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 “Whether it’s science or magic, if it’s of fun benefit, enjoy!” ~ ed

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We enter this new year of 2023 a little wiser for the wear, worn a little (or a lot) down by the shards and pains of last year’s past, reminded deeply of the bravery of the choice we make every day to show up to this life, to ourselves, to our bodies, our relationships, and to be present at such a transformative and potent time on the planet.

Last year was a doozy and then some. We learned who we were through the breakdown of foundations. We remembered the innate strength of the human spirit to endure test after test after test. We move forward now by going back one more time to the past. Though, to be a human, is to continuously spiral from and back from the past, into present, off into a future timeline. A continuous weave and spiral through life.

We enter this new year with memories of what was, reminders of where we’ve been, and the extra oomph we need to get us back on the path of being alive. Because no matter if we are choosing that aliveness, life has already chosen us. So we might as well show up fully for it—the aches, the pains, the grief, the heartache, the ecstasy, the joy, the wonder, the beauty, and everything in between.

We begin this year with an ending. With an energy of endings, as all full moons are. Of la luna herself lighting up the skies in her home sign of Cancer, on January 6 at 6:08 PM EST. The first full moon of the year made no mistake in landing at 16 degrees of the water sign, and ruler of the moon. What a beautiful reminder that everything begins and ends in the energy of home, the home of ourselves, of our bodies and beings, of who we truly are. A potent reminder to bring us back to home center. Back to heart center, and let that be the launching point for this new year. Back to the home and the hearth, of all that we can sense on the feeling planes to be true, of how we bring ourselves back home after the spiraling out of energy of this last year and of the holiday season.

Because let’s be real. We all did spiral out just a little this last year. The spiral is an energy of life though. Of endings and beginnings. Of life after death. Of the rebirth. A continuous wave of energy guiding us to center point, and just when we think we’ve hit the center, we round yet another corner of growth, learning, metamorphosis, and surrender. Spirals are inherent to nature and as we are nature, so too do we study its fluidity of energy by embodying it fully.

This full moon energy is the entry point back to self. Back to what matters. Back to the basic needs of the self to show up as the vibrant vessels of light and energy we came here to be. And often, that means confronting a whole lot of darkness to remember. As the moon shines in the pitch black of night, only teased by light from the stars, so too, does the inner light shine through and upon any darkness we face.

We ended last year with an entry point into Mercury retrograde, which will be with us until January 18, in the earthy and opposing sign of Capricorn. Mercury retrograde energy to begin our new year reminds us all that we can take our time. There is no need to hurry the process of launching new projects or pushing things ahead. That we can begin this new year slowly, deliberately, and at a sustainable pace for the duration of this year. A slow, steady burn of energy, rather than a quick yet fleeting flame.

This retrograde energy is coupled with the continuation of Mars (the planet of action) in retrograde until January 12. Again, the energy tells us to take our time. No need to rush ahead or fight against the energy of slowing down, or else we end up frustrated and feeling lackluster when all planets go direct at the end of this month, culminating with Uranus exiting its retrograde energy on January 22. At that point, the energy will shift and invite us to gather the energy we tend to this next month and proceed forward.

This full moon energy, landing in the soft, sensitive, hearty, intuitive, empathic sign of Cancer, the home of the Divine Mother energy, reminds us to keep mothering the child within. To meet our own needs with loving care, kindness, and compassion. To meet all parts of self with an ever-flowing wave of compassion. That even if there are parts of us that still feel so vulnerable and afraid, we can meet them with a warm enveloping hug and embrace and to acknowledge their fear, while also gently reminding them of such divine beauty and order in their still-healing wounds.

Capricorn season has been with us for a bit now, too. Capricorn energy is grounded, levelheaded, slow and methodical, detached from getting overly identified with our emotions as they shift and change—just the energy we need with the sun continuing to move through this sign. We are reminded of the strength within that we have to take care of ourselves, to mother and father the child within and give ourselves exactly what we are needing. To be our own parent. And that is how we build self-trust. That is how we come home.

The sun will be making a conjunction to Mercury retrograde, shining a bright light on the things we know we need to take care of, to send us the message that something needs to be tended to and addressed.

The moon and sun will both square Chiron (the wounded healer) a few days prior to this full moon. Take this energy as a check-in with things we’ve been healing, with the wounds we’ve been alchemizing, with the energy of the past aches and pains we’ve already been stewing in. This energy is nothing new. But it’s a reminder with the Cancer/Capricorn axis to continue to take care of the wound without overly identifying with the wound as capital ‘T’ truth, a reminder that often it is through letting things be that we bring healing to those very things we fight, prod at, and resist or wish were different.

Cancer full moon energy brings us back to the past but unlike the shadow overly attached side of Cancer, Capricorn energy sternly reminds us we can’t stay there if we want to heal, grow, or move forward. We can only keep replaying the past out for so long before we have grown weary of this human journey, and an obsessive endless replay of the past does little more than to continue to perpetuate the energy of suffering on and into the present. So, la luna says, let goooooo. Capricorn says, healthfully detach so we can be free to build something new—a sturdier foundation of self not built upon the pangs of ghost’s past but the promise of a new future that we are building. Not one that we fanaticize about with no work put into it, but one we know we will have to make steps toward to build.

Cancer energy is sensitive, deeply in tune with its own emotional landscape, and can be the needed portal to connect us to the truth of our own energy and hearts, that is if we stay out of story rumination and past fixation and let the rawness of feeling guide us home to truth center.

We can let the past be simply a reminder to heal, not a life sentence of future creation. We can only heal from the past as soon as we are ready to stop spinning the wheels of the mind and drop into the heart. The spiritual heart is the center of intelligence that Cancer knows is our true north, our guiding light. The heart is an emotional center, and too, a spiritual one. Our emotions flow like the tides, in and out, and unless we evacuate from pureness of feeling into the mind chatter of what it all means, we can allow this energy to speak to us this full moon, to guide us back to our spiritual truth and home.

Cancer energy governs our hearts, our families, the energy of the past, the energy of home, of our emotions or our intuition, and all the feeling aspects of life. We can remember all the times we let a story get away from us and created more spirals of chaos, pain, and turmoil. We can remember that we can bring compassion to ourselves in those spaces, too—because, we are healing, and have been healing.

We have been healing deeply, profoundly, and will be into this next year. But we don’t have to let healing be our sole reason for existence. Or our fixed identity. Uranus making a sextile and trine to the sun and moon with this full moon reminds us of the excitement and spark of life, of the electricity of current running through our veins even this very moment, of the life and aliveness found within new life, within making a different and new choice, within possibility of change and self-revolution by becoming the love revolution within, and letting that energy of love and truth ripple out as naturally and effortlessly as the ocean tides.

We have changed and grown so much this last year. We are not the same people we were a year ago. We have been forced to grow up. To make different choices or else be brought to death’s edge again and again, each time even more unbearably painful than the last it seems. We can’t keep evading the self we came here to be. We can’t because our souls won’t settle for that energy anymore—self-sacrifice, self-betrayal, self-abandonment, of neglecting the self, of ignoring the self, of devaluing the self.

We are more ready than we’ve been to choose the truth of our souls. To show up to the table of our family units and speak our truths. To communicate from our hearts with kindness, grace, and self-accountability. To show up to our relationships with ownership of our own wounds and taking full responsibility to heal those wounds, not blaming, projecting, or waiting for external sources to heal them for us. We came here to be fully empowered, and nothing short of standing in our power will do anymore.

And yet, the energy of the Cancer Mother reminds us that healing and growth takes ample amounts of self-care, self-compassion, and grace. Meanwhile, Father Capricorn holds our hearts and feet steady as we take this next year step by step, one choice and then another, one brick and then another.

So, keep choosing you. Keep showing up for you. Begin this new year with no resolution other than the resolve to move forward. To reflect on what’s been and honor all that’s come before but to not stay stuck in spirals of fruitless patterns. To let the past be the past. To let yourself and all wounds heal now maybe more by letting them be and breathe without drastic intervention on your part. To honor the energies of life that have preceded you, in all forms of you and not you. To honor the spirals of growth. Of remembering, and forgetting. Of coming home.

Let this full moon begin and end with more of you. More of your heartfelt truth. More slowness and permission to gently land in your own heart center. With permission to be as you are. With ample grace to forgive and let go of the past.

Let’s begin and end this year with Divine Mother heart energy, calling us home, bringing love to hidden spaces of darkness, bringing illumination to forgotten mystery of truth, bringing a lantern of warmth into the hearth of the self.

Let’s know deeply that we are home, here in these bodies, in this next breath, in this next year, in this next chapter of becoming and unbecoming, in this next spiral of life.

“If light is in your heart, you will find your way home.” ~ Rumi

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Check out Anna’s podcast on the Gemini full moon on Spotify or Apple.

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