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PLANETARY AND ASTRAL INFLUENCES 339
and
the stars, since these influence them most potently and produce their
peculiar qualities, for they are enduring and unchangeable and show
therein their concordance [with the stars and the planets].1
Hence
it is that the influence over human fortunes ascribed by astrology to
the heavenly bodies is conceived to be strengthened by wearing the gem
appropriate to certain planets or signs, for a subtle emanation has
passed into the stone and radiates from it. A combination of several
different stones, each partaking of this special quality, was believed
to have an influence similar to that exercised by several planets in
conjunction,— that is, grouped in the same "house" or division of the
heavens.
The
same is true of the stones dedicated to the guardian angels; the color
and appearance of the stone was not merely emblematic of the angel,
but, by its sympathetic quality, it was supposed to attract his
influence and to provide a medium for the transmission of his
beneficent force to the wearer. The whole theory, whether consciously
pr unconsciously, rested on the idea of harmony, of the accord of
certain ethereal vibrations, either those of the visible light of the
stars and planets or the purely psychic emanations from the spiritual
"powers and principalities."
The
wearing of the appropriate zodiacal gem was always believed to
strengthen the influence of the zodiacal sign upon those born under it,
and to afford a sympathetic medium for the transmission of the stellar
influences. The gem was thus something more than a mere symbol of the
sign. ) The same was true of the stone of the saint who ruled the month
and that of the holy guar-
1 Wilhelmus Eo, " Coronae Gemma Nobilissima," Newheusern, 1621, pp. 38-9.
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