The seductive, violet amethyst has for millenniums thought to have significant powers. Moses described it as a symbol of the Spirit of God and used it in the ecclesiastical robes of the High Priest. The Russian Empress Catherine the Great sent thousands of miners to dig in the Ural Mountains seeking it. The Greeks thought it offered protection against drunkenness. Other cultures thought it would protect crops from tempest storms and ravaging locusts and that it would bring good fortune in war and in the hunt, drive out evil spirits and inspire intellect.
Others thought it would protect against snakebite if worn around the neck on a cord made from dog’s hair. Some ancients reported that eagles would put an amethyst in their nest to protect their young from danger, though no one reported how the eagle would manage to mine an amethyst.
But wait, there’s more! “Gemstone therapists” say that the amethyst has a sobering and cleansing effect and that it has been said to suppress stomach acid, combat insect bits, and beautify the skin. Some say it puts the wearer in a “chaste frame of mind” and thus became an ornament of the Catholic clergy found in prelates’ crosses and in the Papal Ring (Italian, 15th century) in the Jewelry Museum in Pforzheim.
Wow! What a stone! If everyone wore an amethyst what a wonderful world this would be!
Amethyst
