#requisite disclaimer on my post about gender and symbolism

[onewomancitadel]

On Crescent Moons: “The crescent moon is a symbol of new beginnings hope and optimism. This phase can also be seen as representing lifes journey from darkness into light it offers guidance to those who are lost on their path It can also represent transitions such as someone leaving one life stage for another such as childhood to adulthood. Crescent moons are believed to signify love and fertility. Unmarried women wear them believing theyll find their soul mate soon after doing so." -EmperorLuffy

Hi EmperorLuffy. (:

Yes, this is interesting but I would want to know where the source is from. Symbolism is extremely culturally and temporally contingent and when I'm analysing it in a show I'm wondering what set of tools the author is using to convey their symbolic ideas. It's only coherent if it's a constrained set. Unless it's classic subconscious cultural ideas which I can reference, but even then that's not always ideal.

So I can say with some degree of certainty that the relationship of solar/lunar ideas are related to classic ideas of unity in opposites, and maybe this relationship is best described in alchemical marriages in alchemical storytelling. But that theme of opposites and unions is found throughout Jung and Campbell, the wholeness to return to.

That's what I generally go by. But in more constrained contexts like the Haven scene, where the crane imagery, for instance, might reference wedding symbolism of cranes, I am willing to be more lenient.

In terms of the crescent moon I am not surprised there would, say, be an association with fertility, due to the association with the scythe (harvest, death), Ruby's Crescent Rose, which is doing all sorts of thematic stuff. Speaking generally the lunar is feminine, and the feminine is associated with fertility. (But these things are always framework-contingent. The solar is feminine in Norse religion, for instance, of what we know of it).

In fact even more generally of the lunar, beyond the crescent which you propose here to carry associations of fertility, the moon is often associated with menstruation, just like the Red Riding Hood fairytale itself. Menstruation is a developmental threshold to be passed through, but it also carries the dual-notes of blood - life and death. In RWBY they're fairly straightforward about, 'Your blood is red like roses' lol, but menstruation is generally a taboo topic they would probably choose to avoid, and I'm ambivalent about how they're choosing to characterise Ruby's growth in the show.

That is, if you've read my previous post about Red Riding Hood's sexual undertones, I'm not sure her character journey is getting any of those messier fairytale associations. But I do think 'passing the threshold' and children becoming adults is present in the story; that's a very simplistic way, for instance, to describe the story is more complicated than good guy kill bad guy, and Ruby's period of (quite likely) disillusionment after the fall of Atlas. (Especially learning, for instance, your parents were people just like you).

Anyway, as this is a follow-on from the previous post about Cinder and the crescent moon: in terms of absolute show symbolism, the crescent is Ruby's because of the scythe and that related duality.

As it is, autumn already carries themes of harvest for the Fall Maiden. So you don't really need to double up with complicated lunar symbolism.

Symbolism should be visually accessible and communicative, and nowhere have I seen Cinder associated with the crescent moon, but she has been lunar generally and is, symbolically, the fallen half of the moon. Again, I reference the points I've made before, which is that the show is communicating something very visually obvious and punny.

Thanks for your ask and hope you are having a good evening.

I'm not trying to come down hard on you, I'm just trying to communicate what is good about symbolism and what works, and generally my method in general. It's fine if you disagree.

#seraphina's asks #user: emperorluffy #risen and fallen moon #cinder fall sadsack tag #requisite disclaimer on my post about gender and symbolism #in RWBY itself they're already playing with/subverting that a bit #for instance Yang is Blake's animus