The sign Scorpio is in astrology the sign of death, the dead and all connected therewith. It is expressed by the Serpent of Eden in that magical third chapter of Genesis, a chapter that has demanded the special study of mystical philosophers for ages. The sign Scorpio is also symbolized in the person of the goddess Serket, pictured as a human-headed scorpion or as a goddess with scorpion head-dress. She protected the Canopic Jars which contained the embalmed viscera of the departed. Aesculapius, the god of medicine, was worshipped under the form of a serpent at Epidaurus, and in the Vatican statue he is represented leaning on a staff around which is coiled a serpent; statues of his daughter Hygieia show her with a serpent in different attitudes. In those and numerous other serpent stories all associated with the sign Scorpio to a greater or lesser degree, the majesty and the mystery of life and death are philosophically implied. The traditional colour of the sign Scorpio is given as brown, a shade of brown well describes the agate stone. The Midrash Bemidbah gives gray which, though not in agreement with other authorities, certainly does indicate a species of Agate. Dan is described in the Book of Genesis as “a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horses’ heels” (the sign following Scorpio, Sagittarius—the sign of Gad) “so that his rider shall fall backward.” The tribe was a mystical tribe possessing the knowledge of white magic and of black (Judges XVIII. 30). The wisdom of the serpent is symbolized in it—“Dan shall judge his people.” The eighth stone of the Breastplate was the Banded Agate, and on it was engraved the tribe of Gad. =The Ninth Stone of the Breastplate= The ninth stone of the Breastplate is Achlamah which, with few exceptions, is identified as the Amethyst—beyond doubt the correct identification.