Sailor Moon Astronomy Symbols and Their Meanings
Each planet (and several minor planets and asteroids) in the Solar System has their own symbol. Many of these have been used since antiquity, and most of them evoke emblems and signs associated with the gods the planets are named after. In this post I will be explaining what each symbol represents!
The Moon’s symbol is rather straightforward, being a crescent. The symbol is is used to represent the lunar phase in the first quarter, or by extension is a symbol representing the Moon itself. This is probably the oldest symbol used, as people have identified the crescent phase of the moon for thousands of years.
Interestingly, in Sailor Moon, the crescent symbol is usually flipped so that it points upwards rather than sideways. This is most prominent for Princess/Neo-Queen Serenity’s lunar forehead marking.
This symbol is the god Mercury’s winged helmet and caduceus. In antiquity, Mercury was almost always depicted wearing a winged helmet. It’s thought to have represented his speed, as he was the swiftest of the gods. A caduceus is a short staff entwined by two serpents, sometimes pictured with wings atop it. Hermes (the Greek version of Mercury) and later Mercury were always depicted carrying it, and it represented their roles as the messengers of the gods.
It was associated with trade, eloquence, wisdom, and negotiation. Many centuries later, the caduceus also came to represent medicine and healthcare (although the correct symbol is actually the similar-looking Rod of Asclepius). These symbolic meanings are very suitable for Sailor Mercury, as she is associated with wisdom and wishes to become a doctor.
This symbol represents the god Mars’s shield and spear. Mars is the god of war, so it is fitting that the planet that bears his name has a symbol that features emblems of battle. Mars himself was also frequently depicted with a shield and a spear, spears being popular weapons in the Roman army. In modern times, this symbol has become associated with the male sex (opposite of Venus’s symbol, which will be discussed shortly).
Jupiter’s emblem is meant to symbolize a thunderbolt and/or an eagle. These are both symbols associated with the god Jupiter, king of the gods and the god of the sky and thunder. Jupiter’s thunderbolts were crafted by the Cyclopes and given to him as a gift, and he used them to create the lightning we see during storms. As for the eagle, ancient Greeks and Romans praised it as divine and the most sacred of all birds; they also associated it with power and supernatural forces. It’s no wonder, then, why they associated with the king of the gods.
Venus’s symbol is a circle with a cross underneath it. It is meant to represent the goddess Venus’s (aka Aphrodite’s) hand mirror. Mirrors are often associated with femininity and beauty. This representation for Venus’s symbol makes sense considering Venus was the goddess of love and beauty. The symbol is also the chemical sign for copper, which again makes sense because copper was used to make mirrors in ancient times.
Aside from these meanings, the Venus symbol is used to represent the female sex (much like Mars is used to represent the male sex). It’s rather fitting, because Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus have a rather close relationship in the manga and live action Sailor Moon series (which itself may be a reference to mythology, where Mars and Venus were lovers and often associated with each other).
Now we’re getting to the more modern symbols. Because Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were only discovered a couple of centuries ago (or decades ago, in Pluto’s case) rather than being known since antiquity, their symbols are more modern and only created recently.
Anyway, Uranus’s symbol is rather straightforward. It is a stylized H, which is taken from discoverer’s last name, Herschel (full name: William Herschel). The circle and middle line might have been added to make the symbol look more “astronomical” and more in-line with the older symbols. It’s also interesting to note that, aside from Pluto, Uranus is the only symbol to have been stylized after its discoverer rather than its mythological namesake. This could be because Uranus, the primordial god of the sky, didn’t really have symbols associated with him in mythology. Also, there actually is another symbol for Uranus (derived from a combination of the Mars and Sun symbols), but Naoko Takeuchi chose to use this symbol instead.
Neptune’s symbol is a trident. Tridents were heavily associated with Neptune/Poseidon, god of the sea. Poseidon’s trident was crafted by the Cyclopes (who, if you may recall, also crafted Jupiter’s thunderbolts). This trident appears in many myths about Neptune/Poseidon and symbolizes his status as king/god of the seas. Also, according to scholars of Classical Mythology, Neptune’s trident symbolizes the three properties of water: liquidity, fecundity and drinkability.
Pluto’s symbol is again rather straightforward, being a P and an L combined. This represents the first two letters in Pluto’s name. It could also represent the name of one of the men who spearheaded Pluto’s discovery, Percival Lowell. Although this is the symbol commonly associated with Pluto and the one Naoko Takeuchi chose to use, like Uranus there are other symbols that are sometimes used to represent Pluto instead. One of these is a circle on top of a bident; a bident is a pitchfork associated with Hades (Pluto), the ruler of the underworld.
Also, Pluto is one of the few dwarf planets to have a symbol. This is because, at the time of its discovery and for decades afterwards, it was considered to be the 9th planet of the Solar System.
Saturn’s symbol is meant to represent the mythological Saturn’s scythe or sickle. Saturn, or Cronus in Greek mythology, was a Titan and the father of the first generation of Olympian gods. He was the god of agriculture, which is why his symbol was a scythe; scythes were used to harvest crops.
Before the discovery of Uranus in the 18th century, Saturn was the last of the seven planets known to ancient astronomers. Being the furthest out and the slowest in movement, the planet was feared and came to represent a number of archetypes, such as the Grim Reaper and Father Time. Although Sailor Pluto represents time, Sailor Saturn definitely leans heavily into the “Grim Reaper” archetype. She wields the Silence Glaive, which harkens back to both the mythological Saturn’s scythe and the scythe of the Grim Reaper.
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