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PLANETARY AND ASTRAL INFLUENCES 341
tues persist in them and they keep "the traces and gifts of mundane life which they possessed while clinging to the earth.4
These "gifts of mundane life" signify the stored-up energy derived from
the stars and planets, which penetrates the matter of the stone, and
each stone is peculiarly sensitive to the emanations from a certain
planet, star, or group of stars.
Λ
fine carnelian gem engraved with a design consisting of a star
surrounded by the images of a goat, a bull, and a lion, is described by
M. Mairan.5 He sees in the star the emblem of the splendid
comet which appeared shortly after the assassination of Caesar, and
which, according to Suetonius, was believed to be the soul of Caesar
newly received into the sky; the goat, bull, and lion are the symbols
of the zodiacal signs Aries, Taurus, and Leo, the first-named sign
referring perhaps to the death of Caesar on the Ides, or fifteenth of
March ; while the other two signs may allude to the position of the
comet at different dates.
In
the Cabinet du Roi, in Paris, there was an engraved carnelian, the
design showing Jupiter enthroned, with thunderbolt and sceptre, and
Mars and Mercury standing on either side of the central figure.
Separated from the gods of the upper air by a bow, probably
representing the arch of the sky, appears the bust of Neptune,
emerging from the sea. The border of the design is formed by the twelve
signs of the zodiac, Virgo being of an unusual type,—the virgin and a
unicorn,—said to have been used only during the reign of Domitian (81-96
A.D.).6
* Reichelti, " De amuletis," Argentorati, 1676, p. 45 ; citing Fieini, " De vita coelit.," cap. 13.
5 Mairan, " Lettres au R. P. Parrenin," Paris, 1770, pp. 275 sqq. " Mairan, I.e., pp. 199, 211.
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