On Friday January 6th at 6:07pm Eastern Time, the Moon will stand in opposition to the Sun and become full its light.

Whenever a Full moon occurs, a flood of energy comes to a head in the skies. The themes, lessons, and emotional timbre reaches a climax. At the same time, a great tension arises between our needs and our wants, our desires and our circumstances, our conscious and our unconscious.

Because the full Moon starts the waning season, her placement indicates circumstances and behaviors in our lives that we often need to release. As she wanes and separates from the opposition to the Sun, so too should we wane and separate from the things in our lives that do not serve us.

The placement of the Sun indicates what our current focus should be, and the placement of the Moon indicates what we should release. This full moon is occurring in the soft, nurturing, sensitive sign of Cancer, in opposition to the Sun in the dour, hardworking sign of Capricorn.

Cancer is ruled by the Moon, the mother of the zodiac. For this reason, Cancer’s significations carry very strong lunar themes. The Moon reflects the nurturing maternal principle. As the celestial mother of the cosmos, she desires to take care of our needs, make us feel safe and loved, and nourish us however possible.

People with a heavily Cancerian influence are very attuned to people’s needs and desires, and particularly sensitive to the emotional well-being of those around them. Cancer tends to prioritize immediate gratification and satisfaction of emotional needs through nurture and care, in contrast to Capricorn’s focus on denial and asceticism in order to build a better future tomorrow.

As the Sun has been moving through the sign of Capricorn, the atmosphere has been ripe for receiving insights and revelations about what grounded, long-lasting can be made in our lives and how we can genuinely transform our situations and conditions to better fit the kind of ideal life we would like to live. This season allows us to see what work we can accomplish to set ourselves up for success the rest of the year.

So as the Moon reaches her apex in opposition and discord with the Sun, we reach a complete antithesis between our emotional needs and safety blankets on the one hand…

…and our duty, responsibility, and deeper goals we are striving towards on the other.

Along the way this season, I am sure that you found behaviors and predispositions that you were very attached to and did not want to let go of. You recognized bad habits which, while very nurturing and rewarding in the moment, ultimately keep you from building the kind of life you would actually like for yourself.

We all have habits, behaviors, people, etc. that we use for emotional nourishment and fulfilment. They make us feel safe, okay, loved, and taken care of. There is nothing inherently wrong with the things that we use to make ourselves feel this way.

But sometimes the things that we use for emotional safety and nourishment actually keep us from living out our purpose, fulfilling our mission, and completing the work that we came here for. Ultimately, they inhibit our total flourishing, because we become so preoccupied with feeling safe and getting whatever we want that we can’t actually do the things that will make us truly happy.

In the end, we can become attached and addicted, and we live a miserable life that superficially should be enjoyable. We settle for instant satisfaction and behaviors that are nourishing on the surface, but that pale in comparison to the beauty of a life that can only be built through hard work and dedication.

Use this full moon period to release attachments to comforts and safety blankets that ultimately keep you from achieving what you want and building the kind of life for yourself that you dream of. What is it that will make you truly happy? What must you do to truly achieve the life of your dreams? What attitudes and habits keep you from achieving this life?

Green Calcite is a specific for addiction withdrawal symptoms. Leopardskin Jasper works on addictions to more yang addictions such as caffeine and alcohol, and amethyst on more yin, numbing substances.

Magical rituals in the evening hour of the Moon on Friday the 6th will be very potent, as they will be extremely close to the exact moment of its opposition. Engaging in rituals of letting go and release would be auspicious. As this is happening on Venus’ day, you can also call in other, more fulfilling replacements to the safety blankets you are trying to release.

Let go of those safety blankets that you know you have outgrown. Don’t walk around with crutches after your body has healed. Don’t succumb to the numbness of a sterilized, pain-free existence. Create space for the divine energies of the heavens to fill your life with other things that are far more meaningful.

If you do, you will find more joy and happiness on the other side than you can ever get by remaining in your comfort zone.