First Full Moon of 2012 in Cancer

  The Full Moon occurs at 19 degrees of Cancer early in the morning on January 8th on the east coast. Cancer is the cardinal water sign whose expression affects the subconscious, the emotions, and our instincts. Cancerian people are like their symbol, the Crab, always protective of their home and emotions, making them somewhat evasive when it comes to direct answers. When the Moon is traveling through Cancer, it's home territory, people can be very sensitive and prone to emotional wounding. The Full Moon will highlight emotional needs relating to the seeds sown at the Capricorn New Moon on Christmas Eve.

  The Sabian Symbol for the Full Moon degree is "A Priest Performing A Marriage Ceremony". This is about the ritualization of a traditional union whose purpose was for perpetuating the way of life of a particular culture through their progeny. Adding in the spiritual element of a ceremony blesses this union and sanctifies it. In this day and age, we know that the species has expanded on the Earth and perhaps what needs to be sanctified now is our commitment to Mother Earth in order to maintain life on the planet! 

  We have a special relationship to the Sun and our satellite, the Moon, as it orbits the Earth, showing our relationship to the life-giving sun through it's quarterly cycles. We are at the whim of the moon as it moves around the earth in a 29 day synodic cycle each month, (time it takes to go from one New Moon to the next New Moon), moving through all twelve different signs of the zodiac, pulling on the waters and emotions of us fragile human beings.  I think that one thing it's time to do, is to renew our vows as the stewards of the earth and this Cancer Moon highlights that need.

   Cancer, water, moon, emotions, undercurrents, subconscious... they are all words having to do with how secure we feel. I suggest you take some time to look at your issues of safety and security and ask yourself what you feel or intuit you need to be doing to make your home, your 'self' and your emotional needs more readily met. You cannot "figure this out", it needs to be a gut reaction to the words you're reading and the feelings evoked when I say, We are going to need emotional balance and a sense of safety and security as this year of upheaval and change progresses.  This Full Moon at the start of 2012 reminds us that the time is now to secure a sense of emotional well-being in our lives and where we live. I am not trying to provoke f.e.a.r. (false evidence appearing real...) but rather a renewed commitment to finding peace in your daily lives. There will be a lot of turmoil and upheaval this year, given the interactions of the cycles of revolutionary Uranus and transformational Pluto.

    As an aside and a topic for another time, some of you have asked me about my thoughts on Dec. 21, 2012 and the end of the Mayan calendar. Short answer... we're getting a new calendar. Long answer... the world is not going to end, maybe the world as we know it and know it needs to change, but that is a discussion to follow in another post. Please stay present in your daily lives and replace fear with love, it is the only true emotion! Ask yourself, which would you prefer and the answer is easy; do not give energy to fear, do something to focus on what you want, not that which you don't want. Step by step, every day, you have the power to make a choice with every thought, decision or action about where you want to be!

   For some this may involve sanctifying a union with that special someone you have already committed to in your heart and whom you know will always be there for you. Others may be seeking the nest they need that offers them security and dignity when they go out in to the world. Still others may have intense emotional issues or nurturing they need to address.  Whatever you identify as wanting attention at this Full Moon, you'll need to take the time or make the time to begin, it might be a telephone call, a letter or an admission to yourself of your real needs that gets the ball rolling.

  Then, sometime late on Sunday or early Monday morning, please perform some small, or large, ritual or ceremony for yourself that allows you to make this commitment to yourself and your secure place on Mother Earth as you flow with the nurturing energy of this Cancer Full Moon. A good moon ritual is to fill a small bowl with water and place it in front of a lit candle; write your intentions, all the people you want blessings for, and prayers for the earth on a small piece of paper, then say it out loud and carefully light it on fire from the candle and drop it in to the bowl of water, before you singe your fingers! Don't forget to leave an offering of a piece of candy, a flower or some small trinket for Mother Earth.

  Remember to keep your head in the stars and your feet on the ground!