signs of the Zodiac—six Northern and six Southern—in the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, more distinctly emphasized on the breastplate of the High Priest. The engraving on the two onyx stones, one of which would necessarily be somewhat lighter in colour than the other, can never be explained in our prosaic terms for they were attuned to the whisperings of the Heavenly Hosts and typified the eternal wanderings of the Soul. In my later remarks on the Onyx I have noted the ancient philosophy regarding the descent of the Soul through the Gate of Cancer and its ascent through the Gate of Capricorn. Peter symbolically represented at the Gate of Heaven, is a veiled allusion to the stone (Petros) gateway through which the departing spirits of Earth pass on their everlasting pilgrimage in search of the pearl above price—the hidden knowledge of perfect truth—a stone so gloriously brilliant that mortal eyes can never gaze on it. In earlier Egyptian symbolic lore it is assumed that the Heavens were of stone, the goddess Hathor being the Lady of the Turquoise Stones and other deities being represented by stones cut to forms and in their natural state. In rabbinical allegory the Creator, vibrating through the rays of sunrise, is reverenced as “The Opener of the Gates,” and frequent allusions are made to the gates of tears, of prayer, of praise, and of repentance. There is an old Hebrew tradition that one Messiah will come through the Gate of Capricorn and another through the Gate of Cancer. Plato writes of the two gateways—one through which the Soul descends, the other through which the soul ascends, and Porphyry says that on this account the Egyptians did not begin the year like the Romans with Aquarius but with the Moon Sign Cancer. The Quabalistic Books say that the soul of man passed through the four celestial worlds in its descent, receiving from Aziluth, the Chaiah, spiritual animation: from Briah, Neshamah, understanding: from Jezirah, Ruach, the passions: from Nephesch, material desires. He enters the world by the Gate of Generation (the Moon), the watery sign, the colour of which is indicated as green, and he leaves the world of Matter for the land of the Immortals by the Gate of Material Death (Saturn), the Earth sign Capricorn, the colour of which is black. The Su’n passage through the tribal signs expressed on the onyx stones of the Ephod symbolizes eternally the descent and ascent of immortal man. CHAPTER IV THE BREASTPLATE OF JUDGMENT “_The future things and those which are to happen, let them foretell unto thee._” Isaiah XLIV. 7.