The Cancer Full Moon offers us an invitation to become the safe space we are craving or searching outwardly, an invitation to become our own home and connect with the feeling of home and safety within.
This full moon is at 10.33am on Monday the 27th December for those of us in QLD, Australia, which means the ideal time to do your Full Moon ritual is the evening before, 26th December, but don't stress if that doesn't work for you as the Full Moon energy hangs around for about 3 days either side of the peak full moon time.
For a great in depth look at the cosmic energies currently at play head to Moon Omens and/or Forever Conscious or just read on for a summary below before beginning the ritual.
A Full Moon marks the completion of a chapter of our life, allowing us to witness the result of that which we’ve sown and worked on since the previous New Moon, but also since Cancer was activated by the New Moon back in July this year.
Cancer energy provides a deeper attunement to subtle energy shifts, making us more sensitive to what’s going on within us, around us and within other people.
There are opportunities here for extra clarity around our needs and you may find yourself connecting the links between your childhood experiences and resulting habitual responses, insecurities and fears.
As we continue to navigate through Capricorn season, you may have felt the urge to cultivate greater self-discipline, develop a stronger focus on building your legacy whilst mastering the manifestation process & space-time reality. This Cancer Full Moon comes as a reminder of the value in truly knowing ourselves through this process. It reminds us that inner awareness of our emotional states & needs allows us to better nurture ourselves and create the support system that is needed for us to thrive.
The Cancer-Capricorn axis brings the spotlight to our emotional maturation journey. We learn to find harmony and balance when it comes to emotional self regulation and self care through distress, whilst also learning when to ask for help and support and seek to co-regulate with others. This axis is important in understanding our past and invites us to re-parent ourselves, ultimately working to build a sense of safety and security in every sense. Whether your focus has been on creating a sense of safety internally, emotionally, externally or materially… your journey will have undoubtedly required some time contemplating what safety and security truly means to you and discovering who in your blood or chosen family are part of creating that. It might even have led to understanding that perhaps they aren’t part of it, and instead you might be learning your own strengths in reparenting yourself and establishing a sense of inner safety.
The Full Moon in Cancer ends the year with a reminder to give space to our emotions, to honour our needs, and to pay attention to how we relate to what represents safety and security in our lives.
This Full Moon will align exactly with Sirius, our spiritual sun, activating its energy and beaming it into our beings. We may feel ourselves emotionally shedding all that is holding us back. We may also receive a wave of inspiration about how we can navigate a situation we are moving through and we may also receive energetic downloads about what our emotions are trying to teach us. Creating balance and neutrality within our emotional state as much as possible will help us to activate and navigate these energies with greater ease.
With Jupiter’s expansive and supercharged energy also active, there is a strengthening and fortifying of the energies of not just the full moon but also the feelings intensified by Sirius energy.
With Goddess asteroid Vesta also active, this is a good opportunity to pay attention to your environment. Does your environment lift and nourish your soul? Do the people you surround yourself with lift you up and bring out your best? Now is a good time to consider whether you need to set intentions and take steps to create a more aligned environment, and consider the type of energy you wish to attract moving forward.
Being the final Full Moon of this year, it provides the ideal opportunity to take a look back through each month, celebrating your triumphs, the hurdles you jumped, the lessons you learnt, the growth you experienced and all that has unfolded. Allow yourself to feel gratitude for your strength and courage in overcoming the struggles, but more importantly, feel gratitude for all the good things, the small miracles, the moments of joy that you experienced along the way.
Because Full Moon’s are a powerful time to release and let go, and Jupiter energy will be in strong support of this release… perhaps you can use your past reflections to uncover any habits, attitudes or beliefs that need to be released from your life in order to move forward.
As you look back, think about what feels heavy in your life that may be blocking you? What is there that you no longer wish to carry? You can offer them up now, allowing them to be carried away by the Full Moon’s powerful rays.
If you wish to receive a FREE Full Moon oracle reading from me please send me 3 to 5 pictures that you feel represent your true essence, from any era of time, and email them to sanctuary.safe.spaces@gmail.com with subject: “Full Moon Oracle Reading please”.
With so much cosmic energy shifting around us, our inner world can become our sanctuary, and if we’re able to go within, be still, present and deeply connect with ourselves and the wealth of wisdom living within us, our inner world can become our compass.
This full moon ritual encourages this journey inward, to reconnect to our inner wisdom/higher self/devine self, or whatever you wish to name it. This ritual offers us the opportunity to see with clarity the darker elements of ourselves whilst they are illuminated by the full moon, creating an optimal time to cleanse our energetic body and release any heaviness from our auric field that is not ours to carry. It is a great time to forgive others and forgive yourself in order to release and let go of all that may be holding you back in life. This is your opportunity to wipe your own slate clean in order to move forward.
What you will need for this Ritual
Journal & pen
Cleansing herbs/flowers/essential oils ~ this will depend on your chosen method of energy body/auric field cleansing
Objects of meaning to create a ritual altar It is recommended to have an object to represent each of the earthly elements:
1. Air ~ this could be incense, sage or diffused essential oils or perhaps gentle music.
2. Water ~ A glass of water
3. Fire ~ Candle flame
4. Earth ~ a plant, leaf, flower, a crystal or stone.
If you want to keep it simple, using a candle can actually cover all four elements (solid wax is earth, air flickers the flame, melted wax is water, and the fire is self-explanatory).
Optional extras:
Ceremonial Cacao or Chai or Tea
Tarot cards (if you don't have a deck then send through your essence images via email as mentioned above).
Sanctuary Cancer Full Moon Ritual
*The ideal time to perform this ritual is the evening of the 26th December prior to the Full Moon the next morning, but don't stress if that doesn't work for you, as the Full Moon energy hangs around for about 3 days either side of the peak full moon time.
Cleanse:
When it comes to energy cleansing, intention is everything. You don’t need fancy tools, just the intention.
If you’ve chosen to have a cleansing bath then do this prior to beginning the ritual.
If you have a face oil and gua sha or face roller you may choose to incorporate the use of these in your ritual cleanse.
If you’re choosing to smudge yourself along with your space then you can begin by lighting your sage or palo santo or other herbs, stating out loud your intention.
🎤 eg. “With this smoke I cleanse myself and my space” and go ahead and allow the smoke to move around your whole body and your space. If you cannot tolerate smoke then simply open a door or a window to allow the fresh air to cleanse the space around you stating your intention out loud 🎤 eg. “I welcome this fresh air to cleanse my space.”
Once you have cleansed yourself and your space, light your candle/s, and take a moment to appreciate the warm light it brings, illuminating you and all that you’re currently carrying, as you initiate this ritual.
✨ Draw an imaginary circle around yourself with a golden protective light. This circle represents the fifth element; Aether, tonight this circle is your portal between the cosmos and the terrestrial world. It is emptiness and vastness all at once, and within this circle you have drawn, you will be able to connect with the omnipresence of Aether, as you reconnect with yourself in this present moment.
You might like to use this guided visualisation recording to help you ground yourself.
Before we dive in ~ Just a little note about Full Moon release energy
The cosmic energy that builds leading up to the full moon forces us to deal with "our stuff." It is about peaking and releasing the old, of letting go of lower negative energies or patterns we may have fallen into.
The Full Moon Illuminates our own darkness, the deepest parts of ourselves that we usually can't see. It allows us to see where things are out of balance and we get the chance to bring them back into harmony.
Now is the time to process and release our fears, angers, arguments, disappointments etc. But in order to release the karma of these things we have to forgive, whether this be forgiving ourselves or forgiving another. Before journeying into our shadows, it is important to remember that before you incarnated you will have made several soul agreements, knowing that you wanted to evolve during this lifetime, and these soul agreements ask that other souls push you throughout this lifetime. This will show up in ways that our society might label as “triggering” or “pushing buttons” but ultimately these souls are showing up as teachers and are helping to guide you along your unique path of personal evolution.
So bear this in mind as you begin this introspective ritual, and see if you can look upon the difficult interactions in your life and imagine they are someone with whom you have a soul contract. Look for the lessons that the upset is teaching you. Is it possible to see it as a 'set-up' designed to help you evolve rather than an 'up-set'? If we accept that we’re having this human experience to evolve in order to eventually no longer have to reincarnate, we will see all of these difficulties as opportunities to learn and evolve.
So in this moment, as we turn our attention upon our inner turmoil, see if you’re able to thank the souls in your life for upholding their soul contract as being one of your teachers, whether they’re aware of it or not. Thank them and forgive them for the pain they are causing you during this human experience.
Journey into darkness ~ forgive & release others
Take a moment to peer into the depths of yourself without judgement, allow yourself to bring to mind anyone with whom you hold anger, a grudge or resentment.
This can be from the past few days, weeks or at any time in the past where you’ve held onto something that was done or said to you and you haven’t yet been able to forgive them.
✍🏽 Write down their names and as much about the situation as you need to EXPRESS it from your mind and body. Allow it to leave you and make its way onto the paper.
Now it’s time to visualise your forgiveness. Imagine each of them in turn, see them inside a pink bubble (pink representing love), see them in their true essence, as though they’re still an innocent child free from the conditioning of the world, free from the traumas of their own human experiences, and there they are in the bubble, smiling at you.
🎤 Allow yourself to create a good feeling between you two, allow that feeling to remain in your body as you say out loud, “I forgive you.”
If you feel to you can also ask them to forgive you for your sinister feelings towards them, and then imagine releasing them and sending them love which helps them float off in their pink bubble out of sight.
Once you have repeated this forgiveness visualisation for everyone on your list you can rip the page from your journal and put it aside, ready to burn at the end of the ritual.
Journey into darkness ~ forgive & release self
Take a moment to peer back into your depths and bring to mind any habits, thought patterns, beliefs or upset that you want to release.
✍🏽 Write each one down, as many as you like, and again you can write about each one as much as you need to to EXPRESS it and allow it to move from your mind and body onto the paper.
Now, as before with forgiving others, imagine yourself in that pink bubble, as though you’re looking at your inner child, your true essence smiling innocently at you, before the conditioning of the world took hold, before the trauma of your own human experiences happened.
Allow yourself to feel self compassion, empathy and love. Allow that loving feeling to remain in your body as you say 🎤 “I forgive myself for my past mistakes, for my bad habits, and my negative patterns. I forgive myself for everything.” And then imagine that your inner child’s bubble floats towards you and merges with you.
🎤 To release the karma of the negative energy that you have been carrying you can recite the following (you are welcome to adjust the wording if you wish):
“Under this glorious full moon I forgive everything, everyone, every experience, every memory of the past or present that needs forgiveness. I also forgive myself of past mistakes and allow myself to be governed by love in a universe that is love. As love adjusts my life I abide in peace.”
🎤 You may wish to add:
“I bring love and healing to all my thoughts, beliefs and relationships. I learn my lessons and move forward. I call on my soul fragments to be cleansed by the full moon and I call on them to rejoin me. I send love to myself and everyone I know and everyone who knows me, in all directions of time. Under this glorious full moon, I am healed. My life is healed. And so it is. So be it.”
🔥 You can now burn both of your forgiveness lists ~ this cleanses the energies into the ether for transmutation into love. (Please ensure you do this safely. Go outside and have some water nearby to pour over the ashes once burnt).
Physically release the energy from your body
You may wish to move your body in any way that feels good to you. This could be putting on some gentle music and exploring slow movement in your body as you sit or stand.
You may feel to put on some energising music and get moving, perhaps dancing more vigorously. Or perhaps you’d like to shake or do Emotional Freedom Tapping or any other energy shifting exercises that you feel called to do in this moment.
As you do move you might like to imagine the old stagnant negative energies physically leaving your body.
Gratitude replacing the energy void
Now that you’ve released the energy of anger, upset, grudge or resentment it’s helpful to replace this with gratitude energy.
Doing this allows you to raise your vibration (gratitude vibrates at a similar energy level as love ~ above 500MHz) empowering you to feel happier and healthier and will help your manifesting abilities in 2 weeks at the new moon.
✍🏽 To begin this gratitude practice, write a list of all the people, things, events, feelings etc. that you’re truly grateful for in your life.
Now try and really FEEL into your gratitude. To help you with this, here is a guided gratitude meditation.
🔥 And as this time of month calls for release, you can burn your gratitude list or
🌱 You’re also welcome to plant it in the earth if you prefer, as though you’re planting the seed of gratitude to grow more things to be grateful for.
However you choose to release this list from your possession you may also like to state:
🎤 “I know that I am blessed and I live my life within that knowing”
An optional deeper journey into the self
Time to ask some hard questions specific to this Cancer full moon. Having performed the energetic cleanse of the above ritual you're going to be more connected with your inner psychic and better able to answer the following questions truthfully, and hopefully without self judgement.
✍🏽 Cancer Full Moon journalling prompts (feel free to choose just a few from this list)
Do I exist in a nurturing and uplifting environment and if not, what needs to change?
What does safety and security mean for me? And how can I create this for myself, either alone or with the help of others?
What small miracles, moments of joy, lessons and triumphs can I be grateful for from this past year?
Have I been insecure, clingy and no fun this month?
Have I been coming at what I want sideways instead of tackling it head on?
Have I been sulky, moody, brooding or manipulative this month?
Have I been secretive and possibly even a tad paranoid?
Have I had enough family time, or time with people who feel like family?
Closing your ritual
If you chose to go deeper by exploring the above questions you may have received some intuitive messages and guidance from deep within. You may wish to take note of these, along with the following important messages during this full moon:
Feel sure of yourself.
~
Find a balance between your need to achieve, and your need for quality time at home.
To finish your ritual you may like to again move your body through dance, yoga, shaking, EFT tapping, Qigong or any other way that your body feels called to move.
You may also like to connect with your body through gentle massage all over your body and using your gua sha or face roller.
You may like to stand barefoot outside, connecting with the energy of the earth as you gaze upon the magnificence of the moon. Perhaps stating a mantra, intention or affirmation that arose from your journalling.
You may like to finish with a cup of chamomile tea or ceremonial cacao (as long as it wont keep you up all night of course!)
There is no right or wrong way to end your ritual, just follow your intuition and do whatever you feel called to do. But after you're finished, I do recommend doing some sort of calming meditation before bed as the full moon energy can really affect our sleep in the days leading up to and soon after the full moon.
I hope you've enjoyed this ritual. I'd love to hear any feedback you may have about what you loved or what you think could be improved upon. So please get in touch!
💜✨Love & light✨💜
Amelie
Thank you Amelie for this full moon ritual. I love it. I hope to do more of these in 2024 🙌
Love always, Jenilyn