CHAPTER XIX.

BIBLE SYMBOLISM—AARON’S BREASTPLATE AND OTHER TYPICAL ORNAMENTS AND EMBLEMS—THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF BEAUTY AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF COLOR.

Among the most attractive symbols of antiquity none can be more beautiful and expressive than precious stones, and these have always figured very largely in religious ritual as well as in secular adornment. Nowhere in the Bible can we find a more impressive instance of the use of glittering gems than in the breastplate of the Jewish high priest, Aaron, whose adornments are minutely described in the twenty-eighth chapter of Exodus, verses 15-21, as follows: “Thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment with cunning work, after the work of the ephod thou shalt make it; of gold and of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine twined linen shalt thou make it. Four-square it shall be, being doubled; a span shall be the length thereof, and a span shall be the breadth thereof. And thou shalt set in it settings of stones, even four rows of stones; the first row shall be a sardis (ruby), a topaz, and a carbuncle; this shall be the first row. And the second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond. And the third row a ligure (cyanus), an agate, and an amethyst. And the fourth row shall be a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper. They shall be set in gold in their inclosings. And the stones shall be with the names of the Children of Israel, twelve, according to their names, like the engravings of a signet, every one with his name shall they be according to the Twelve Tribes.” This magnificent breastplate, called Urim and Thummim, was regarded in ancient sacerdotal days as a special instrument for obtaining information from Heaven, a fact which throws much light upon the sacred magic of the Israelites of old. A very interesting and elaborate dissertation concerning this breastplate is contained in “The Science of Correspondences Elucidated,” by Edward Madely and B. F. Barrett, in which the authors claim that we have a key to its interior significance by dividing its four sections thus: First row downward, predominating color, Red, Celestial Love of Good. Second row, Reddish Blue, Celestial Love of Truth. Third row, Whitish Blue, Spiritual love of Good. Fourth row, Bluish White, Spiritual Love of Truth. The distinction here made so definitely between Truth and Good is in strict agreement with all of Swedenborg’s discriminations, with which these authors are in complete accord, and we shall all do well to ponder thoughtfully exactly wherein the difference really lies. Truth is of the enlightened understanding and addresses itself to intellect, to reason in particular, while Good has to do directly with our affections, which, though intimately associated with our understanding, are nevertheless distinct from it. As very great interest is now being widely taken in some supposed connection between the twelve Signs of the Zodiac, the twelve Tribes of Israel, and certain precious stones, our readers may be interested to know that an ancient tradition assigns a ruby to Reuben; an emerald to Judah; a cyanus (lapis-lazuli) to Gad; a turquoise (beryl) to Zebulon; a topaz to Simeon; a sapphire to Dan; an agate to Asher; an onyx to Joseph; a carbuncle to Levi; a diamond to Naphthali; an amethyst to Issachar; a jasper to Benjamin.

Turning to Numbers, Chapter II, we find the following classification of the twelve Tribes, with their standard bearers: Judah heads the three tribes to the East; Reuben to the South; Ephraim to the West; Dan to the North; the Camp of the Levites and the Tabernacle of the Congregation being in the midst. The same order is indicated in the order of march described in the same book (Chapter X) when the Ark of the Covenant is carried in front of the army. The different arrangements at various times, and in altering circumstances, readily suggests varying significations denoting the changing states of human experience. Red stones always occupy the place of highest esteem, because red is the first of the primaries and is universal in its correspondence, it being the color of the completed octave. As Adam only means a red man, and red is the lowest of the seven prismatic hues according to rate of vibration, it is not only a title applied to the sensuous man, not yet awakened to spiritual consciousness, but is equally applied to those who are regenerated, whom we designate “second Adam,” like the upper A which commences a new scale in music. “Stones of Fire” are often mentioned in the Bible in connection with great judgments and mighty deliverances, which are frequently referred to as preceded by “hailstones and coals of fire.” In the extremely fascinating imagery of the marvelous book of Ezekiel we find allusions to precious gems which throw a large amount of light upon their mystical as well as magical significance. By the use of these two terms in the above connection we mean by magical all that pertains to the working of outward wonders by the employment of prescribed and tested ceremonial rites; by mystical we mean interior results obtained in a spiritual manner without any recourse to ritual of any description. The mystical method is very much higher and more abidingly reliable than the magical, though both are mentioned with approbation in the Bible, each being adapted to a particular stage of human conscious susceptibility to Divine and Celestial influxes. In the twenty-eighth chapter of Ezekiel we are told that the King of Tyre has been in Eden, the Garden of God, where every precious stone was his covering until he fell into iniquity and was consequently expelled and dethroned. When, in the days of his moral uprightness, this monarch was figuratively on God's holy mountain it is said that he walked to and fro amid “stones of fire,” at which time he was designated “a covering cherub.” This clearly shows that in ancient times such expressions were used to denote high offices held by holy people who were worthy of such exalted station, and not permitted to retain it in any case after they had disqualified themselves by the practice of unrighteousness. Many people to-day are asking whether any value attaches to the actual wearing of gems, or whether we must attribute all alleged and seeming efficacy to the force of auto-suggestion. A reasonable reply to such enquiries must be at least threefold. First, we must remember that jewels are imprisoned sunlight and they have truly a force of their own, to which highly sensitive people are peculiarly susceptible; this is a demonstrable scientific proposition which can be tested and proved experimentally by Materialists as readily as by Occultists. Second, associations with gems are extremely permanent, and these are psychical as well as physical, as psychometry abundantly reveals; a gem is extremely retentive of any influence it has absorbed, and many precious stones —opals and pearls especially—are very susceptible to the condition of the persons who wear them. Third, individual taste has much to do with the effect which a stone will have on its wearer, but tastes, preferences and antipathies are revealers of character and temperament, and unless there is some very forcible extraneous cause for our likes and dislikes as applied to gems and colors we invariably are attracted instinctively to those stones and colors whose vibrations agree with us and help us, while we are similarly repelled by such as either over-stimulate or depress us, in consequence of their rate of vibration being either too high or too low to meet our necessities. The High Priest in ancient Israel wore a breastplate composed of twelve precious stones because he must represent all the twelve tribes equally, and a man capable of filling so highly representative a position worthily must be beyond the ordinary run of attractions and repulsions. A thoroughly balanced man or woman admires all beautiful objects in nature and in art, and feels at home with all of them, at the same time understanding their respective uses and significances and employing them accordingly. Among gems the diamond is the most universally admired and worn; this is largely on account of its bright all-including whiteness, out of which every brilliant hue can sparkle in the sunshine, and also in artificial radiance. Almost every one feels at home with the diamond, just as we are all at home with white, while different limited colors affect us differently in our varying moods and seem highly appropriate in such situations as demand them, but quite out of place in other circumstances, though in themselves they are always beautiful. There is not the slightest reason why we should not avail ourselves of the beauty of nature, and surely nothing can be more unnatural and ridiculous than to dispense with all adornment when nature is so lavishly profuse with decoration, and it requires no more time or effort, in the long run at any rate, to make life outwardly as well as inwardly beautiful, than it does to peg along in a manner calculated to lower instead of raise the tone of our vitality, and thereby lessen instead of increase our working capacity. Though we all know that foolish extravagance in dress and adornment, together with all other forms of ostentatious display, are not productive of desirable results in human society, we ought not ever to be unmindful of the fact that sordid ugliness and crime are often very intimate associates. John Ruskin never hesitated to preach his gospel of beauty as a moral elevator, and it certainly does appear that, on an average, there is far less crime where beauty is cultivated than where ugliness reigns supreme. Drunkenness is often largely due to a state of mental dulness bordering on despair. Men and women work in dingy workshops and live in dingy dwellings unworthy of the name of homes, and with what result? They almost invariably exhibit signs of moral, mental and physical deterioration, and are very rarely as cheerful in disposition or as optimistic in sentiment as those who surround themselves with more attractive objects. We may well feel compassion and express sympathy for all who are apparently compelled to live in gloomy places, but there can be no valid excuse for deliberately planting ourselves in such surroundings, except for the benevolent purpose of ministering to those who are incarcerated therein. When we have the choice of circumstances in our own hands it would be well indeed did we invariably elect to surround ourselves with beauty, and it was originally intended that the people at large should be instructed in this lesson by beholding the extreme beauty of the sacred places in which they performed acts of worship. Those who seemingly require no special temple and no officiating priests can certainly lift their souls in aspiration amid the glories of undisfigured natural surroundings, and as the highest compliment which can be paid to any artist is to assure him that his work is a perfect facsimile of nature, we can have no greater beauty even in structures of the rarest magnificence than we behold in those charming districts of the world where natural scenery is allowed to remain untampered with. The Garden Cities now springing up in England are exerting a highly beneficial effect upon the civilization of the country, because they are helping people to get further away from that hideous artificiality which has for a long time past exerted an undermining influence upon health and morals. Rapid transit is beginning to prove an immense benefit to multitudes by making it quite easy for men of family to transact business in the centre of a great city and bring up children in the very heart of a lovely country. Dress as well as circumstances and diet receives a great deal of attention in the Mosaic Law, and not only the attire of those who are set apart to perform peculiar religious functions, but the ordinary costume of the masses, receives some definite notice. It is an undeniable fact that Jews to-day, as a community, are very fond of jewelry, and it has been said that the very word jewel pertains to Judaism. Be that as it may, the Old Testament lays great stress on personal adornment, in addition to cleanliness, in many imposing instances, and in so doing it does not show itself barbaric, as some foolish people suppose, probably because all unsophisticated peoples are, like children, fond of bright colors and general display; but in this matter, as in very many others, it evinces singularly deep insight into what is conducive to general well-being.

Colors apart from jewels (which, however, embody them in the most perfect manner and to the fullest possible degree) have a value and exert an influence far beyond what is ordinarily supposed. Dr. Edwin Babbitt, in his famous treatise, “The Principles of Light and Color,” has given out an immense amount of information of extreme value, which has not received anything like the degree of attention its great merit richly deserves, though we are happy to say that the large illustrated volume, rather too ponderous for general reading, has found its way into a very large number of libraries in many lands, and we have good evidence that it has beneficently influenced the practice of many progressive doctors, and also helped many sufferers on the road to recovery by explaining to them a rational, and not difficult, mode of home treatment. In any country retreat or seaside resort it ought to be easy to open up a Solarium and apply the Light and Color treatment, provided a director can be found for each institution who really understands the science of the system, and is provided with an adequate mechanical equipment; and even without a full supply of chromo-lenses and thermolumes, a great deal of useful work can be done by simply fitting up a few rooms with the necessary colored window glass. The house ought to be so situated that it commands more than an average amount of sunlight, and the various rooms—in the Northern Hemisphere with Southern, and in the Southern Hemisphere with Northern exposures—should be equipped with colored windows, always kept scrupulously clean, so that the special rays of light needed in different conditions can be enjoyed to the full by those undergoing treatment. But though it is to sunshine primarily that we must look for the color vibrations necessary, we have in electric light so valuable an adjunct that at seasons of the year and in localities where the sunshine is often very limited we can arrange electric light fixtures so that we obtain almost the same results by night as by day, and in cloudy as in brilliant weather. A thoroughly equipped Solarium, furnished in every detail in accordance with the prescription of certain highly trained and widely experienced Occultists, would be nothing less than a magnificent Temple of the Sun, in which patients to-day might receive treatment identical with that which made many an ancient temple famous. Multitudes of sufferers all over the world are readily amenable to Solaric and Electric treatment simply and beautifully administered, and in these days when new methods are eagerly sought after and painstakingly examined, the time is indeed opportune for a revival of this best, simplest, humanest method of healing through direct co-operation with Nature in one of her most glorious and attractive forms the world has ever witnessed. With the rapidly increasing sensitiveness of the present generation crude methods and gross remedies are passing out of vogue; there is, constantly, a loud and imperative call for measures which will prove effective and convincing and in no way injure or terrify nervous invalids. In Solaric treatment, accompanied by wise and beneficent Suggestion, we find exactly what our age requires, viz., a Psycho-Physical method which embraces a reasonable appeal to the mind and also satisfies a widespread demand for something which can be readily comprehended by persons who have not grown to a state where they can be fully satisfied with methods exclusively metaphysical. Nature everywhere employs Form, Sound, and Color; we are, therefore, thoroughly in accord with Nature if we avail ourselves of these three great aids to harmony, which were all acknowledged and employed by the greatest healers of antiquity, whose marvelous achievements stand out to-day on the pages of world-wide history, not only challenging our attention and exciting our wonder, but bidding us drink from the same overflowing natural fountain from which they drank so wisely and so copiously, that we too may demonstrate in our age, as they did in theirs, the boundlessness of the supply furnished to us by the glorious central luminary which is the agent of all our life and the active sustainer of all growth and beauty.

The seven prismatic hues may be regarded as four landings and three stairways, symbolically speaking. Red is the first floor, Yellow the second, Blue the third, Violet the fourth. Orange is the first staircase, Green the second, Indigo the third. Red always excites the physical system and can be most advantageously employed to antidote all sluggish and costive conditions. Orange is less physically stimulating than Red, and as it inclines toward Yellow, which stimulates intellectual activity, it is extremely useful in those numerous instances where a mild tonic and purgative is required for mind and body at once. Yellow is, par excellence, an excitant of the intellect and it exercises a cooling, refreshing, and mildly stimulating effect upon those whose work requires constant and diligent attention to intellectual pursuits. Green is the home color of our planet, and standing in the middle of the scale is a corrective of nostalgia and a most harmonizing and tranquilizing color to employ in all places where many people exhibiting diverse characteristics are required to congregate. Blue is the decidedly ethical harmonizer and is to be specially recommended in all cases where passions are too easily excited and where material objects exert too great a sway. This color is a soporific, a true conqueror of insomnia and nervous headaches; fevers yield to its tranquilizing influence, as its action is to cool the blood, lower the pulse, and generally soothe senses while tending to free the mind from anxiety and worry, leaving it free to engage in the profitable contemplation of ideal conditions. Purple (or Indigo) excites toward spiritual contemplation and always suggests intellectual, coupled with moral, dignity. Violet is the spiritual color, par excellence, and it is found extremely effective in aiding well-conducted psychic experiments. To fit up a private solarium is not very expensive, as only eight rooms are necessary, though we can easily add profitably to their number. One room must have clear white glass, as white is the common unifier, and the other seven chambers must have respectively one each of the seven prismatics. A ninth room for the introduction of Rose Pink would be a great advantage, as this lovely color, though not one of the mystic seven, is of immense value in counteracting despondency and all pessimistic tendencies. Pink is the color of hope, and quite often light streaming through pink windows or electric light globes will drive away all tendency to gloom and to despair, and so invigorate a melancholy sufferer as to go far to prevent insanity and suicide. We trust that these few hints on Color Treatment will serve to awaken increased interest in this momentous theme, which needs to be pursued indefinitely.