January 6, 2023
Cancer is a water sign that is ruled by the moon and represented by the crab. The Cancerian energy governs home, memory, and history. These are the areas that you may find the most triggering during this lunation. This full moon in cancer as the first lunation of the New year is a fitting one. Although new beginnings are typically associated with new moons, releasing is the first step towards starting anew. I will never forget years ago, I received some very necessary, albeit unsolicited advice over tea. This Russian man told me a parable about a little girl and a teddy bear. This little girl was very attached to her teddy bear, but regardless she was asked to hand over the bear. She was reluctant but she was asked to have faith. She couldn't see that in exchange for her current bear, she would receive a larger teddy bear, one that would require both hands to hold. To receive the blessings and manifestations we've called in, release is necessary. Releasing can look different depending on the person and situation. It could be as simple as throwing away that old stack of magazines, donating old clothes, or as complicated as ending relationships. Regardless of how it may look for you, energetically, releasing is the equivalent of taking a hot shower to wash the day away. Most people prefer not to walk into the next day with yesterday's filth. Energetically, we have monthly reminders and opportunities, in the form of full moons, to let go of what no longer serves us.
If you're out of touch with yourself you may not be aware of what you need to release. Fortunately, the full moon is an amplifier. Just like the light that illuminates the night, it brings issues to your awareness by amplifying them. Under the effects of this energy, you may find it hard to ignore things that have been, or didn't realize were bothersome. These issues need to be addressed, to lighten your load and inform your next steps.
The focus of this lunation is emotion. Emotion is energy in motion. Trauma is the inability to process an event or events. So trauma effectively halts the motion of the energy and creates a blockage. If you can sit through the discomfort of allowing the emotions to break through this barrier, you will allow your emotions to flow freely as it was intended. This also allows you the space to release the discomfort of that blockage, similar to how nausea can subside after you vomit. Release what no longer serves your overall well-being. The free-flowing emotion also gives you access to tap into your intuition, which is an internal guiding force that operates via emotions.
We live in a world now that encourages us to deny our emotions and intuition in the hopes of people pleasing. This is hard to unlearn after decades of engrained behavior. I'm taking this opportunity to try to teach my children how to create boundaries now. It is so amusing to me how the little tips and tricks they're learning are fueling me to be more firm about my boundaries as well. Even though I know how to enforce a boundary, I struggle to communicate them before someone crosses them. I came across this song and immediately taught my girls. Now it lives in my head rent-free. When I feel uncomfortable, it plays in my head completely unprompted. I have the same hope for you. I hope you begin to hear your intuition communicating when you no longer feel safe and comfortable and have the courage to enforce your wants and needs. Brene Brown teaches that boundaries are not expectation placed on others, it is for YOU. Boundaries are where you draw the line that separates what you will and will not accept. It is not a choice for someone else to acknowledge, it is your willingness to continue to participate in an exchange. You have all the power to RELEASE people-pleasing and prevent others from continuing to bring you discomfort. Modern society is full of responsibilities and distractions that make it increasingly difficult to tune into our internal forecast. Phones, social media, and tv can give us a safe space to dissociate and avoid the issues plaguing us. But I would encourage you to at least temporarily break the pattern and force yourself to find silence. Give yourself the gift of listening to your inner monologue and identifying what your needs are.
If you're looking for more tools to support living by the moon, try this 2023 moon calendar. This calendar includes color-coordinated moon phases, a guide to stay in tune during each phase as well as space to write in monthly goals intentions, etc.