New Moon in Cancer 2026

Want early access to all my blog posts, as well as a free PDF New Moon Journal? Join my list HERE.

We are moving through some turbulent waters towards the Cancer New Moon.

Here on the island the weather is unsettled, the July heat disrupted by moody showers and unseasonable North winds. I don’t mind, I love moody weather, and I love a good Vancouver Island beach party, sitting on big cedar logs, bundled in shawls, hair whipping in the wind, trying to hold down the Tarot cards from blowing away. Handwoven blankets, rambunctious dogs, sitting a little longer even after the rain starts because the food is so good and the company is so precious.

I think this works well as a metaphor for how many of us have experienced this Cancer Season: connecting in friendship and community and savouring precious moments of wisdom-sharing, while still swept up in a turbulent and unpredictable environment. Watching storms on the horizon, yet making the most of the precious moment. Hopefully like me, you have been making plans for how to give and receive support in community: we will continue to need this as the Summer unfolds.

Here’s a brief look at the planetary picture surrounding this New Moon:

Mercury Retrograde in Cancer has brought the usual tech glitches, communication issues, and delays, but there are also gifts in the trickster god’s backwards journey through the waters of the heart. Mercury Rx in Cancer brings deep nostalgia, and you may be reaching out to old friends-of-the-heart, either irl or in your dreams. The nostalgia you are feeling might be tinged with extra melancholy, but I encourage you to embrace it as the gift that it is. There are parts of yourself that have been dormant for a while that you need to reclaim. Since Mercury just reached his Cazimi with the Sun, we are now on the downslope of the Retrograde, and after your aha moment on Sunday, the glitches might ease a bit.

We are still very much under the influence of the recent Mars/Uranus conjunction in Gemini. The Mars/Uranus cycle is a cycle of volatility. Uranus is an awakener, disrupter, and change-bringer, while Mars, the god of war and action, likes to run around the sky lighting fuses. Mars and Uranus amplify each other’s explosive energy, so the times of their meeting can feel like lots of little fireworks going off around us. These little explosions can illuminate, reveal, destroy, incite change, or simply bring awe. As you think back over the last few weeks, can you see places in your life where you have felt or witnessed little explosions or big reveals. And if you live in the United States, know that this transit has always marked turning points in your history, so current events in your country now are harbingers of the next 84 year cycle. More on this transit in a later newsletter!

Jupiter has just moved into Leo, beginning a new year of Jupiterian expansion in your Leo House. You are ready to grow in creativity, self-expression, and joy. Look back twelve years to understand better what this cycle will bring you over the next year. What positive growth did you experience from July 2014-July 2015? You’ll experience similar themes in your life over the coming year. Be ready to embrace your fierce, creative self!

The Cancer New Moon

Cancer is the cardinal water sign, representing the beginning of the water signs. I often think of sacred wells and springs when considering Cancer, as it symbolizes the purity of groundwater bubbling up from the deep darkness. We can imagine the interplay of the Cancer-Capricorn axis with water being held in underground limestone caverns and welling up into fresh springs. Cancer is also associated with the goddess, making sense for its connection to sacred springs, where people seek healing, purification, and visions of the sacred mother.

Embracing Sensitivities and Memories

Cancer in our charts represents a place where we deeply feel, yet may be private and guarded, just like a little crab at the bottom of the food chain protecting its soft body with a hard shell. It's where we protect the tenderness of our emotions and experience deep connections to family and traditions. Cancer's energy is also linked to nationalism, both positive patriotism and negative aspects of nationalism. Thus, the Cancer places in our charts are where we feel deeply connected to our inner waters, memories, and our relationships with our mothers and maternal family.

During a New Moon in Cancer, sensitivities, memories, sense of self-protection, and family affiliations can all be activated. It's a time for introspection and considering how we want to embark on a new cycle, focusing on the deep, watery, loyal, nostalgic, dedicated, private, sensitive, and empathic parts of our charts.

Here are a few suggestions for working with the New Moon in Cancer

The New Moon is the monthly meeting between the Sun and the Moon; symbolically, it is a time of new beginnings, when our outer expression and life path (the Sun) is aligned with our inner life, instincts, body-wisdom, memories, and emotion (the Moon). It’s a time for dreaming, meditation, connection to spirit and ancestors, and a time for a personal re-set, a check in to see how aligned your life direction is feeling with your inner truth.

What are New Moon intentions?

If you embrace the practice of New Moon intention setting, you are starting profound practice of connection. This is much more than a monthly to-do list or a simple manifestation wish list. New Moon intentions of this kind are unlikely to be effective. Instead, your New Moon personal ritual can be time to reflect on your goals and wishes and be sure they are in alignment with your values, your chosen life path, and your deepest desires. What has felt out-of-sync in your life over the last month? How do you want to feel at the end of the next lunar month? Are the goals you are working towards still what you truly want for yourself? The New Moon is a clean slate, a new beginning. Use it wisely!

Energy of the Cancer New Moon, and what kind of intentions to set

Each year in the month of Cancer (June/July) the Moon meets the Sun for the Cancer New Moon. This is one of the most powerful New Moons of the year for intention setting, as the Moon is in her home in the sign of fertile Cancer, where she is her most powerful. What kinds of intentions can you set with the Cancer Moon?

Cancer Moon wants you to work with the tide of your intuition and inner knowing, and to embrace your emotional flow. Cancer Moon wants you to develop emotional intelligence and maturity, and learn to trust your intuition. Cancer Moon wants you to truly understand what nourishes you, not just what makes you feel comfortable. Cancer Moon wants you to re-parent yourself in the ways you needed most but didn’t receive (even the best parents can fail sometimes.)

So the Cancer New Moon is a great time to begin again with nourishing and feeding yourself well - literally and figuratively. So Cancer New Moon intentions can be around your nourishment, your safety, your intuition and your emotions, how you want to feel, how you want to care for yourself, what makes you feel safe. This can be something little like “I will start drinking nourishing herbal infusions to support my mineral balance and bone health” (very Cancer/Capricorn axis!) to something really big like “I will start therapy to learn how to re-parent myself.”

When will my New Moon intention manifest?

New Moon intentions unfold over two different timelines. They unfold over the lunar month of 29 days, but they also unfold over a longer cycle of 27 months. So when you set New Moon intentions, you can continue to work with them over a couple of years. Your work with today’s Cancer New Moon will come to completion in October of 2028! These longer cycles mean that your New Moon intentions truly are impactful, and can move your life towards long-term positive growth and change.

When should I set my intentions?

This year’s New Moon in Cancer is happening in the wee hours of Tuesday,  July 14th, at 2:43am Pacific Time, at 21º of Cancer. You can set your intentions and do your New Moon ritual anytime over the next few days. A traditional moment for intention-setting would be right after spotting the first crescent of the Moon on the western horizon at sunset - this could happen for you on Tuesday evening or not until Wednesday, depending on your location.

I am wishing you true safety and deep nourishment under this beautiful Cancer Moon. May all of your good moon wishes come to be.

Lunar Love from Bronwyn

If you'd like to learn more Solstice lore, learn about Cancer as the Sacred Wellspring and where she lives in your chart, dive into more Midsummer journaling, explore the Wheel of the Year, and try some solstice magic (gathering dew! incubating prophetic dreams!) You'll want to explore my Summer Solstice Guidebook Zine, instantly downloadable!

[Get your Solstice Guidebook Zine →] 

If you want to go deeper with what this ingress means specifically for your chart: which house it is activating, what it is healing or being restored for you, and how to work with the Wheel of the Year in your chart, I  would love to sit with you in a reading. A one-on-one session is where we can trace the exact path of these transits through your life and find the holy well in your own chart.

[Book a Reading →]

And if you want ongoing companionship through the transits as the year unfolds, including monthly calls, a teaching community, and a place to bring your questions, The Astrology Salon is open for new members now. We are going to navigate this year together, with depth, creativity, community, and as much joy as we can.

[Learn more about The Salon →]

Want early access to all my blog posts, as well as a free PDF New Moon Journal? Join my list HERE.