CHAPTER XIIITHE BERYL FAMILY
THE BERYL FAMILY: SOME LARGE SPECIMENS: VAUQUELIN’S DISCOVERY: THE CELESTIAL SIGN OF THE BERYL FAMILY: OLD MINES OF KLEOPATRA: WOMEN SEARCHERS OF EGYPT: THE CANOPY OF HOLOFERNES: STARS OF THE PLEIADES: EMERALD AND THE EYES: POPE JOHN XXI AND HIS ASSERTION: THE SERPENT’S GAZE: TAURUS, SCORPIO AND THE STORY OF EDEN: THE TRUE VENUS: REPTILES OF OVER-INDULGENCE: CIRCE AND THE SWINE: DIANA, GODDESS OF THE MOON: VIRTUES ASCRIBED TO THE EMERALD: ESMERALDA: THE DRAGON OF THE EMERALD MINE: PRESCOTT’S STORY: PIZARRO’S LARGEf EMERALD: THE TRICK OF PEDRAZA: INDIAN BELIEF: APOLLONIUS OF TYANA AND THE EMERALD OF IARCHUS: THE EMERALD IN ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY: SWEATING EMERALDS: EMERALDS IN OLD EXCAVATIONS: ESTEEM OF THE ROMANS: PERSIAN BELIEFS: ALBERTUS MAGNUS, CARDANUS AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE MASTERS: MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS’ STONE IN BRAZIL: HINDOO BELIEFS: THE HEAVEN OF THE MUSLIMS: THE INHABITANTS OF PARADISE: PARACELSUS AND THE EMERALD: EARLY CHRISTIAN EMBLEM: BERYL IN MAGICAL RITES: “THE TEMPEST”: RECOMMENDATION OF LEONARDUS: WATER DIVINATION: STORY OF THE RING OF POLYCRATES:FISH AND RING STORIES: HERODOTUS AND OLD WRITERS ON THE RING OF POLYCRATES: PHILIP II AND THE FATAL RING OF SPAIN: SPAIN’S DEFEAT BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE BURIAL OF THE ILL-OMENED RING: GIFT OF POPE ADRIAN VIII TO HENRY II: EMERALD OF KING ARTHUR: POPE INNOCENT’S PRESENT TO KING JOHN: SWEDENBORG’S EMERALD CORRESPONDENCE: THE FALSE AQUAMARINE AMONGST THE BRITISH CROWN JEWELS: THE FATAL EMERALD OF RUSSIA.
BERYL
“What rings of Eastern price his fingers hold.Gold decks the fingers, beryl decks the gold.”Parnell.
“What rings of Eastern price his fingers hold.Gold decks the fingers, beryl decks the gold.”Parnell.
“What rings of Eastern price his fingers hold.Gold decks the fingers, beryl decks the gold.”Parnell.
“What rings of Eastern price his fingers hold.
Gold decks the fingers, beryl decks the gold.”
Parnell.
The name beryl is derived from the Greek and Latin BERYLLUS; some say also from the Persian BELUR. Some of the old fashions of writing the name are included in the following: beril, beryll, berall, birrall, byral, byrrall, byralle, berial, beryall, bureall, beryl stone.
Dr. Holland’s rendering of Pliny’s remarks on the beryl (Chapter 36) is interesting: “Many are of the opinion that beryls are of the same nature that the emeraud, or leastwise verie like: from India they came as from their native place, for seldom are they to be found elsewhere.”
Beryls are pale green stones coloured by iron. Some very large crystals have been found. Professor Rutley mentions one specimen found at Royalston in Massachusetts, which weighed nearly 2½ tons.
EMERALD
“As when an emerald green enchas’dIn flaming gold, from the bright mass acquiresA nobler hue, more delicate to sight.”J. Philips.
“As when an emerald green enchas’dIn flaming gold, from the bright mass acquiresA nobler hue, more delicate to sight.”J. Philips.
“As when an emerald green enchas’dIn flaming gold, from the bright mass acquiresA nobler hue, more delicate to sight.”J. Philips.
“As when an emerald green enchas’d
In flaming gold, from the bright mass acquires
A nobler hue, more delicate to sight.”
J. Philips.
The name in days of old was variously written: emeraud, emeraude, emraud, emeroyde, emmorant, emerant, ameraud, emerode, emrade, hemerauld, smaragdus. The derivation is from the old French word ESMERALDA, through the modern French EMERAUDE; Greek SMARAGDOS, Latin SMARAGDUS.
Amongst some large sized emeralds Professor Dana notes one in the cabinet of the Duke of Devonshire, which specimen is 2¼ inches long by about 2 inches in diameter; a finer specimen weighing six ounces, once in the possession of Mr. Harry Thomas Hope; one formerly in the Royal Russian collection, 4½ in. in length, 12 in. in breadth, 16¾ pounds troy in weight; another weighing six pounds, which is 7 in. long and 4 in. broad.
Dr. Holland’s translation of Pliny (Book 37) is as follows:
“True it is that we take great delight to behold green hearbes and leaves of trees but this is nothing to the pleasure we have in looking upon the emeraud, for compare it with other things, be they never so green, it surpasseth them all in pleasant verdure.”
“True it is that we take great delight to behold green hearbes and leaves of trees but this is nothing to the pleasure we have in looking upon the emeraud, for compare it with other things, be they never so green, it surpasseth them all in pleasant verdure.”
The Emerald is the beautiful green variety of the beryl family, coloured by chromium.
AQUAMARINE
“One entire stone of a sea-water green known by the name of agmarine.”Stow. Chron.1598.
“One entire stone of a sea-water green known by the name of agmarine.”Stow. Chron.1598.
“One entire stone of a sea-water green known by the name of agmarine.”Stow. Chron.1598.
“One entire stone of a sea-water green known by the name of agmarine.”
Stow. Chron.1598.
The word is derived from the Latin AQUA, water, and MARE, the sea. It was known under various forms: aigue marine, ague marine, aque marine, agmarine, etc. In colour the aquamarine is pale blue, bluish green and light sea-green.
Here may be mentioned the Golden Emerald—an emerald of charming golden colour, and the Rose Beryl named Morganite after the late J. Pierpont Morgan.
The whole beryl family is classified under the sign Taurus. Their crystalline form is hexagonal (six-sided), and six is the traditional number of Venus, whose earth house or mansion in astrology is the heavenly Taurus. Beryllium enters largely into their composition, and because of the sweetness of its salts this element is also termed Glucinum (Greek GLYKYS, sweet). Glycina was first discovered by the great chemist Vauquelin while experimenting with emeralds in 1797. Much confusion has arisen amongst authors on the subject of gems and the Heavens, from confounding the beryl with the tourmaline—a distinctly Mercurial gem. The beryl, aquamarine and emerald present only colour shade differences. It is more difficult, however, to find really fine emeralds than it is to find other varieties of the same family. The emeralds found in the workings of the old Kleopatra mines, whose very existence was at one time doubted, are of the lighter or beryl variety. These gems were much soughtafter in ancient times, the Egyptian women being esteemed the best searchers “because of their superior eyesight.” There is no doubt, as before noted, that the sex was considered as well as the sight, and the selection of women “daughters of Venus” for this work was not without design.
The splendour of the canopy of purple and gold under which Holofernes, the Assyrian general, rested was enriched according to the Apochrypha with emeralds and precious stones (Judith X. 21). This symbol of Assyrian luxury—considering the accredited virtue of the emerald amongst the ancients—was of evil import to the leader of the army of Nabuchodonosor, the “King of all the earth.”
Astrology notes that a person born in the sign Taurus, especially from the 20° to the 30° amongst the nebulous stars of the Pleiades, or with violent stars in that sign at birth, has his sight always affected to a greater or lesser extent, hence the accredited virtues of the emerald as an eye stone, and no pharmacy of the Middle Ages would have thought of omitting it from its dispensary. As eye stones the stones of the beryl family have always been held in high esteem, Pope John XXI affirming that a diseased eye treated with an emerald became sound again. It was not claimed that the emerald would restore lost sight, but it was regarded as extremely potent in eye disease, injury or trouble of any kind. Sometimes it was sufficient, especially in the case of inflamed eyes, to bathe the eye in water in which emeralds had been steeped for six hours; at other times the stone was reduced to thefinest powder, an extremely small quantity of which was placed in the eye at stated intervals, Tom Moore sings in Lalla Rookh:
“Blinded like serpents when they gazeUpon the emerald’s virgin blaze.”
“Blinded like serpents when they gazeUpon the emerald’s virgin blaze.”
“Blinded like serpents when they gazeUpon the emerald’s virgin blaze.”
“Blinded like serpents when they gaze
Upon the emerald’s virgin blaze.”
The tradition that when a serpent fixes its eyes on an emerald it becomes blind is echoed from Hebrew philosophy, and Ahmed Ben Abdalaziz in his “Treatise on Jewels” has it that the lustre of emeralds makes serpents blind. As this ancient statement has occasioned some mirth and ridicule amongst those swayed by surface considerations it may be as well to consider the matter from another point of understanding. The symbolist will at once perceive the hidden parable: in astrology, serpents have been classed under the Scorpion of the zodiac, and the Venusian Taurus in the zodiac is opposite to the Scorpion. In the story of the Garden of Eden it is the Scorpion (snake) who tempts Eve, and her fall is held by occult students as a symbol to compel Man to exert his highest strength to enable his triumph over the lowest to be complete. The zodiacal Scorpio is accursed on its lower expression, and is symbolical then of the corruption which can menace virgin purity. Man on the lowest borderlands to which over-indulgence will ever draw him has been faced by serpents and reptiles whose immaterial lives exist only in those dark realms. The story of Circe and the Swine finds its parallel in the power of the pure and beautiful Venus to expel even by her symbolic emerald lust, envy, malice and grossness,to destroy the serpent’s gaze and to call the blind and suffering Man back to his peaceful Heaven again. So, as the Moon in astrological philosophy is exalted in Taurus, Diana the goddess of the Moon is the friend of chaste women. In Cutwode’s “Caltha Poetarium, or the Humble Bee,” written in 1599, Diana adorns the heroine with an emerald ring.
It can easily be seen why the emerald is the emblem of true happiness and the preserver of chastity, and why it was said to fracture if chastity were violated: to one taking vows of chastity and breaking them, the emerald could never appear the same again—before his spiritual vision it would be broken and shattered. Leonardus said that the emerald protected women in childbirth, and most old writers are impressive in warning men to wear one as a charm against spiritual and mental weakness.
The Peruvian goddess Esmeralda was said to reside in an emerald as big as an ostrich egg, and it was the custom of this little Venus in her symbolic emerald egg to receive emeralds as offerings from her devotees who also, it was said, sacrificed their daughters to her.
Stevenson (“Residence in South America”), writing of the emerald mine of Las Emeraldas, says: “I never visited it owing to the superstitious dread of the natives who assured me that it was enchanted and guarded by an enormous dragon who poured forth thunder and lightning on those who dared to ascend the river.” It is peculiar how the symbols of mankind coincide: the dragon is anotherof the zodiacal Scorpio varieties ever opposite Taurus, and was of old regarded as the agitator of thunders, lightnings and earth commotions. Prescott, in his “History of Peru,” tells us how the Spaniards after murdering the trusting Indians raided their dwellings and seized their ornaments and precious stones, for this was the region of the esmeraldas or emeralds. One of the jewels that fell into the hands of Pizarro was as large as a pigeon’s egg. Fra Reginaldo di Pedraza, one of the Dominican missionaries, told the Spaniards that the method of proving the genuineness or otherwise of emeralds was to try if they could be broken with a hammer; Prescott adding: “The good Father did not subject his own jewels to this wise experiment, but as the stones in consequence of it fell in value, being merely regarded as coloured glass, he carried back a considerable store of them to Panama.” The Indians held that the emerald protected against poisons and cleansed man from sin.
As an emblem of Eternal Spring, Iarchus included the emerald in the mystic necklace of Apollonius of Tyana. In Rosicrucian philosophy it is advised that if an emerald set in a ring of gold be placed on the solar finger of the left hand when the Sun entered Taurus, the wearer would attain his cherished aim and be enabled by the sweating of the stone to detect poisons. Experiment has shown that heat causes the emerald to lose water but does not affect its colour, hence the reports of the “sweating” emerald cannot be set aside as mythical. Specimens of the beryl family have been found intombs and in old excavations, and there is little doubt that the stones “of the colour of transparent sea-water” found by the old Romans at Cyprus belonged to it. The Romans greatly esteemed the emerald as an eye stone and a natural specific for ophthalmia, holding that what healed and calmed the spiritual eye would heal and calm the natural eye. The Persians applied ashes of burnt emeralds to ulcers with curative effect. They said that the emerald brought mental tranquility, cured unnatural thirst, stomach troubles, jaundice, liver troubles, obstructions, gravel, stricture, bodily pains and epilepsy. Albertus Magnus also recommends it as a cure for epileptic attacks. Mystics have always regarded the emerald as of the highest worth. It is spoken of by Cardanus as an ideal gem for divinatory purposes—no doubt because of its pure spiritual import. Aristotle writes that an emerald hung from the neck or worn on the finger protects from the “falling sickness.”
The ancient writers held that all kinds of divination were helped by the emerald, and when worn during the transaction of honest business it gave favour to the wearer. In Brazil, medical students on becoming doctors of medicine wore on their fingers rings of emeralds as an indication that they had received their diploma. The lighter emerald, or beryl, bound man and wife together in mutual love, and raised the wearer to success and honour.
Among the Hindoo philosophers the emerald held its place as a gem of the zodiacal Taurus, and in the First Heaven of the Muslims the tents of thefaithful are represented as studded with emeralds, pearls and jacinths.
Mr. E. W. Lane (“Modern Egyptians”) writes that the inhabitants of Paradise are said to be clothed “in the richest silk, chiefly of green, and all superfluities from their bodies will be carried off by perspiration which will diffuse an odour like that of musk”—a plant recognized by old astrologers as belonging to the sign Taurus. Paracelsus wrote that the emerald was in sympathy with the metal copper—also recognized as the chief metal of Venus. Mr. King notes a fine emerald, a quarter inch square, belonging to the earliest Christian periods, on which is cut a fish, which besides being an early Christian emblem is symbolical of Venus and later of the Virgin. Venus is exalted in the Zodiacal sign of the Fishes which enters largely into the Christian mysteries. The beryl was used in magical rites as an instrument for foretelling future happenings. For special magical purposes the stone was held in the mouth when—says Freeman, writing in the early part of the 18th century—a person may call an elemental and receive satisfaction for any question he might ask. In this connection one is tempted to think of the delightful Venusian spirit Ariel in Shakespeare’s “Tempest.” Again the beryl is recommended by Leonardus as a charm against diseases of the throat and jaws. In the “water divination” of the Middle Ages a beryl stone was suspended just to touch the surface of the water in the bowl, and it answered questions by automatically striking the edges of the vessel.It was also thrown into a shallow dish of water, information being gathered from the reflections seen in sunlight in the water.
Herodotus tells the story of the Thalassokrat (Sea-king) Polycrates of Samos whose never-failing fortune so alarmed his friend and ally, the Pharaoh Amasis of Egypt, that he wrote to him begging him to sacrifice something he valued most highly to propitiate the fateful Nemesis, goddess of retribution. In obedience to this request Polycrates, with many regrets, threw from a boat his precious emerald ring into the sea far from the shore. Some few days afterwards a fisherman caught a fish so large and shapely that, thinking it a prize for the King, he took it to the palace of Polycrates. When the cook was preparing the fish for the King’s table he found within it his master’s emerald ring. Amasis, when informed of the incident by Polycrates, was greatly concerned as it foretold to him a fatal end for the Thalassokrat, with whom he broke off negotiations and alliances. Polycrates, being induced by his crafty enemy the Persian satrap Oroetes to visit him, was seized and crucified. The story is discredited by some historians—notably Grote—but this is not the only story of a fish swallowing a ring or some other article of value. The legend of Solomon’s ring has been already alluded to. Mr. King collecting evidence from Herodotus, Pausanius, and other old writers finds that the ring of Polycrates was a “signet of emerald set in gold, the work of Theodorus of Samos.” That famous father of the church, Titus Flavius Clemens, better knownas Clemens Alexandrinus, says that on the emerald ring of Polycrates was engraved “a musical lyre.” A fine quality emerald bearing a similar device was found about fifty years ago in a vineyard at Aricia, and that this may have been the famous ring is not impossible.
In the reign of Philip II, of Spanish Armada repute, there appeared in Spain a strange ring of gold, in the centre of which was an emerald cut so as to contain a ruby surrounded by diamonds. This curious ring is said to have been the symbol of misfortune wherever it came. The church which received it as a gift from the King was destroyed by fire; the fatal ring, rescued from the fire, was placed in a museum that was badly damaged by lightning; whilst again in the possession of the King of Spain, Spain was defeated in the war with the United States of America. Then this ring of ill-omen was buried in an iron coffin in a secret place. Its evil influence can readily be accounted for in the light of occult philosophy—the ruby is a stone under the Celestial Leo, the emerald is under Taurus. These signs form the evil square, being counted in astrological science 90° apart. A square aspect is always accounted an evil one. The admixture of the beautiful crystal symbols was unfortunate. Spain again is under the celestial Sagittarius, and would not hold gems of Taurus. Philip II himself had an evil influence on Spain. Astrologically neither the emerald nor the ruby would be in harmony with his nativity and the diamond would be fatal.
John of Salisbury states that Pope Adrian VIII confirmed the right to hold and govern Ireland on Henry II of England with the gift of a rare emerald set in a ring of gold, and the Papal bull or seal. The right to bestow all islands was claimed by the Pope by virtue of the laws of Constantine. It is curious in connection with this historical transaction that Ireland and the emerald come under Taurus, and that the right of Henry II as sovereign of Ireland is confirmed by the Papal Bull!
Tennyson in “Elaine” says that Arthur, “the glorious King”
“Had on his cuirass worn our Lady’s Head,Carved of one emerald centred in a sunOf silver rays, that lighten’d as he breathed.”
“Had on his cuirass worn our Lady’s Head,Carved of one emerald centred in a sunOf silver rays, that lighten’d as he breathed.”
“Had on his cuirass worn our Lady’s Head,Carved of one emerald centred in a sunOf silver rays, that lighten’d as he breathed.”
“Had on his cuirass worn our Lady’s Head,
Carved of one emerald centred in a sun
Of silver rays, that lighten’d as he breathed.”
The beryl was the symbol of undying youth, the emerald of incorruptibility and triumph over sin, the aquamarine of social uplifting. One of the four rings sent by Pope Innocent III in the year 1205 to King John of England was an emerald which, wrote the donor, is the emblem of faith. To dream of beryls is said to denote happy news to come; to dream of aquamarines is interpreted as symbolical of loving friendships; to dream of emeralds is set down as a sign of worldly benefit and goodness. The Angel of the beryl family is the inexpressibly beautiful and tender Anael. Emanuel Swedenborg says that the beryl signifies “the good of charity and faith or the spiritual love of truth; the emerald the appearance of the divine sphere of the Lord in the lowest heavens; the emerald family as indicating the sphere of divine love and wisdom.”
The wonderful aquamarine which adorned the crown of James II of England has been recently found to be merely a piece of coloured glass. This fact was recently communicated by Sir George Younghusband, so well known as the keeper of the Jewel House in the Tower of London. It is presumed that the real stone was replaced by this imitation, but how and when is a matter of speculation. The whole emerald family were regarded as stones of fortune for King James II.
Before closing this account of the beryl family it may be interesting to recall the fatal emerald of Russia. This large and beautiful gem was given to Peter of Holstein-Gottorp (afterwards Peter III), by Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. Peter was assassinated. Emperor Paul wore it next and was strangled. Alexander II then had the stone newly set and it fell from his finger after his assassination. Alexander III would not wear it, but Nicholas II, allured by its beauty, did. Who now has the fatal emerald?