It's January, and that means Garnets!
The beautiful January birthstone is the garnet. Being the stone of New Beginnings, they are special indeed and treasured as high energy stones. Garnets are said to protect the wearer from poison, bad dreams and depression, as well as curing fever and inflammatory disease and providing safe travels. I don't know if that is so, or not, but I do know they are quite beautiful to behold - and to hold!
In researching for this blog post, I learned an interesting, darker side to the lovely garnet. Warriors of the Crusades believed they would be protected from harm or injury by the garnet. On the other hand, Asian warriors believed that garnets used as bullets inflicted more wounds, with the Hanza tribe actually using them against the British during the conflict at Kashmir in the mid-1800's. Not being a big fan of war, I tend to like the "softer side" of the garnet, and will enjoy them as beautiful to look at and to wear...
Most of us know garnet as red. Beautiful deep, dark red. The word,"garnet", actually derives from the Latin "granatum", meaning "pomegranate", likely due to the red color. But there are other colors, too! Lovely oranges (spessartite), greens (I love tsavorite!), pinks of many shades (rhodolite) are just some of the many garnet colors. I prefer the dark reds of almandine and pyrope stones, so that is what shows up most in my garnet work, but here is a tsavorite (green garnet) necklace I made that is available on sale through Jan '21 on the website:
So, now you know a wee bit more about this popular gemstone. Investigate all the varities of garnet gemstones, and treat your January loved one to their mystical, fierce, protective birthstone set into a beautiful piece of Redneck Feng Shui jewelry!
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