About the Stones, Mythology and History of Gemstones, Minerals, Crystals Gem lore is endless. Every culture has its. When I began writing. Samsung-Odin-how-to-use.jpg' alt='Odin Er Has Stopped Working' title='Odin Er Has Stopped Working' />A Rumor of Gems, I tried to use only those beliefs that seemed traditional. I found confirmed in more than one source. It. was a well meaning but absurd approach, because the more you delve into. There was no single definitive power, symbolism. According to Maria Leachs. Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Belief in the supernatural. An early. cuneiform tablet gives a list of stones facilitating conception and birth. These ideas of the ancients were woven into. Babylonians, but the early Greek lapidaries. The early Christian church opposed magic. Exodus. and the Apocalypse. Because they were part of the science of the Middle Ages, rather. It was not until. Even then. there was no uniformity of opinion, and what one physician discarded as. To add to the confusion, when you consult early stone lore i. Pliny the Elder or biblical or even medieval mentions of. For example, its now believed that sapphire. English translation of the biblical sapur, but what. Though the word emerald derives from the Latin smaragdus,. Plinys smaragdus was not the word for emeralds but a term. Interestingly, though, one possible. Topazios, an island in the Red Sea, which. Plinys time was famous for its peridot mines, and theres wide speculation. In the fourteenth century the word carbuncle. Theres another limitation you run up against when working with traditional. Diamonds, rubies, sapphires, topaz, emeralds, pearls. But its hard to find beliefs about minerals. When. I began writing about stones my approach was to research them and then. I found that if I wrote about a stone, it helped to be able to hold. Although this wasnt possible in the case of diamonds and the expensive. I have a number of semiprecious gems and crystals plus lots of. This. process is still new to me. Quite honestly, sometimes I pick up a stone. But other times whether through the senses. There came a point when I realized there was no one truth about any given. Gem lore is endless. Every culture has its own beliefs about specific stones, and those beliefs are often tied to that cultures history, geography, and. I was, in fact, free to write whatever I wanted about. This doesnt mean Ive stopped researching gem. Im not careful about the qualities I ascribe to the stones in the. But Ive come to believe that stones are as individual and. So for what its worth and in no particular order, here are some of the. I touched on in A Rumor of Gems and a preview of the qualities. One of the best things about baseball is that every game brings the chance to see something that has never happened before during the 100plus years that the game has. The Pause lengthens yet again. Onethird of Mans entire influence on climate since the Industrial Revolution has occurred since February 1997. I chose to write about. For more on the lore of stones, please see my. Gem. Lore. Moonstone orthoclaseYears ago in New York, I was given a moonstone by a friend who told me. Being a feldspar, moonstone is a fairly. Mohs scale, and it has a gentle translucent. Some legends say it was formed out of the rays of the moon. Others. claim you can see the future in a moonstone during a waning moon. Still. others say its a propitious stone for lovers with the power to. My favorite bit of lore about the moonstone. Indias astrologers, who say it is the stone. In Rumor moonstone is used primarily. Alasdair uses it to scry the future. Hematite iron oxideAn opaque mineral with a metallic luster, often black or silvery though. Hematite has long been connected to Mars, the red god of war it was believed. While personally I dont think of any stone as good or bad,. I depicted hematites as stones that engendered. Chrysoprase chalcedonyApple green and slightly fluorescent a merry stone, a gift in times of. Windows Snapshot Maker V1.1 there. Historically, both the Greeks and Romans used it in their seals and. Like opal and chrysoberyl, it was said to have the power to confer. One of the odder beliefs about chrysoprase, which I have not used, is. Cats eye Chrysoberyl aka. A translucent, yellowish, cloudy stone with a chatoyant sheen and a hardness. Mohs scale. In Rumor, Alasdair gives the boy Michael. I needed a mineral that was physically quite. Because it was a gift from Alasdair, it also had to be a protective stone. I combined and extrapolated from a number of beliefs In Arabic tradition. According to Melody, the stone has a stabilizing influence. Tourmaline. Tourmaline is a complex gemstone found in a tremendous range of colors. Its pyroelectric quality. According to Barbara Walkers The Book of Sacred Stones, the Sinhalese. Like quartz, it also has a piezoelectric effect, and becomes. Walkers. book states that tourmaline was recognized as a gem in Europe in 1. Dutch traders brought it back from the East, but Christopher Caveys. Gems and Jewels Fact and Fable states that tourmalines have only. The stones originally found in Brazil in the sixteenth century were mistaken. Black Tourmaline aka schorlThe story needed a stone that would protect against dark magic. At the. time I had a beautiful, glossy chunk of schorl on my desk, and as I began. Sangeet, black tourmaline. Later, I looked it up in contemporary metaphysical. Melodys Love Is in the Earth and Judy Halls The. Crystal Bible, and found that indeed, it has been used to protect. Tourmaline sea greenTourmaline has been used by both African and Australian shamans, and according. Melody, in rituals performed in ancient eastern Indian culture. I. couldnt resist the idea of tourmaline being a teller stone. Alasdair give one to Lucinda. Faustite. Mineralogical kin to turquoise often apple green, though what materializes. Alasdair is a deep green bead, based on a necklace I once saw. According. to Melody, faustite allows for deeper communication with plant and. I took this one step further, using the faustite in. Labradorite. Another feldspar which, though translucent, often has a multicolored sheen. When I pictured the labradorite bridge in Arcato, I was picturing the. Id seen, but I. also have a gorgeous chunk in my office see bottom photo HERE. As for the power I ascribed. Im not quite sure where I got that one. Chalcedony. Like jasper, agate, chrysoprase, and carnelian, chalcedony is a cryptocrystalline. Historically. chalcedony was sacred to Diana, and connected to victory in arguments. According to Melody, its also been used to. I drew on. and combined these beliefs, using chalcedony twice in Rumors, where. Opal. A relatively soft stone 5. Mohs scale According to. Bruce G. Knuth, the word opal was originally derived from the Sanksrit. The ancient Romans called. In Arab lore opals. It wasnt until the nineteenth. European royalty. In Rumors, I drew primarily on the opals reputation as a thiefs. As far as I can tell, this dates back to the Greek. Gyges related in Platos Republic who found a ring that. Since completing the novel, I wound up with a small black opal of my own. Im not yet sure of how. Diamond. The only gemstone composed of one pure element, carbon, whose molecules. This perfect atomic. Mohs scale, as well as an excellent conductor of heat and electricity. It also, as Geshe Michael Roach writes in The Diamond Cutter, has. The diamonds physical properties of clarity and. Of course. there are also the famously cursed diamonds, like the Hope, as well as. Persian belief that the diamond was a source of sin and sorrow. When I was writing Rumor I became intrigued by a branch of diamond. And I was drawn to a photograph of. Javeri diamond pictured in Christopher Caveys book. Please see Sources. Annotated Bibliography. That. I imagined when Lucinda was given the diamond in Kamas. Citrine. A yellow quartz, traditionally known as a merchants stone. One acquaintance. Emeralds. The bright green variety of beryl. Emeralds are the gem of spring and. Of course. theyve also been connected with jealousy, and its said that some emeralds. Bruce G. Knuth, citing. Forbes Oriental Memoirs, relates an Indian tale about emeralds. That captured my imagination. Rumor. Amber. Technically not a stone at all but fossilized resin, however only the. Amber beads have been found in prehistoric. B. C. According. to Maria Leach, In Greek legend, amber was a concretion of tears. Meleager by his sisters. In Scandanavian mythology. Freya when Odin wandered out into the world.