What is the meaning of the crescent moon in depictions of The Immaculate Conception?

Answer 1

The image of the moon is a reference to Rev 12:1, in which St. John records his vision of a woman standing on the moon and clothed with the sun. This is a popular image of the Blessed Virgin Mary and also appears in the tilma of St. Juan Diego (otherwise known as the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe).

Answer 2

Images of Mary with the moon under her feet are often taken from Revelation 12:

And a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; (Rev 12:1)

Here the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible points out that the depiction of the woman is rich in biblical symbolism...Images of sun, moon and stars call to mind Gen 37:9-10, where they symbolize the family of Israel, namely Jacob, his wife and twelve sons. (RSV 2CE, p. 506) By extension, the crown of twelve stars can be seen to represent the twelve tribes of Israel as well as the twelve Apostles of Jesus.

One interpretation of the moon via Rev 12:1 and Gen 37:9-10 is that it symbolizes maternal dignity. And in the Song of Songs, we see that the moon can be used to symbolize feminine beauty:

Who is it that comes forth like the dawn, as beautiful as the moon, as resplendent as the sun, as awe-inspiring as bannered troops? (Song 6:10)

Giving a complementary interpretation of the Woman as the Blessed Virgin, St. Bernard comments: The sun contains permanent color and splendor; whereas the moon's brightness is unpredictable and changeable, for it never stays the same. It is quite right, then, for Mary to be depicted as clothed with the sun, for she entered the profundity of divine wisdom much further than one can possibly conceive (Dominica infra octavam Assumptionis, 3).

Theologians have also seen in the Woman a depiction of the Church. For example, St. Gregory the Great wrote: The sun stands for the light of truth, and the moon [stands for] for the transitoriness of temporal things; the holy Church is clothed like the sun because she is protected by the splendor of supernatural truth, and she has the moon under her feet because she is above all earthly things (Moralia, 34, 12).

REFERENCES

The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition. (Ignatius Press: San Francisco, CA, 2010).

The New American Bible. (Catholic World Press: Grand Rapids, MI, 1991).

The Navarre Bible New Testament. (Scepter Publishers: New York, NY, 2008).