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JANUARY Garnet - thought to improve productivity, intelligence and beauty as well as promoting love and healing it occurs in highly metamorphosed rocks. They form under the high temperatures and/or pressures that these types of rocks endure. Garnets are hard, have pretty colours, and are wonderfully transparent |
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Rose quartz - believed to open the heart and promote happiness and forgiveness is one of the most desirable varieties of quartz. The pink to rose red colours are completely unique, unlike any other pink mineral species. The colour is caused by iron and titanium impurities. Most good rose quartz comes from Brazil |
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FEBRUARY Amethyst - thought to be a healer or cleanser and protector from psychic attack it is the purple variety of quartz. The Greeks believed it able to ward off the effects of alcohol, due to its wine like colour. It comes in a wide range of purple shades. Amethyst can occur as long prismatic crystals making a stunning purple sparkling cluster. (click to learn more) |
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Onyx - meant to protect the wearer from danger and promoting health is a type of chalcedony which occurs usually as bands in a variety of colours. The predominant colour is black, although black and white, red and white, orange/ brown/ honey and white are all possible. Onyx is very hard so if a fingernail can scratch it, you have dyed Calcite masquerading as Onyx |
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MARCH Aquamarine - known as "The Sailors Stone" supposed to protect seafarers and promote mental calm and clarity is made of a blue-green variety of beryl. The best quality Aquamarine has a sky-blue colour. The name means sea water. Found most famously in Minas Gerais, Brazil (click to learn more) |
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Bloodstone - said to benefit the blood and circulatory system by purifying toxic blood, liver, spleen, and kidneys is an opaque, porous, dark green chalcedony with red blood like spots which give it its name. Like all forms of chalcedony, it is a member of the quartz group. The iron minerals cause the deep red and brown colours |
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APRIL Diamond - to absorb all good and bad energies, promotes generosity, boldness & optimism is the ultimate gemstone, four times harder than the next hardest natural mineral, corundum. Diamond is not impervious as a sharp blow in one of its four cleave directions will split it. A skilled jeweller will prevent the chance any of these directions being struck! (click to learn more) |
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Quartz - thought act as an amplifier, conductor and generator of energy in meditation, knowledge, protection, healing and enlightenment is the most common mineral on the face of the Earth. It is also the most varied in terms of varieties, colours and forms. This variety comes about because of the abundance and widespread distribution of quartz |
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MAY Emerald - thought to relieve stress and cure diseases it is the green variety of the mineral beryl. The colour is caused by small amounts of chromium and traces of iron. Often containing inclusions & other flaws. These flaws are not seen as negative aspects but more desirable for the character of the stone and assurance of its natural provenance (click to learn more) |
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Chrysoprase - meant to help improve self esteem without ego, the most valuable stone in the chalcedony group, is usually an green apple colour. The colour can fade in direct sunlight, but usually returns in wet storage |
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JUNE Pearl - traditionally represents purity, innocence and integrity and supposed to improve fertility and ease the pain of childbirth is made from calcium carbonate (Nacre) in an oyster or mussel as a protective layer around an introduced foreign body. The most valuable pearls are natural, although the cultured varieties are by far the most common and reasonably priced. Wear next to the skin to keep in good condition. The ultimate are warm water South Sea pearls from black-lipped oysters. |
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Alexandrite - alleged to stimulate success in speculative matters is named after The Czar Alexander II. Chromium makes it appear as two colours. Natural or fluorescent light makes it green & tungsten makes it red. The rarest gemsMoonstone - reputed to improve psychic powers has a shimmer effect caused by a ray of light entering a layer and being refracted back and forth by deeper layers before it exits the crystal as a moonlike glow |
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JULY Ruby - the choice in ancient India to improve spiritual creativity, cure illness and protect soldiers, are also supposed to improve the passion of marriage. Rubies are the red variety of corundum (like sapphires), the second hardest natural mineral known to man. Ruby can be any shade of red up to almost pink. Rubies come from all over the world the best from Burma (click to learn more) |
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Cornelian - reputed to stimulate energy and appetite, physical power and courage is a form of quartz ranging in colour from a clear orange red to a dark orange brown and has been known throughout history as sadoine, mecca stone and pigeon's blood agate. The name cornelian (or carnelian), is derived from the Latin "carne" or flesh, which may be related to its translucent flesh colour |
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AUGUST Peridot - believed to protect from the terrors of the night if set in gold or to attract romance or wealth is the gem variety of olivine. Peridot has been mined in Burma and Egypt for an estimated 4,000 years. Pakistan now producing exceptional specimens. Legend has it that peridot was the favourite gemstone of Cleopatra (click to learn more) |
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Sardonyx is onyx with red and white bands |
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SEPTEMBER Sapphire - reputed to protect wears from harm or envy and promote spirituality is the non-red variety of corundum, the second hardest natural mineral. The red variety of corundum is Ruby. Sapphires are well known to most for being blue, but can be nearly any colour. Blue is the most popular colour of sapphire. The best come from Sri Lanka (click to learn more) |
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Lazurite is rare and valuable, more commonly found combined with other minerals as Lapis Lazuli - reputed to improve mental endurance, wisdom, insight, good judgement and psychic abilities. The name means "blue rock" and is always a brilliant blue with violet or greenish tints. Lapis Lazuli has been mined for 6,000 years from Kokcha, Afghanistan. Ground down into powdered paint pigment "ultramarine" |
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OCTOBER Opal - worn on the left hand to promote love to others bringing joy they have an unusual mineraloid structure, being not truly crystalline. Random chains of silicon and oxygen are packed into pockets of tiny spheres. Various wavelengths of light are diffracted creating colours. Most precious opal comes from Australia |
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Tourmalines - thought to be useful as protective shields from negativity, made from several different, but closely related minerals are often cut as cabochons. The colour looks darker when viewed down the long axis than from the side, this can be used by gem cutters who want to enhance a pale colour or weaken a strongly coloured crystal (click to learn more) |
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NOVEMBER Topaz - associated by the ancient Greeks with strength is golden brown to yellow colour with well formed and multifaceted crystals. Sometimes mistaken for the less valuable citrine. Blue topaz, often confused with aquamarine, is produced by irradiating and heating clear crystals. One of the hardest minerals & can reach several hundred pounds in size (click to learn more) |
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Citrine - supposed to enhance compassion, serenity, love & sensitivity is any quartz crystal or cluster that is yellow or orange. Most citrines have been heat treated and tend to have much more of an orange or reddish caste than those found in nature. Unfortunately Citrines are often confused with the more expensive orange-yellow topaz and is sometimes sold as topaz by unscrupulous dealers (click to learn more) |
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DECEMBER Zircon - alleged to strengthen the mind and emotional balance, self-esteem. Similar properties as diamond. Zircon is NOT the same material as the artificial gem cubic zirconia (CZ). Reputation has suffered due to the introduction of this diamond doppelganger. Zircons have been mistaken for diamonds by experienced jewellers. Can make an attractive & affordable gems |
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Turquoise - thought to aid relaxation, stress reduction, confidence and physical balance while attracting abundance and prosperity it is a valuable mineral and is possibly the most valuable, non-transparent mineral in the jewellery trade. It has been mined since at least 6,000 BC. The finest turquoise comes from Iran. The name comes from a French word meaning "stone of Turkey" |
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