However, in ancient times, people wore this stone for various reasons. Wearing opal as a jewelry stone is a relatively modern practice. Connecting opals with "misfortune but hope," this page seems to cover the field on the symbolic associations of this gem. A Christmas Ring was a popular American book on birthstones from 1879. Opal is an alternative birthstone for those born in the 6 PM hour). (If you're skittish about wearing opal and you weren't born in October, find out the hour of your birth. Of course, some still seize on the negative. Just the other day, a lady told me it was VERY bad luck to wear an opal if it wasn't your birthstone. Birthstone revisions continue to this day, mostly driven by marketing. These changes have nothing to do with bad luck. For example, March's bloodstone was replaced by aquamarine. That year, the National Association of Jewelers released a modern birthstone list, which featured exclusively transparent gems. Until 1912, opal was considered the October birthstone. Nevertheless, opal's popularity as a jewelry stone belies its negative association. Thus, you get the basis for the bad rap that still haunts this lovely stone. Combine with the fact that many gem cutters refuse to work on the fragile gem. Take one popular but fictional tale of misfortune befalling an opal wearer. Two hours later, all that remained of her was a handful of gray ashes. On the day of her daughter's christening, drops of holy water struck her opal, which "shot out a brilliant spark like a falling star, and became the instant afterwards lightless and colorless as a common pebble." Hermione then collapsed. She always wore in her hair a golden clasp with an opal that "amid the changing lights peculiar to that gem, displayed internally a slight tinge of red like a spark of fire." This gem seemed to reflect her moods, showing "a twinkling and flashing gleam which seemed to be emitted by the gem itself" whenever she became animated or agitated, "as if it sympathized with the wearer's emotions." Scene from Sir Walter Scott's Anne of Geierstein: "Hermione takes refuge in the chemical laboratory of Sir Herman, an Austrian alchemist." Oil painting by William Long (fl. At times, she seemed more an indefatigable spirit - an ignis fatuus or will-o'-the-wisp - than human. The grandmother of the titular character, she appeared to possess magical powers.
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