Of December’s three birthstones, turquoise is the protective one in crystal practice, a stone for travel and for friendship, worn at the throat. Tanzanite is kept for change in the same practice, and zircon was once believed to bring deep sleep.
Under the tree there is a small flat box with your name on it, and inside, on a short silver chain, a turquoise you would never have bought for yourself.
Crystal writing still keeps the rule, which George Frederick Kunz found in older belief, that a turquoise loses its power if it is bought and keeps that power when it is given in love or friendship.
Worn outside the collar
Wear turquoise outside a jumper or a collar, at the throat, where chakra charts place it and where you can see it in the hall mirror on your way out. Protection is its first use in crystal practice.
It is a travelling stone as well. Wear it through a winter of early trains and late buses, or for the first trip you take on your own, and leave it on until you are home. Someone who travels for work all year can be given one in December, ready for January.
Cosmetics, skin oils and strong heat can all discolour turquoise. Keep it off a hot radiator and give it a wipe after a long day. It is generally stable in light.
Between friends
Turquoise is a stone of friendship in crystal writing, and in European tradition the gift of a turquoise ring means “forget me not”. The friend to give one to is the one you see once a year, if that, and would hate to lose track of.
If you want a turquoise for yourself, write it on the list you hand out before your birthday or before Christmas, and let whoever buys it choose the piece. It comes in blues and greens, often veined with the rock it formed in. Any shade will do. A couple who have reached their eleventh wedding anniversary can be given turquoise too, since it is the stone for that year.
The violet-blue stone
Tanzanite’s colour runs from a rich pure blue to violet, and the blue is the more prized. Crystal practice keeps it for change and transformation, and on chakra charts it belongs at the brow and at the crown of the head.
Give it for a change someone has decided to make in themselves, learning to drive at fifty, or the year they finally take their own work seriously. Wear it yourself through the months when you are still getting used to a change of your own.
Tanzanite scratches easily, so earrings and pendants suit it best. A tanzanite ring is better kept for occasions, in a protective setting. It is the stone for a twenty-fourth wedding anniversary.
A faded stone, given
The belief that turquoise kept its wearer from harm in a fall, from horseback above all, goes back to the thirteenth century, and Kunz follows it with a story from Anselmus de Boot, physician to the emperor Rudolph II.
A Spaniard had owned a turquoise for thirty years, and when it came up for sale its colour had gone entirely. De Boot’s father paid almost nothing for it, was ashamed to wear it, and passed it to his son, to test the saying that a turquoise works only as a gift. The son had his coat of arms cut into it as if it were an ordinary agate and wore it as a signet. Within a month, he claimed, the blue had come back, though Kunz doubted it.
Returning from Padua to Bohemia on a dangerous road at night, De Boot was thrown when his horse stumbled, and neither man nor horse was hurt. Washing his hands next morning, he found about a quarter of the stone broken away. Later, lifting a heavy pole, he heard his ribs crack, but he had only strained himself, and the turquoise had cracked in two.
Lapis lazuli was set beside turquoise when the American National Retail Jewelers’ Association gave December turquoise in August 1912, taking it from July in the list then in common use. The Jewelry Industry Council put zircon in lapis lazuli’s place in 1952, and tanzanite followed in 2002, an addition generally credited to the American Gem Trade Association.
Zircon at night
In the Middle Ages zircon was thought to lull its wearer into a deep sleep and to scare off evil spirits. North of the equator December has the longest nights of the year, and zircon, with that story behind it, is the present for someone who is short of sleep, up in the night with a small child or with someone who needs looking after.
Blue zircon was a Victorian favourite, but zircon comes in a wide range of colours, and colourless zircon has been mistaken for diamond for centuries. It abrades easily, so take it off to wash up or play sport.
Through December a zircon belongs on the bedside table at night, within reach of the hand that turns off the lamp.
Sources
- GIA, December birthstones, for the care of turquoise, “forget me not”, turquoise’s colours and matrix, the eleventh anniversary, tanzanite’s colours, value and setting, zircon’s medieval lore, blue zircon and the Victorians, and the care of zircon: gia.edu
- George Frederick Kunz, The Curious Lore of Precious Stones, 1913, p. 73 for the belief that a turquoise lost its power if bought, pp. 109 to 110 for the falls and De Boot’s turquoise, and p. 320 for turquoise’s move from July in the list then habitually followed: gutenberg.org
- The Jewelers’ Circular and the Horological Review, 14 August 1912, for the adopted list with turquoise and lapis lazuli for December: archive.org
- Jewelers’ Circular-Keystone, August 1952, p. 219, for the 1952 revision dropping lapis lazuli and adding zircon: archive.org
- Gems & Gemology, Winter 2002, gemological abstracts, abstracting R. Weldon, “Birth of a birthstone,” Professional Jeweler vol. 5 no. 12, 2002, p. 33, for the tanzanite addition and the American Gem Trade Association’s part in it: gia.edu
