It should be understood that by “emerald” is meant the precious emerald as we know it or its varieties Beryl and Aquamarine. It may be noted that the Topaz, a gem most generally favoured as the second stone on the Breastplate, is traditionally assigned to the opposite sign of the Zodiac, Scorpio. The hero Gilgames in Babylonian story sees by the gates of the Ocean a wondrous magical tree which bore as fruit most precious emeralds. The emerald as a love stone was closely identified with Venus and was regarded as particularly fortunate for women, bringing happiness in love, comfort in domestic affairs, and safety in childbirth. The evil effects of the luminaries afflicted or of malefic planets in the sign Taurus, the latter degrees especially, have been shown to affect the sight; hence the employment of the emerald as an eye charm. Hathor, the Egyptian Venus, who carries in her left hand the potent Crux Ansata was saluted as “The Lady of the Southern Sycamore,” a tree which stood for the living body of Hathor on earth and which was called the Sycamore of the Emerald. The Rosicrucian John Heydon of the 17th Century describes his meeting with the spirit Euterpe on the plains of Bulverton Hill one sweet summer evening. He describes her as “a most exquisite divine beauty of decent stature; attired, she was in thin loose silks, but so green that I never saw the like for the colour was not earthly.... Her rings were pure entire emeralds for she valued no metal.” Similar legends of green fairies, green fields, and green lights are connected with the sign of Venus terrestrial, Taurus. The emerald, then, is the second stone of the Breastplate, and on it was engraved the name of the tribe of Simeon. =The Third Stone of the Breastplate= The third stone of the Breastplate is simply expressed by the word BAREKETH which has been variously rendered as Emerald, Ruby, Carbuncle, Amethyst, Rock Crystal, Green Olivine, Green Feldspar. Its true meaning is “flashing,” which the Targumic translators express as “brilliant.” The Hebrew BARUK corresponds to an Arabic word meaning “to gleam, to flash;” the Assyrian word BARAKU and the Aramic BURUK have the same meaning, with which may be identified the Punic BARCAR, surname of the Carthaginian general Hamilcar; the Syriac BORKO and the Chaldean BARKAN can only be rendered “brilliant.” There is a Sanskrit word MARKATA, meaning “flashing, sparkling,” which corresponds to our word “marble,” literally, “the sparkling stone,” Latin MARMOR, cognate with the Greek MARMAROS from MARMAIRO to flash, shine, sparkle. Hence the Flashing Stone may be identified as marble, and this traditionally answers the required conditions. In astro-philosophy marble is connected with the sign of the columns, Gemini—Simeon in association with Levi—and is known as the Day House of the planet Mercury. The Midrash Bemidbah gives the colour of this sign as white, and Francis Barrett expresses it as “glittering.”