If one looks at the crests of waves, and little ripples gathering on a shoreline though, one recognizes endless little moons nested within the folds of water – just as each droplet on a car window holds an upside-down view of the view of outside relative to its own size. If one retreats to the distance of, say, the ISS, our moon’s reflection spans whole seas of course. Does the word ‘moonglade’ do all this justice? The idea of 'self-similarity across scales' and the scientific field called 'chaos theory' seems to have some pertinence here, but I’ll resist trying to relate anything ‘bout that. The bewildering thing though is that this 'organised chaos' (great term, hey) seems to be in practically everything we do - though this comes as little surprise to many ‘less educated’ people, I suppose.


Perhaps we can borrow a term from heraldry. Semy of indicates a pattern of lots of little identical images in an orderly pattern across the background of a coat of arms. That sounds a lot like all those little moon reflections on the waves. They become a semy of moonglade.