Full Moon in Cancer

The Full Moon in Cancer on 13 January is wildly catalytic and extreme. With the Moon in her own watery domain and forming a conjunction with Mars retrograde in Cancer, we may likely feel huge emotions or a magnified sense of emotional dynamics that could incite a wide range of feeling from the painful to the inspirational. The Cancer Full Moon is separating from a sextile with Uranus and a square with Chiron while applying to a conjunction with Mars and a trine with Neptune. Due to several extremely unbounded astrological factors involved in the lunation, while there could be difficult material stirred up by the lunation we need to face, we also could experience creative breakthroughs and great leaps in thought. In some cases it could be the necessity of passing through a dark night of the soul that leads to a personal revelation on the other side that changes everything. The excessive quality the Cancer Full Moon possesses for bringing change is fitting for it being the first Full Moon and lunation of 2025, as the astrology of the year ahead promises to be incredibly volatile with immense potential for change.

The Cancer Full Moon is extreme in part due to Mars retrograde approaching its most extreme solar phase of crimson light, increased heat, inflammation, and volatility. Two days after the lunation on 15 January Mars retrograde will form an exact opposition with the Sun, the time in which Mars is as close to us in orbit and as bright in light as possible. Thus not only will the bright Moon full of peak light rise in the east as the Sun sets in the west, but so will Mars in its brightest shade of red. While the Full Moon conjoining Mars in its most extreme phase will correlate with many destructive current events, Mars retrograde also possesses an inwardly directed focus that can lead to the kind of internal transmutation that will eventually create powerful external changes that can be both productive as well as more aligned with the authentic desires Mars retrograde is catalyzing. Due to Cancer being a cardinal sign of initiation, in general there could also be an acceleration of development with fast moving currents of change you will need to navigate. Though Mars is in its fall in Cancer, in no way does this mean that Mars is weak as the horrific wildfire destruction in Los Angeles can attest to. The fallen quality of Mars only further amplifies the wild, extreme, and unorthodox quality of Mars.

But that’s not all that makes this an unusually extreme alignment between the Full Moon and Mars. Not only will the Cancer Moon be close to Mars by zodiacal degree, they will also be close visually in the sky and in fact in some locations there will be a lunar occultation of Mars. Furthermore, not only will the Moon and Mars be at a similar northern declination, they will both be extremely out of bounds in northern declination and so at an incredibly extreme height in the night sky. The Moon and Mars being extremely out of bounds means that their symbolism and significations are beyond the norm and bursting through the usual constraints. In the case of Mars this goes with how there are so many extremely explosive and destructive current events happening, and yet this also means the combination with the Full Moon could also lead to great leaps of thought and creative breakthroughs when we are able to focus the imaginal fire of our mind. Mars will continue being out of bounds in Cancer until April, and so the Full Moon is illuminating the beginning of a transformative story in the Cancer parts of your life that may feel like you are having to confront new territory and uncertain outcomes.

Altogether, it will make it important to take measures to calm and ground nerves, as there will be increased potential for becoming angry, frustrated, fearful, or anxious. In some cases this can be the kind of healthy anger that can motivate and catalyze action, but we will need to make sure that we have productive outlets for our anger rather than having it lead to self sabotage, destruction, or depression. Due to the Cancer Full Moon separating from a square aspect with Chiron in Aries, there may be information concerning an inner wound or painful experience that has become an important obstacle or motivator of current dynamics. You may realize the way a wound has been driving aspects of your ambitions in the world, or the ways in which a wound is holding you back from fully pursuing your aspirations. Whatever the case may be, bringing awareness to it can help you in clarifying your true motivations and how you can tend to the wound in a way that will be less inhibiting. Although the Cancer Full Moon is activating Chiron on 13 January, we are only at the beginning of a long activation of Chiron by Mars retrograde in Cancer. Mars retrograde will form a square aspect with Chiron on 3 February, and then after Mars stations direct at the end of February, there will be an additional square aspect between Mars and Chiron on 26 March. There is reception between Mars and Chiron due to Chiron being in the fiery domicile of Mars, as well as archetypal reception due to Chiron being the mythic mentor of all the great heroes. The activation of Aries and the heroic is a big theme of 2025, with there being a solar eclipse in Aries, both Neptune and Saturn entering Aries and both Venus and Mercury stationing retrograde in Aries. There will be a necessity of claiming courage to face the world and all of its pain and suffering to be part of helping to create the changes you desire. While the world will be chaotic there will also be great potential for personal change and breaking free of past constraints.

Fortunately, Venus is not only enthroned within her exaltation of Pisces but is also at her maximum elongation as an Evening Star. Venus in Pisces can help by adding to the potential for creative breakthroughs as well as relational support for current travails. Venus will be making incredibly significant aspects in the week following the Cancer Full Moon in ways that will reveal how our desires, relational needs, values, and creative processes are changing in connection with the much larger societal changes happening. This is due to two factors: one, that Venus in her maximum elongation as an Evening Star means that we have entered into the Venus retrograde storylines that will continue to deepen as Venus comes closer and closer to earth and brighter and brighter in the sky as she enters her “retrograde shadow zone” at the end of January and then ultimately stations retrograde at the beginning of March. Secondly, that Venus will be activating the Jupiter and Saturn cycle and the waxing square phase of Jupiter and Saturn that correlates with the acceleration of societal change happening. Venus will form a catalyzing square aspect with Jupiter retrograde in Gemini on 14 January that can hopefully bring you an inspirational jolt as Venus will be received by Jupiter in his watery home of Pisces. This could also be a very mentally active combination due to Jupiter being in Gemini.

Venus will then separate from Jupiter and apply to a conjunction with Saturn that will become exact on 18 January. The contact between Venus and Saturn can be helpful in terms of whatever longstanding issues you have been dealing with related to Saturn, hopefully helping you find creative and relational solutions to any difficulties. Saturn has a sobering effect on Venus that may give you a sense of limits and constraints, but their combination can be creative when using the bounds of Necessity to give birth to the Eros of creative insights and breakthroughs. It will also be an unusually important conjunction between Venus and Saturn, as it will be the first of three due to Venus stationing retrograde in March. There will be additional conjunctions between Venus retrograde and Saturn in Pisces on 7 April, and then between Venus direct and Saturn in Pisces on 24 April. There’s no way to fully understand where all the changes will be leading between now and the end of April due to all the volatile astrology happening in the next few months, only that whatever is happening now is just the first installment of a long story playing out involving Venus and Saturn in addition to many other astrological factors.

Fortunately, at the same time that Venus is applying to her first conjunction with Saturn in Pisces, Mercury in Capricorn will also be applying to a collaborative and pragmatic sextile aspect with both Venus and Saturn. Mercury will complete sextile aspects with Venus and Saturn on 19 January, and since Mercury is occupying the earthy home of Saturn this could be very helpful with leading us to solutions regarding difficulties that arise to our attention around the time of the Cancer Full Moon. Moreover, Venus and Mercury will remain in range of a sextile aspect until Mercury leaves Capricorn to enter Aquarius on 27 January toward the end of the current lunar cycle. Mercury in Capricorn with Venus in Pisces is a great combination for developing tangible practical plans to bring about the creative ideas that Venus in Pisces can inspire.

The reason that the Moon has been so extremely out of bounds in declination is due to the phenomenon of the lunar standstill we have been experiencing, a rare event that only happens every 18.6 years approximately when the North Node of the Moon gets close to zero degrees of Aries. There are two different calculations for the lunar nodes that astrologers use, a “true” calculation and a “mean” calculation that averages their range of motion. The Cancer Full Moon is additionally significant for marking the entrance of the “true” North Node of the Moon into Pisces, and the “true” South Node of the Moon into Virgo. The mean calculation of the lunar nodes will shift at the end of the month on 28 January, and so the mean North Node of the Moon at the Cancer Full Moon will still be at zero degrees of Aries. The impact of the lunar nodes is one of the most mysterious and mesmerizingly meaningful aspects of astrology. A mathematical calculation revealing the shifting intersection between our orbit on earth with the orbit of the moon, the lunar nodes also demarcate eclipses whenever a new moon or full moon aligns in proximity. In transit, their true node calculation does not move in a straight line but rather twists and turns, snake-like in motion backward through the zodiac.

One reason the shift of the lunar nodes is important is due to it signifying a change in sign location for eclipses. We already experienced a Lunar Eclipse in Pisces in September 2024, and will experience another Lunar Eclipse in Pisces in September 2025. We will also experience a Lunar Eclipse in Virgo in March 2024 and a Solar Eclipse in Virgo in September 2025. However, the transit of the lunar nodes also is part of shaping our collective story and our personal experiences. With the nodes moving from the cardinal signs of Aries and Libra into the mutable signs of Pisces and Virgo, it amplifies the meaning of being initiated into a great time of transition, beginnings and endings. It also means we can expect to have multiple storylines happening around us requiring multi-tasking, as well as finding ourselves on a digressive path in which we will need to embrace changes of direction as well as exert focus to avoid excessive distraction.

The North Node of the Moon in Pisces will bring a surge of activity and general increases of accelerated development in the Pisces areas of your life, necessitating mindfulness in not becoming overly swept up in ambitions illusions or confusion. In particular we will first need to traverse a period of Neptune forming a conjunction with the North Node, followed by Venus and Mercury both moving back and forth over the North Node in their retrograde phases, as well as Saturn forming a conjunction with the North Node in Pisces. Our initial experience will be an amplification of Neptune, which is another factor that can lead to great leaps in imagination and creative breakthroughs, but also puts us at risk of our imagination running wild with illusions of one sort or another. In connection with the Full Moon in Cancer, we need to be mindful of not becoming overly fearful and anxious over imagining all of the different ways the uncertainty of present circumstances could go wrong, instead leaning into how to embrace dynamics and find our way more realistically forward.

The North Node in Pisces will correlate with cultivating a vision of possibility and devotion to love, spirituality and compassion, while needing to be aware of the danger of slipping into illusory beliefs or becoming inflated by self absorption in one’s fundamentalist or dogmatic ideals and beliefs. Due to the transit of Jupiter we will have two distinct phases – the first phase now with Jupiter in Gemini which will amplify the potential for distraction and having a multiplicity of tasks and interests to handle, and then a second phase coming in June once Jupiter enters Cancer. The entrance of Jupiter into its exaltation of Cancer in June will bring opportunities to develop some productive growth related to whatever is in the process of being volatilized by Mars retrograde in Cancer now.

The South Node in Virgo will place an emphasis upon using the discernment and discrimination of Mercury to digest and release all of the information that will be circulating around all of the great changes that will be happening in 2025 – at many points it could feel like too much information to handle, and so we will need to draw upon the analytical side of Virgo to cut through the excess and the distractive to focus on the essential. There could be a sense of release and reduction in some way in the Virgo area of your life, but this could also be the kind of sacrifice that serves as an offering to growth. There could also be a sense of fruition with something in the Virgo area of your life, something you’ve been developing that can now be released and shared and will also make space for something new to take root. We also may experience a sense of growth through using the Virgo ability to analyze and cut back or release whatever has been in the way of greater growth – such as working through an inner pattern that then unleashes creative unconscious forces in pursuit of our aspirations. Dane Rudhyar described the south node as not only being a place of decay or disintegration, but also a seed-like re-channeling into creative expression and spiritual development and so this is one way we will experience some sort of Virgo re-channeling that fertilizes Pisces developments.

For comparison with past experiences, the last time the lunar nodes were in Virgo and Pisces was when we had the opposite experience of the North Node in Virgo and the South Node in Pisces – this was from November 2015 until May 2017. The last time we experienced the North Node in Pisces and the South Node in Virgo was from June 2006 through December 2007.

Cancer 3 Decan

The Full Moon in Cancer will illuminate the third decan of Cancer associated with the Four of Cups card illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith. In the Four of Cups image we see someone sitting on the roots of a tree considering three golden cups ready to be filled in the foreground. While the figure appears be engrossed in contemplative thought, allowing inner exploration to guide subsequent choice, a fourth cup has become magically offered by an otherworldly hand. T. Susan Chang in 36 Secrets wrote that the Four of Cups “is a complex card, because it evokes opposing states: scarcity vs. surplus, temptation vs. apathy.” Chang further pondered that if the image evokes the refusal of the call of the Hero’s Journey, it may also contain the hidden polarity of the call itself. Chang wrote that the Four of Cups represents the “restlessness” that comes after satisfying the pursuit of a new interest and while it could correlate with states of boredom, it can also be seen as an invitation. Chang advised listening “to those dissatisfied voices till they quiet down: they will tell you what is not leading you toward purpose and fulfillment,” and thus through “process of elimination,” we may attune to another inner voice prompting us to consider what we would do if we “could do anything in the world?”

Ruled by the Moon and Jupiter, the third decan of Cancer is a face in which we must come to terms with available resources and questions of our fair share and how much is enough. Austin Coppock in his book on the decans 36 Facesgave the image of “The Overflowing Cup” to the third face of Cancer, declaring that it reveals the conflict of choosing “luxurious excess” within “a world of limited material resources” in which “the attainment of luxury for one entails deprivation for others.” Coppock noted that the ascetic air of the figure in the Four of Cups refusing to accept more than he needs reflects having awareness of the “hidden violence and secret competition entailed within the quest for luxury.”  Yet in the way the figure also appears to be conjuring the magical fourth cup, Coppock declared that the third face of Cancer also involves the spiritual dimension of abundance and luxury,  the “ever-refilled” cup offered by Spirit, “the endless luxury of the limitless,”  and the “ever present energy of the natural world- the chi which emanates from all living things.” 

Resonant with cycles of creation and destruction that bring limitless luxury and spiritual gifts, the Hellenistic text  36 Airs of the Zodiac connected the goddess Hekate with the third face of Cancer. Hekate rules over the phases of the Moon, all realms of the upper world and the underworld, crossroads, magical craft, midwifery, and prophetic mediation among many other significations. The connection of Hekate, the ultimate Intermediary, with this face in the 36 Airs also reveals the chthonic fertility of the third decan of Cancer and its capacity to help guide us toward manifesting and receiving what we need to survive. Hekate’s presence in this face also points to the need of cultivating faith in the unknown; just like she guided the grieving Demeter toward the next step she needed to take within her journey of finding her lost daughter Persephone, so may Hekate’s presence in this decan do the same for us. 

Due to the Moon ruling the third face of Cancer, the Full Moon taking place within this decan takes on amplified potency related to the imagery and themes of this decan. May the emotional content it unleashes be received with the wisdom of Hekate, mediated with her inner knowing which can surely guide us through liminal spaces into the choice we need to make at the crossroads intersecting with our present path. 

I recently created a YouTube video about the Cancer Full Moon that includes a horoscope for each sign you can watch here:

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References

Chang, T. Susan. (2021). 36 Secrets: A Decanic Journey through the Minor Arcana of the Tarot. Anima Mundi Press. 

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