Feeling the holiday stress? Get yourself some gems! Many gemstones are believed to have healing, calming, or stress-relieving properties. According to The Healing Power of Gemstones, an article on the American Gem Society website, amber, amethyst, and aquamarine are your best bets for reducing stress, calming nerves, and feeling peaceful, all welcome benefits at this time of year. Citrine is believed to promote clear thinking, which might help you as you plan your holiday shopping list, while onyx may help you control your emotions while you’re standing in line at the store. Pearl is also known for its calming properties, while topaz “facilitates the balance of emotions and provides protection from greed,” a welcome sentiment for this time of year.
Some gems are even believed to be magical. GIA’s Gemstone Lore explains that diamonds were worn in ancient times to promote strength, invincibility and courage, while ancient Romans prized emeralds for their their calming and soothing effects. The ruby represents the sun power in Hindu ancient writings, and may have been given as an offering to Buddha in China and Krishna in India. Dreaming about rubies? Success in money or love may be in your future! Sapphire, the ruby’s sister stone, is a Buddhist symbol of devotion and spiritual enlightenment. The ancient Greeks believed sapphire helped them when consulting oracles.
Want to know more about gemstones? We can’t tell you which ones will help you keep your sanity this holiday season, but we can tell you about innovative technologies to analyze rubies, sapphires, emeralds, jade, and diamonds to determine whether they are real or synthetic, treated or natural, whether they have inclusions, and where they came from. Put these application notes on your holiday vacation reading list and enjoy!
- Rapid Screening of Semiprecious Gemstones by Raman Spectroscopy
- Analysis of Rubies and Sapphires by FT-IR Spectroscopy
- Gemstone Analysis by FT-IR: Identifying Treated Jades
- Analysis of Diamonds by FT-IR Spectroscopy
- Raman Mapping of Mineral Inclusions in Diamonds and other Mineral Samples
Leave a Reply