Reddish amber is a variety of fossilized tree resin whose color ranges from deep honey to a burnished, translucent red-brown. The term "amber" itself derives from Arabic anbar (via Latin ambar), though the original word referred to ambergris; the resinous fossil adopted the name in the medieval period. Reddish amber—often called "cherry amber" or, when deeply translucent, "dragon's blood amber"—occurs when the resin has been subjected to heat, oxidation, or trace mineral inclusions over millions of years. Unlike the pale yellow "succinite" of the Baltic coast, the redder grades are prized for their apparent depth and fire, and have been linked in various traditions to the fixed, vital principle of the sun preserved in stone.

Position on the Tree of Life

Reddish amber corresponds to Path 19, the nineteenth step on the Tree of Life, which connects the sefirot of Chesed and Geburah. This path is traditionally associated with the Hebrew letter Teth (meaning "serpent" or "snake") and with the astrological sign of Leo. The color of the path—"reddish amber"—mirrors the fiery, generative yet contained quality of the lion: a solar warmth that does not burn outward but glows from within, much like the fossilized resin that holds light in suspension.

Astrological and planetary correspondence

The astrological sign of Leo, a fixed fire sign ruled by the Sun, governs the energy of this path. Reddish amber thus carries the solar attributes of life-force, dignity, and creative power, but tempered by the fixed, earthly quality of the fossil itself. In the qabalistic scale of colors, this shade represents the blend of Geburah’s red severity with Chesed’s expansive mercy, producing a color that is neither aggressive nor passive but radiantly steady.

Historical context

Amber has been collected and traded from the Neolithic onward, with reddish varieties especially prized in ancient Mediterranean and Chinese cultures. Pliny the Elder (Natural History 37.42–44) notes that amber was believed to be a sap or juice of trees hardened by time, and that the most valued grades had a "wine-like" or fiery translucency. He recounts the story of Phaëthon’s sisters, whose tears turned into poplars and then into amber—a myth that casts the material as solidified sunlight and grief. In the medieval lapidary tradition, amber (alongside ambergris, with which it was often conflated) was thought to hold the spirit of the sun and to be effective against poisons and fevers. The 13th-century Lapidario of Alfonso X classifies amber under the sign of Leo, claiming that wearing it "strengthens the heart and gives courage." By the 17th century, amber was a standard ingredient in alchemical cordials and elixirs, its "sunstone" reputation persisting into the folk magic of northern Europe, where a piece of reddish amber was hung around the neck to ward off the evil eye and drawing illness out of the body.

In Liber 777

Reddish amber appears in Liber 777 as the Empress scale of color for Path 19, the Teth / Leo path. It sits in the column headed "The Empress Scale of Colour (#)"—the scale associated with the divine feminine in her creative, nurturing aspect. The neighboring sefirotic colors in this column are olive flecked gold (Netzach), yellow-brown flecked white (Hod), and citrine flecked azure (Yesod), making reddish amber the only fully saturated, homogeneous hue in the series. Its placement here reinforces the idea of a steady inner radiance: the Empress’s sustaining, generative heat, fossilized into a quiet, enduring warmth.