R Puzzle: Biological Garden

by Denis Moskowitz

Each symbol indicates an element in a magical system: the four elements of western alchemy, the five elements of chinese magic, and the seven ancient planets. Each system provides correspondences for its symbols: for instance, Jupiter corresponds to the metal tin, the day Thursday, and the color purple. If you mark each word that corresponds to a neighboring symbol, you notice some gaps:

south courage rose love green purple oak Thursday elemental fire Pele planetary venus iron chinese wood east planetary jupiter amethyst lily cinnamon Friday emerald anger eyes aluminum lightning crow Saturday mind eagle east speed north Mercury salamander planetary saturn spring elemental air jackal planetary mercury beauty chinese water Cronos black smell tortoise dill Thoth fear winter Wednesday west quartz Monday Ra Sunday elephant Poseidon chinese metal tiger planetary moon spearmint planetary sun emotion elemental water taste white Venus lotus hare lion gold cucumber cup red south ox eccentricity yellow center thought red summer chinese fire touch elemental earth north chinese earth ruby planetary mars joy Mars coin growth lips Saturn ginger iron

The un-corresponding words are in the positions of the spheres or sephiroth of the cabalistic Tree of Life (see figure on right). The spheres are ordered from top to bottom, right to left (since it's a Jewish system). If you put the words in that order:

Iron
aLuminum
liLy
beaUty
salaMander
tortoIse
elephaNt
wednesdAy
spearminT
eccentricIty