Tahitian Pearls

When Oro, the Polynesian god of peace and fertility, came down to earth to find a mortal wife, he traveled the rainbow where one end was in the sky and the other on the earth. As Oro walked along the rainbow using it as his pathway, bits of color fell from the rainbow, mingled with the moonlight, and fell into the sea as black pearls.
There have been many ancient legends handed down from one Polynesian generation to the next on the creation of black pearls. According to one of those legends, Oro, the Polynesian god of peace and fertility, came down to earth on a rainbow to offer a special type of pearl oyster to man.

Another legend tells of the origin of the black pearls, according to this legend, when Oro decided to marry, he created a rainbow between the heavens and the earth and traveled across it where he offered the pearl to the beautiful princess of Bora Bora as a sign of his love.

The most romantic legend is how the moon shines its light upon the ocean to attract the oysters to the surface where it impregnates them with heavenly dew. Polished by time, this drop of light holds this heavenly radiance within its heart and cloaks itself in a garment that glistened with the blue, green, pink and golden colors of all the fish that swim.
For centuries before contact with Western civilization, Black Tahitian Pearls were revered for their beauty and rarity. Always associated with love then and now, this gem, seemingly created by magic in the turquoise waters of the Polynesian Islands, has a mystique that is difficult to define with words.
These myths tell of the love and admiration that people have for the "Queen of Pearls".
Tahitian Pearls remind me of that old joke...
Q. "What is black and white and red all over?" A. a newspaper.
Tahitian Pearl Jewelry is black, green, silver, aqua, pistachio, purple, peacock green, gunmetal gray all over, or as the ancients say created from a mixture of a rainbow and moonlight.
Like all the colors of the fish that swim in aqua colored tropical waters.
Bold, exotic, mysterious iridescent Tahitian Black Pearls are the most dramatic and beautiful of all the "Queen of Gems".
A gift of Tahitian Pearl jewelry is a gift that will be remembered forever.
A Tahitian Pearl necklace is completely unique, a head turner. One of the most desirable of all pearl jewelry pieces, and a necklace made of these black pearls is an instant heirloom, something to be cherished.
Whether the jewelry is a Tahitian Pearl Pendant, necklace of earrings, the owner will cherish as much as the ancient Polynesians who immortalized their beauty in myths.

Patrick Cavanaugh Sunshine Pearls http;//www.sunshinepearls.com/ Let me share a secret with you Sunshine Pearls is the place to find these beautiful pearls at prices 85 percent of what you will find in jewelry stores.

Source: http://www.classicarticles.com/Article/Tahitian-Pearls/68610
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The Myth and Lore of Topaz: November's Birthstone

Topaz was one of the original gems on the Breastplate of the Second Temple, inscribed to with the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. While many of the birthstones have been changed over the millenia, topaz is one gem that is almost universally accepted as November's birthstone; it is the gem of the zodiac sign Sagittarius. It is also called Sunday's gemstone - and it associated with the sun.

Indeed, St. John in Revelation writes that topaz was 'touched by the splendor of the sun.' He lists topaz as the ninth foundation stone-each of the stones representing Christian virtue. To St. John, topaz is the clearest of all gemstones and signifies contemplation which expands the heart and aligns men with the nine orders of angels. "The love with which contemplation burns, colors it gold," he writes. He noted the size of the gem - topaz crystals have been found over a foot long, and claimed that the gem was a favorite of kings.

The name, topaz, comes from the island, Topazio, which is in the red seas. It was commonly used as an amulet as protection from the "evil eye." The theme of a cure of eyes runs though some of the early Christian writing from the tenth century. St. Hildegarde claimed the gem was so brilliant that it illuminated prayers in a dark chapel, and claimed the gem was a cure of dim vision. She recommended placing a piece of topaz in white wine for three days and nights, then rubbing the eye with the stone before sleep with the wet stone and using the wine as an eye wash. (Kuntz 308)

Other "healing" applications vary over the centuries. Powdered topaz placed in wine cured asthma, burns, insomnia and hemorrhage. It was said to cure sadness and make you more intelligent and was particularly powerful if used in moonlight. Pope Clement VI and Pope Gregory II claimed that topaz could even cure the sores from the plague. (Kuntz 209-210)

It is almost laughable these days, in our current cultural milieu, to read about these "healers" of old who were able to claim miraculous results by using topaz or for that matter, any gemstone. Yet belief cannot be underestimated; our bodies heal particularly quickly if we have faith in the modality and the healer himself, whether that be the doctor, shaman or Pope. Medicine is full of such accounts of miraculous events that cannot be explained by the current scientific world view.

An Italian American friend of mine told me about her grandmother because the doctors wanted to cut off her leg which had a gangrene infection. The leg couldn't be healed. Everyone wanted the leg off. My friend convinced the family to give her two weeks. She bought bags of organic garlic, made poultices and applied them to the leg. She and a few friends sat and prayed over the leg day and night. The leg was healed.

The soul of the world appears separate from us, but perhaps it is within us. If so, topaz, or any gemstone, has the potential to be "healing." Each gem contains its own energy based upon its particular shape and molecular structure. Our bodies, too, are energetic and we are capable with practice, to respond to other objects in our field as energy. The two questions are: how sensitive are we to listening to the feelings or thoughts that the gemstone brings? Secondly, how capable are we at interpreting what we perceive?

The early writers lived in a world which was based on lore and superstition, but at the same time, it was alive and infused with mystery. Objects had power. Today, such thoughts are driven underground by our Cartesian intellect, which has faith in the scientific point of view; except, we are still mysteriously interested in gemstones.

Topaz is has many colors, and each would have its quality. The shape of the gem, which is orthorhombic, with three accesses radiating toward each other, is said to represent radiant energy and a heavenly connection. (Kuntz 331). The square shape also suggests that topaz has something to do with structure, discipline and building foundations. Think about how you use squares in your life.

Early writers seem to be speaking of clear and gold topaz. Gold is a color associated with the soul, the essential, immortal part of ourselves. Gold is radiant life energy. Gold is the color of the sun. Sagittarius, the zodiac symbol associated with this gem, is a mutable fire sign; always striving, full of passion and intellectual intensity. This intensity, with the help of topaz, might be well structured in any pursuit.

From all these small hints, we can see how topaz can be used as an alliance that can help one align with the one's inner light. For many of us, therefore, dismayed by our personal affairs or the state of the world, topaz is the perfect healing stone.

References: Most of the historical content, myth and lore referenced in this article came from two books, both of which are in print and available on line:

George Frederick Kunz, The Curious Lore of Precious Stones, New York; Dover Publications, Inc. 1913, 1971 edition.

Bruce Knuth, Gems In Myth, Legends And Lore, Parachute, Colorado, Jewelers Press, 2007.

Source: http://www.classicarticles.com/Article/The-Myth-and-Lore-of-Topaz--November-s-Birthstone/63818
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Jewellery as an art of decorating ones body

Beauty has always been an ideal that people have strived to attain. Whether moral or physical, beauty revealed itself as a goal, but also as a means to improve one's life from several points of view. Consequently, jewellery proved to be an excellent tool for achieving that ideal. Necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings and so many others, became in time a symbol of wealth, of elegance, of status, of belonging to a certain social group.

People are inclined to associate jewellery with precious metals or stones. This tendency is partially justified, as the common techniques of producing jewellery involves using such material, or replace it with another that imitates the genuine one. Nevertheless, one thing we should know is that the material of jewellery is carved in does not give its entire value. For instance, religious jewellery such as medallions, crosses or rosaries can be just as well made from wood, as their worth is not an earthly one.

The cultural significance of jewellery has met many transformations. In earlier times, only people of certain ranks were allowed to wear jewels. Moreover, the meaning of wearing jewels varies not only from a temporal perspective, but also from a geographic point of view. For instance, whereas in eastern cultures rings represented a common ornament for men, the western societies in the nineteenth century received that habit with prudence, considering it as a tendency of effeminate men.

Nevertheless, the western estimation of men's jewellery is not a universal one. The market of men's jewellery is not yet as developed as the female jewellery market, its tradition goes a long way back. The history of men's jewellery states that, in the beginning, men used ornaments as a sign of power. They were employed either for the sake of a mere adornment, or for more practical purposes, such as intimidating in warfare by exhibiting the fighter's rank.

Somehow, in the course of history, common people stopped wearing jewels. Jewellery became the privilege of priests and kings, and that situation lasted until later times. Nowadays, though, men's jewellery recovered from that long period of darkness. At first, subtly, it was restricted to rings, pins, watches, but then ostentatiously via the hip-hop musical and cultural trend. New artists imposed the image of a man adorned with heavy golden chains, enormous rings meant to shine and show that the one who wears it has a certain style and status. They included golden teeth that should demonstrate that the wealthy one could afford to spend a little on their dentition, to embellish one's smile, or to simply mark the eccentricity of the owner.

Obviously, men's jewellery regained its social significance. It is no longer regarded as a taboo or as a habit of dubious, peculiar individuals, but as a common routine. Of course, excessive display of jewels remains a practice of some people that state in this manner their belonging to a particular group with which it shares a specific view of life, or tastes in music, art or part of their culture.

Source: http://www.classicarticles.com/Article/Jewellery-as-an-art-of-decorating-one-s-body/66879
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