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A crescent — the Moon, and silver in alchemy.
Also known as: Lunar symbol, Crescent moon symbol, Luna symbol, Silver symbol
A crescent denotes the Moon. Its direction carries information: the first-quarter symbol opens one way and the last-quarter the other, so the mark records a phase and not just the body.
Denotes the Moon, with the crescent's direction distinguishing the first quarter from the last.
Contexts: History
Denoted silver in alchemical writing.
A record of what alchemists wrote, not a claim that the association holds. The planet–metal correspondences were a system of belief, and the chemistry they rest on is not sound.
Medieval and early modern alchemy · Contexts: History
Is held in astrological tradition to signify emotion, instinct and the inner life.
Recorded as what astrological tradition assigns, not as a finding. Symbolwise does not assert that any planet influences anything, and astrology has no empirical standing.
Contexts: History
Is not the star and crescent, which is a distinct symbol with its own religious and national associations. The crescent alone is astronomical; the crescent with a star is not.
Worth stating plainly, because a bare crescent is frequently read as the Islamic symbol when it appears without its star.
Contexts: History
Means different things according to which way it opens, in a way no other planetary glyph does. A crescent opening to the left is conventionally the waning moon and one opening to the right the waxing moon in the northern hemisphere — and the convention reverses south of the equator, because the moon is seen the other way up.
Contexts: History, Navigation
Denoted silver in alchemical writing, pairing with the sun's gold.
Medieval and early modern alchemy · Contexts: History
Related forms that are not treated as separate canonical symbols — see our variant rules.
Unicode FIRST QUARTER MOON
U+263D, the crescent opening to the right.
Unicode LAST QUARTER MOON
U+263E, the crescent opening to the left.
A curved sickle shape, thick at the middle and tapering to points at both ends, open to one side.
A bare crescent is frequently taken for the star and crescent, which is a different symbol carrying religious and national associations the astronomical mark does not.
The astronomical crescent stands for the Moon itself; the interface one is a display setting that borrows the shape.
Sun and Moon are paired throughout astronomical, alchemical and astrological usage.