scorpio on 29 October, the day after the Taurus Lunar Eclipse. Their third and final conjunction in this sequence will be forged on 27 January 2024 at 17º17’ Capricorn.

In contrast to the inner reception of revelation symbolized by the harmonious exchange between the Cancer Full Moon and Jupiter stationing, the conjunction between Mars and Mercury is all about action. It will be important to find outlets through which to channel their flames rather than burning yourself up with anger and frustration. Because their conjunction on 27 December is only the midpoint of three conjunctions that will stretch to 27 January, we will need to come into relationship with the synergy between Mercury and Mars as they will remain together in Sagittarius until 6 January and then will occupy Capricorn together from 13 January to 4 February 2024. Tempers and sharp words can ignite quickly under the auspices of Mercury and Mars in the fiery home of Jupiter, but their heat can also enflame desire for seeking greater meaning and grand quests of adventure. Mercury and Mars disrupt and destabilize, yet the ways in which they shake up the places we have been complacent provide the necessary impetus for change and growth. With Mercury beginning to slow down in preparation for stationing direct on 1 January 2024 at 22º10’ Sagittarius, the fire stoked between Mars and Mercury will inspire setting intentions for the new year to seek knowledge beyond present circumstances as well as the willingness to journey far to gain it.

Meanwhile, Venus will continue to illuminate pre-dawn skies in her morning star phase while also in the final decan of Scorpio. Since the third decan of Scorpio is the face of Venus, the star of Aphrodite traversing the final degrees of Scorpio will facilitate a deep confrontation with the nature of our desires. Venus is separating from an opposition with Uranus in Taurus and a flowing trine with Neptune in Pisces that can open the scope of desires beyond the ordinary, kindling motivation to leave behind the desires that have become stale for those freshly emerging. Venus will leave Scorpio and enter Sagittarius on 29 December and then will immediately form a square aspect with Saturn in Pisces that will become exact on the first day of 2024. Saturn is in the exaltation of Venus, giving some measure of mitigation to the difficulty of their square aspect. However, the waning square with Saturn will not be a lackadaisical aspect for Venus but rather one that will require grounding in pragmatic realism. Positively, the scythe of Kronos in Aphrodite’s exaltation will assist setting intentions that require trimming the hedonistic excess of Venus, such as cutting back on the eating of sweets in favor of a disciplined diet.  

Cancer 1 Decan

The Full Moon in Cancer will illuminate the first decan of Cancer associated with the Two of Cups arcanum illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith. The image contains two lovers coming together in longing, with a caduceus of intertwining snakes and a winged lion arising in the space between their merging desire. The scarlet lion is daimonic, evoking the eternal return of primordial Creation like golden winged Phanes/Protogonos whirling free from the World Egg to beget the rest of Creation. The caduceus is the tool of psychopomp Hermes and further has roots with the Mesopotamian underworld deity Ningishzida, associated with snakes and the life cycle of vegetation. Death and rebirth, loss and eros, endings and beginnings are all fitting themes for the first decan of Cancer due to it being the first face of Cancer, and Cancer being the rising sign of the Thema Mundi, the mythical birth chart of the World containing the foundational principles of Hellenistic astrology. Yet since the ascendant degree of the Thema Mundi is fifteen degrees of Cancer, while the first decan of Cancer is at the beginning of the rising sign, it is also the decan that comes at the end before the specific degree of the Thema Mundi’s ascendant. There is a “New Year” quality to this face that fits perfectly well with the Cancer Full Moon spotlighting the end of 2023.

Fittingly for the erotic reciprocity in the image of the Two of Cups, the first face of Cancer is ruled by Venus and the Moon. Thus the Cancer Full Moon is in her own face, magnifying the potency of the decan’s meaning. Demetra George’s translation of The Sacred Book of Hermes to Asclepius (a Greek language text ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus during early Roman Imperial period, possibly around 50 CE) reveals an image for the first face of Cancer containing living symbols of both the underworld and creation: “Face of a dog, entire body a fiery serpent, seated on a pedestal.” In contrast, Henrich Cornelius Agrippa in Three Books of Occult Philosophy wrote that within the first face of Cancer “rises the form of a virgin girl dressed in pretty clothes and wearing a crown on her head: it is excellent for sharp senses, subtlety of wit, and love of men.” While the Hermes text emphasizes the Protogonos symbolism, Agrippa’s image has particular resonance with the feminine half of the Two of Cups image. The feminine form bears life in her womb and can give birth to new life, yet the decan’s larger meaning is more about the force of Creation that is born from the force of Love and what can be produced from the interweaving care of Venus and the Moon.

Austin Coppock in his book on the decans 36 Faces ascribed the image of “A Mother and Child” to the first face of Cancer, as he wrote that the face holds the hungers of our emotions and biology, the womb that gives birth to us and all of our resulting needs. Coppock connected the themes of mother and child to the pursuit of romantic love found in the Two of Cups since “it is the perfect support, half-remembered from the womb, that gives rise to the human dream of similarly nursing bonds between committed partners.” Coppock wrote that idealized unions can be realized in the first decan of Cancer, and that the “face’s magical virtue is to establish mutually nurturing relationships.” Yet Coppock emphasized that the nurturance and sustenance present in this face for both biological children and what we birth from our creativity must also be placed within the waxing and waning nature of the Moon, the lunar cycle that endlessly brings life and death, love and loss again and again. Coppock concluded that the romanticized nature of the Two of Cups must be reconciled with the first decan of Cancer actually possessing “a mixture of hunger and sweetness.” There is an alchemy of love and need blended together in the first face of Cancer, and while the potential of idealized unions “can be seen in this decan . . . success in this matter requires more than longing.”

The ideal entwining of vessels found in the first face of Cancer can be found within all manner of collaborative relationships and is not limited to the realm of romantic love. The central importance of supportive relationships to achieving greater success in the world can be found in the Hellenistic text 36 Airs ascribing the goddess Nike, the goddess of victory, to the first face of Cancer. A daughter of the underworld river goddess Styx, Nike allied herself with Zeus in the war against the Titans, a mythic war resonant with the astrology of the past few years that has involved a massive reordering of society due to a global pandemic and the resulting conflicts and power plays. Nike served as the divine charioteer of Zeus in battle, while also rewarding victors of competition with the glory of wreathed laurel.

In connection with Austin Coppock’s symbol of “A Mother and Child” for the first face of Cancer, it’s worth contemplating the significance of Nike being the daughter of the underworld river goddess Styx, who was herself the daughter of Tethys and Okeanos. Residing in the heart of the underworld, Styx allied herself with the Olympians in their revolution against the Titans, eventually becoming the source of the water by which gods swore oaths, ensuring that the Olympians who replaced the Titans would keep their oaths. Nike and the other children of Styx helped enforce order even amongst the gods, with Nike’s emphasis on victory not only limited to the climatic moment of the victor but also the devoted care and commitment necessary to ensure that what has been gained in victory will not be lost due to carelessness or forgetting what one has sworn to do. 

As we are entering an extended period of collective volatility that will sweep across the rest of the decade, we will need to be actively co-creating community that can flexibly mutate in accordance with the changing societal dynamics. We will need to hold ourselves accountable to living in accordance with our ideals and values, as well as help those we are in relationship with be accountable. Yet responsibility starts with ourselves and the daily care and love we bring to our relationships and what we produce from them. May the light of the Cancer Full Moon illuminate those in our relationship field who we can form mutually supportive dynamics with, and may your year ahead be blessed with increased vitality and creativity.

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References

Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius. (2021). Three Occult Books of Philosophy. Translated by Eric Purdue. Inner Traditions.

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: The History, Astrology and Magic of the Decans. Three Hands Press.

George, Demetra. (2021). Egyptian Decans: Star Gods of Time. Astrology University.