Diamond
DIAMOND. The diamond, first of all, participates in the hierophany of stones signifying in religious consciousness that which is hard, rugged, and unchanging. Above all, stone is. Like all precious stones, the diamond also partakes of the general symbolism of treasures and riches, which in religious terms represent moral and intellectual knowledge.
As a symbol the diamond, as the hardest of all stones, has a wide range of meanings, among them indestructibility, constancy, the unyielding, and dominance. Because of its brilliance it also signifies unconquerable light, excellence, frankness, joy, life, and purity.
In Greek the word for "diamond" is derived from adamas, meaning "invincible, unconquerable." In some places, and especially on Greek emblems, it indicated the irradiant mystic center, a meaning discovered in the most obscure examples as well as in the most prominent. Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant (1982) point out that the German word Eckstein ("cornerstone") also refers to the diamond in a deck of cards. The cornerstone is one of many symbols for the center. In a more obvious example, Plato likens the axis of the world to a diamond.
Until the nineteenth century, diamonds were found almost entirely in India. On the subcontinent the word vajra meant both "lightning" and "diamond." Thus, the vajra of the god Śiva has a double aspect as thunderbolt and diamond scepter. Vajra also belongs to the god Agni as a spiritual power and to Indra as a temporal power. As a diamond vajra is adamantine and depicts spiritual power, but as thunderbolt and lightning it also represents both destruction and fertilization, death-dealing and life-giving powers, the alternating and complementary forces of the universe.
The symbol of the vajra is important in Buddhism as well, where it symbolizes the power of the Buddha's teaching (the dharma) to overcome the deluding passions of sentient beings. The Diamond Throne or Seat is the place of enlightenment. Situated at the foot of the bodhi tree, it is the unchangeable axis or center of the world.
In Tantric Buddhism vajra represents immutable, unalterable spiritual power. Symbolizing clarity and light, it also refers to the indeterminate character and ultimate emptiness of the Buddha nature. Mircea Eliade cites a Tantric text that makes a clear identification between śūnyatā ("voidness") and vajra. The Chan patriarch Huineng is said to have declared that neither that which is waxing nor that which is waning is the diamond.
In the traditional mineralogy of the Indian subcontinent, the diamond represents perfection. Stones and metals were thought to grow within the earth's womb, each with its own lethargic pace and rhythm. The crystal was unripe (Hindi, kacchā) and constituted a state of intermediate maturation. The diamond was the epitome of maturity and ripeness (Hindi, pakkā). The crystal is not hard; the diamond is. The Indian alchemist, associating the diamond with immortality, identified it with the philosophers' stone.
Similarly, in Tibetan iconography the diamond scepter signifies the adamantine or immutable world, which is also potential or nonmanifest. The bell or tilpa refers to the phenomenal world, which is manifest and changing. The diamond scepter is the active principle; the bell is the passive. The former is wisdom and the latter, human reason.
The diamond has also been linked with the supreme female divinity, who is usually associated with the earth. In Tibet the earth goddess Tārā has a human incarnation, the Diamond Sow. She is also traditionally regarded as the consort of or feminine counterpart to the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. In the transition from tarot cards to modern playing cards, diamonds replaced the ancient suit of pentacles, which had been symbols of Mother Earth (Tārā) and of the earth as feminine.
The characteristics of hardness and durability have lent themselves to other meanings. In the Old Testament the diamond could symbolize hardness of the heart and forehead (Jer. 17:1). In Rome it was believed that the stone promoted harmony, and that it guarded health and vitality if worn on the left hand, close to the heart. This belief probably informed its character as an emblem of reconciliation in the Middle Ages and as a sign of betrothal in the modern world.
In some places the diamond's brilliance and lucidity made it a symbol for Christ. In Hebrew culture the sixth stone of the high priest's breastplate, a diamond, was said to become dark or light according to the guilt or innocence of an accused person.
Mircea Eliade (1958) has related diamonds to "snake stones," which in many cultures are thought to have fallen from the heads of snakes or dragons. In ancient India, and later in the Hellenistic and Arab worlds, it was believed that the stones were poisonous if anyone touched them with their lips, because they had once been in a snake's throat. The notion that precious stones came from snake spittle has been found in areas ranging from China to Great Britain.
Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE) described the dracontia, or dracontites, that were to be found in the brains of dragons. Philostratus the Lemnian (b. c. 190 CE) reported that the eyes of some dragons were stones of blinding brilliance imbued with magical powers. Sorcerers, he relates, after they have worshiped reptiles, cut off their heads and take out the precious stones.
Given such beliefs, it is not surprising that the diamond has a reputation as a remedy for snakebite. Indeed, Pliny describes it as a universal talisman, rendering poisons and every malady harmless and causing evil spirits and bad dreams to depart. In occidental Europe, the diamond has been thought to chase away savage beasts, phantoms, sorcerers, and the terrors of the night. In Russia, its purity and lucidity have made it a charm to impede lust and to strengthen the resolve of the chaste.
Bibliography
Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant, in Dictionnaire des symboles (Paris, 1982), have written an interesting and often provocative essay on the diamond. Mircea Eliade, in Patterns in Comparative Religion (New York, 1958), primarily discussed the diamond as a magical object. His description of the significance of the stones in the same book is also helpful. Berthold Laufer's book The Diamond: A Study in Chinese and Hellenistic Folklore (Chicago, 1915), is one of the few sources that include substantial material on the diamond as a symbol rather than a physical object.
New Sources
Harlow, George, ed. The Nature of Diamonds. New York, 1997.
Hart, Matthew. Diamond: A Journey to the Heart of an Obsession. New York, 2001.
Kendall, Leo P. Diamonds Famous and Fatal: The History, Mystery and Lore of the World's Most Famous Gem. Fort Lee, N.J., 2001.
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