Book of Revelation Gemstones- Carnelian

Carnelian, also called cornelian or sard, is the sixth gemstone. It is a chalcedony coloured by iron hydroxide. The name carnelian stems from the wonderful red color, a real incardanine. It is indeed a gemstone related to the process of incarnation. Max Stibbe, one of the first Waldorf teachers in Holland, considered the sequence of gemstones on the high-priest's breastplate as a reflection of the spiritual way of the old Jewish history. These twelve gemstones begin with carnelian, the gemstone of consanguinity, and is finally leading to jasper, the gemstone of unselfishness. That means: the blood had to be kept pure in such a way that it would provide unselfishly the body and the substance in which the incarnation of Christ could take place. 

The twelve gemstones of the apocalypse represent the way of Christendom, beginning with the ego endowed unselfishness of jasper and completing its way in amethyst, the gemstone of the love of one's neighbor. Stibbe's problem was, what is the role of carnelian in the Apocalyptic sequence? Here we should look at the ultimate goal of incarnation: that is resurrection, the "Geistesmensch".

In the aspect of gemstone of resurrection carnelian is one of the two gemstones representing the highest divine being in the vision of Apocalypse chapter four.


- Dr. Simon van der Heide