Cancer Full Moon January 2026
The 1st Full Moon of 2026 takes place Jan. 3, 2026 at 5:03am EST. The Moon sits at 13°02' of Cancer, the Cardinal Water sign it rules, focusing on home, family, and emotions, while the Sun is opposite at 13°02' Capricorn, Cardinal Earth, bringing energy to building lasting careers or a family business. This powerful polarity highlights your need for self-care and a comfortable home life versus your motivation to achieve success out in the world.
Cardinal signs are inheritantly geared to initiating things and when in the current opposition, they create a dynamic of feelings contrary to drive and emotions adverse to ego. There's help for this in the Full Moon chart, both due to the natural polarity of a Full Moon and the fact that the Cancer Moon's placement is in the 7th House of others. Feelings are strong for caring about loved ones or significant partners. The secret is in finding the balance.
The Moon is conjunct expansive Jupiter retrograde in Cancer amping up the emotional pull with a tendancy for increasing drama or turning up the waterworks. Thankfully, Jupiter is in a harmonious aspect to disciplined Saturn, in charge of boundaries and your inner authority. Self-discipline comes in to help keep things from going overboard. A reminder - Jupiter stays retrograde until March 11th, going Direct at 15°Cancer and not entering the Fiery Fixed sign Leo until July 1st! In the meantime, your job is to take small positive steps toward peace and family solidarity.
This Moon is also directly opposite Mars and Venus making it hard to be assertive without bursting into tears. Don't let your emotional fears prompt you to say something or take an impulsive action that you'll regret later! There's no need to rush anything right now. Stay calm, listen to your intuition, and build trust with honesty and the vulnerability to open up your heart... a little bit at a time. Once you've achieved some modicum of balance, the rest will begin to fall into place.
We are in a resting phase for most of January, so relax and enjoy it. All the slower-moving outer planets have yet to leave their respective signs and begin their new journeys. Neptune kicks things off by leaving watery Pisces and entering fiery Aries on January 27th, followed by Saturn on February 13th. They come together on February 20th at 01°Aries to get the ball rolling for 2026! Uranus leaves earthy Taurus and enters airy Gemini on April 25th, and with Jupiter leaving Cancer on July 1st to enter fiery Leo, we will have all the action we can handle in the Year of the Fire Horse, which starts on February 17th.