Jewelry Lore, O-P

Here are more articles from my jewelry lore series. These were originally published on the Valentin magro website.

Onyx

Onyx is a type of chalcedony, which is in turn made from moganite and quartz. It's a cousin of bloodstone and closely related to agate. Onyx can be distinguished from the former by its layers, and the latter by its pattern of bands. While agate sports curved streaks, onyx has parallel stripes. Onyx is most famous for its black hues, but comes in many colors, including white and red.

The word “onyx” comes from the Greek word for “claw.” According to Greek and Roman lore, Venus was asleep on the beach when Cupid decided to play a prank. Using a sharp arrowhead, he trimmed off bits of her fingernails and tossed them onto the sand. Venus was so lovely, that the other gods chose to turn her nails into stone rather than let any part of her deteriorate.

3 Despite the connections with a goddess of love, onyx was considered risky for romantic couples, as wearing it around the neck cooled one’s ardor. Onyx was also thought to make relationships difficult, causing a couple to separate. People who wished to avoid falling in love or letting their eyes wander would wear onyx as a preventative.

4 Other mystical qualities include what happens when an onyx has a camel’s head or a pair of goats as well as myrtle carved upon it. A person who has such a specially charged onyx gains power control over demons, though may be prone to nightmares. Onyxes in their natural state were also thought to cause bad dreams, indecision and disputes to those who wore or even owned one. Still more people felt that keeping an onyx at home caused its owner to lose energy.

5 Though onyx had a bad reputation with some, it offered benefits. Onyx is associated with the Leo zodiac and other star signs. A 1913 rhyming triplet posits that Leo is a difficult sign to be born under, causing its people to be lonely and unlucky. Leo children who possess an onyx will flourish into adulthood, bolstered and protected by their stones. Those interested in the astrology of Saturn are advised to wear a specialized onyx ring on Saturdays, one with Janus’s faces carved upon it while Saturn rises.

6 Onyx is a colorful stone with a colorful background. It was believed to have come from a goddess of beauty and love. Despite this illustrious beginning, onyx was considered by some to be suboptimal to own, especially for those in love. It was still regarded as powerful, though not always beneficial. One notable exception is for people born under the sign of Leo. For them, onyxes serve as a talisman for luck and protection.

Opals

An unusual form of silica, opals are made of countless microscopic spheres that each bend light into various colors. When the silica merges into an eye visible crystal, the effect is that of rainbows in stone. No two opals feature the same play of color. The flashing mosaic has inspired countless legends about the jewel.

Opals were believed to be one of the most powerful colored stones, as it had the hue of every other jewel united in a single crystal. In this sense, opal is a gemstone with the ability to multitask, providing every mystical and health benefit of other jewels. Its multicolored nature lead Pliny the Elder to declare opals has having the best traits of all gems.

In Medieval Europe, were believed to be effective in treating ailments of the eye. In Elizabethan England, "opal" was thought to derive from "opthalmos," meaning eye. This supposed word origin further cemented their belief in the jewel's benefits regarding vision, as well as protection against the Evil Eye and other optical benefits. Stories also abounded of opal’s ability to turn its wearer invisible.

Opals received a blot on their reputation on 1829, when Sir Walter Scott published Anne of Geierstein. A character known as Lady Hermione always wore a bright enchanted opal in her hair. It mirrored her moods, sparkling when she was happy and flashing red when she was cross. When the opal was sprinkled with holy water, the jewel lost its brightness and Hermione lost consciousness. By the next day the lady was nothing more than a pile of ashes. Later commentators believe that Sir Walter Scott didn't have a grudge against opals, and might have chosen the jewel at random.

As the birthstone of October, some compare the prism of opals to autumn leaves and the contrast of the last days of summer with traces of winter. Gemologist George Kunz believed that opals weren’t suitable for October, possibly because he felt that brighter jewels needed to counteract the chill of cooler months. Despite this idea, he named fire opal as a jewel linked to summer.

The medieval academic Albertus Magnus wrote of a jewel set into the Holy Roman Emperor’s crown he called “orphanus.” According to him, this stone had a white body color and shone with flecks of red bright enough to be seen in the dark. He said this stone had the ability to protect honor. Later scholars believe that Albertus Magnus was describing an opal.

Opals have long been admired for their multicolored nature. Ancient scholars believed that the rainbow nature of the stone gave it the traits of all other gemstones. Opals also had their own unique abilities, treating eye ailments and making its wearer invisible. Though an early 19^th century book tarnished the jewel’s reputation, opal remain a beloved birthstone of October.

Pearls

When an irritant such as a piece of sand enters the shell of a mollusk, the animal responds by surrounding the intruder with calcium carbonate, the substance that creates the mollusk's inner shell. While any shell animal can create a pearl, the kind most beloved by connoisseurs come from the freshwater Unionidae family and the saltwater Pteriidae oysters. The jewels that come from these species are nacreous, featuring the iconic muted glow and rainbow sheen known as a pearl's iridescence and orient. Non nacreous jewel quality pearls come from conch, abalone, and melo melo species.

Natural pearls are extremely rare. For every 10,000 mollusks, one may contain a pearl. For thousands of years, pearls were worth their weight in gold, rarer than diamonds. Cleopatra’s most extravagant banquet consisted of simple food. At the end of the party, she dissolved a pearl earring valued at 60 million sesterces in vinegar and drank it.

For centuries afterward, pearls remained as precious as diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds. During the tine of Charlemagne, wealthy patrons donated their jewels to churches, who in turn used the pearls to adorn holy texts. One surviving example includes the Ashburnham Manuscript, which is covered in gold, colored stones and ninety-eight pearls. From the late Middle Ages through to the Renaissance, those who could afford it wore pearl jewelry with still more stitched onto their clothing. During the Belle Époque era in Europe and America, pearls were favored amongst wealthy women for long strings of many tiered necklaces, bracelets and even tiaras. In 1917, one man traded his Fifth Avenue mansion for a double strand of pearls.

The value and rarity of pearls lead many to try to cultivate them. The ancient Greet writer Theophrastus recorded the tale of people by the Red Sea diving for oysters. After piercing the mollusk’s flesh, the people poured the resulting fluid into molds. As the liquid hardened, pearls formed. A much later belief, first recorded in the 1690s and lasting for nearly two centuries is the use of rice and cotton in cultivation. Nestling good quality pearls and rice in cotton and placing arrangement in a box for a year was thought to increase the number of pearls inside, while the rice grains grew shorter, looking as though they've been nibbled. This technique was also believed to make pre-existing pearls larger.

As far back as 320 AD, powdered pearls have been used as medicine, particularly in China. Empress Wu Zeitan was known for using pearl powder both topically and as an internal remedy to protect her health. A later text known as Bencao Gangmu expands on the health benefits of pearls, detailing their use for healing skin, treating eye diseases and preventing heart attacks. Pearls served a similar purpose in Indian Ayurvedic medicine, as well as serving as an element in love potions. In the present day, pearl powder may be consumed to help promote bone strength, due to its high levels of calcium.

Archbishop Rabanus Maurus wrote around 850 ACE how pearls represented the kindness and sweetness of celestial life, as well as the hope of heaven. An earlier cleric, St. Augustine, believed that pearls represented Christ. Over the centuries, pearls retained their ideal of purity and innocence. Writers such as Faust, Wordsworth and Shabl Abdullah have likened people of great virtue and kindness to pearls.

Pearls were associated with Venus partly due to their beauty and connection to the oceans. The Venus connection also made pearls a symbol from the time of the Roman Empire onwards. As late as the 20th century, this connection remained. During the 1800s, it was popular for the wealthy to offer pearls as a wedding gift, though tradition stated it was bad luck to wear more than a few during the marriage ceremony.

Pearls are an organic gemstone produced by a number of mollusk species. This jewel has been admired for thousands of years and highly sought after, despite their historic rarity. Legends on how to culture pearls emerged in different parts of the world. Among the reasons this gem were so valued was for medicinal benefits, such as treating the eyes and bones. Pearls were also believed to represent heaven, love and virtue.

Peridot

Peridots are best known for their bright green coloring. Unlike emeralds, peridots are olive green, often tinged brown or yellow. Most peridot on the market were formed in the earth's mantle and brought to the surface through lava. Some samples however, have been collected from meteorites.

The jewel has had many names over the years. It’s a form of the nesosilicate olivine, and may be referred to as such in older jewelry documents from the 19^th to middle 20^th century. From the time of the Roman Empire, peridot was called topaz, as were other yellow jewels. The name “chrysolite” makes its first known appearance in 1747, coined by the chemist Johan Gottschalk Wallerius. The word “peridot” appears as early as 1245, though it’s unknown if the name applied to the yellow green gemstone.

Peridot is the birthstone of August. Those with peridot as a birthstone can place the jewel on their foreheads to help clear their minds and improve their judgement. Peridot is also connected with the Libra zodiac sign, which runs from September 22nd to October 23. People born under Libra can use the jewel to free themselves from evil spells.

An early legend states that peridot was found on an island in the Red Sea. The island was carefully guarded against unwanted gem seekers. Even those permitted to collect peridot there could never find them during the day. At night however, the jewels glowed. Peridot was also believed to come from the island “Topazios,” the land that gave topaz its name.

Some medieval churches in Europe have peridots which were believed for centuries to be emeralds. One stone in the Three Holy Kings shrine in Cologne Cathedral in Germany has a peridot 200 carats large. Even if they weren’t the gemstones people believed they were, peridots have a place in Christian lore, representing the excellence of divine nature.

To unlock the full potential of a peridot, it needed to be mounted in yellow gold. Peridot equipped in this fashion was powerful enough to banish nightmares. When a person dreamed of peridot, it was a signal for caution. The stone's bright color might have linked it to the sun in people’s minds, giving the jewel power over darkness.

Peridots have a mercurial history. They have gone through a number of names and been mistaken for other gemstones. Regardless, they have been admired in their own right. Peridots were thought to have the power of the sun, glowing of their own accord. This helped give peridots the ability to banish darkness, nightmares, and other negative influences. The stone has multiple connections to the night sky as well, along with the divine.

A heavenly symbol and powerful medicine