The sign Scorpio is in astrology the sign of death, the dead and all connected therewith. It is expressed by the Serpent of Eden in that magical third chapter of Genesis, a chapter that has demanded the special study of mystical philosophers for ages. The sign Scorpio is also symbolized in the person of the goddess Serket, pictured as a human-headed scorpion or as a goddess with scorpion head-dress. She protected the Canopic Jars which contained the embalmed viscera of the departed. Aesculapius, the god of medicine, was worshipped under the form of a serpent at Epidaurus, and in the Vatican statue he is represented leaning on a staff around which is coiled a serpent; statues of his daughter Hygieia show her with a serpent in different attitudes. In those and numerous other serpent stories all associated with the sign Scorpio to a greater or lesser degree, the majesty and the mystery of life and death are philosophically implied.

The traditional colour of the sign Scorpio is given as brown, a shade of brown well describes the agate stone. The Midrash Bemidbah gives gray which, though not in agreement with other authorities, certainly does indicate a species of Agate.

Dan is described in the Book of Genesis as “a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horses’ heels” (the sign following Scorpio, Sagittarius—the sign of Gad) “so that his rider shall fall backward.” The tribe was a mystical tribe possessing the knowledge of white magic and of black (Judges XVIII. 30). The wisdom of the serpent is symbolized in it—“Dan shall judge his people.”

The eighth stone of the Breastplate was the Banded Agate, and on it was engraved the tribe of Gad.

=The Ninth Stone of the Breastplate=

The ninth stone of the Breastplate is Achlamah which, with few exceptions, is identified as the Amethyst—beyond doubt the correct identification.

The Midrash Bemidbah gives the colour as purple which is the dominant shade of this beautiful gem. Purple is also one of the chief colours associated with the planet Jupiter which in astrology is termed the Lord of Sagittarius, the ninth sign of the Zodiac. This sign is connected with rulers and people in authority from very early times; Josephus mentions that Joseph wore “purple and drove in his chariot through all the land of Egypt.” The Amethyst was a royal stone and purple a royal colour the right to wear which was bestowed by the King on inspired men who, like Joseph, were revealers of dreams. In the Book of Daniel also Belshazzar promises that the man who reads for him the “writing on the wall” shall be clothed with purple, shall have a chain of gold about his neck and shall rule as the third in the kingdom. This promise he fulfills when Daniel, “the prince of astrologers,” told him what he would know. A similar promise is made by Darius, the son of Hystaspes, as a reward for the solving of his questions regarding the strength of Wine, Kings and Women. It is related in the Book of Esther that the same honour is bestowed on Mordecai by the King Artaxerxes.

In old Hebraic philosophy it was held that whoso honoureth the prophet honoureth God. Purple is the colour signifying royal dignity and imperial power: “to be born in the purple” is to be born essentially fortunate and, under the elevating influence of the planet Jupiter, Aclamah—according to Dr. Hirsch—seems etymologically to imply the idea of being strong. Lord Arthur Hervey and several other writers hold that the Hebrew word is a verbal one from the root HALOM, to dream. In astrological deductions Sagittarius is the sign of dreams, prophecy and philosophy, and in its divine aspect it is referred to the wise centaur Chiron who tended the young hero Achilles. Sagittarius is the sign of the Horse and of Horsemen, and its connection with the tribe of Gad is not hard to understand. Aben Ezra writes on Targum authority that Jupiter is best expressed by the name Gad, and Dr. Alfred Pearce remarks that in modern Hebrew TZEDEK, justice, was also translated as Jupiter “because of the just character of persons born under his influence.” Gad, David’s seer, is mentioned in 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Chronicles, and the prophetic nature of this son of Jupiter may well stand as a living symbol. Gad is heralded by Leah thus: “A troop cometh,” and “she called his name Gad.”

The Amethyst has ever been a gem symbolizing spirituality in its highest degree, and by the virtue of its power it opposed evils, drunkenness, and the sin of distorted appetites. Indeed, the Amethyst was considered a sign of such holiness that evil was always courted by one wearing it whilst overindulging in eating and drinking. It was cut into sacred scarabei by the Egyptians and Etruscans and is frequently found engraved. Pliny writes of its fitness as a sealstone, and Mr. King mentions a large pale Amethyst, signed, in the Pulsky collection, on which is engraved the head of a Syrian King.

The Amethyst has been frequently quoted as a stone of the celestial Aries, even ancient writers commenting on its sympathetic Aries vibration. The mistake arose from confounding the Babylonian Mars with the Mars of the Greeks and Romans. The Babylonian Mars of Centaur form is clearly identified with the sign Sagittarius.

The Amethyst was the ninth stone of the Breastplate, and on it was engraved the name of the tribe of Asher.

=The Tenth Stone of the Breastplate=

Regarding the tenth stone of the Breastplate there is a general disagreement amongst authorities, some preferring simply to give its Hebraic name THARSHISH without attempting its meaning.

The tenth division of the Breastplate is the division of the zodiacal Capricorn, the colour of which is generally regarded as black, the colour of the planet Saturn, and which according to Dr. Simmonite, William Lilly, Madame Blavatsky and others, is, esoterically, green. The Targums describe the stone Tharshish as of the colour of the Great Sea, or sea colour. This is found in the Serpentine variety of a translucent deep green, oily colour capable of receiving a high polish. The colour of the Egyptian and Arabian Serpentine (or HYDRINUS) is deep and a little heavy. Many intagli and camei of antique origin are found cut in Serpentine; these specimens include Egyptian scarabei and Babylonian cylinders of about 5,000 years ago, clear evidence that the ancients knew the stone, appreciated it and worked it.

The sign Capricorn is a strange one, symbolizing the Gateway of Heaven through which men pass when life on earth is done. Hence it expresses the mystery of the deep seas which were compared with the seas of space in sacred philosophy. Amongst others, Manilius recognizes Capricorn as a sailor’s sign:

_But when receding Capricornus shows The star that in his tail’s bright summit glows, Then shall the native dare the angry seas, A hardy sailor live, spurning inglorious ease._

Rev. Mr. King writes of a cast from a gem engraved with a “double-headed Capricorn with an owl’s body standing upon and holding in his forefoot a rudder: in allusion to the doctrine laid down by Manilius that the star in the sign’s tail is the proper horoscope of mariners and pilots. Or it may typify the usually fickle temper of one born under the sign. This sign likewise presided over all the space within tide-mark, the alternate domain of sea and land; a dominion expressed by the half terrestrial, half marine composition of the figure. The region peculiarly under him” (that is, the region astrologically ruled by Capricorn) “was the West of Europe.” (This is speaking very generally.) “The owl’s body is given him perhaps as the attribute of Pallas, the designer of that prototype of navigation, the Argo.”

Godfrey Higgins writes of the “whimsical sign called Capricorn which in the Indian Zodiac is an entire goat and an entire fish: in the Greek and the Egyptian the two are united and form one animal.”

The place of dazzling brilliancy, called by the Greeks “The Milky Way” is the path of the souls, and is referred to by Macrobius, Cicero and other writers. The author of the “Anacalypsis” writes: "The Milky Way is placed immediately under that degree of North Latitude which is called the Tropic of Cancer, and the two tropics of Cancer and Capricorn have been called by the astrologers “The Gates of Heaven or the Sun,” at each of which the Sun arrives in his annual progress. The Southern Gate is called the Tropic of Capricorn, an amphibious animal, half goat, half fish in our present zodiacs, but in the most ancient zodiacs of India it is described as two entire beings—a goat and a fish. Here, in this goat-fish sign Capricorn, are the mermen and mermaids, and the half-animal, half-fish beings of the sea. Of the tribe of Asher it is said: “Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties,” (Gen. 49. 20), a statement very much in agreement with the sign Capricorn. Again in Deuteronomy (33. 24) we have, according to the Authorized Version, “Let Asher be blessed with children: let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil”; this passage, however, may be closer translated as follows: “More than all the children be Asher blessed: he shall be the most favoured of his brethren and bathe his feet in oil.”