4. Humans and their enchanting gemstones.

Humans and their enchanting gemstones.

In his spiritual development, contemporary man is still strongly intuitive or even fully consciously concerned with the subtle material influences of the sun and moon (waking consciousness and sleep with its nocturnal visions), as well as with the plant world from which we take all kinds of nutrients, including sometimes animal food, and especially medicinal plants and minerals.

With this mineral or rock world, present-day man (especially Western man) has almost completely lost his intuitive or clairvoyant relationship. But spiritual or mystical man has followed his spiritual schooling paths and has also retained and developed his faculties on many levels, to be able to live together strongly and harmoniously even with the fine material and energetic forces of the rock world. In ancient cultures, this consciousness was very common and natural for these people.

Precious and semi-precious stones were widely used in mystical-magical rituals and also for medicinal purposes.

So first of all, we consider culture stones. These are the stones belonging to certain cultural epochs in conjunction with the collective consciousness these people developed.

First, we take humanity's oldest post-Atlantean cultural era. This was the era of primal Indian culture. That primal Indian culture was still a dream culture, a culture infused with cosmic energy fields that flowed through these people, when the moon was in the constellation of Cancer. Indian culture was heavily focused on intuition and emotional life, and the human mind was almost all mysticism. Actually, this is still true today.

Love and fertility were strongly lived out, in Tantra and love temples, as today's temples in Kajuraho still show in their beautiful architecture and erotic sculptures. Tantra was practised as a spiritual path of schooling to achieve spiritual salvation or samadhi with the erotic as ritual and sexual energy.

There, the real ‘lunar atmosphere’ prevailed and with it came the moonstone, which is therefore still found in India. The moonstone is the stone of fertility and sexual energy, and is still widely used for this purpose.

We can imagine the India of ancient times with the moon in the sky and with the lotus flower in the waters of ponds and lakes, and with people who could perceive beings everywhere with their dreamlike clairvoyance and were little affected by the outer world. Their deep interest in the spiritual worlds, they dreamed in.

In a cosmic sense, many different ‘group souls’ or peoples lived in India, yet they could all be called Indians.

Another stone that had been developed for kings and rulers (the so-called maharajas and others) is the beautiful red ruby. We could say, as clairvoyants, that these kings and rulers became more powerful but also haughty because of the cosmic influences that flowed through the ruby, and that the people and the lower castes, therefore, continued to dream through the sensitive moonstone. To some extent, this is still true today.

The well-known mystic and psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung warned of this in one of his books (Western consciousness and Eastern insight.). Western man can become too numb and lose his true soul roots if he spends too long or too much of his life in the East. We have been able to observe these ‘population movements’ ourselves during the flower-power movements. Many men and women with their children lost a part of themselves and their true Self, due to impure spells from the East. This usually happened through the influences of dark gurus or charlatans. Carl Gustav Jung, as a Swiss psychiatrist, was pointed with the proverbial finger by several colleagues as an esotericist or ‘occultist’. His far-reaching studies on alchemy and other mystery teachings gave him the image of the mysterious, learned initiate. Jung spoke of the founder of anthroposophy; the doctor of philosophy, Rudolf Steiner, with highly critical language and severe judgment.

In contrast, the contemporary professor, physician and business psychologist, Bernard Lievegoed, went through many initiatory paths developed and cleared by Steiner and anthroposophy. Bernard Lievegoed described in detail the karmic influences and manifestations in the ancient Greek schools, and their return in present times, from higher cosmic driving spheres. These ancient Greek spirits, incarnated again, can now work together in more positive developmental spirals, without still being caught up in old feuds and jealousies. We can thus sufficiently see through, for instance, the Socrates process, and the platonic spheres that work through as innovative in these times. Koet Hoemi as the Greek Pythagoras, has already sent out so many teachers and initiates in the Theosophical Society, each in his own profound world. All are cosmic waves and developments that keep re-emerging and incarnating as reborn avatars, through the many psychocosmograms of our time.

When we consider the psychological struggles that arose between Jung and Steiner, we can see through, unravel and reinterpret them as old feuds between different mystery schools from the distant past. Be that as it may, many fascinating parallels can be discovered between Jungian developments and initiatory paths of Anthroposophy, which are far intertwined in deeper ‘psychic underworlds’.

For instance, Jung writes in his book; ‘Western Consciousness and Eastern Insight’ about the psychology of Kundalini Yoga, and so we have returned to Indian mysticism. In the autumn of 1932, Jung interrupted the then ongoing Seminars; called Vision Seminars, for a series of lectures in four parts on the chakra symbolism in Tantra Yoga of the Koendalini system. Jung frequently spoke of Koendalini in his collected works and this system of imagery formed an essential part of his psychological language.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist who obtained his medical degree in Basel. He studied under Pierre Janet and befriended Sigmund Freud, whose theories and psychoanalytic reflections he originally supported but later criticised. Eventually, it came to a rift between Jung and Freud. Jung then developed analytical psychology. Jung became known for his theory of psychological characterisations and we owe to him the distinction between introverted and extroverted attitudes, combined with the distinction of functional emphasis between sensations, thoughts, feelings and intuition. Intuition is defined by him as perception through the unconscious; introverted intuition can produce fantastic monomaniacs, as well as the mystical dreamer and the seer.

Now we naturally move on to Persian culture.

The typical stone in this second period of culture is the turquoise, which has that back and forth, reflections between blue and green, that living, life-giving, movable earth connection.That is what the Persians naturally sought, the connections and their roots to earthly existence.The Persians were formed as practical people, who worked hard on the land and fields.They were not as dreamy as the Indians, but experienced good and evil forces, in their religious rituals, which they protected themselves from or to propitiate good spiritual beings.Religious life was strongly influenced by Zarathoestra (618-541 BC).

Zarathoestra or Zoroaster lived as a prophet in Persia in the early sixth century BC.

He experienced himself as the messenger of Ahuramazda, God of Light, the one Wise God, creator and guardian of all that is good.

For Zarathoestra, life was a constant battlefield between light and darkness, good and evil, the beneficent spirit (Angra Mainyoe including Hariman).Hariman was regarded and perceived as the lord of Evil and Darkness.Zarathoestra looked forward to the One Great Cosmic Redeemer, and his successors introduced communion with haoma juice (the soma of the Hindus I have already written about), which was considered a foretaste of eternal life.

Turquoise was further developed in these cosmic and fine-material realms along with Persian consciousness.

Turquoise is curiously an amulet as protection and a talisman as creative energy at the same time.

It was, of course, frequently found in their own habitats.

In India, for instance, liquefied ground turquoise was and still is applied as a blue or green tika on the forehead (third eye, forehead chakra or ajnachakra) of babies or children, to protect them from ‘the evil eye’.Even in our times, the good workings of turquoise are in high demand, as a friendship stone, as a stone that strengthens love between giver and receiver (platonic love or other forms of loving).

Turquoise is a stone that works very calmly, with friendly radiations, and it is also the good protector against accidents and dangers.

Now has become the time to look through Egyptian culture.

The Egyptians were sophisticated, sometimes vain and beauty-loving people.

They lived in their sun cult.

They were gifted with their inspiring creativity and had their far-reaching rituals and rich symbolism.

It was the time when high solar spheres deeply affected all living things.

The stones associated with that time were all brightly coloured with their special radiance. This third cultural period was strongly tied to copper (which belongs to the planet Venus), and that includes copper stones such as malachite and azurite, the former so fiery green, and the latter beautifully blue. These stones were finely ground and mixed with fat parts to use as make-up. Egyptian women looked enchanting with their bright green hair, glittering eyebrows and eyelashes.

The lapis lazuli also belongs in that era. A beautiful blue stone from which scarabs were made, turquoise also served this purpose with its symbolic properties.

The Cheper (attributed as a name to the god Re, who announced the spiritual birth of man and the new day at dawn) was named after the scarab or dung beetle.

This is one of the famous Egyptian amulets.

The scarab or dung beetle rolls its food, the animal dung with tremendous force and with its hind legs into a round ball.

This was seen as the sun's journey across the sky.

The Cheper thus became the reflection of new life and rebirth. This amulet was worn by the dead and the living to evoke the energy of life and renewal in different spheres of life.

A fine example of the profound symbolism of the Egyptian scarab can be found in Jung's analytical psychology (contemporary).

Carl Gustav Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist of the last century, was increasingly immersed in the phenomenon of synchronicity, which presented itself clearly to him during one of his therapeutic sessions to a patient.

This woman from the wealthier social class suffered from depression and oppressive dreams.

After experiencing many sessions under Jung's supervision, she had decided for herself to quit her therapies.

However, she recounted a strange dream she had experienced the previous night. In that dream, she found herself in a dark cave and felt trapped and oppressive, wanting more breathing space and fresh air, but most of all she longed for freedom, light and the sun in nature. Now in this dream, a scarab, the Egyptian dung beetle came flying towards her and showed her the way out to the redemptive opening in the cave. Jung saw through the deeper symbolism of this dream very clearly and described it at length to his client.

Resentful of the woman's unnecessary decision, Jung walked to the large window.

At the same time, a large insect popped against the pane.

Jung opened the window and on the windowsill there was a rare cousin species of the scarab beetle.

He took the beetle between both fingers and placed it on the desk in front of the astonished woman.

‘Well’ said Jung ‘here is now your answer to your nonsensical decision.’ The young woman was so amazed and fascinated that she continued her entire therapy with Jung. Jung continued to work with his mystical, intuitive insights throughout his life and is still an inspiration to mystics, scholars and artists.

If we now turn our spiritual field of vision back to ancient Egyptian culture, we clearly see that as precious metals into which stones were incorporated, copper and gold were widely used. Thus we see the copper-containing stones and the copper as a metal, as material manifestations of the strong cosmic solar forces that were able to work in abundance in this culture. Gold reflected itself in the consciousness of Egyptian people, as a cosmic reflection of the sun, through the upper chakra (or crown of the head) and solar plexus in their auras or energetic bodies.

This was followed by Greco-Roman culture.

In our meditations, we see clearly how the Greek culture was even more intertwined with the Egyptian and Eastern cultures from higher cosmic driving force fields, from which the lofty Greek philosophy and artistic life were carried through, as Venus culture.

Throughout the Roman culture as Mars culture, we see more and more earthboundness, war and conquering lust that were then nonetheless softened and purified by other cultural spheres.

The stones that were formed as materialisations for these culture periods are the agate in all its different variations, that sardonyx, the carnelian, the black onyx and the blue chalcedony.

It was common to engrave spells and effigies in the stones. They then called these a cameo. They were used as talismans or amulets.

These were cultures of great, profound change and, above all, the re-seeking of oneself (the True Self) and the rediscovery of spiritual values. The slow path of growing, individually and collectively towards the true purpose of life. The agate in all its clear simplicity gave the higher inspirations to live more spiritually again.

Thus we then enter the Medieval-Christian cultural period.

The agate as a bundling of cosmic spheres in a rock has very great significance in this transition between these last cultural periods. The agate is still associated with following a particular spiritual path of schooling.

These paths of development were very different in different human eras.

In the Middle Ages, for example, it was different for the Franciscans than for the Dominicans, very different for the Cistercians and different again for the Benedictines. Each order had its own path of schooling within Christian mysticism. The paths of initiation that belonged to the nobles of the Grail Movement were quite different from those of the Templar Order, or the Johannites.

These different subtle currents and thrusts can be experienced very strongly when entering the medieval castle or rather fortress of Godfrey of Bouillon in the Ardennes in Walloon region of Belgium.

In the knights' hall we can witness the ancient initiation rites with clairvoyant eyes and partly experience them. Behind and on top of the castle is a meditation room carved into the rock, where the knight Godfrey meditated in preparation for his spiritual quest during the crusades to the Holy Land.

A ritual still lives on; according to popular belief, if a woman sits on the meditation throne carved into the rock in the middle of the meditation room, she will marry within a year and give birth to a child the following year.

Until the mid-nineteenth century, people as descendants from all ancient peoples and all ancient cultures still experienced many mystical and magical experiences.

Johannes Ruusbroeck, for example, says that pure agate supports the need the soul has, to work on itself The meditative work on oneself in a rhythmic way through exercises from day to day, from week to week, from development to development, as they occur in the course of human life.

For all people in whatever development or in whatever cultural era; the agate is a sacred stone, a strong and at the same time gentle inspirer, one of the noblest stones one can see and experience.

Several more times we will quote Jan van Ruusbroeck (1293-1381), in our own terms and descriptions.

Johannes (Jan) van Ruusbroeck lived in Brussels during his younger years and later became a student chaplain.

When he turned about 50, he was displeased and disappointed by the distractions of the city and the church institution with its formalism and deceptions. He founded a contemplative community in the peaceful Brussels forest with an uncle and a friend.

There he lived in meditation, worship and contemplation for about forty more years. His way of life was filled with humility and practical reverence. He described these in his numerous writings such as: Die chierheit der gheestiker brulocht, Het hantvingerherlin or Vanden blinckende steene, Van seven trappen in de groet der geestelijke minne, (here we see seven stages in spiritual development compared to the spiritual journey through the seven chakras as levels of consciousness), A mirror der eeuwigher salicheit (a mirror of eternal salvation), and so on. Many more of his mystical books were published. He meditated especially in the spheres of spiritual marriage (man merging with the One, great Source of all life) and he speaks of ‘the coming of our Bridegroom’. I myself also speak of the great Bride or cosmic mother, and of the fire of love. However, John's descriptions of his mystical experiences are sometimes cool and cold rather than passionate and ecstatic.

Ruusbroeck distinguishes three stages in the mystical experience.

The first is the active life, the moral purification, being at the service of people. Among the great mystics, Ruusbroeck strongly emphasises service.

The second stage is of course the inner life, visions and revelations about actions and behaviour (called Karma-Bhakti-yoga in India) are the foundations for daily and spiritual life. He speaks of many images, such as that of the Divine Light as the source of Living water and the Grace that ignites the human will and strengthens the power of action. The third stage is the transcendent life, union with the Essence of God, the contemplative life, the ecstasy of knowledge, love and spiritual joy. He writes of this: It is impossible to become God and lose our created essence; rather, we are overwhelmed by love, one with God.

But during the highest experiences in contemplation, when the soul experiences flowing back into divine Oneness, without distractions, true inner peace is operative. The one who possesses this is the ‘enlightened’ or ‘God-seeing’ man.

The Church granted Ruusbroeck (curiously enough) the honorary title of Ecstatic Doctor.

Ruusbroeck also followed the path of schooling that goes through the spheres that precious stones radiate.

Ruusbroeck wrote his illuminating book with reflections on the twelve precious stones on the High Priest's breastplate. He speaks of the 12 precious stones on the high priest's breastplate as the 12 dimensions of the divine-human spirit, which rises to become one of the highest light beings in the universe, namely the Christ Being.

In the Biblical book of Exodus, we can see through the twelve crystals on the breastplate of the consecrated priest. Twelve paths to the Christ Being, according to his visions, are cosmically determined for certain peoples, prepared in the Old Testament in the 12 tribes of the Jewish people, expressed in the 12 apostles in the New Testament, and then he speaks of each stone as being a stone of Christ. In esotericism, we also know twelve senses in being human. And Ruusbroeck is most inspired by green stones in this regard.

Jasper, the green stone, says Johannes Ruusbroeck, has a colour that is found in the plant world (in humans, the metabolic system) and plants ascend towards the light. And the human soul has to do the same, ascend towards the light.

And those forces are found in the world of precious stones, those forces that generate and promote ascension to the light. (Ascension of Christ). In the beginning, jasper is still completely opaque. When it becomes more transparent, agate formation occurs. We know that in agates the triangular formation is most obvious. Agate is therefore semi-transparent. We see crystallisation formation in some agates, where rock crystal, or sometimes amethysts, then emerge. The triangular shape that occurs with the rock crystal in the cavity of the agate, is the primal phenomenon in the form world of light, carried in matter by high comical Light Beings. These rays through us, form us in part, when we carry rock crystal with us, for example, in our auras and ‘fine material bodies’.

We know in the esoteric paths of initiation and anthroposophic ways of contemplation, as already mentioned, twelve senses in connection with twelve gemstones; each sense is therefore to be regarded as a fine material gate with its corresponding path of schooling.

Similarly, we see cosmic forces working through senses, corresponding planets, metals and precious stones (crystals).

Rudolf Steiner as doctor of philosophy and ancient initiate spoke of the developmental progress of mankind as follows; that once in earth history, which is at the same time human history, the material body of man was formed and that at the same time the various precious stones were formed and that these formative forces were spiritual forces in the universe that created in nature the precious stones and constructed in man the sense organs.

Rudolf Steiner as the original theosopher and later as the ‘spiritual father’ of anthroposophy and the Steiner schools, further describes that diamond, expressed geologically, was formed when in primeval times, in the middle of the mesozoic era, expressed in the middle of the lemuric era (before the Atlantic era, that is) the disposition to the physical body arose. Before those wide time scales, everything was still developed in the fine material spheres and worlds. The entire physical body has to be considered a ‘sense organ’ in its totality, and the diamond is related to the disposition to do so.

Thus, we speak of the feet as the ‘sense organ’ with which the sapphire must be associated. As we know, the sapphire crystallises on six sides.

The raw sapphire crystal is often white at first and then changes to an increasingly darker blue. The sapphire belongs to the corundum group and has its various colours: blue and many nuances, colourless, orange, pink, yellow, green, violet and sometimes even black. The sapphire is a curious stone that is widely used in the spiritual cleansing process. It is a magical stone that, as a gift, can intertwine two people, very strongly, in different levels of their humanity.

Johannes Ruusbroeck wrote about the sapphire. In his reflections, it is the fifth stone, he associates it with Dan, the fifth son of Jacob, the tribe of Dan and then with the apostle Thomas (In our time, the Thomas gospel has been recovered and published in many languages.).

The opal radiates its energy through the lungs (the rhythmic respiratory system).

An energetic ascent can already be observed there. There are certain lung diseases that can be cured by the opal's energy.

The ruby is associated by Rudolf Steiner with the ‘organ of intuition’, with man's highest sensory capacity to intuitively perceive the higher spiritual life.

The gemstone Malachite then belongs to the heart and kidneys, three organs of feeling irradiated with energy from the planet Venus (goddess of love and the noble arts) and its associated metal, copper. Venus is also the brightest planet, which has its radiant nature. But all these spheres become more radiant and pure through the flow of the sun's light.

The sun and the heart are intertwined in the spheres with the gems, the tourmaline. The highest forces in man flow through us from the highest ‘solar beings’, the power of pure selfless love, and it finds its likeness in the tourmaline.

Johannes Ruusbroeck wrote about this; all stones were considered stones of the Christ (or other high solar beings).

So one can imagine that all these stones carry within them what the tourmaline holds. It is the centre of the twelfth (also on the high priests' breastplate), it is the solar stone, just as the sun is the centre of the Zodiac, so the tourmaline is the centre of the rock world.

The sun with its golden rays permeates the human heart and illuminates our spirits through the crests of our heads (the upper chakras, also called thousandfold lotuses).

We then dream on about the inner gold in our alchemical consciousness.

Rose quartz belongs to the heart chakra and brings us loving meditation and artistic experience.

Rhinestone and its energy fields take us in meditation and contemplation to the very highest realms with their luminous beings and inspirations into the essence of enlightenment, the One Great Source of all life.

We would like to take a closer look at some more gemstones and their therapeutic values.

First, the labradorite, an American name, but it is also found in Europe, such as in Norway. The labradorite shows up in all colours, most of them with a bluish shimmer, as we can observe on some butterfly wings. Also on the dragonfly flying around lakes and ponds. It is a feldspar, but it also comes in colours such as: green, yellow, violet, pink. Labradorite is an iridescent stone, a calcareous sodium feldspar, sometimes infused with magnetic iron ore or titanium iron. When we move the labradorite back and forth in the light, the many hues can be seen, which were previously not visible. This is also how labradorite works in the aura or energy field of people and animals, the colour energy shows itself in the movements. Labradorite is the ‘spiritual protector’ and has healing qualities. When a person, a healer, therapist or a child, for example, loses their energy for an extended period of time in atmospheres, group auras of people or animals or even by earthbound lower beings, the chakras are drained and weaknesses in the aura occur. For all such people, labradorite is the most healing stone. The weak spots will be filled again with natural and positive life energy. Together with a rock crystal, the energy also remains balanced and is then renewed by the higher spheres of life.

So for those with spiritual gifts and their translucent auras, adults or children, therapists or clairvoyants, labradorite has healing and protective properties.

Each labradorite is as different as people themselves. The predominant colours then matter (see the table on the next page). Red; first chakra, the muladhara chakra, for our ‘roots in mother earth’, sense of purpose and positive action. Yellow; third chakra, the manipura chakra, solar plexus, luminosity, warmth of life, processing experiences and feelings. Green-blue; fourth chakra, the heart, the anahata chakra, developmental drive, loving growth power, releasing and purifying emotions. Light blue; fifth chakra, the throat, inspired speech, higher knowledge, tranquillity, deepening inner life. Violet and white reflections; third eye, forehead chakra, Ajnachakra and also the upper chakra at the crown of the head, the sahasrara chakra, spiritualisation, meditation, contemplation, spiritual enlightenment experiences.

Briefly, we look at three other cultures; Indian culture, African culture and Chinese culture.

The many Indian tribes knew their strong natural magic, with gems, talismans and amulets, and used various natural consciousness-enhancing substances in their initiations at festivals and rituals. Such as cannabis, cacti or mushrooms. The stones they used and still use are turquoise, lapis-lazuli and obsidian. In their culture, these stones were and are mainly used as healers for many ailments, or as talismans or amulets, in elaborate rituals and initiations.

In African cultures, unfortunately, we still find many forms of black magic, both ritual magic and magic with plants and spells. Tiger's eye, falcon's eye and cat's eye are the stones commonly used against the negative influences of black magic and black voodoo practices. All this at the expense of white magic or higher magic used to serve humanity. Similarly, we are familiar with white voodoo initiations and healing rituals in Africa. All these belong to the karmic developments of the folk souls of the African people. These various stones are naturally found in Africa. These stones are fine-grained quartzes fused with hornblende asbestos. Tiger's eye is actually falcon eye that has become golden by oxidation of iron. These are stones that are strongly associated in their workings. What is found with these rocks is what is called chattoyering. It is a lineation of the rock. It can be seen in quartz, which is called crocydolite as a general rock, and so also as cat's eye, falcon's eye, tiger's eye, and so on. If it occurs in yellow, it is called tiger's eye, if it turns greenish, it is called cat's eye, and if it turns bluish, it is called falcon's eye. One also knows a rock that is a mixture of tiger eye with amethyst. Again, one sees the same play of light in that. (Kakoxenit).

These stones give self-confidence and strengthen the sense of responsibility. Willpower and decisiveness are promoted naturally. So these stones are very good protectors against black magic and negative influences people are sometimes exposed to. The dark energy thus goes back to the senders and they then look into their own ‘karmic mirrors’.

Falcon's eye works in consciousness as an ascending force. One then floats in dreams and meditations like a falcon above the negative realms and can see through and transform them. This stone works the same way for us.

Tiger's eye, which belongs even more to our lower chakras, is admittedly more powerful against even more dark and animate vibrations. In our meditations, we can ‘see’ it as the ‘sacred jaguar’ of the Incas, Mayans, and Aztecs, driving away attackers and making them flee fearfully.

To conclude, we can say that just as the moonstone is the dream stone of the Indians, the jade, is the dream stone of the Chinese. When duller, it is called nephrite. They have that curious appearance of a top layer, through which the colour shines. The brighter green, the more precious the stone is. The Chinese carved beautiful artefacts from it, statues of gods and goddesses, talismans and amulets, as well as many ritual objects they gave to the dead. Still today, jade is widely used in China.

Finally, the following is an illuminating table.

-Karel Meul (in loving memory) 

Published in the summer of 2008

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