Full Moon In Cancer – 15 Poseideon 2

Photo by Ganapathy Kumar on Unsplash

Mythology of the Zodiac

The mythology behind the Zodiac of Cancer can teach us a lot regarding revenge, family relations, loyalty, forgiveness, and honour. Holding onto hurt and revenge can harm those loyal to you, it can drive you to hurt others in the worst of ways, and it can cloud your judgment.

In the Zodiac mythology for Cancer, Hera (wife of Zeus), in a jealous rage of revenge, punished Herakles (son of an illicit affair between Zeus and a mortal) with madness. This led to him killing his wife and family. To atone for his crime King Eurystheus of Tiryns assigned to Herakles his twelve labours. The second of these labours was to kill the nine-headed Hydra. As fast as Hercules cut off one of the monster’s heads, another one would grow back in its place. To solve this problem, Herakles came up with the idea of burning the Hydra’s heads with fire. This worked and led to the Hydra losing eight of its heads.

Hera was watching this scene as Herakles dwindled the heads down to just one, so to distract him, she sent Cancer, a giant crab, which grabbed hold of Herakles’ foot and hung on tight. This distraction didn’t last long, though, and Herakles crushed it under his mighty foot! This made Hera even more furious, but she also felt a wave of pity for the crab’s sacrifice. To reward the crab for his loyalty, Hera put his image in the sky as the constellation of Cancer.

Like Herakles, I like to “burn away the many heads of the Hydra” to seek forgiveness (for myself or others who have harmed me) by writing down the many things I need to let go of. In this regard, I think it’s important to invoke Herakles for this Fire ceremony under this full moon in Cancer.

Key themes this full moon

• Letting go

• Keep calm

• Chase a dream

• Make changes

• Forgiveness

• Family and friends

When is the Full Moon in Cancer?

• LA: Jan 3, 02:02am

• New York: Jan 3, 05:02am

• London: Jan 3, 10:02am

• Sydney: Jan 3, 21:02pm

• Brussels: Jan 3, 10:04am

Full Moon Fire Ceremony

You will need

• Dried rosemary or bay (for khernips).

• Bowl of water (for khernips).

• Something to cleanse your altar space (can be barley, salt sprinkled khernips water, whatever you like to do for your praxis).

• A candle.

• Saffron.

• Libation jug with contents (water, wine, honey, or milk).

• Vessel to pour your libations into.

• Frankincense resin or incense

• Charcoal disc (if not using incense sticks/cones)

The ceremony

• Prepare khernips.

• Use khernips.

• Cleanse your altar space.

• Light a candle/your altar’s fire and add saffron to its flame.

• First Libation to Hestia.

• Libation to Herakles and recite Orphic Hymn 11:

Hear, pow’rful, Hercules [Herakles] untam’d and strong, to whom vast hands, and mighty works belong,
Almighty Titan, prudent and benign, of various forms, eternal and divine,
Father of Time [khronos], the theme of gen’ral praise, ineffable, ador’d in various ways.
Magnanimous, in divination skill’d and in the athletic labours of the field.
‘Tis thine strong archer, all things to devour, supreme, all-helping, all-producing pow’r;
To thee mankind as their deliv’rer pray, whose arm can chase the savage tribes away:
Uweary’d, earth’s best blossom, offspring fair, to whom calm peace, and peaceful works are dear.
Self-born, with primogenial fires you shine, and various names and strength of heart are thine.
Thy mighty head supports the morning light, and bears untam’d, the silent gloomy night;
From east to west endu’d with strength divine, twelve glorious labours to absolve is thine;
Supremely skill’d, thou reign’st in heav’n’s abodes, thyself a God amid’st th’ immortal Gods.
With arms unshaken, infinite, divine, come, blessed pow’r, and to our rites incline;
The mitigations of disease convey, and drive disasterous maladies away.
Come, shake the branch with thy almighty arm, dismiss thy darts and noxious fate disarm.

From Theoi.com

• Ask Herakles to come and assist you in atonement (for yourselves or those who have wronged you). Offer frankincense by burning it on a charcoal disc or lighting incense.

• Now use box breathing. As you exhale, feel compassion and forgiveness for yourself (or those you wish to forgive). Write down the things you want to release onto paper or bay leaves, then burn these in the fire.

• Last Libation to Hestia.

• Thank the Theoi for assisting you with your fire ceremony.