The Moon and Her Phases

Two teams of land surveyors make their separate ways down beneath the surface of the earth, one team from England, one from France. The year is 1990 and they are following the tunnelling machines that are heading towards each other beneath the English Channel. These machines must be guided with absolute precision, relying on the combined expertise of both teams to ensure they meet perfectly in the middle. Above them is an immense weight of water moving with the ebb and flow of the ocean tides, out of step with the Earth’s terrestrial tides, depressing and raising the solid earth and subtly tilting the ground surface.

O, swear not by the moon, the fickle moon, the inconstant moon, that monthly changes in her circle orb, Lest that thy love prove likewise variable

Romeo And Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2. Juliet

The proper colour of the Moon, according to John Guillim, is Argent. The moon’s cycle begins ‘Incressant’, facing to Dexter (to the right of the shield bearer rather than the observer). The moon ‘in her Complement’ forms a full circle, typically with a face. The waning moon is ‘Decressant’ and facing to Sinister. Finally, we have the moon ‘in her Detriment’ or eclipsed - the shield Argent and the moon Sable. The moon is depicted by Guillim and Nisbet with radial lines rather than rays. As Guillim observes, “the Moone hath all her light from the Sunne”.

The Moon in Her Complement, as depicted by John Guillim, 1610

Alexander Nisbet quotes Sylvester Petra Sancta (1590-1647), saying that the moon “is never carried in arms” and, as a charge, the moon is not often encountered. Nisbet mentions Louis, Grand Dauphin of France who had a moon to reflect upon his father Louis XIV, the Sun King. He also mentions Christopher Baillie of Walston:

Azure, the moon in her complement, between nine stars Argent

Arms of Christopher Baillie of Walston, as depicted by Alexander Nisbet, 1722

The arms of Baillie of Walston are given by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies as his only example of a moon in A Complete Guide to Heraldry (1909). Walston in Lanarkshire was held by Robert Baillie from around 1620 but the line of this family died out in the early eighteenth century. A dispute over the property rights was eventually settled in 1748 by the House of Lords, in favour of George Lockhart of Carnwath. Lockhart gave the tenancy to his Estate Factor, James Stodart, the great-grandfather of Robert Riddle Stodart, Lyon Clerk Depute. James Stodart had reputedly helped Lockhart’s son evade capture in the aftermath of Culloden. Walston remained with the Stodart family for five generations.

The arms of another branch of the Baillie family, Baillie of Jerviswood, were similar. A common ancestor of these two Baillie families had a shield Azure with nine stars arranged 3, 3, 2, 1, depicted by Mackenzie in 1680 as estoiles. These nine stars represent the constellation of Ursa Major, their celestial nature confirmed by the motto Quid clarius astris (What is brighter than the stars?). Nisbet uses this example to justify his depiction of stars of the heavens as mullets, which he also calls ‘stars’. This is the star form adopted by the armigerous Clan Baillie and descendants of Robert Baillie of Jerviswood. Robert’s arms, which Mackenzie also mentions only a few years before Robert was executed for treason on Christmas Eve, 1684, were:

Sable, the sun in his glory between nine stars Argent (3, 2, 3, 1)  [Nisbet has ‘the sun Or’ but it is usually emblazoned Argent, like the Baillie of Walston moon]

Arms of Baillie of Jerviswood

The Baillie of Jerviswood arms survive in the grand-quartered arms of the Earl of Haddington, whose surname is Baillie-Hamilton. The Baillie sun has fared somewhat better than the Baillie moon. A connection between the Baillie families of Jerviswood and Walston is hinted at in the Baillie of Jerviswood crest: a crescent Or. These Baillie arms were also quartered by the Buchanan-Baillie-Hamilton family of Arnprior before John Michael Baillie-Hamilton Buchanan was appointed Chief of Clan Buchanan in 2018. For a clan chief sometimes less is more, preferring the unquartered arms of the clan name.

Arms of the Earl of Haddington (Wikimedia: Tinynanorobots, restyled)

John of Fountains, Bishop of Ely from 1220 until his death in 1225, was said to have taken the dream of Joseph from Genesis 37:9 for his shield. In Joseph’s dream the sun signified his father, the moon his mother and the stars his brethren:
Azure, the sun, the full moon and seven stars Or, the two first in chief, the last of orbicular form in base

Arms of Johannes de Fontibus, Bishop of Ely

The moon in these forms, distinct from crescents, is a rare find in the “Ordinary of arms contained in the Public Register of all Arms and Bearings in Scotland” as published by Sir James Balfour Paul in 1893. Where found, it is typically in the crest. William Berry’s Encyclopaedia heraldica; or, Complete Dictionary of Heraldry of 1840 has the following examples for Pitcairn of Scotland.

• The crest for Pitcairn of that Ilk, and Forthar: The sun in splendour Or
• The crest for Pitcairn of Dreghorn, a star, which is actually a sun: A star of six points wavy, with straight rays between each point, within a circle of clouds
• The crest for Pitcairn of Pitcairn, taken from the Lyon Register, replacing the masculine sun with: A moon in her complement, proper

In Fairbairn’s Book of Crests, 1905, there is a combination of elements from these Pitcairn crests. James Fairbairn emblazons the crest as a moon without rays within a circle of clouds.

The Pitcairn Crest from Fairbairn’s Book of Crests (archive.org)

The Italian mathematician, physicist and astronomer Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1746-1813) bore an equilateral triangle with the moon in chief. His work on the three-body problem, studying the interactions between the Earth, Sun, and Moon and the motion of Jupiter’s satellites, led him in 1772 to identify special-case solutions now known as Lagrangian points. For any two orbiting bodies, there are five Lagrange points (L1 to L5) where the gravitational forces of the larger bodies and the centrifugal force balance. These points all lie within the orbital plane of the two bodies, and both the Sun–Earth and Earth–Moon systems have five distinct Lagrange points. The James Webb Space Telescope operates near the Earth–Sun L2, an ideal location for infrared observatories, where the cold, stable, and unobstructed environment allows it to capture the faintest light from the universe with remarkable clarity.

Arms of Joseph-Louis Lagrange

In 1799 Napoleon Bonaparte established the Sénat conservateur and appointed several scientists and explorers, including Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Gaspard Monge, Pierre-Simon Laplace, and Louis-Antoine de Bougainville. Their arms were charged with a canton, which in Lagrange’s case could partially eclipse the face of the moon:

De sable, au triangle équilatéral évidé d'or, surmonté d'une lune d'argent, franc quartier du Sénat

Given the power of the moon to move the surface of the earth and her influence over our lives, she is surprisingly rare in personal heraldry. The crescent moon, with face, is found in the early seventeenth century Wappenbuch of Johann Siebmacher (1561-1611) for the arms of Freiherrn and Ritter of the German States. Including the simple crescent shape, Siebmacher writes “Der Mond wird in vielen Wappen gesehen” The moon is seen in many coats of arms. However, Fox-Davies advises that “the crescent moon must not be confused with the ordinary heraldic crescent.”

A decrescent moon and star from Bad Tölz, Germany, derived from Weber arms in Book I, Plate 39 of Siebmacher’s Wappenbuch

The ‘ordinary heraldic crescent’, though derived from the moon, is, like the mullet, not always interpreted as a celestial body, even when paired with a star. The star and crescent motif has origins in classical antiquity, where it was used in Greek and Roman iconography, particularly in connection with Hellenistic rulers, lunar deities, and the city of Byzantium. However, this motif could also signify faith, appearing in Christian contexts well before its later association with Islam.

Crescent and Star symbol, Byzantium, 1st century B.C. (Wikimedia: Dbachmann, restyled)

By the 14th century, the star and crescent had become a prevalent motif in Western heraldry, influenced by both Marian devotion and Byzantine tradition. In Byzantium, the crescent had long been a symbol of divine protection, but its specific association with the Virgin Mary became more pronounced in Western Christianity after the Crusades. The crescent moon in Marian iconography was inspired by her identification with the Woman of the Apocalypse, reinforcing its spiritual significance. Meanwhile, a single star came to represent Mary as the “Stella Maris” (Star of the Sea), a guiding light for the faithful.

This shift from a secular emblem to a Christian symbol is reflected in heraldic traditions across Europe. Cities with strong ecclesiastical ties, such as Magdeburg and Halle (Saale) in Germany, adopted the motif to express Marian devotion. In contrast, Portsmouth’s arms, dating back to the 12th century and linked to Richard the Lionheart, reflect the earlier Byzantine iconography and King Richard’s connection to the Holy Land.

Arms of Stadt Halle (Wikimedia)

In A Grammar of English Heraldry (1913), Sir William Henry St. John Hope makes no distinction between the moon and a heraldic crescent. He writes that The moon is generally a ‘crescent’ with horns upwards. He also rejects the terms ‘increscent’ and ‘decrescent’, preferring to identify these as ‘waxing’ or ‘waning’ moons.

The novelist, poet and historian Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) had his arms and crest matriculated from Scott of Harden, the crest described as:

A lady richly attired holding in her dexter hand the sun, and in her sinister the moon

In Sir Walter Scott’s achievement of arms from 1822, the moon is shown as a crescent (horns upwards) and is no different in shape to the crescents in his arms.

Heraldic achievement of Sir Walter Scott, 1822 (The Court of the Lord Lyon)

Sir Patrick Caldwell-Moore (1923-2012), who hosted BBC’s The Sky at Night from 1957 until his death in 2012 and “inspired every British astronomer, amateur and professional, for half a century” (Brian May), was granted a coat of arms in 2010. Although there are three decrescents, or waning moons on his shield, it is the telescope in his crest that best captures his lifelong love of astronomy. Fittingly for Sir Patrick Moore’s charming eccentricity and humour, a cat peers through it.

In British cadency, the crescent is the differentiating mark for a second son. The coat of arms of the City of Hobart uses crescents to indicate that it was the second city founded in Australia. However, the crescents are neither in the shield nor in the crest. They were granted by the College of Arms in 1953 as part of an original design for the mantling.

Beyond heraldry, the crescent moon and waves in the upper-left corner of a 1588 portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh (c.1553-1618) are thought to be a play on Raleigh’s relationship with Queen Elizabeth I, with the queen as the moon goddess Cynthia, controlling the water, a pun on Walter.

The moon, rare in heraldry except as a crescent, can symbolise mystery, change, renewal or religious devotion. As Dr John F. Müller explained in an article for Country Life, the idea that the elements on a coat of arms have inherent meanings is considered esoteric. “No such secret key exists”. Nevertheless, even when removed from a celestial setting, the shape of the crescent moon still conveys a sense of enduring presence and transformation.

Do you really believe that the moon isn’t there when nobody looks?

Albert Einstein

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