(From f age 203.) planetary, and twelve guardian zodiacal divinities, is what is represented by the horseshoe, the nava ratna, and
by the ark, and other similar symbols. The heaven above us is at once
the celestial Mount Ararat, and the celestial ark which survives the
deluge of time; it is the palladium and shield of the universe; and the
horseshoe, and the nava ratna are magical images of it, that is
talismans, and of the highest defensive and remedial advantage when
worn as amulets, a word [cf : hamal " a bearer,"] which means a
thing " borne" round the neck, arm, wrist, fingers, waist, or ankles,
or on the head, or hung from lilt ears, riose, or shoulder [cf: hamala "a
sword "j. "The breastplate of Aaron" was, in my opinion, just one of
these amulets, only it was a zodiacal instead of a planetary palladium.
Everyone will now admit that the description of the Heavenly Jerusalem,
in the Book of Revelation [xxi. 19-20] is derived from Chaldean
astrology. Anyhow it is not original, but taken from the far older Book
of Tobit. In this description, which I have long wished Mr. Phillips to
reduce to terms of jewellery, for it would make a magnificent and most
eloquent brooch, the 12 stones of "the New Jerusalem" are identical
with the 12 stones assigned from the earliest tradition to the 12 signs
of the zodiac. The number 12, like 7, is still everywhere in the East
talismanic, and always refers to the 12 signs of the zodiac, just as 7
and 9 do -to the 7 planets; the sacredness of the number 9, however,
has another and older origin also, in which it is associated with the
number 10, namely, in the 9 solar—that is, 10 physiological, afterwards
distinguished as lunar, months of 28 days each of human gestation. The
physiological month of 28 days, and the physiological year of 10
months, were far older than the astronomical month and year, as was
therefore also the sanctity of the numbers 9 and 10. The great
difficulty presented by " Aaron's breastplate " is in determining the
stones of which it was made up. They were most probably absolutely
identical with those forming the foundation of "the Heavenly
Jerusalem;" but this cannot now be settled, as the tradition on the
subject has long been uncertain, and every translation of the original
Hebrew names of the stones is in consequence altogether conjectural.
This difficulty will be at once understood by a glance at the tabular
statement A on p. 204. The next difficulty is in assigning the 12
stones—which we should always call by their Hebrew names—to the 12
tribes they are intended to represent. Josephus says that the names of
the sons of Jacob were engraved on the stones, beginning with the odem of Reuben and ending with the jaspek of
Benjamin, in the order of their birth; but as will be seen from the
tabular statement A, this does not correspond with the order of the
generally accepted Rabbinical tradition. In dwelling on this
difficulty, and considering that the breastplate was most probably a
similitude of the heavens,'like the nava ratna, and that the
distribution of the 12 tribes in Palestine, like that of the 12 cities
in each of the Etrurian States, might be on a horoscopic basis, he (the
Chairman) sought the clue to this distribution in the order of the
encampment of the tribes of Israel in their trines, as given in Numbers
ii.*; the trine of the East being J udah, Issachar, and Zebulon; of the
South, Reuben, Simeon, and Gad; the West, Ephraim, Manasseh, and
Benjamin ; and of the North of Dan, Asher, and Naphtali. All this is
set forth in the following tabular view, B, of the 12 tribes of Israel,
in the camp order (Numbers ii.*) showing its * By counting the stones
appropriated to the twelve tribes in uie order of the tribes given in
Numbers ii., but beginning with the south side, instead of on the east
as in Numbers ii., and going round by east to north, and ending with
the west side, we get the order of the stunes in their four row?, as
given in Exedus xxviii. 17—20. The order of the tribes iu Numbers ii.
is from east to south, and round by west, and ending with north. It
will be observed that the three tribes who lost the privileges of their
prior birth, i.e., of Reuben, Simeon, and Gad [in place of
Levi], are in the camping order of Numbers ii., relegated from the
east, the post of honour, to the south; and that the six more favoured
tribes of the twelve correspond iu horoscopic position with the six
diurnal signs of the zodiac, and the six less favoured tribes with the nocturnal.
