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 goo...

Humans like shiny things, so much so that English has expressions like "all that glitters is not gold" to remind us that those shiny things may not be valuable. I'm sure other languages have an equivalent expression. So it really shouldn't be a surprise that we have a lot of lore and legends surrounding the various gemstones. Most legends about gems tend to be positive and focus on their healing or protective aspects. Claude Lecouteux notes in his lapidary of sacred stones that "A statistical analysis of the specific powers of stones reveals that these are unevenly distributed between two poles, one consisting of purely magical properties (5%) or protective properties (30%), and the other of therapeutic properties (65%)" 1 (the Hope Diamond is a notable exception. It is said to be cursed, though this has been thought to be a marketing campaign for publicity rather than an actual legend). These purported powers are pulled from the gem by various methods, i...