As we stumble through the bleary, post-celebratory haze of early January 2026, the universe has decided to greet us not with a cold shower of challenging resolutions, but with a massive, somewhat damp, celestial hug. This weekend the moon reaches its full luminosity in its own sign of Cancer. In astrological terms, Lady Luna is ‘at home’ here, which all sounds very lovely until you remember that being at home often involves laundry, having to deal with partners and family, and the daily opportunity to cry over slightly burnt pieces of toast.

If the New Year is typically about the masculine drive to do—to gym, to hustle, to optimize—this Cancer Full Moon is the Great Mother leaning over the astral banister and shouting, "Slow down, put a jumper on, and for heaven's sake, look both ways before you cross the road."

Symbolically, water sign Cancer is represented by the crab: a creature that carries its home on its back, moves sideways to avoid direct confrontation, and possesses a terrifyingly hard shell to protect a ridiculously soft interior. It is the archetype of the sensitive soul and at full moon, as it opposes the Sun in pragmatic Capricorn (the old goat), we find our sensitive selves caught in a cosmic tug-of-war.

On one side of the zodiac, the Capricorn Sun is barking at us to check our spreadsheets and fix the leaky roof, while, on the other, the Cancer Moon is whispering—or perhaps sobbing—that we really need to feel our feelings. Potentially it’s going to be a bit like trying to do one’s tax return (self-assessments to be completed by the end of the month, UK taxpayers) while a tearful toddler clings to one’s leg, bemoaning the loss of an irreplaceable cuddly toy. In our all-too-crabby state of being, meaningful progress in any area of our lives is likely to move sideways at best.

For some time, I have argued in this column that our collective crises—be they ecological, political, or personal—stem from a foundational breakdown in our understanding of the interconnected nature of existence. We behave as though we are separate from the biosphere, separate from our neighbors, and most tragically, separate from our true Self and the inviolate home that presence provides. We continue to treat our bodies like overstretched machine hardware and any distress regarding our accelerating malfunction like inconvenient glitches in the software of productivity.

In our insatiable, consumerist norm, we are conditioned to believe that happiness is a commodity to be acquired through relentless effort. We demand that reality conform to our expectations, and when it doesn’t, we register an objection in the form of stress, anxiety, or resentment for what appears to be lacking. Instead of directing displeasure toward those who don’t recognize our needs, what would happen if we made no demand to be recognized? What if we offered no objection to the feeling of being overlooked?

If you are not involved in the reaction, you are not involved in the problem.

(J. Krishnamurti)

After all, the Cancer Full Moon is not interested in our demands or objections, our New Year’s resolutions, our five-year plans, or our carefully curated digital personas. It exists (as do we) dispassionately in the truth of the present moment, however messy or inconvenient that ‘now’ may appear to temporal human perceptions. It’s at home in its heavenly orbit irrespective of the habitual, reactive human responses its presence may trigger. It makes no judgment. In the universal scheme of things pertaining to this remote corner of a tiny galaxy amongst the 200 billion thought to exist, there is actually no judgement to make.

The moon does not fight. It attacks no one. It does not worry. It does not try to crush others. It keeps to its course, but by its very nature, it gently influences.

(Masanobu Fukuoka)

The wisdom of Osono

We can find another paragon of non-judgment in the thoughts, words, and actions of Osono, a 17th-century elder of the Japanese Pure Land Buddhist tradition. After experiencing personal tragedy, she mastered the art of being at home in the universe, regardless of circumstance, and became famous for her radical acceptance and humility, exemplified by her frequent use of the word ‘yes’ (hai). She viewed even the nodding of a flower as a sign of the Buddha's call, teaching that true faith is accepting the Buddha's word without personal judgment or calculation. Her constant counsel to adherents, particularly those in dire straits, was as simple as it was devastating to the ego: ‘No objections; no demands.’

To the modern ear, this sounds like passivity, perhaps even a cop-out. But in the context of an animist vision where everything is understood as interconnected, Osono’s mantra is an act of supreme spiritual courage. To have no demands is to stop trying to manipulate the flow of existence to suit our narrow preferences. To have no objections is to accept the totality of the present moment—the grief, the joy, the rain, and the sunshine—as the very stuff of our liberation.

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

(Viktor Frankl)

When we object to our circumstances, we create a schism between ourselves and reality. We say to the universe, "You’ve made a mistake." This resistance nurtures the root of our suffering. Under the light of the Cancer Moon, which illuminates our deepest needs for safety and belonging, we are challenged to see if we can find that safety not by changing our environment, but by ceasing our protest against it.

To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in a certain way, good or bad.

(Eckhart Tolle)

Cancer is a star sign that understands the value of the retreat. It is the crab that pulls into its shell not to hide but to molt and grow. I salute those that champion the idea that ‘rest is radical’ and periodically retreat from the fray. In a society that promotes exhaustion as a badge of honor, choosing to do nothing is an act of resistance.

Is this Cancer Moon inviting us to stop being a manager of life and start being a full participant? As the great Masanobu Fukuoka2, father of the ‘do nothing’ farming movement often suggested, the best way to grow a garden - or a life - is to stop meddling so much. In our constant striving to improve circumstances, we regularly forget how to inhabit them. Fukuoka believed there was a validity to simply being present, being a vital contributor to life’s all-encompassing, benevolent embrace, one that we are usually too busy to feel.

In a world that equates busyness with godliness, why not claim doing nothing as a form of holy subversion? Under this full moon, let’s instigate a National Pottering Day from the comfort of our own sofas. It’s the quintessential Cancerian activity. It has no goal. There is nothing to be done. It is the art of moving things from one shelf to another, of unapologetically looking out of the window for as long as feels right, of lingering over the winter breeze on one’s skin, or of randomly smelling a lemon. It is ‘no demands’ in action.

3 radical resolutions for the first week of 2026

As we navigate the demands and objections of the coming days, I offer three top tips to practically apply Osono’s wisdom in our lives:

  1. The 24-hour no-objection challenge: initially for one day, try to meet every event—a traffic jam, a spilled coffee, a difficult email—with a silent ‘no objection.’ Notice the energy you save when you stop arguing with reality. See if you can extend it for a week.

  2. Cease the demands: observe how often you demand that your partner, your job, or your body be different than they are. For the following fortnight, try to love them exactly as they are presented to you.

  3. The art of napping: if the emotional intensity of the moment becomes too much, slink away from the throng. A midwinter hedgerow nap or a quiet moment in a darkened room is not laziness; it is merely an intelligent realignment with all that is. Do it all year.

As we move into 2026, a year that will no doubt provide its own share of interesting times, Osono’s mantra As we move into 2026, a year that will no doubt provide its own share of interesting times, Osono’s mantra might yet prove an invaluable prompt toward grateful acceptance of happiness and fulfilment. Irrefutably, life will provide the circumstances; perhaps our only job is to provide a resounding ‘yes’ in response. I trust there are no objections.

Peace comes when you stop expecting and start accepting.

(Traditional Buddhist Teaching)

References

1 Chinese Pure Land Buddhist Association. (n.d.). Pure Land Buddhism.
2 Masanobu Fukuoka was a Japanese farmer and philosopher celebrated for his natural farming and re-vegetation of desertified lands.