Lapis Lazuli derives its name from the Latin word Lapis, a stone, and the Arabic Azul, blue. It has been variously written as Zumemo Lazuli, Zemech Lazarilli, Stellatus, Lapis Lazary, Lapis Coelestus, the Azure Gem, the Armenian Stone, Lapis Lazari. Its composition includes for the greater part silica and alumina, with soda, lime, iron, sulphuric acid, sulphur, chlorine and water. It is assumed to be a product of contact metamorphism, and is described by Pliny as “opaque and sprinkled with specks of gold” (yellow pyrites). It is found in Persia, Tartary, China, Thibet and Siberia. Badakhshan or Budukhshan in Central Asia is famous for its Lapis Lazuli mines in which, it is recorded, the rock is split with the help of fire. The stone is often found in tints of green, red, violet, or colourless, but these may be termed varieties. The miners of Budukhshan call the blue Lapis “Nili,” the sky-blue “Asmani,” and the blue-green tints “Sabzi.” Some of the finest lajward (lapis lazuli) is sent from the Persian markets whence formerly specimens of rare beauty were exposed for sale at the fairs of Nijni-Novgorod. From very remote times Persia supplied the ancient world with the greatest quantities of lajward. The “sapphirus” of old is the Lapis Lazuli of today, and it is recommended that the 26th chapter of The Book of the Dead should be recited before a deific figure cut from this stone. As early as 1500 years before Christ we have a record that the Lapis Lazuli placed on the neck of a sick child reduced fever. Many of the Egyptian priests wore images formed from the stone which was regarded as an emblem of the heavens. Epiphanius, Bishop of Constantia in Cyprus, at the latter part of the 4th century, quotes from older sources the tradition that the tables of the Law of Moses were written on two blocks of Lapis Lazuli, which is identified as the eleventh stone of the magic Breastplate. In the ceremonies of the Temple of Heaven in China, ornaments of LIU-LI (Lapis Lazuli) were used, and the Chinese sacred writings record how at one time the priest-kings bore it as an offering to the Lord of the Universe. In accordance with the desire of Catherine II of Russia her favourite room in the Zarskoe Selo palace was adorned with lapis lazuli, symbolic of the country she governed, and amber, as a symbol of herself. The ancient Greeks and Romans considered a piece of Lapis Lazuli—the stone of Heaven—as the most fitting distinction to bestow for personal bravery. It was regarded as a true stone of friendship and of the affection arising from friendship. Ancient physicians regarded this gem as of potent value in eye troubles, one old prescription advising that a specimen be placed in a bowl of water, warm but not hot, for the space of some few minutes, and then that the eye affected be bathed in the water which must be as pure as can be obtained. The stone was also valued if placed, just warm, on swellings or seats of pain. It was also regarded as a cure for ague, melancholia, disorders of the blood, neuralgic affections and spasmodic action. As a talisman it was worn to protect against injuries, especially to the ankles, to attract friends, gain favours and realize hopes. Lapis Lazuli was used by many of the old alchemists in special work of an esoteric nature and is frequently alluded to as the Stone of Heaven in which the stars are held. It is under the zodiacal Aquarius.

LIMONITE. This stone was named Limonite by Professor Hausmann in 1813 from the Greek word LEIMON, a meadow. It is a species of brown haematite (scarcely as hard as the opal) which according to Professor Dana appears to have been the result in all cases of the decomposition of other iron-bearing rocks or minerals. It is under the celestial Aries.

LODESTONE

“The magnet weds the steel, the secret rites

Nature attends and th’ heavenly pair unites.”

(Claudianus of Alexandra.)

The lodestone, which is also written though not so correctly, Loadstone, obtains its name from the Anglo-Saxon LAD, a course, LITHAN, to lead, and STAN. Another form is Lodysshestone, the stone that shows the way. It is also known as Magnetite or the ancient Magnet, from the Greek MAGNES. The lodestone or magnetite is a black iron ore of high magnetic quality, and this peculiar attracting force is said to have first indicated what we now term magnetism. According to Pliny a Greek shepherd—Magnes, by name—whilst tending his sheep on Mount Ida, found pieces of lodestone clinging to the ferrule of his shepherd’s staff. Titus Carus Lucretius, in his great philosophical work “De Rerum Natura” (about 55 B. C.), calls the Magnetite the Magnesium Stone, which he said obtained its name from Magnesia, a town in Thessaly. Another name applied to this stone is SIDERIT, but its best-known appellation in the ancient world was HERACLION, or stone of Hercules. It is interesting to recall the legend of the old Phoenician mariners, which tells that Hercules, admiring their daring and skill, desired to help them in the science of navigation. For this purpose he obtained from Helios a cup of Heraclion which always turned to the North. This seems to indicate that the mariners’ compass is of older date than the 11th century; indeed the Chinese assert that in the year 2634 B.C. the Emperor Houangti first constructed a magnetic compass. The Greek traveller and historian Pausanias in his “Helbados Periegesis” published in the second century, writes of the rough stone image of Hercules in the Temple at Hyettos, which the sick came but to touch in order to be healed of their disorders. As a stone of healing the lodestone was highly esteemed as a cure for gout, rheumatism, cramp, disorders which frequently yield to treatment wherein iron is employed. It was used during childbirth and in diseases of the generative organs. Finely powdered and mixed with oil or grease it was regarded by ancient writers as a preventive of or cure for baldness. In the Orphic Lythica it is stated that holding this stone to the head, the voices of the gods could be heard, heavenly knowledge gained and divine things seen. It is here advised that one should sit alone in earnest meditation asking the celestial powers for guidance or help in some particular trouble, when the reply flowing through the stone would be quickly sensed and understood by the sincere petitioner. A woman’s moral character was said to be betrayed by the lodestone which endowed strength, will and the ability to look into the future. It was also carried as a charm to protect against shipwreck. It is related that after the death of his sister-wife Arsinoe, Ptolemy II (Philadelphus) planned with his architect Dinochares a temple to be built of lodestone in order that her iron statue would be held for ever in suspension, seemingly in space, but death defeated the plan. In referring to the power of lodestones Professor Noad (“Electricity”) states: “The smallest stones have greater attractive force in proportion to their size than larger ones.” Francis Barrett under the heading of “Antipathies” writes that a diamond disagrees with a lodestone and being present suffers no iron to be drawn to it. However, it is as a lovers’ token that the lodestone is most extolled; it is often found set in lovers’ rings of the Middle Ages. Claudianus in his “Idyl” published in the latter part of the 4th century gives a record of a temple wherein was a statue of Venus in lodestone, and another of Mars in iron—symbols of the attraction of the wife for the husband and of the husband for the wife. There is an old belief that the magnet was affected by the onion, and in this connection the following extract from “Notes and Queries,” December, 1917, is interesting: “The notorious Count de Benyowsky at the end of Chapter III of his ‘Memoirs and Travels’ mentions the stratagem which he tried at sea to falsify the compass by the use of iron and garlic. I now find that in the 17th century the belief actually prevailed in England that an onion would destroy the power of the magnet. Thus Sir John Pettus of Suffolk, Kt., after describing his visit as a youth to the lead mines of Derbyshire in company with Sir Thomas Bendish says that having magnetized the blade of his knife and hearing that contact with an onion would utterly destroy that power, he preferred to believe rather than risk losing his magnet. The passage occurs in a rambling note on ‘Mineralls’ in the second part of his ‘Fleta Minor.’” It might be considered in connection with such stories that the onion as well as the lodestone is of the zodiacal Scorpio. To dream of the lodestone warns of subtle dealings and contentions. It is under the celestial Scorpion.

CHAPTER XX
MALACHITE—NEPHRITE

MALACHITE: ROSICRUCIAN SYMBOL OF ETERNAL SPRING: USED IN ANTIQUE CAMEI AND INTAGLI: VIRTUES: A SLEEP STONE: MARBLE, THE STONE OF STATUES: VARIETIES: EMBLEM OF IMMORTALITY: THE SYMBOL OF MERCURY: THE IMAGE OF SILENUS: MEERSCHAUM: KAVOL KOWATES MAKES A MEERSCHAUM PIPE: MELANITE: MOONSTONE OR CEYLON OPAL: INDIAN BELIEFS: STONE OF PROPHECY AND LOVE: SPECIMEN OF POPE LEO X: MOSS AGATE: AN EMBLEM OF RESURRECTION: ORPHEUS’S ADVICE: MOTHER OF EMERALD: MOTHER OF PEARL: NACRE: EMBLEM OF WOMEN: CUSTOM OF THE WEST AUSTRALIAN NATIVE: NEPHRITE: LAPIS NEPHRITICUS OR KIDNEY STONE: SIR WALTER RALEIGH’S DESCRIPTION: JADE AND JADEITE: CAMPHOR JADE: BURMESE JADE: NEPHRITE CHARMS: CHINESE AND JADE: FIND NEAR PEKING: THE NINE ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND THE FIVE CARDINAL VIRTUES: JADE AS A PREVENTIVE OF DECAY: MUSICAL JADE STONES: THE LUNAR FESTIVALS: JADE OF THE NORTH, SOUTH, EAST AND WEST: ITS HEALING VIRTUES: BUDDHA’S FOOTMARK: SYMBOL OF RULERSHIP: ADADU-NEPHROS OR KIDNEY OF ADONIS: THE 6 VARIETIES OF THE MAORIS: THE HEI TIKI: THE TAHUNGA STONE AND THE MERE OR PATTOO PATTOO: DAMOUR’S CHLOROMELANITE: PÂTÉ DE RIZ: PINK JADE: IONAN JADE: THE HYSTERIA STONE AT THE NEW YORK MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY.

MALACHITE