Keywords:
Clarity, Alignment, Balance, Spiritual Truth
Affirmation:
I know that good fortune is the result of good thoughts and energy. I send these positive vibes and too forward to meeting up with them in the future.
Birthstone:
Peridot is the birthstone for the month of August.
Zodiac Sign:
Leo
Wedding Anniversary:
Peridot is the gemstone stone given to celebrate the 16th year of marriage.
Peridot has a very long written history. Ancient papyri record the mining of these stones as early as 1500 BC. The main source of peridot in the ancient world was Topazo Island (now Zabargad or St. John’s Island) in the Egyptian Red Sea. In Ancient times, peridot stones were used for carved talismans. Island habitants were forced to collect the gems for the Pharaoh’s treasury.
Legend says that jealous watchers who had orders to put to death any trespassers guarded the entire island. The story continues that the miners worked in the daytime as well as night, as the gems could be found after nightfall due to their radiance. The miners would mark the spot at night for retrieval the following day.
Peridot is the National gem of Egypt. Ancient Egyptians knew it as “the gem of the sun.” Peridot was mined for over 3,500 years on St Johns Island. As late as the 19th Century, the Kedhive of Egypt had a monopoly on the mines. At one point, the island’s exact whereabouts became a mystery for several centuries until being rediscovered in 1905. Joel Aram, from the “Color Encyclopedia of Gemstones 2nd Edition,” writes “Zabargad is an island in the Red Sea that is often shrouded in fog, making it difficult for ancient navigators to find. The location has been lost in fact, for centuries, and was rediscovered in about 1905. The island is located 35 miles of the Egyptian coastal port of Berenica.”
In the 19th Century, the mines on Zabargad Island produced millions of dollars worth of peridot. After 1905, production of the gems peaked, but by the late 1930’s it tapered off to practically nothing and reached a virtual stand still in 1958, when the mines were nationalized. Although parcels of St. Johns peridot still come into the market once in a while, it is not known whether it is new or old. Most assume it is old.
In the middle ages, Europeans brought peridot stones back from the Crusades to decorate church plates and robes. Peridot was also known to ancient Hebrews and is listed both as one of the stones used by Aaron and found in the text of the apocalypse (Revelations).
Before a coup d’etat in 1962, that left the country a socialist totalitarian state controlled by its army, Burma was a thriving peridot producer, principally in its North Central Mogok district. Now, Burma is in economic shambles, completely poor and depressed. The only Burmese peridot available now is decent, but far from great, yet the price is a hundred times that of Burma’s best before the country was shut off from the world. Politics are the reason Burma can no longer be counted on for peridot. Burma still produces some gems, but mining is clandestine and most goods are passed onto the outside world through a rather elaborate network of smugglers. Thailand is actually a cheap conduit for Burmese contraband.