Full Moon in Cancer: A taproot to inner authority

January 17, 2022 at 5:49pm CST—Last week as I was walking my dog, I was listening to Tami Simon interview Jungian analyst James Hollis on the Sounds True podcast.  Hollis said something that made me think of Monday’s Full Moon in Cancer.  It went along these lines:

There’s something in us that always knows what is right for us. Whenever there’s a doubt or question, I put it inside of me. We have within us extraordinary resources. The resources of resilience, insight, adaptation and at times, courage. Where does real authority come from?  We’re born with it: instinct. Of the enormous traffic inside, which voices truly come from your own soul? It’s a discerning process. It takes time to find that voice. But when you live it, it will be the right path for you. You’ll recover a relationship to your own truth. That’s the rediscovery of personal authority. 

The Moon opposite Pluto and sextile Ceres in this lunation taproots us to our extraordinary resources within. It’s an invitation to rediscover our personal authority by following our instinctual feelings. Like the person in the Four of Cups, the tarot card associated with this lunation, we have an opportunity to stabilize our inner world by examining the emotions that arise. More often than not, they’re connected to the still small voice that articulates our personal truth. Rather than push our feelings away at this time, deliberately sitting with them offers illuminating insight on our path.

In her new book Atlas of the Heart, Brene Brown writes: “So often, when we feel lost, adrift in our lives, our first instinct is to look out into the distance to find the nearest shore. But that shore, that solid ground, is within us. The anchor we are searching for is connection, and it is internal.”

With Mercury just having turned retrograde, it’s a time to go within and discern the signal from the noise and to feel the anchor of our being. Once we’ve clocked it, the path forward reveals itself like breadcrumbs shining in the nurturing moonlight leading us back home to ourselves. The advice for Monday’s Full Moon in Cancer is to sit with the feelings. Let them lead you to the resilience, adaptability and courage that nourish your personal authority.