The name amethyst comes from the Greek word amethustos, which means "not to be drunken", the stone is supposed to control evil thoughts, calm the passions, quicken the intelligence and make the wearer more shrewd. Perhaps for these reasons, it was often used in ecclesiastic rings. It is said to be all powerful, with the ability to prevent warriors from being wounded, help the hunter find game, protect against disease, and put demons to flight.

In Tibet, amethyst is considered to be sacred to Buddha and rosaries are often fashioned from it.

Because amethyst is thought to encourage celibacy and symbolize piety, it was very important in the ornamentation of Catholic and other churches in the Middle Ages. It was, in particular, considered to be the stone of bishops and they still often wear amethyst rings.

Amethyst is also mentioned in the Bible (Ex. 28:19; 39:12) as one of the 12 stones adorning the breastplate (hoshen) of the high priests of Yahweh.

The legend of the origin of amethyst comes from Greek mythology. Dionysus, the god of intoxication, was angered one day by an insult from a mere mortal and swore revenge on the next mortal that crossed his path, creating fierce tigers to carry out his wish. Along came unsuspecting Amethyst, a beautiful young maiden on her way to pay tribute to the goddess Diana. Diana turned Amethyst into a stature of pure crystalline quartz to protect her from the brutal claws. Dionysus wept tears of wine in remorse for his action at the sight of the beautiful statue. The god's tears stained the quartz purple, creating the gem we know today.

Amethyst is a variety of quartz which occurs in a transparent light to dark purple. It has long been treasured by kings and queens as well as high figures in religious sects because of its rich, royal color. It can be traced back to the Minoan period in Greece (c. 2500 B.C.) where it was found as polished cabochons (dome-shaped stones) set in gold. Amethysts were popular in the parures (matching sets) of the 1820's. They were a favorite medium for Art Nouveau craftsmen and are still favorites of creative modern jewelry designers. A major reason for their popularity in jewelry design has been their wide availability and reasonable price. Fine pieces are attainable with not much difficulty and lent themselves to freedom of design.

The gemstone Aquamarine is the modern March birthstone as adopted by the American National Association of Jewelers in 1912. It is also the birth stone for the Zodiac sign of Scorpio. See the birthstone table for additional references to this stone. Aquamarine is suggested as a gem to give on the 16th and 19th wedding anniversaries.

Aquamarine is a member of the beryl family and ranges in color from an almost colorless pale blue to blue-green or teal. The most prized color is a deep-blue aqua color. It is 7.5-8 on the Mohs scale of hardness and gets its name from Latin words meaning water and sea.

The most valuable aquamarines come from Brazil, but it is also mined in Kenya and Nigeria, Madagascar, Zambia, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Russia. . Aquamarines on the market today are usually faceted, but when cut as a cabochon, they may display a cat's eye effect known as asterism.

Some gemstones are heated to high temperatures to enhance the color and/or clarity of a stone. Aquamarines are often heat treated to change a blue-green or teal colored stone to a pure blue. This results in a permanent color change.

Crystal system: hexagonal

Fracture: Conchoidal

Luster: Vitreous to resinous

Folklore, Legend, Healing Properties:

Since early times, aquamarine has been believed to endow the wearer with foresight, courage, and happiness. It is said to increase intelligence and make one youthful. As a healing stone, it is said to be effective as a treatment for anxiety and in the Middle Ages it was thought that aquamarine would reduce the effect of poisons.  A legend says that sailors wore aquamarine gemstones to keep them safe and prevent seasickness.

Calcite - Calcite is s sedimentary mineral and the main element of limestone. It ranges from clear to opaque and is found in a variety of colors like honey, orange, red and green. Calcite is detected withing other rock by applying hydrocloric acid, which causes it to bubble.  

Carnelian is a very attractive and richly hued brownish-red variety of chalcedony.

Much of the carnelian used today comes from Campo de Maia on the continent of South America, where a sizeable quantity has had the colour improved by staining with ferrous nitrate. Carnelian is also produced in Warwick, Queensland, Australia. However, Ratnapura in India produces the best quality material.

Carnelian has been known since antiquity. It is said to take its name from the Kornel cherry, which has the same rich coloring. In the 1660s, Dr Johann Schroeder gave another interesting origin. He writes: "It is a half transparent, like the water wherein flesh is washed, of like bloody flesh. Hence it is called 'Carneolus' or 'Carnelian'."

Carnelian is mentioned in Exodus as one of the gems set into the breastplate of the High Priest and as a foundation stone of the New Jerusalem.

ANCIENT WISDOM

Faceted Carnelian Beads

The ancient noted how carnelian separated very readily from wax or clay. This phenomenon was given a practical role when carnelian was engraved to make the beautiful intaglio seals used by kings and merchants to authenticate their documents.

The ancient Egyptians are numbered among the many people who called upon carnelian as a protective stone. It has been referred to as the "blood of Isis" (the Egyptian goddess of nature) and it was even suggested that it should be cut and shaped in a certain form and than placed at the throat of a corpse at the time of its embalming. The followers of Isis trusted in this powerful talisman to invoke the protection of their goddess any evil that might befall them on their journey through the underworld. Among the talismans and amulets carved from carnelian by the Egyptians were representations of the hand, the fist, the eye, the lion, bee, jackal head, frog and, most often, the bull's head.

Carnelian was also thought to be the talisman that resisted the onset of bed temper. According to the ancients, bad temper is a form of black magic. As the evil of black magic was often conducted by the light of a waning moon, they believed that the onset of danger could be detected by an unusual sheen over the surface of the protective carnelian.

THE EVIL GLANCE

In most countries of the Middle East, there is a widespread belief that a person looked upon with an ill-meaning of envious glance will lose his fortune. Wearing a carnelian engraved with an appropriate prayer is said to remove the evil from covetous looks and render them harmless.

HEALING CARNELIAN

Carnelian was once thought to be an excellent remedy for checking bleeding wounds and, according to Dr Johann Schroeder: "The powder of them is good to drink against all fluxes. Carried about, it makes cheerful minds, expels fear, makes courage, destroys and prevents fascinations and defends the body against all poisons. It stops blood by a peculiar property; and bound to the belly keeps up the birth." (1660s) Generally, the healing power of carnelian followed the principle that the appearance of the stone suggested how it could be used - for example, the wearing of almost any yellow stone was prescribed for treating jaundice. Carnelian has also been said to provide the timid with the courage they lack to speak boldly and well and to aid astral travel when placed in front of a light and gazed at intently.

FACT & FANTASY

Various Islamic peoples consider carnelian to preserve the equanimity of its owner during disputes, and they have also used slivers of the stone as toothpicks. These are used because they not only whiten the teeth, but they harden the gums and prevent them from bleeding.

Heliotrope is another term for bloodstone, a form of Chalcedony. Which is cryptocrystalline quartz. Heliotrope is green jasper with red inclusions. The red is sometimes caused by iron oxide or red jasper. The 'classic' Bloodstone is green jasper rock with spots of red throughout the stone. Sometimes yellow and/or other colors of jasper will be within the rock. Having some other colors with the Bloodstone is possible, but these multi-colored gemstones are usually called 'fancy jasper'.

Bloodstone is the original birth stone for March. Today, Bloodstone and Aquamarine are both considered the gemstones for March.

Technically, chalcedony (kal SED' uh nee) is any form of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, (meaning any form of quartz whose crystals are too small to be seen without high magnification.) In common practice, only the translucent, single color types are sold as "chalcedony" whereas the rest of this group are sold under individual variety names, or as jasper or agate. While the definitions overlap, jasper usually refers to an opaque, solid colored stone. Agate is defined either by its translucency, or by having a pattern to its colors.

chalcedony (n.) A translucent to transparent milky or grayish quartz with distinctive microscopic crystals arranged in slender fibers in parallel bands.

Chalcedony, also spelled Calcedony, is a very fine-grained (cryptocrystalline) variety of the silica mineral quartz. It has a waxy luster and appears in a great variety of colors -- usually blue-white, buff, light tan, gray, yellow or brown.

A form of chert, it forms rounded crusts, rinds or stalactites (mineral deposits suspended from the roofs of caverns) in volcanic and sedimentary. It has a compact fibrous structure and fine splintery fracture. Other physical properties are those of quartz variously colored quartz with

In the petrified forests of the Desert Southwest, many of the original tree tissues have been replaced by chalcedony in the formation of petrified wood. What remains is a mineral replica of the original tree in various fantastic colors. The brilliant reds and greens are caused primarily by traces of iron oxides. Some of the best displays of petrified wood can be seen in eastern Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park.

In all ages many varieties of chalcedony have been used as gems, and many colored varieties are still cut and polished as ornamental stones. Unless it is intricately carved or featured, Chalcedony is valued much less than it once was. Commercial production is primarily in Uruguay, Brazil and southwestern Africa.

It is said that chalcedony was used as a sacred stone by the Native Americas, promoting stability within the ceremonial activities of the tribe. Chalcedony is said to augment emotional balance, vitality, stamina, endurance, kindness, charity and friendliness. It supposedly alleviates hostilities, irritability and melancholy.

Chalcedony occurs in many varieties and colors. If chalcedony is conspicuously color-banded, it may be called agate and with other minerals it has various other names including:

Agate: This common semiprecious variety of chalcedony is conspicuously color-banded with other minerals in successive layers. It occurs in bands of varying color and transparency in cavities of eruptive rocks or ancient lava. Agates come in many varieties themselves, including the following:

Moss Agate: Also called Mocha Stone, this grayish to milky-white chalcedony contains dark-colored, dendritic branching forms that resemble ferns, moss, or other vegetation. These formations are caused by the inclusion of mainly manganese and iron oxides of inorganic origin. Most moss agates are found as fragments weathered from volcanic rocks and long used for ornamental purposes.

Onyx: This striped, semiprecious variety of agate has black and white alternating bands. Onyx is used in carved cameos and intaglios because its layers can be cut to show a color contrast between the design and the background. Onyx is one of the 12 stones mentioned in the Bible as adorning the breastplate of the high priests.

Bloodstone: Also called Heliotrope, this dark-green variety of chalcedony has nodules of bright-red jasper distributed throughout. Bloodstone was greatly prized in the Middle Ages and was used in sculptures representing flagellation and martyrdom.

Carnelian: Translucent red chalcedony is called Carnelian, which owes its red to color to hematite (iron oxide). It is a close relative of Sard, which is brown in color. The Greeks and Romans used carnelian in rings and signets.

Chrysoprase: This brittle, translucent form of chalcedony owes its bright, apple-green color to the inclusion of nickel silicates, but heating or prolonged exposure to sunlight causes the color to fade.

Plasma: This semi-translucent, microgranular variety of chalcedony occurs in various shades of green, caused by amphibole or chlorite inclusions. Plasma often has nodules of gray quartz or Bloodstone throughout its mass. It has long been used for carvings and mosaics.

"He who carries with him into battle an amulet of Lapis carries with him the presence of his god."

-- A Saying of the ancient Sumerian Priests

The name of this beautiful, decorative material is derived from a medieval Latin form of the Arabic word lazward, meaning blue. The later Latin form lazurius and the French azure are taken, respectively, from the Persian word lazur and the Arabic azul, each word meaning a very special colour of deep blue.

An analysis of this stone shows it to be a rocklike mixture of several minerals, namely hauynite, lazurite, sodalite, calcite and pyrites. The attractive speckles found in lapis are actually tiny crystals of iron pyrites. It is a metamorphic rock and has often been confused with Azurite - a blue hydrated copper carbonate stone.

PRECIOUS COLORING

Lapis lazuli does not have a crystalline structure and so by definition cannot be included in the list of precious gems - its value lies in its attractive coloring, which has prompted people to use it as a decorative material from the earliest times. It also has a long history as the material make to use the painter's pigment "Ultramarine".

The best lapis lazuli is still quarried in the province of Badakshan, Afghanistan, just as it was when Macro Polo visited the quarry in AD 1271. The stone is also quarried near Russia's Lake Baikal, while poorer quality lapis comes from Chile and the USA.

THE SAPPHIRE OF ANCIENT GREECE

Ancient manuscripts reveal that the stone was considered the sapphire of ancient Greece - Theophrastus claimed that this "sapphire" was "sprinkled with gold dust" - and all references to sapphires in the writings of antiquity are now taken to mean lapis lazuli.

Medieval troubadours told tales of a priest-kings called Prester John, who retired to his sleep on a bed made for a single block of "sapphire" in order "to make him sleep well and destroy lustful thoughts." It was thought that the spirits of light and wisdom were attracted to blue stones because they resembled the blue of the heavens, and that lapis was an emblem of chastity.

HEALING POWERS

Ancient Egypt knew all about the wonders of lapis. The Ebers Papyrus, dated from about 1600 BC, contains a formula for a medicine used to cure cataracts of the eye, and this includes lapis lazuli, milk and slime from the Nile (also called "crocodile earth"). The Ancient Egyptians, Sumerians and Babylonians also gave the stone credit for relieving neuralgia and head pains.

The Egyptians venerated the stone for its mystical connotations and such large quantities were needed for religious carvings that it appears as an important item in the lists of tributes paid to Egypt by other states. Lapidaries were even forced to use a blue ceramic when lapis supplies ran out.

A most important Egyptians amulet was fashioned from lapis lazuli in the form of a stylized eye, decorated with gold foil. The eye of the nature goddess Isis was believed to watch over the souls of the deceased on their final journey. Often, the 26th chapter of the Book of the Dead was engraved on lapis lazuli hearts, which were placed in a sarcophagus with the mummy. The Egyptians also carved lapis lazuli into stylized versions of Ma, the goddess of truth. Small figurines of this goddess were worn by judges, usually suspended from their necks on heavy gold chains.

FACT & FANTASY

Even today, in Macedonia, an amulet of lazuli is carried by expectant mothers hoping to prevent a miscarriage - they call it the "stop stone".

PURGING MELANCHOLY

Physicians of later centuries were equally impressed. According to William Rowland, translator of The Complete Chemical Dispensatory of 1669, the stone: "purgeth chiefly melancholy, cures quartans, apoplexies, epilepsies, diseases of the spleen, and many forms of dementia. It is worn about the neck for an amulet to drive away frights from children; it strengthens the sight, prevents fainting, and abortion, but it must be removed near the time of delivery lest it keep up the child."

Powdered lapis lazuli was also mixed with the pulp of certain berries, and stiffened with sugar, to form Alkermes, a remedy believed to cure various ills.

Other tales speak of gifts of lapis lazuli cementing the fidelity of friends, and dreaming of Lapis denoting a successful affair of the heart.

The stone is under the planetary influence of Venus and also represents the fourth hour of the night.

It is very powerful stone in the reconciling of love, and during the whole time of the increase of the moon, it helps the pthisical (consumptive); but in the decrease it discovers surprising effects, for it enables a person to foretell future events."

-- Camillus Leonardus, Sixteenth-century Physician

Moonstone is a type of feldspar known as orthoclase, with a monoclinic crystal system. Recovered from mines in Sri-Lanka, Switzerland and Burma, the mineral has "cleavage planes" that produce a silvery bluish-white chatoyancy - an almost cat's eye quality that changes in relation to the light reflected from its surface.

A REFLECTION OF THE MOON

Pliny mentions stones called astrion, astriotes and ceraunia, and these were very probably what we now know as moonstone. He describes the first two as being transparent, like rock crystal, but with a bright white spot that appears to move as the stone is rotated and twisted in the fingers. This spot was believed by the ancients to be a reflection of the moon - Pliny compares astrion and astriotes with "a star shining brightly like the full moon" - and the bright spot was thought to wax and wane in harmony with lunar movement.

According to Pliny, astrion and astriotes were so-named because, when held up to the stars, the stones collected and reflected their glitter. Pliny: "The best kind came from Carmania and were called 'ceraunia' (thunder stones). They imprison a bright star, and although in itself it is like rock crystal, has a brilliant blue sheen." He also spoke of dull ceraunia stones which "if steeped in soda and vinegar for several days from such a star which fades away after several months."

SELENITES STONES

Camillus Leonardus lists the stone as selenites. It contains, he says, the figure of the moon or a clouded star and claimed that samples from Persia increase or decrease in color in time with the phases of the moon. He contains:

"Being put in the mouth, which must first be washed with water, such affairs are thought of as ought or ought not to be taken in hand. If to be undertaken, they are so fixed in the mind that they cannot be forgotten but if not, they soon vanish out of the mind."

ONCE IN A BLUE MOON

On the Asian continent, the pale lustrous blue color of the moonstone is considered to resemble moonlight. However, the best of the blue moonstones are washed up by the tides when the Sun and the Moon are in a particular heavenly and harmonious relationship, which occurs every twenty one years (three 7-year cycles of the moon). This event gives rise to the saying that denotes a lengthy period of time - "Once in a Blue Moon".

RAINBOW SHADES

Because of its variety of colors, tourmaline is easily confused with many precious gems. This relatively inexpensive stone has the greatest color range of all the gemstones - colorless, pink, green, blue, brown, and all kinds of intermediate shades. There is also an attractive and unusual purplish color known as "Siberite" - a name reserved for crystal found in the Russian Ural Mountains.

Parti-colored stones of two or these colors are quite common - for example, pink at one end, colorless in the center, and green at the other end of a crystal or faceted stone. Some crystals, when cut across their width, will show a pink center surrounded by a green border, looking very much like a slice of watermelon. This "Watermelon Tourmaline" comes mainly form Brazil.

Brazil is also home to an attractive, intense emerald green stone - popularly known as "Brazilian Emrald". Known, too, by the name chrome green tourmaline, this could be confused wit genuine emerald by the general public. At one time, this variety of green tourmaline was consecrated and set in episcopal rings.

A cross-section of other tourmaline crystals will reveal a green center surrounded by a pink border. These come from gem-bearing gravels and mines in parts of Africa, such as Mozambique, Angola, Tanzania and Zambia.

THE DUTCH CONNECTION

The Dutch colonists, noting the magnetic quality of tourmaline when it was heated, used long, unfashioned crystal of the gem to draw ash from their tobacco pipes. For This reason they named the stone ashentrekker - Ash Puller.

Although tourmaline has been used in the making of jewelry in the Middle and Far East for centuries, it was not until the Dutch introduced the stone into Europe, around the year 1700, that tourmaline became widely known and admired. From about 1750 onward, the stone became highly fashionable as a gemstone. As its popularity increased, the common name was changed from ashentrekker to the Sinhalese turmali.

MAGNETIC AND ELECTRIC

When faces are present on both ends of a natural crystal they can be seen to have developed with different orientations and do not correspond. This phenomenon is known as hemimorphism, and gives the stone certain electrical properties. Tourmaline, for example, is pyroelectric, developing an electrical charge when heated. This makes it ideal for using in thermometers. Tourmaline also exhibits piezoelecticity, when its crystal are placed under stress. This property is used in underwater detection equipment and in depth and pressure gauges. Another feature of the gem is that, when slices of tourmaline are cut from a prism face, along the length of a crystal, they have the ability to polarize light.

Turquoise is a particularly problematic stone when it comes to verifying its authenticity. It consists of a phosphate of aluminium, colored by copper and traces of iron. Some gemologists believe that the beautiful blue color is produced by a complex ion formed from copper and ammonium. The finest colored material is mined and worked in Iran; its colors range from the highly desirable sky blue to a bluish green.

SHADE CHANGE

The color of turquoise is sometimes affected by the acid perspiration of certain wearers. When this happens, the stone will become green or greenish, as it also does if it becomes too warm. The color is also affected by the alcohol content in perfume, hair sprays and cosmetics.

Turquoise got its name from the Turkish merchants who first carried this beautiful and very desirable blue stone to Europe for trade. Trudging the commercial trade routes from the East, they drove great camel caravans burdened with sacks of exotic, aromatic spices, bolts of cloth encrusted with gemstones and interwoven with gold and silver threads, and all kinds of jewels and other treasures.

The stones were first exported to Germany, where they became known as Turkisher Steins, which translates as "Turkish stones". When the stones reached France, the German name became translated into Pierre turquoise - stone of Turkey.

THE PEOPLES OF THE AMERICAS

Many thousands of years BC, forebears of the Aztecs, Toltecs and Olmecs migrated from that vast tract of grassland we now call Mongolia. They crossed the ice bridge formed on the Bering Straits which, at times, joins Russia to Alaska. The tribes roamed farther and farther south until they finally settled in southern America - in and around the lands now called Mexico, Brazil and Peru.

These tribes took with them their reverence for turquoise and their skills to work this beautiful, sky-blue rock. Their talents and ingenuity are evident in the craftsmanship and beauty of the arte-facts that have been recovered from ancient tombs, including the death masks skillfully inlaid with turquoise mosaic.

According to the missionary Bernardino de Sahagun (History of New Spain, 1830), no one was allowed to wear or own this blue stone: it was exclusively reserved as an offering to the gods and for the decoration of their images. After the decimation of the Mayan Empire by the Spaniard Hernando Cortez in AD 1533, it fell to the lot of the Pueblo people of the American southwest to keep this reverence for turquoise alive. Event today, Pueblo miners believe that the "flesh" of turquoise must remain undamaged; if it is to be used as a religious offering, it must be mined and handled with respect.

Turquoise was also held in very high esteem by the Apache peoples of North America. Indeed, without possession of a turquoise, no medicine-man could command the honor, respect and veneration his office demanded. Nor would the spear or arrow of the hunter fly true to its target.

PROTECTION FROM HARM

Turquoise was once credited with the ability to overcome malevolent glances from the Evil Eye. Even today, the citizens of many Middle Eastern countries weave turquoise beads into the manes and tails of beasts of burden such as camels, mules and oxen to bring good luck and assurance that the animals will surefooted.

Turquoise beads are also believed to protect a horse if it becomes overhead by too much exertion - and to shield the rider from harm. From the thirteenth century, this stone became the horse man's talisman and it was at this time that a certain man called Volmar wrote: "whomsoever owns a true turquoise set in gold will not injure any of his limbs when he falls, whether he be riding or walking, so long as he has the stone with him."

A HEAVY FALL

The seventeenth-century medical man Anselmus Boetius de Boot gives an account of how, the morning after his horse stumbled and threw him heavily to the ground, he noticed that a large piece of the turquoise stone in his ring had broken away. He believed that the influence projected by his turquoise had saved him from severe injury.

According to another writers, Van Helmont, "whoever wears a turquoise so that it touches the skin may fall from any height; the stone attracts to itself the whole force of the blow so that it cracks, and the person is safe." A certain Marquis of Villena had a slightly different story to tell, however. The Marquise employed a court jester who was asked "What are the magical properties of the turquoise." "Why Sire," replied the jester, "Should you climb to the highest rampart of your castle while wearing that stone, and hurl yourself there from to the courtyard below - the magic of the stone is that it would remain unbroken."

It was also Anselmus de Boot who wrote of turquoise chiming the hours against the side of a glass when suspended from a thread. On a fashion note, he observed that the best-dressed men considered themselves totally unprepared to step out unless they were wearing a turquoise jewel.

FACT & FANTASY

Turquoise is a symbol of generosity, sincerity and affection.

It is thought to preserve friendship and make friends of enemies.

To bring good luck, it should be given, not bought.

To dream of turquoise is to greet prosperity.

It brings good luck on a Saturday.

HEALING PROPERTIES

Many physicians of the fifteenth century carried a turquoise in their medical bags, claiming that the stone would counter the harmful effects of poison. They prepared a portion containing finely powdered turquoise, which, as well as proving to be a powerful antidote to scorpion stings, was also considered effective in banishing the pains arising from possession by demons. Looking at a turquoise - or placing a stone on the eyes - was believed to soothe inflamed or strained eyes.

Turquoise indicated the health of the wearer by turning pale if he or she became sick. It lost its color completely when its wearer died, regaining its beauty when it was possessed by anew, healthy owner. Sir John Horsey, a messenger in the employ of Elizabeth I, records that Tsar Ivan the Terrible believed that turquoise had a unique empathy with its wearers and showed its sympathy for their sufferings by turning pale. Many eighteenth-century writers contributed to these beliefs when they included in their books such words as "the stone grew pale when there is any peril prepared for him that weareth it."

BLUE SKIES AHEAD

To the Persians, the intensity of the sky-blue stone foretold the kind of weather to be expected that day. A dazzling blue color seen during the morning foretold a fine day, and a happy one. The Persians also say that to have good fortune and repel evil, a man must see the reflection of the new moon on either a copy of the Koran, the face of a friend, or on a turquoise stone.