Finding Your Hand in the Age of Tools and Transformation
Saturday, 3 January 2026
Today marks a Full Moon in Cancer at 13 degrees, with the Sun in Capricorn shining across the sky. This is no ordinary full moon as it’s a superfull, which occurs when the moon is closest to the Earth, amplifying its emotional intensity.
The Cancer Full Moon calls us to go inward. It is emotional, intuitive, and home-focused, prompting us to notice where our emotional needs have gone unmet. It asks us to rest, reflect, and tend to the inner life, where the quiet corners of our hearts and minds often get overlooked in the rush of daily living. The crab of cancer is coming out of his shell under the moonlight to take a break and let out what was bottled up inside.
In contrast, the Capricorn Sun offers structure, discipline, and ambition. It asks: What am I building? What am I accountable for? Capricorn urges long-term vision, dedication, and the patience to craft something that lasts beyond immediate gratification.
The interaction of these energies, with Cancer’s inward-seeking emotional tide and Capricorn’s outward-reaching structural ambition, creates a fertile moment to examine both our inner world and the frameworks we are constructing in our lives. I have a soft spot for this combo as it satisfies this masculine and structured approach, to a protective emotional innerworld of the cancer.
Cancer at 13° is symbolised in Sabian imagery as “One hand slightly flexed with a very prominent thumb.” This image evokes humanity’s practical determination, our ability to act decisively in the world, and the tools we use to shape it. Capricorn at 13°, “A fire worshiper,” reminds us of the power of spiritual aspiration, of linking our talents and actions to a higher purpose.
The idea of a prominent thumb is what sets humans, and many of our primate cousins, apart from the rest of the animal kingdom: our ability to create and use tools with precision. In my latest YouTube video, I experimented with this myself, sketching using burnt palo santo instead of my usual charcoal that I had run out of. The methods and systems I relied on stayed the same, but the tool itself required adaptation.
This mirrors what Jane Goodall observed in apes, who used twigs and sticks to extract ants from tree crevices. Moments like these reshaped our understanding and definition of what it means to be human. For so long, we defined our uniqueness by our ability to use and manipulate tools. But observing the ingenuity of apes challenged that notion forever. We are not as singular as we once thought, and we are not special; we are not alone in our use of tools to survive, adapt, and shape our world. Please watch her Famous Last Words interview for some inspiration.
Opposable Thumb: A Definition
noun (uh-poz-uh-buhl thum)
Latin: opponere = to set against, to oppose
A thumb that can be placed opposite the fingers of the same hand, allowing for grasping, manipulating, and handling objects with precision. The evolution of the opposable thumb was a key factor in primates’ ability to adapt and shape their environment.
I want to carry this idea into our modern-day context. A question that has been on my mind for years now, since I started getting hints and ideas toward the future of technology and humanity, has been: “What will it mean to be human in the age of true AI?”
As we enter the era of true AI, I find myself more and more reflecting on what it means to be human. Today, generative AI and intelligent agents are great tools. Powerful tools, but still in the stage of “twigs and sticks” compared to the full potential they could reach. They feel more like fingers, rather than a fully developed thumb that can grasp and manipulate with the dexterity we need to engage with our world responsibly. But with my days of sitting in my silence and watching the world turn round as new launches and tools arrive, I still see fingers being developed, not thumbs. And I want the whole damn hand to work with.
Let’s place this into the hot topic of this week, and I may as well share a quick two cents on this, as I had warned people of this security risk years ago…Manage My Health and the breach of people’s sensitive medical data. One word to solve this: decentralisation. Doesn’t have to be blockchain, but one centralised server relying on encryption and good faith is no longer enough. Never was. Humanity needs a decentralised approach, especially in a world where someone could be on the brink of breaking into true AI.
That calls for a truly decentralised system capable of holding and protecting what matters most without slapping you across the face on a random Wednesday. Just as the opposable thumb allows precision, our systems must allow secure, adaptable interaction with the world around us.
If humanity wants a steady hand to hold as we evolve into what we will become, we need to make sure it’s one that we all can trust.
Final Notes:
I want to wrap up today with a reminder from the article I wrote during a Capricorn Moon Full and Cancer Sun on 10 July 2025, originally published on my Cosmic Anthropology Substack when I was writing over there. At the time, I explored the curious connection between Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler, who were born just four days apart, and both carried a Capricorn South Node and a Cancer North Node. The article was a study in light and shadow, power and control, and the ways we navigate authority in the world. Highly recommend reading it.
The lesson then, and now, is timeless: structure and influence alone are not enough. True power requires integrity, emotional wisdom, and the courage to face our own shadows. Chaplin embraced his vulnerability and used it to inspire humanity; Hitler let his fears dominate, wielding control as a weapon.
But this Full Moon invites a gentler, inward turn of questions. So, ask yourself: what part of your heart holds the aged wisdom that completes your puzzle? What insights have been waiting for you to notice them?
All the tools, the knowledge, and the courage you need are already in your hands. You just need to simply trust them and let them guide your next steps.