The moon, together with the sun, is the most important symbolism of the stars. Its appearance and disappearance with new forms in different phases is associated with death and rebirth and, in general, it is a celestial body considered as feminine in many contexts and cultures.

The sun and the moon are represented as luminaries to rule the day and the night. Both were worshipped by numerous cultures, along with the stars, as if they were gods in themselves.

The moon, like the sun, which we have already dealt with (April 16, 2021), was widely echoed in the arts in general, since, in the form of a crescent, it was the attribute of Diana, goddess of chastity and hunting, and of Lucina, to whom childbirth was entrusted. Also, on more special occasions, it was identified with inconstancy, and even with the air.

In Navarre, we hardly have any examples with these meanings; rather, we have many cases related to religious iconography, although there is no lack of other emblematic contents linked to the world of festivities and royal funeral ceremonies.

The moon is one of the most successful attributes to represent the immaculist mystery, both in Spain and in Navarre. The literary account that supports this fact appears in an Old Testament text: the Song of Songs, where the woman that St. Bernard identified with the Virgin is praised: "Tota pulchra es, amica mea, et macula no est in te" (you are completely beautiful, my friend, and you are preserved from all stain). The same text of the Song of Songs says: "Who is this who is sample like the dawn, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army in battle array? Likewise, in the book of Revelation (12:1) it is stated: "And there appeared a marvel in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun and the moon and on her head a crown with twelve stars... Sculptures, engravings, paintings and all subject of sumptuary arts present the average moon or the full moon at the feet of the images of the Immaculate, especially in the subject called Tota pulchra, or apocalyptic.

Some sculpture images had the silver moon average . The Virgin of El Puy was a gift from Juan Albizu, an Estellan resident in Sigüenza, as stated in an inventory of 1646, recorded in the Calf Book of the file of the basilica. From then on, that average moon was one of its signs of identity, as it was for the Virgin of Codés -as stated in the inventory of 1664- or the Virgin of the Camino de Pamplona, who received another average silver moon sent by Don Juan de Cenoz, treasurer of the Province of Yucatán, in 1675. A little later, another Marian devotion of great projection, Our Lady of Rocamador de Sangüesa, also incorporated it. The Virgen de las Maravillas de Recoletas de Pamplona belongs to the 18th century. The devotional prints of the 18th century show us other venerable images with the average immaculist moon, such as the Virgins of Carmen de los Calzados de Pamplona, de los Remedios de Luquin, del Villar de Corella, de los Remedios de Sesma, de Musquilda in Ochagavía and the Blanca de Jaurrieta.

Another of the immaculist attributes is that of the twelve stars, generally bordering her head in the form of a crown. It was related, in plenary session of the Executive Council century XVII, by Cornelius a Lapide with the prayer of the stelarium, in which twelve privileges of the Virgin and twelve virtues of the same one were contemplated. According to his explanation, an Our Father in honor of God the Father is followed by four birds that recall the faith, hope, charity and piety of Mary; the second pater noster dedicated to God the Son is followed by the birds related to his humility, virginity, fortitude and poverty; and the last Our Father in honor of the Paraclete is accompanied by the Hail Marys that recall the fraternal charity, obedience, mercy and modesty of the Mother of God.

The passage of the Creation, following the Book of Genesis, has been represented in Navarrese art since the Middle Ages average. Invariably the sun, the moon and the stars have their protagonism, as part of God's action, on the fourth day of creation. Genesis records it as follows (1:14-19): "Then God said,' Let there be lights in the sky to separate the day from the night; let them be signs to mark the seasons, the days and the years. Let those lights in the sky shine upon the earth"; and that is what happened. God made two great lights: the larger one to rule the day, and the smaller one to rule the night. He also made the stars. God put those lights in the sky to illuminate the earth, to rule the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness."

The translation of the text into images can be seen in outstanding works. In one of the capitals of the door of the Judgment of the cathedral of Tudela, from the first decades of the 13th century, we find God creating the firmament, signified in the sun, the moon and the stars, framed in a kind of sinuous halo. In the Tudela capital, the contents of other days of creation are mixed, corresponding to the earth and the seas, and even the fish. In one of the corners of the Renaissance cloister of Fitero, from the middle of the 16th century, we also find the topic, in the same way as in one of the coppers made by Jacob Bouttats (c. 1680), which are conserved in the Museum of Navarre, from the convent of La Merced in Pamplona.

Firmaments of white stars with sky blue backgrounds, we find them in countless niches and boxes of altarpieces, as well as in the plementeries of numerous vaults, at the head of which we can place those of the cathedral of Pamplona.

The star of different points is part of the heraldry in Navarre. The coat of arms of the city of Estella presents one of eight points of gold on a background of gules. That of the Pamplona burgh of San Cernin with the average moon and the five-pointed star was studied by Faustino Menéndez Pidal, recalling how the crescent with stars -one or several and in different positions- is an image of the celestial vault that, since Antiquity, appears in numerous cultures. In medieval seals the coat of arms appears with the points downwards, which is the most usual way of representing it in Spanish heraldry, unlike the French, which appears in embroideries and in the parish scepters of 1826. From San Cernin de Pamplona it passed to Villava. The municipal heraldry presents star or stars of different conformation in the quarters of the different localities and valleys, such as Abaigar, Adiós, Allín, Ancín, Armañanzas, Azuelo, Barbarin, Cadreita, Cáseda, Echarri, Etayo, Falces, Lapoblación, Legaria, Lumbier, Mendavia, Muruzábal, Oco, Olejua, Piedramillera, San Martín de Unx, Santacara, Santesteban, Úcar, Ulzama, Unciti, Urrául Alto and Urrául Bajo.

In the Armory Book of the Kingdom of Navarre we find one or several stars in the family coats of arms of different lineages and palaces. In the same way, there are many other coats of arms that present an upturned crescent and in less abundance two.

As is well known, the Gospel text gives singular importance to the star that guided the Magi to portal in Bethlehem. Sometimes, it is represented in the iconography of the Epiphany as a kite with a tail. In the theatrical representations of the passage, other solutions were used, such as the knight of the star or complex tricks to make it visible in different settings, from agreement with the biblical account where it is stated that it appeared and disappeared to finally lead the Magi to the manger.

The representations of the sun and the moon in the calvaries of the altarpieces are very frequent. Their meaning has been studied by I. Labrador and J. M. Medianero, arriving at the conclusion that in spite of the multiple theological and symbolic-Christian interpretations, there is in the bottom a substratum or reminiscences of previous pagan formulations. Even though the Christian theological ones present verisimilitude, they lack the sufficient entity to be definitive. It has been argued a merely aesthetic question and symmetry in the upper part, in an allusion to the celestial Jerusalem, of symbolism with the darkness, of the divine and human nature of Christ, harmony between the Old Testament (moon) and the New Testament (sun), even some authors have speculated with these stars as virtue and patience or to feelings such as sorrow and pain before the death of Christ, in tune with the Virgin and St. John, who complete the Calvary.

Regarding the iconological origin, it is necessary to allude to the presence of both stars in Mesopotamian cultures, Greece and Rome. From some examples they would pass by contagion to the Christian artists from the pagan symbology, applying both to the new Christian God. Subsequently, theological interpretations and the works of the artists themselves filled with symbolic content and numerous iconographic alterations.

Like the sun, the moon and the stars also figured in the emblems that were used in the field of royal funerals, for some of their meanings. J. L. Molins and J. J. Azanza have studied this last aspect in detail, pointing out how their presence is assimilated, on several occasions, to the queen dowager, who replaces the sun (king) in the sky, thus becoming the guarantee of political stability and the security of the throne from the death of the monarch until the crowning of the crown prince and, in the case of the latter being a minor, the period of time of the regency. In other emblems, the representation of a firmament full of stars is not lacking, as the sunset, the end of a reign.

Among those in which the moon appears, we will mention one of those of the obsequies of Philip V, in 1746, painted by Juan de Lacalle, where it appears with a mound topped by the royal crown and the sun and the moon on its sides, as symbols of Christ the Redeemer and the Virgin. As an example of the presence of the star, in the same funeral, one appears inside a laurel wreath, with a registration that alludes to a text of the Apocalypse.