CHRISTIAN - MADONNA LACTANS - CANCER 'Madonna lactans' - woodcut by Hans Baldung Grien, circa 1510. This is an example of the Madonna breast-feeding the Child. She is wearing a star-studded crown, and below is a crescent Moon, with lunar face. In terms of mediaeval astrology, the Moon is not merely a throw-back to the Isis cult, and the general Earth-Mother imagery, but is a reference to the fact that the Moon is the ruler of zodiacal Cancer, which is in turn the ruler of the breasts in the melothesic figure (the so-called 'zodiacal man'). Woodcut from Hans Curjel, Hans Baldung Grien, 1923.