We must again look to symbology if we desire to understand the meaning. Of old the Bee was a symbol of the Soul, and by the laws of Mohammed bees were admitted to the joys of Heaven. The votaries of Ceres adored the Moon under the symbol of a bee—a symbol appearing on some of the Greek coins, notably on those of Ephesus where Diana, goddess of the Moon, was worshipped and whence the cry, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians,” reached the ears of Paul (Acts XIX). Porphyry writes: “The Moon presiding over generation was called a bee and also a bull, and Taurus is the exaltation of the Moon.” He adds symbolically: “But bees are oxbegotten, and this appellation is also given to soul proceeding to generation.” (“Cave of the Nymphs.”) The explanation of the veiled mystery is that the Moon at the full is the symbol of the soul, the emblem of which is a bee. It comes from the body of a bull or Taurus, the second sign of the zodiac, in which as Porphyry observes she is in her exaltation and powerful; Taurus is the earth sign of the planet Venus in the guise of the goddess of Generation, and as the soul enters the world, new born, the waters of the Jordan are needed to purify it as, when it leaves the body, water was left for it to wash off the emanations of its deserted covering. Further into the mysteries it is unnecessary to go. The veil of Isis hides the truth, and only he who will strive to understand heavenly wisdom can hope to pierce that veil.
Amber has been placed under the sign Leo, the sign of the Sun, by some of the old masters, while others have allotted it to the sign of Venus (Taurus), to which it more probably belongs. It is very soft, is easily cut with a knife, and burns freely. Large quantities are found on the coast of the Baltic, which the Greeks called in consequence the Amber Sea. In Oriental story Amberabad (Amber City) was a city of Jinnistan (Fairy Land).
To dream of amber was said to denote a voyage, and according to the philosophy of the Quabalah the indication was of some kind of movement or change.
Amber has been imitated in preparations of Mellite, Copal and Anine, also by a blending of sulphur and gutta percha at high temperature, etc., but Mellite is infusible by heat, burning white. Copal catches fire and falls from the instrument on which it is heated in flat drops, while the general attracting power of most substitutes falls far short of the true substance.
AMETHYST
“The purple streaming amethyst is thine.”
Tennyson.
The amethyst is a species of transparent, violet-coloured quartz, the name of which is derived from the Greek AMETHYSTOS, from the traditional belief that this stone possessed the power to oppose the effect of the fumes of intoxicants, an opinion not entirely shared by Plutarch. Amongst the Greeks and Persians an amethyst bound on the navel was said to counteract the evil effects of wine. The amethyst is described by Trevisa in the 15th century as “purple red in colour medelyd wyth colour of uyolette,” and in Sir Philip Sidney’s “Arcadia,” we read:
“The bloodie shafts of Cupid’s war
With amatists they headed are.”