Swedenborg groups the tribes thus:

Judah, Reuben and Gad; Assher, Napthali and Manasseh; Simeon, Levi and Issachar; Zebulon, Joseph and Benjamin.

It is unnecessary to quote further lists as I believe that the one I am now producing will be sufficient to redeem the confusion. It is in complete harmony with the order of Jacob’s blessings (Genesis XLIX) and the signs of the Zodiac. It will be noted that Taurus with the tribe of Reuben leads the Zodiac, and it is related that under this sign the human race came to earth. On ancient zodiacs the Bull as a solar conception is shown wending his way through the stars.

1.Reubenthe DefilerTaurus
2.Simeon and Levithe SlayersGemini
3.Levi“Held to” (i. e., to the altar)Cancer
4.Judahthe Lion’s WhelpLeo
5.Zebulonthe HavenVirgo (Argo, the ship, is in the constellation Virgo).
6.Issacharthe BenderLibra
7.Danthe AdderScorpio
8.Gadthe VictorSagittarius
9.Assherthe ProducerCapricorn
10.Naphthalithe ComforterAquarius
11.Josephthe RedeemerPisces
12.Benjaminthe DevourerAries

The sign Cancer is that of the tribe of Levi as servants and guardians of the Tabernacle, the name indicating “held to,” i. e., held to the altar.

CHAPTER V
INTERPRETATION OF THE BREASTPLATE
ACCORDING TO ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY

It is apparent that the identification of the stones in the Breastplate must present many difficulties. Lord Arthur C. Hervey in his Dictionary of the Bible, says: “Whether the order followed the ages of the sons of Israel or, as seems most probable, the order of the encampment, may be doubted; but unless any appropriate distinct symbolism of the different tribes be found in the names of the precious stones, the question can scarcely be decided.” Dr. C. Keil in “Biblical Archaeology” says: “The order of the rows of the precious stones is given in Exodus 28:17-20 and 39:10-13, but owing to the vacillating manner in which the early writers designate and describe the stones we are at a loss to know how it should be explained.” Dr. Deane is of the opinion that in many cases it is a difficult task to identify the Hebrew and Greek names used in these passages with the names of modern mineralogy. The Rev. J. R. Dummelow comments on the difficulties of identifying the stones, the meaning of the Hebrew words being doubtful. Josephus saw the Breastplate frequently in his day, and in his description the position of certain stones is changed. The Hebrew Bible translation also presents differences. Rosenmuller, the Orientalist, argues as to the position of the 6th and 12th stones, placing the 12th in the 6th and the 6th in the 12th. It may easily be assumed that in its wanderings stones were lost from the Breastplate and that the replacing of these stones was not always carried out by men with a knowledge of the quabalistical import of Urim and Thummim or even of the stones themselves.

To quote from Dr. Deane: “The variation in the order of the stones prompts the enquiry whether the Breastplate which Josephus repeatedly saw and which Jerome might have seen in the Temple of Concord was identical with that of ancient times. If the whole of the original stones were preserved, the order must have been kept in consequence of the names engraved upon them. But it is not by any means unlikely that in the great vicissitudes of the Hebrew nation some of the original stones may have been lost and have been replaced by others.” More evidences of this kind would be superfluous.

The First Stone of the Breastplate

Now, the first stone of the Breastplate is a Red stone. According to astrology the Red stone vibrates to the planet Mars and the zodiacal Aries, therefore its position as the first stone of the Breastplate is natural. In the mystic philosophy of the Hebrews the Ram “caught in a thicket by his horns,” the blood of the lamb upon the lintel and side-posts, etc., and in mystic Christian philosophy the blood of the Lamb which redeems from worldly[worldly] sin are expressed symbolically by the sign Aries, into which the Sun enters in the month of Nisan, approximately 21st March, the time of the Passover and of Easter. Not only then must the stone be a red one, it must be red of the colour of blood. But again one must not lose sight of the fact that the first stone on the Plate was engraved not with the name of the tribe of Benjamin, the true Aries tribe, but with the name Reuben, a tribe under the lordship of the second sign of the Zodiac, Taurus. This may be explained by the fact that the earlier Breastplate of the two began with the sign Taurus. Agnes Mary Clerke, writing on the Old Zodiac, says: “So far as positive records go Aries was always the first sign. But the arrangement is, on the face of it, a comparatively modern one. None of the brighter stars of the constellation could be said even roughly to mark the Equinox much before 1800 B.C.; therefore during a long stretch of previous time the leading position belongs to the stars of Taurus. Numerous indications accordingly point to a corresponding primate zodiac. Setting aside as doubtful, evidence derived from interpretation of cuniform inscriptions we meet in connection with Mithraic and Mylittic legends reminiscences of a Zodiac and religious calendar in which the Bull led the way. Virgil’s “Candidus auratis aperit cum cornibus anum Taurus” perpetuates the tradition, and the Pleiades continued within historical memory to be the first asterism of the lunar zodiac.”