citrine | Rock & Gem Magazine https://www.rockngem.com Rock & Gem Magazine Mon, 02 Oct 2023 13:24:51 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.2 https://www.rockngem.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/cropped-Favicon-32x32.jpg citrine | Rock & Gem Magazine https://www.rockngem.com 32 32 What are the Birthstones by Month? https://www.rockngem.com/birthstones-stick-with-the-standards-or-choose-your-own/ Mon, 02 Oct 2023 10:00:42 +0000 http://www.rockngem.com/?p=7495 What are the birthstones by month? What is your birthstone? For as long as humans have been fascinated with precious gems, they have assigned special significance to them. The 12 zodiac gems formed the basis of the modern, Western birthstone list. The Jewelers of America established a list of birthstones in 1912 that remains the […]

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What are the birthstones by month? What is your birthstone? For as long as humans have been fascinated with precious gems, they have assigned special significance to them. The 12 zodiac gems formed the basis of the modern, Western birthstone list. The Jewelers of America established a list of birthstones in 1912 that remains the standard today. Alternative lists also exist and who’s to say you can’t choose your own?

January

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Garnet

Garnet has been the birthstone for January since the 15th century, at least. With a Mohs hardness of 6.5 to 7.5, it can be faceted into beautiful gemstones that wear well in jewelry. Since the term “garnet” actually refers to a group of nesosilicate gems, those born in this month can choose from a rainbow of colors.

The most common members are red almandine, an iron-aluminum silicate; red pyrope, a magnesium aluminum silicate; orange-yellow spessartine, a manganese aluminum silicate; the yellow or green varieties of andradite, a calcium-iron silicate; predominately green grossular, a calcium-aluminum silicate; and rare, bright-green uvarovite, a calcium chromium silicate.

February

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From the 15th century to the present, amethyst has been the preferred birthstone for February. Amethyst belongs to a mineral family that can compete with garnet for diversity of color: quartz.

Pure quartz is colorless, as exemplified by Herkimer diamonds. The causes of amethyst’s shades of pale violet to rich purple are radiation and the inclusion of iron impurities and trace elements.

As a rule, amethyst crystals are short and stubby, and occur in large numbers, often filling a large vug a hollow petrified tree section, or lining the inside of a geode. Fine crystals that are large enough to produce a faceted gem of over 20 carats are rare.

March

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Aquamarine

The current choice of a birthstone for March is aquamarine. Aquamarine is a variety of beryl (Mohs 7.5-8). Its name was derived from the fact that the beautiful, transparent, blue-green coloration of the gem resembles that of seawater. It can be found in translucent to transparent crystals that form in the hexagonal system. The six-sided crystals are often striated lengthwise.

Aquamarine develops in metamorphic rocks and, more often, in pegmatites.

April

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Diamond

Before 1900, a person with an April birthday had two choices of birthstone: diamond or sapphire. During the 20th century, however, diamonds became the preferred stone.

Diamond, a mineral consisting of pure carbon, heads the list of all gemstones for its beauty and hardness. A 10 on the Mohs Scale of Hardness, it is resistant to scratching and is an ideal gem to set in rings. Its hardness results from the arrangement of its atoms in cubes.

All diamonds have slightly rounded faces, and they’re so smooth they feel greasy to the touch. They can be colorless and water clear to blue, pink, yellow, brown, green or black, and transparent or translucent. They shine with an adamantine luster when held to the light.

May

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Emerald

There were two choices for May birthstones for several hundred years: emerald and agate. The popularity of agate seems to have waned at the turn of the 20th century, so emerald is now the favorite. It’s the green member of the beryl family of gemstones. The color varies from bright green to pale green and, sometimes, darker shades of blue-green.

Fine emeralds have a velvety surface appearance and, in the better stones, an even distribution of color. One bad trait of emeralds is a tendency to have inclusions. It’s rare to find an emerald without some slight imperfection. This in no way deters from the beauty of this gemstone, though. It can also be one way of determining whether an emerald is a simulated gem or the real thing, as manmade stones have no imperfections.

June

gemstones-by-month
Pearl

The contemporary choices for June are pearl, moonstone and alexandrite. Of course, a pearl is the organic product of marine bivalves and not a mineral.

Moonstone is a variety of feldspar that shows adularescence, or schiller, an optical effect that produces a milky luster with a bluish tinge that appears to move across the stone when it is tilted. The phenomenon is named after the feldspar variety adularia.

Alexandrite is a color-change variety of chrysoberyl (beryllium aluminum oxide). This is a very rare and expensive gemstone. It has a hardness of 8.5, and its crystals are either tabular or prismatic. The distinction between alexandrite and chrysoberyl is simply color. A strange characteristic of alexandrite is that it is red, purple or violet when held under artificial light, but in daylight, it looks green.

July

gemstones-by-month
Ruby

Ruby is the standard birthstone for the month of July. It is a corundum (aluminum oxide) gem that gets its color from the presence of chromium in its structure. An exceptionally hard mineral, corundum illustrates a hardness of nine on the Mohs scale. “Pigeon-blood” red is the preferred color for rubies, though they also occur in lighter shades, including pink. All other colors of corundum are called sapphires.

Ruby exhibits all the desirable properties of a jewelry stone: beauty, durability, optical properties, and rarity. Some rubies display a star or asterism when fashioned into a cabochon. This effect is caused by the reflection of light from numerous inclusions of minute, needle-like crystals of rutile. Corundum crystallizes in the hexagonal system with a tabular-barrel-shaped habit.

August

gemstones-by-month
Peridot

Current birthstones for August are peridot, the gem-quality form of olivine and spinel. Olivine makes up a large portion of the earth’s mantle. Rocks containing olivine have been brought to the surface by volcanic action and actually blown out in the form of volcanic bombs. Masses of olivine have been found in meteorites, and the Apollo astronauts brought basaltic rocks back from the moon that contained olivine.

A popular jewelry stone, peridot has a hardness of 6.5-7 and can be transparent or translucent, with a vitreous luster. Its color shades from deep green to apple green, yellow-green or olive. It’s most often found in granular nodules, forming short, prismatic crystals in the orthorhombic system.

Spinel is the gem-quality member of the larger spinel group. Its hardness (Mohs 7.5-8.0) makes it ideal for jewelry use. Its spectrum of colors includes red, pink, purple, blue and lavender. In times past, red spinel was often mistaken for ruby. A notable example is the Black Prince’s Ruby, set in the royal crown of England.

September

gemstones-by-month
Sapphire

The birthstone for September is sapphire. This term refers to any corundum (aluminum oxide) gem that has any color other than red (ruby). Sapphires may be colorless, blue, green, yellow, orange, brown, pink, purple, gray, black, or multicolor. At Mohs 9, its hardness is second only to that of a diamond.

Heat treatment is sometimes used to give natural blue sapphires a deeper, more pleasing color. Natural star sapphires, which display the optical phenomenon of asterism, are very rare.

October

gemstones-by-month
Opal

Two options for October are opal and tourmaline. Opal is a magnificent gemstone with a play of color or “fire” in all colors of the spectrum. Spaces between the tiny spherules of silica that make up the gem diffract light into its spectral colors. Red, yellow, green and blue, in strong to pastel shades, flash from the stone when it is tilted.

Opal occurs in common and precious types. Common opal does not display any reflective fire. It may have a honey-yellow, brown, gray or colorless body color that is milky and opaque. Opal (Mohs 5-6) is not a very hard gemstone.

Tourmaline, a silicate of boron, has a complicated chemical composition, in which a number of elements, including calcium, iron, sodium and aluminum, may combine. It has a Mohs hardness of 7-7.5.

It belongs to the trigonal crystal system and its habit is hemimorphic (a crystal having two ends of an axes unlike in its planes).

Because of the coloration of the individual stones, tourmaline has several names, including schorl (black), rubellite (red), indicolite (blue), and dravite (brown). Tricolor crystals are common. The popular watermelon variety has an outer layer of green around a red core.

November

gemstones-by-month
Topaz

The current birthstones for November are topaz and citrine. People tend to think of topaz, a silicate mineral with aluminum and fluorine, as a yellow stone, but heat-treating and color-enhancing adaptations have made blue the predominant color on the market. It is an allochromatic mineral, which means its color is caused by internal defects in the crystal and has a Mohs hardness of eight.

Citrine is the golden member of the quartz family (silicon dioxide). Though quartz in its many forms is one of the most abundant minerals on earth, fine, gem-grade crystals are not that common. Citrine is affordable and, when faceted, rivals more expensive gemstones in beauty.

December

gemstones-by-month
Turquoise

There are three birthstones for December: turquoise, blue zircon and tanzanite. Turquoise (hydrated copper aluminum phosphate) is an opaque, blue-to-green, massive gem material. It has a relatively low hardness of Mohs 5-6, so care must be taken with turquoise jewelry.

The rarest and most valuable variety is robin’s-egg blue with black “spiderweb” veins of limonite. Fake turquoise, consisting of dyed howlite or magnesite, is common. Buyer beware.

Zircon (zirconium silicate) can be blue, black, red, brown, green, yellow, smoky, or water-clear. It has an adamantine luster much like that of a diamond, and it is often misidentified as such.

Tanzanite, the blue/purple variety of zoisite (basic calcium aluminum silicate), is a recently introduced alternative for December. Tanzanite crystals in shades of yellow to brown, green, pink, gray or blue are often heat-treated to produce a gemstone that is a beautiful and permanent blue.

This story about what are birthstones by month previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe! Story by Kenneth H. Rohn.

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What Are Lucky Stones? https://www.rockngem.com/what-are-lucky-stones/ Mon, 13 Mar 2023 10:00:33 +0000 https://www.rockngem.com/?p=19567 What are lucky stones? The list of traditional good luck charms is as long and diverse as the list of people who carry them. Think rabbit’s feet, lucky pennies and horseshoes hanging above a door. The stories of people relying on good luck charms or talismans go back centuries, but you don’t need to look […]

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What are lucky stones? The list of traditional good luck charms is as long and diverse as the list of people who carry them. Think rabbit’s feet, lucky pennies and horseshoes hanging above a door. The stories of people relying on good luck charms or talismans go back centuries, but you don’t need to look that far. There’s a tennis player with a lucky shirt, another with lucky shower sandals, and a basketball player with lucky shorts. Don’t have a good luck charm yet? No problem. If you like rocks, you’re in the right spot. Many are believed to bring good luck. What are lucky stones? Here’s a look at some of those good luck rocks and how to prepare and use them.

What is Luck?

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You’re invited to a party. There are a lot of people there you don’t know and you strike up a conversation with one of them. This person asks you about your work and you share with them the idea you have for the business you want to start. It turns out this random person is a wealthy random person; a wealthy person who is now interested in investing in your business. Is that luck?

Some would argue that luck has nothing to do with it. They argue the investor is interested because you have a good idea and know how to present it. Others will argue that it was lucky that you spoke with someone with money to invest. After all, you could have just as easily spoken with someone who wants to borrow money. It’s impossible to prove either viewpoint. For now, we are going to assume luck does exist but sometimes it might need a helping hand.

Different Stones for Different Kinds of Luck

what-are-lucky-stones
Tumbled stones. Photo courtesy of Rochas Brasil Pedras Decorativas

Different types of stones are believed to bring luck in different areas of life. Perhaps you are seeking good luck in a financial venture. Maybe you’re planning a trip and want good luck with safe travel. Perhaps you’re starting a new relationship and you want to be lucky in love. Or maybe you’ve been lucky in love and now you want to start a family.

The type of luck you seek will dictate the stone best suited to assist you. There may also be times when using more than one type of stone will be beneficial and increase your chances.

First, let’s look at five stones believed to bring good luck. Then we’ll look at a few ways to use more than one type of rock so you can dial in the luck you seek.

1. Amazonite

Some refer to amazonite as the “gambler’s stone” because of a belief in the stone’s ability to bring good luck in games of chance or when starting a new venture.

2. Citrine

Known as a stone of abundance, manifestation, and good luck, citrine is believed to promote good fortune and prosperity. When used as an aid in manifesting your desires, it can help with your creativity, love life, vitality, or fertility.

3. Jade

In addition to attracting abundance and prosperity, jade is believed by some to help strengthen your health and increase longevity. Many view jade as one of the most powerful of all the good luck stones.

4. Tiger’s Eye

This stone is reputed to bring good luck in matters of wealth and money. Tiger’s eye is also viewed as a stone of protection.

5. Peridot

Many believe peridot will attract financial well-being and refer to it as the “money stone.”

Many other stones such as rose quartz, garnet, and labradorite are also believed to bring good luck. Which rock is best for you? Like many questions related to metaphysics, there isn’t a single correct answer. The best approach is to combine what you know about the qualities of a stone with your intuition and proceed from there.

what-are-lucky-stones
Good luck stones can be worn as jewelry. Photo courtesy of Katerin Buinistky

Which Stone(s) to Use and How

Determining which stone is right in which circumstance requires looking at the full spectrum of the stones’ metaphysical properties. You may discover that rather than using one stone, it would be better to use two or more stones that have complementary properties.

For example, a tiger’s eye is used both for good luck and for protection. If you anticipate a situation involving a verbal conflict, you may want to pair a stone such as turquoise that improves communication with your lucky tiger’s eye. If you’re at the start of a new romantic relationship, you might want to pair rose quartz (for love) with jade or amazonite. If you’re already in a relationship and hope to add children, then a good luck stone coupled with a stone such as citrine that brings fertility might be in order.

When you are hoping to land a new client for your workplace, you might combine malachite’s strong financial connection with citrine’s luck in manifesting. Like most of the metaphysical aspects of stones, there is a wide variety of ways to use the stones, and no one is the right way.

The best way to use your lucky stone depends on the situation. Let’s look at rose quartz again. Rose quartz is believed to be connected to the heart chakra. If you seek luck in love, a pendant or pin containing rose quartz and jade worn near your heart chakra might work best for you. If you have a business, placing a jade or citrine stone in your cash drawer could help to boost your cash inflow.

Stones and Feng Shui

Stones often play a pivotal role in Feng Shui. In Feng Shui, certain areas of your home are believed to be energetically connected to specific areas in your life such as relationships, career, knowledge, and prosperity. Placing a good luck stone in one of these areas may help to improve that area of your life.

To locate where these areas are in your home, a Feng Shui practitioner uses a tool called a bagua. The Bagua is a kind of map that helps to pinpoint these energy centers in your home. Placing a good luck stone in the prosperity section may ofing about an influx in money. If there is trouble in your relationship, placing a good luck stone in that area may help improve the relationship.

It’s important to note that improving a situation may be, and often is, more complicated than simply placing a stone. If you’re looking to use Feng Shui to improve an aspect of your life, a Feng Shui practitioner can help you identify the best stones to use and where to place them.

what-are-lucky-stones
Setting your intention. Photo Courtesy of Kira auf der Heide

How to Prepare the Stone for Use

Once you know which stone or stones you want to use, you need to clean and prepare them. Remember stones are believed to hold energy. Therefore, when you first get a stone it’s important to cleanse the stone to clear any old energy it may hold and start fresh.

Before you begin any cleansing technique, research the stones you are using. You must know how to properly handle the rocks to avoid damage. For example, using water to clean a friable rock may cause serious and irreparable damage. Instead of using water, this type of rock can be cleaned by putting it in the dry sea or rock salt—no water—for several hours. When you’re done, be sure to thoroughly remove all traces of the salt. A stone that is not friable can be rinsed under running water or immersed in saltwater.

Many people will also smudge their rocks. Smudging is the process of passing the stone through the light of a candle or smudge stick. Setting the stone in the moonlight, especially during a full moon, is another popular method of cleansing.

Some stones, like carnelian, can be used to cleanse other stones. You can place a piece of tumbled carnelian in with other tumbled stones or crystals. The natural vibration of the carnelian will work to cleanse and energize the other stones. NOTE -To avoid scratches and damage, this should only be done if all the stones are tumbled.

As you begin the cleansing process, you need to set your intention. When setting an intention, it’s important to be specific about what you want. Hold the rock in your hands and your mind hold the intention that all negativity be removed. Concentrate on how you want the rock to help you. You can say something like “It is my intention for this stone to hold only positive energy and to bring me financial abundance.” Intentions are personal, say words that resonate with you. Decide what feels and sounds right to you and go with it.

You never know, with the right stones and the right intentions, good luck may come your way!

This story about what are lucky stones appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe! Story by Kris McElhinney.

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