June Birthstone: Moonstone

A moon. Technically a stone. Not a moon stone.

Moon stone is one of the birthstones associated with the month of June. There is some debate about the specific stone this word refers to. In Roman times, it was considered to be made from frozen moonlight.¹ Today it is most commonly associated with a kind of feldspar but in the past has also referred to a stone called selenite, a kind of gypsum whose name literally translates to moonstone. In both cases, it comes in pretty much every color. No single color seems to be most common.

Various properties are associated with both the feldspar and gypsum varieties. It's a protective stone that glows under certain circumstances and according to Lecouteux"it preserves the virtues of the body, protects from storms, heals lunatics, and help win honors."²

The properties of selenite are somewhat different, though still largely related to bodily protection. Among other attributes "it safeguards pregnancy and gives women a good labor and birth; it also bestows peace and harmony, reconciles lovers, shrinks welts, and heals those suffering from consumption."³ A few different methods are suggested for drawing out its power, mostly related to how it is worn on what is done to it. One source advises: "The two phases of the moon should be carved on it, and it should be worn around the neck. If enclosed in a gold capsule with parsley, it will make bees fertile."⁴ A number of its properties also relate to precognition.

------

1.http://www.addmorecolortoyourlife.com/gemstones/moonstone.asp

2. Lecouteux, Claude. A Lapidary of Sacred Stones: Their Magical and Medicinal Powers Based on the Earliest Sources (p. 229). Inner Traditions/Bear & Company. Kindle Edition.

3. Lecouteux, Claude. A Lapidary of Sacred Stones: Their Magical and Medicinal Powers Based on the Earliest Sources (p. 292). Inner Traditions/Bear & Company. Kindle Edition.

4. ibid

Comments

Not an Apple

Genesis 3 is probably one of the most famous parts of the Old Testament. It's where the devil convinced Eve to eat an apple from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Except not. The Hebrew is pretty clear. The נָחָשׁ mentioned in the first verse is just the Hebrew word for "serpent". It has nothing to do with the figure who would later become identified as the Christian Satan. And it wasn't an apple. Again, the Hebrew text is reasonably clear. The word used is פְּרִי which literally just means "fruit". Like in English, this can be an actual fruit or metaphorical for the "fruit of ___". Hebrew has a separate word for "apple" תַּפּוּחַ which does not show up (as far as I'm aware) in Genesis. So how did we get the whole "Apple" thing? Because languages are fun! The "apple" translation comes from people working with and getting confused by the Latin translation of the Old Testament. In Latin, the word...

Mithras: Introduction

Mithras, the focus of the cult The Mysteries of Mithras was a prominent mystery religion in the Roman Empire from early A.D. to the 4th century. In theory, it came from Persia, being the roman version of the Persian fire/sun god Mithra. This theory was espoused by Franz Cumont, though there is much debate about this. Plutarch claims that it was started by the pirates of Cicilia in Asia minor and, because of archeological evidence showing that the most important cult in this area was dedicated to Perseus, David Ulansey, in his The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries, takes this to mean that Mithras is a version of Perseus and uses this to develop his theory on the astrological focus of Mithraism. Because of the nature of a mystery religion, the adherents wrote nothing down, at least, nothing that survived. There exists a text referred to as the “Mithras Liturgy” from the Greek Magical Papyri and it should be taken into account, but its legitimacy is questioned. The only information ...

Golden Apple

Apples feature in a lot of stories and folklore. The most famous one is probably the golden apple that started the Trojan war. Eris, goddess of discord, took a golden apple, wrote " τῇ καλλίστῃ" (to the most beautiful) on it, and threw it into a group of goddesses: Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. They all wanted it, claiming the title of "most beautiful" for themselves, so they had this sort of ancient beauty contest, for lack of a better term. The judge was a man named Paris, a prince of Troy. Each goddess promised him various things in order to be declared the most beautiful. Aphrodite won. She promised him a woman, Helen, the most beautiful woman of the ancient world. Aphrodite took Helen and gave her to Paris. Whether this was a choice on Helen's part or whether she was taken against her will varies by source. There was a problem, aside from the obvious issues with kidnapping. Before she was "Helen of Troy", she was "Helen of Sparta", marrie...

Search This Blog