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With its enchanting glow and its mysterious darkness, the Moon has been a deep and abiding symbol for many people from around the world. This was as true for the medieval period as it is today. As they gazed on or imagined the Moon, many medieval creators and audiences were mesmerised by its beautiful and enigmatic nature, and they wondered what the Moon might represent.

The Madonna of Humility (c1390) by Lippo di Dalmasio. Courtesy the National Gallery, London

Given the Moon’s strange and ethereal nature, it is not surprising that it features heavily in religious symbolism across a range of traditions. What is surprising is the way it was used, in very versatile and at times radical ways. Despite its association with inconstancy and fragility across a range of cultures, we also find it used to convey immense power. Here I want to focus on the Moon’s symbolic potency in two very different medieval religious traditions, medieval Christianity and medieval Islam.

First, a note on definitions. I use the term ‘medieval’ to cover the years from c500 CE to c1500 CE, but the term can be problematic. For example, ‘medieval’ is itself a Western word that we should apply to non-Western cultures with some caution. What might constitute the ‘medieval’ period also varies from culture to culture.

In addition, we could use a reference book like Signs and Symbols: An Illustrated Guide to Their Origins and Meanings (2008; 2019), and say that a symbol ‘is a visual image or sign representing an idea – a deeper indicator of a universal truth.’ In the medieval world just as today, the Moon could stand for much more than itself: it could be used to signify complex ideas or teachings, or to indicate momentous historical events. There is a long history of treating the Moon, and the other celestial bodies, in a ‘semiological’ way – as signs rather than causes of events on Earth, though the Moon was often believed to be a cause of events too. In the ‘semiological’ approach, the Moon becomes a text to be read and deciphered. It holds profound meaning, and it is for human beings to interpret it.

We see Earth below Christ’s feet, and above him the Sun and the Moon, showing Christ’s command over Creation

At the simplest and most straightforward level, the Moon emerges in art and poetry as a way of indicating the workings of the Divine within Creation. For example, the Moon appears in scenes representing vital stories in Christian history, emitting its glow at crucial moments of the Christian salvation narrative. The Moon features in many scenes of the Passion of Christ and of the Last Judgement, where it accompanies the Sun. Here, Moon and Sun together serve to show the deep and reverberating cosmic significance of these moments in Christian history. Examples of such illustrations include the Crucifixion scenes in the Book of Pericopes (a book of biblical passages) and the Sacramentary (a book of liturgical excerpts) for King Henry II in the 12th century.

The ceiling of the chancel of St Mary’s Church in Kempley, Gloucestershire, England. Courtesy English Heritage

When it comes to Last Judgement scenes, one powerful example is found in a wall painting in the chancel of St Mary’s Church in Kempley in Gloucestershire, England, which dates back to c1120. In this image, Christ is enclosed in a lobed mandorla – an oval-shaped aureola – holding a book or tablet with the Greek monogram initials IHC and XPS, indicating his name. We see Earth below Christ’s feet (echoing Matthew 5:35: ‘Nor by the earth, for it is his footstool’), and above him radiate the Sun and the Moon, showing Christ’s command over the entirety of Creation. In this example as in many other Last Judgement scenes, the Moon is part of a deep symbology that represents the fullness of Creation answering to Divine power.

A medieval depiction of Doom in the chancel arch of St Mary the Virgin at Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, England. Christ is shown sitting in judgement, to his left is the Sun and to his right the Moon. Courtesy St Mary the Virgin Church

And yet, the Moon did not simply appear in Christian iconographic scenes to show Divinity within Creation. Often, it was also a symbol with political import, used to convey hegemonic institutions and, in doing so, to establish complex power relations.

The Moon emerges in the concept of ‘hierocracy’: the supremacy of the Pope over the emperor.........

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