The full moon in 24° of Cancer on Monday, January 13th (4:26 p.m. CST) cultivates a safe and nurturing environment to evolve.
We reflect on our inner motivations and our internal stories that shape how we show up to tend to our own self-care.
This cosmic energy provides clarity around how we take care of ourselves. We learn that when our needs are built on a foundation of self-respect, we can more easily prioritize them.
This full moon coincides with the intentions that we planted near the new moon in Cancer on July 17th, 2023. Somewhere in our timeline, our foundations and sense of home were shaken in order to come to a new understanding of what it feels like to be home. We are asked to surrender the places where we have been seeking home outside of ourselves so that we might anchor into a deeper sense of self-connection. Home is not a person or place. Home is not something we can possess. How do we become a sanctuary for others? What do we need to shelter from the storm? What new foundations of safety and security have we been creating? What feels like it is coming to completion? We summon ourselves back to ourselves to redefine what home is and create new levels of security.
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
Audre Lorde
Nodes Change Signs
On January 11th at 5:02 p.m. CST, the moon’s nodes change signs from Aries-Libra to Pisces-Virgo, where they will remain until July 26, 2026! We are entering a new 18-month cycle and evolutionary shifts. Virgo guides us to think holistically, refine our skills, and create practical strategies to support our well-being. Pisces represents source connection, openness, faith, and compassion. This is an axis of higher service, spiritual devotion, and healing. The last time the moon’s nodes were in these signs was in June 2006 until December 2007. Reflecting back to that time, what was awakening in you?

This Full Moon Aligns with Mars Retrograde
This full moon is conjunct Mars retrograde which can activate frustration, burnout, irritability, and reactive energy.
However, this kind of emotional intensity and conflict can summon us deeper into ourselves so that we might root into the deepest reservoirs of our hearts.
We may face lingering pain, past arguments, and repressed emotions. This allows us to reconnect to past versions of ourselves so that we can not only transcend the old ways of being, but also take the best parts of ourselves forward.
Mars retrograde in the sign of Cancer can bring up defensiveness, grief, frustration, and anger associated with feeling threatened. The moon aligned with Mars asks us to sit with our feelings and any discomfort that may arise so that we understand the importance and the wisdom that our emotions can offer us.
We are also exploring what it means to be at home within ourselves during conflict. We may feel like we want to push ahead, make things happen, or come to a decision so that we can move forward courageously and initiate new cycles.
“In dealing with those who are undergoing great suffering, if you feel ‘burnout’ setting in, if you feel demoralized and exhausted, it is best, for the sake of everyone, to withdraw and restore yourself. The point is to have a long-term perspective.”
Dalai Lama
When we attune to the most vulnerable parts of ourselves, we can more easily meet others and ourselves with fierce compassion and radical acceptance of the current state of things. We can also create the spaciousness within that allows us to choose how we wish to respond to circumstances in our lives rather than merely react to them.
We learn more about what we love through our innate desire to protect what is sacred.
We are invited to take pause and reflect on how we incorporate self-care in our lives. We are also asked to determine what we most need to be secure and safe within so that we can release what is no longer aligned and live fully from our compassionate hearts.
“As you live deeper in the heart, the mirror gets cleaner and cleaner.”
Rumi

Tending to Our Tenderness
This full moon turns up the dial for us to connect to our more sensitive side. Cancer energy is very attuned to something beyond our own experiences, and we can instinctually sense the feelings and needs of others, allowing us to adapt to caring for them. This archetype’s superpower is using their sixth sense to read that which isn’t being said.
In its shadow form, Cancer can pick up psychic information and take it personally. They can be become too subjective and not read the energy correctly, especially if they have strong attachments, agendas, or emotions involved. They are also prone to psychic overload and putting others’ needs before their own—so much so that they can become quite off balance.
In working with this energy, we must learn to not make assumptions and instead check in with others as well as connect to what our own needs are.
This lunation is showing us what we require in terms of self-care. It also is illuminating our wounds around the cultural messages that urge us to continue to push beyond what we have the bandwidth for and is guiding us to soften and create the space to feel rejuvenated and restored.
When we prioritize softness and safety, we embody a deeper sense of value and respect for ourselves and our nervous system and create a more grounded and loving connection to ourselves.
“Release the shame you feel when resting, it does not belong to you.
Trisha Hersey
Reconnect to Restore
Cancer energy corresponds with nostalgia and reminiscing. This archetype can revisit a scene from their past simply by calling up a memory and connecting to how they felt in that experience. And nostalgia can become a powerful tool when we use it to bring awareness to our attachments or connect to a feeling that we desire to create more of in our lives. Recalling anything vividly from our own subjective experience can be a remarkable skill; however, it can also elicit intense emotional responses, making it difficult to let go. This lunation illuminates our suffering so that we can see where we are still holding on in ways that do not serve us.
This full moon guides us back into memories or past connections in order to help us heal from our old timelines and old ways of being so that we can create new pathways going forward.
“When I loved myself enough, I began leaving whatever wasn’t healthy. This meant people, jobs, my own beliefs and habits – anything that kept me small.”
Kim McMilllen

The Invitation
This lunation invokes moods and memories. We conjure the felt response needed to aid in our healing and our rebirth. We bring our attention to what requires our compassion, acceptance, and advocacy. We open to higher spiritual transmissions of the lessons we have been working with over the past 18 months. It is through our bonded connectedness to others and trust in our soul intuition that we can find support as we continue to develop our emotional intelligence and heart-led expression.