LEGENDS OF MINERALS

AMETHYST

AMETHYST

In Greek myth, one day Dionysus, the god of wine, celebration, intoxication, and joviality, became enraged with the mortals and decided he would take revenge by letting his two fierce tigers devour the next mortal to cross his path. He immediately spotted a beautiful young virgin maiden named Amethysta who was on her way to Diana's temple to pay homage to the goddess. The wrathful god detained Amethysta and unleashed his hungry tigers upon her. Amethysta cried out to Diana for help. When Diana saw what was about to happen, she turned Amethysta into a statue of gleaming clear quartz, thereby protecting her from the tigers. When Dionysus realized the ruthlessness of his actions, filled with remorse, he began to weep tears of wine over the statue. The tears stained the quartz statue purple, thus creating the stone Amethyst.

THE STONE OF ODIN

THE STONE OF ODIN

Orkney Islands A young man had seduced a girl under promise of marriage,

and she proving with child, was deserted by him: The young man was called before session; the elders were particularly severe. Being asked by the minister the cause of so much rigor, they answered, "You do not know what a bad man this is; he has broke the promise of Odin." Being further asked what they meant by the promise of Odin, they put him in mind of the stone at Stenhouse, with the round hole in it; and added, that it was customary, when promises were made, for the contracting parties to join hands through this hole, and the promises so made were called the promises of Odin.

It was said that a child passed through the hole when young would never shake with palsy in old age. Up to the time of its destruction, it was customary to leave some offering on visiting the stone, such as a piece of bread, or cheese, or a rag, or even a stone.

LABRADORITE

LABRADORITE An Inuit legend says that long ago the

Northern Lights fell from the sky and were trapped inside some rocks off the coast of Labrador. One day, an Inuit warrior came upon these rocks and tried to set the Northern Lights free. With blows from his spear, he was able to release most of the lights, but some still remained to be permanently imprisoned within the rocks. The trapped Northern Lights are what give the stone we know today as labradorite its brilliant flashes of light and color.

COUNTING THE COUNTLESS STONES

Legend has it that it is impossible to count the King’s Men. A baker swore he could count them and and to prove it he baked a number of loaves. He placed one on each of the stones, but each time he tried to tally them up some of the loaves were missing, spirited away either by the Devil or by faeries. It is said that -

The man will never live who shall count the stones three times and find the number the same each time.

In complete contrast it is also said that anyone who thrice counts the same number will have their heart’s desire fulfilled.

Even to this day it it genuinely difficult to count the Stones, and modern accounts seem to vary in the numbers they give, especially as it is not known exactly which of the Stones are original.

TOURMALINE An ancient Egyptian legend says that as

the stone tourmaline traveled its long journey from the heart of the Earth up towards the Sun, it traveled along a rainbow and collected all the colors of the rainbow along the way, and this is why tourmaline comes in almost every color.

DRUIDICAL CIRCLES AND MONOLITHS

DRUIDICAL CIRCLES AND MONOLITHS Scotland Druidical circles and monoliths were looked upon with

awe; and there were few that would have dared to remove them.Here is a tradition of a monolith on the farm of Achorrachin in Glenlivet. The farmer was building a steading, and took the stone as a lintel to a byre door. Disease fell upon the cattle, and most unearthly noises were heard during the night all round the steading. There was no peace for man or beast.

By the advice of a friend, the stone was taken from the wall and thrown into the river that ran past the farm. Still there was no peace. The stone was at last put into its old place in the middle of a field. Things then returned to their usual course.

The stone stands to the present day in the middle of the field, and in some of its crevices were seen, not many years ago, small pieces of mortar.

ONYX

ONYX Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, was

resting by the Indus River when her son, Cupid, came along and used the point of one of his enchanted arrows to give his mother a manicure while she slept. With the nail clippings in his hands, he joyfully flew up into the sky, but with all of his happiness and excitement, he accidentally dropped the clippings and they fell into the river. As nothing of heavenly origin could die, the nail clippings were turned into onyx. The name "onyx" comes from the Greek meaning "fingernail or claw".

APACHE TEARS

APACHE TEARS In Arizona, the Apaches had made several raids on one

particular settlement. After these raids, the military and some volunteers banded together and followed the tracks of the stolen cattle back to where the Apaches lived. At dawn, they attacked. The Apaches were completely surprised and outnumbered in the attack. About two-thirds of the Apache warriors were killed by the first volley of shots. The rest of the Apache warriors retreated. As they were almost completely surrounded, the only place for them to go was to the edge of a cliff. Rather than die at the hands of a white man, these last warriors chose death by leaping over the cliff's edge. The apache women of those who had died gathered at the base of the cliff, and for a moon they wept for their dead. They mourned, not only because their warriors had all died, but also because the fighting spirit of the Apaches had died with them. Their sadness was so great that the Great Spirit encased the tears of the Apache women into black stones we now call apache tears.

QUARTZ CRYSTAL

QUARTZ CRYSTAL The Ancients believed that clear quartz

was water from the heavens that the gods had frozen into eternal ice. This belief continued to exist as late as the 16th century when even scientists believed that quartz crystal was fossilized ice.

CHRYSOPRASE

CHRYSOPRASE According to legend, Alexander the

Great's long-held winning streak was due to his wearing a brilliant chrysoprase gemstone on his girdle when in battle. One day, when returning from a victory in India, he stopped to have a bath in the Euphrates River. While his girdle lay on the riverbank unattended, a serpent came upon it and bit off the precious gem, and then slid into the water with it. After having lost his special talisman, Alexander never won another battle

AMBER

AMBER Phaeton convinced his father Helios, the sun god, to let him

drive the sun chariot across the sky for a day. Phaeton's travels started off okay, but it did not take long for the wild horses pulling the chariot to realize that they were being driven by an inexperienced hand, and so they bolted and Phaeton could not control them. As they drove too far away from the Earth, the Earth became very cold. Then they went too close to the earth and turned much of Africa into a desert. In order to save the entire Earth from burning, Zeus had no choice but to strike Phaeton down with one of his lightning bolts. Phaeton's body fell dead into the Eridanus River. His three sisters, the Heliades, came to the river and wept day and night for their dead brother. Wasting away on the riverbank, their bodies eventually took root and became covered with bark. Their arms became branches and the three sisters turned into poplar trees. Their tears, however, continued to flow, and as they hardened in the sun, they turned into amber.

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