The shining marble is the emblem of spiritual resurrection which is symbolized in the sign of the Twins (Gemini). Mercury as the Egyptian Tehuti or Thoth, or the Greek Hermes, is ever connected with the spirits of the dead in the Hall of Judgment and, in harmony with the brilliant flashing white stone, the everlasting uplifting and spiritual progress. The sign Gemini but lightly veils the peculiar occult meaning associated with twins and connected names in hermetic philosophy. From Cain and Abel many may be enumerated including Simeon and Levi whom we find implicated in the massacre of the defenceless people of Shihem for which crime they drew upon themselves their father’s curse. Greek legend gives Amphion, skilled in music and learning, and Zeuthus, who labours and follows the chase. The latter by hard labour rolled huge boulders together to build up the walls of Troy, whilst the former but struck the strings of the lyre given to him by Hermes and the great rocks followed him—a symbol of the triumph of mind which Hermes promises to his disciples. Simeon and Levi killed the Shechemites to avenge their sister Dinah; Amphion and Zeuthus drove Dirce, bound to a bull, to her death to avenge their mother Antiope. In the legend of the Roman twins, Romulus kills his brother Remus as Cain killed Abel.
The twin stories are well illustrated in the legend of Castor and Pollux, the “great twin brethren,” sons of Jupiter and Leda. The former was mortal, the latter immortal, but so attached were they to each other that none ever saw them apart.
In these stories the mysterious union of the Soul and the Body is being continually forced forward, and sleep—which the old masters called a tenth part of death—is indicated in this legend of the Dioscuri when Pollux divides his immortality with his brother. Sanchoniatho or Sanchuniathon—who lived when Gideon judged Israel, says that Thoth of the Egyptians, Taaut of the Phœnicians, Thoyth of the Alexandrians, Hermes or Mercurius, was the inventor of letters, and took religion from the unskilful management of the vulgar forming it into a rational system; and "when Saturn came from the southern parts of the Earth he made Taaut, the son of Miser (identified as the Mizraim of the Bible), King of all Egypt, and the month Thoth began the Egyptian year and coincides with Tisri or Thishri which began the Jewish year and with Tisritu which began the Chaldean.
To continue further might lead outside the province of this book, and the plea for this digression is the endeavour to elucidate the hidden import of the various departments of the sacred Breastplate by the searchlight of the philosophical stories of our antique fathers.
Thoth or Hermes engraved all knowledge on two pillars or columns, and the Hermetic schools say that all knowledge is contained in the words, letters and continuations engraved on the two tables of stone. This writing of God graven upon the tables constituted the Commandments, five of which, and five is the number of Mercury, were written on each stone, the complete ten indicating the Hidden Power of God—identified in the Sepher Yetzirah as the Path of Resplendent Intelligence and the Light which, too intense for the material eye of man, is around the Throne of the Supreme.
The association of marble with Hermes, the Guide of the Human Race, is traditional, and evidence favours it as the third stone of the Breastplate engraved with the name of the tribe of Levi.
The Fourth Stone of the Breastplate
Nofek the fourth stone of the Breastplate, has been identified with the emerald, carbuncle, jasper, red garnet, ruby carbuncle, almandine garnet and ruby. Two of the Targums classify it as emerald, possibly referring to a stone similar in colour to the emerald. It is well known that all green stones were called emeralds by a large section of the ancient public, just as all red stones were called rubies, etc., hence much confusion followed. Dr. Emil Hirsch says that Nofek (the correctness of which word has been doubted in some quarters) must have belonged to the green stones. In corresponding chrysoprase with “celestial love of truth” Emanuel Swedenborg draws attention to Exodus XXVIII. 18, indicating his identification of that gem as the fourth stone of the Plate. This gem which is of a soft green colour resembles the tender hue of moonlight. The Midrash Bemidbah gives the colour of Nofek as sky blue, the Egyptians according to Müller as green, and the astrological, in considering Cancer the Mansion of the Moon, a moonlight green. The chrysoprase was anciently translated as “austerity directed against vice” which harmonizes agreeably with the traditional attitude of chaste Diana against evil-doers.
The Boat of the Moon in ancient Egypt is pictured as a disc within a crescent, and the association of the moon (which was said to be in its Mansion in the watery Cancer) with the waters of the Earth was well known to the ancients and is referred to frequently in works on magic and astrology. In this connection may be mentioned the Egyptian story of a few thousands of years ago which is known as “The Legend of the Green Jewel” told to the Pharaoh Khufu by the Prince Khafra:
Pharaoh Sneferu, weary and sighing for amusement or relaxation from affairs of State, was advised by his scribe to go rowing with the loveliest women of his harem on the lake. “I will go with thee, august One,” said the scribe, “the green banks with the trees and flowers, the splash of the water under the oars will charm thine eyes and bring thee happiness.” For the excursion twenty beautiful young women were selected (twenty was a number of the negative or female side of the Moon, quabalistically expressed as “the Awakening”). They rowed the Pharaoh’s boat with oars of ebony and gold, singing sweetly as they went, and his heart was glad. But with the turning of the boat the helmswoman’s hair was touched by her steering oar and a green jewel she wore fell into the water. She became silent and raised her oar from the water, the other women doing likewise. “Why cease?” asked the Pharaoh. “Let us continue.” They answered: “O Pharaoh, the steerer has stopped and her oar is raised from the water.” “Why is this so?” questioned the Pharaoh. “O Majesty, my beautiful green jewel has sunk beneath the waters.” “What of that?” he replied. “Continue. I will present you with a new jewel.” “O Majesty,” said the girl, “no jewel can replace my own green jewel.” So the Pharaoh turned to his scribe. “What can we do?” he asked. “This girl has lost her green jewel and will have no other.” The scribe uttered magical words over the lake and the waters divided as two walls. Between these walls the scribe descended and, having found the jewel, came up again into the boat, gave the green jewel to the helmswoman and spoke to the waters which closed up again. The Pharaoh was gratified, giving rich gifts to the scribe at whose power all marvelled.