The Healing Power of Birthstones

I have been wanting to do a post about the healing qualities of gemstones for a very long time now.  There are many stones to choose from but for this post, I thought I would just write about birthstones.  Please note, while I find this information very interesting,  I cannot verify with certainty the actual healing use of these stones. 
  

According to folklore and stories throughout history, many gemstones are thought to offer healing powers to its wearer.   As far back as the Stone Age, men and women wore crystal jewellery.  They had a protective, as well as a decorative function, guarding their wearer against harm.  The ancients employed gemstones for protection, adornment, healing and for seeing into the future.  Gemstones were frequently worn and carried by ancient Egyptians as amulets and charms.  Greek mythology frequently refers to gemstones, and many have been discovered in the tombs of Chinese rulers.  Gemstones were used extensively in ceremonies and initiations by the Native Americans, the Mayans and Aztecs.  The breastplate of the Jewish High Priest was set with precious stones; it conveyed power to the wearer.

It is important to remember that healing is not the same as curing.  Healing is helping the body, or mind, to become stronger and consequently better. 

According to legends and myths about birthstones and their therapeutic healing influence, wearing a gemstone during its assigned month heightened its healing powers. 

January's garnet cleanses and re-energises the chakras.  It revitalises, purifies and balances energy, bringing serenity or passion as appropriate.  Inspires love and devotion.  Garnet balances the sex drive and alleviates emotional disharmony.  It activates and strengthens the survival instinct, bringing courage and hope.  Stimulates past-life recall.  Sharpens perceptions of oneself and others.  Garnet removes inhibitions and taboos.  It opens the heart and bestows self-confidence.

Garnet regenerates the body and stimulates the metabolism.  It treats disorders of the spine and spinal fluid, bone, cellular structure and composition.  Purifies the heart, lungs, blood and regenerates DNA.  Garnet boosts the immune system and energy levels.

February's amethyst is a powerful and protective stone.  It guards against psychic attack, transmuting the energy into love and protecting the wearer from all types of harm, including geopathic or electromagnetic stress and ill wishes from others.  Amethyst is a natural tranquiliser, it relieves stress and strain, soothes irritability, balances mood swings, dispels anger, rage, fear and anxiety.  Alleviates sadness and grief, and dissolves negativity.  Amethyst activates spiritual awareness, opens intuition and enhances psychic abilities.  It has strong healing and cleansing powers.  Amethyst encourages sobriety, having a sobering effect on overindulgence of alcohol, drugs or other addictions.  It calms and stimulates the mind, helping you become more focused, enhancing memory and improving motivation.  Amethyst assists in remembering and understanding dreams.  It relieves insomnia.  Encourages selflessness and spiritual wisdom.

Amethyst boosts hormone production, tunes the endocrine system and metabolism.  It strengthens the immune system.  Cleanses the blood.  Relieves physical, emotional and psychological pain or stress.  Amethyst eases headaches and releases tension.  It reduces bruising, swellings, injuries, and treats hearing disorders.  Amethyst heals diseases of the lungs and respiratory tract, skin conditions, cellular disorders and diseases of the digestive tract.

March's aquamarine is a stone of courage.  Its calming energies reduce stress and quiet the mind.  Aquamarine has an affinity with sensitive people.  It can invoke tolerance of others and overcomes judgmentalism, giving support to those overwhelmed by responsibility.  Clarifies perception, sharpens the intellect and clears confusion.  Useful for closure on all levels.  Promotes self-expression.  Soothes fears and increases sensitivity.  Sharpens intuition and opens clairvoyance.  Wonderful for meditation.  Shields the aura and aligns the chakras.  Highly protective during pregnancy, it helps to guard both mother and baby from harm.  Discourages miscarriage.

Aquamarine is helpful to sore throats, swollen glands and thyroid problems.  It regulates hormones and growth.  Boosts the immune system and alleviates overreactions, such as hayfever or allergies.  Counteracts short-or long-sightedness.

April's diamond’s pure white light helps to bring our lives into a cohesive whole.  It brings love and clarity into partnerships, bonding relationships.  Diamond is a sign of commitment and fidelity, and instills trust to relationships and situations.  It inspires the forces of accumulation, attracting the manifestation of abundance.  Diamond is an energy amplifier.  It is a stone that never requires recharging.  It will bring strength and endurance to all energies and will enhance the power of other crystals.  However, beware, as this means it will increase negative energy as well as positive!  Excellent for blocking electromagnetic stress and for protection against cell phone emanations.

Diamond imparts fearlessness, invincibility and fortitude.  It clears emotional and mental pain, reducing fear and bringing about new beginnings.  Stimulates creativity, inventiveness, imagination and ingenuity.  It brings clarity of mind and aids enlightenment.  Diamond allows the soul light to shine out.  It aids spiritual evolution and reminds you of your soul’s aspirations.

Diamond purifies and detoxifies all of the body’s systems, rebalancing the metabolism, and building up stamina, strength and treating allergies and chronic conditions.  It also helps glaucoma and clears sight.  Diamond effectively treats dizziness and vertigo, and benefits the brain.  Counteracts poisoning.

May's  emerald is known as the “stone of successful love”.  It brings loyalty and provides for domestic bliss.  It enhances unconditional love, unity and promotes friendship.  Keeps partnerships in balance and can signal unfaithfulness if it changes colour.  Emerald stimulates the heart chakra, having a healing effect on the emotions as well as the physical heart.  It ensures physical, emotional and mental equilibrium, bringing harmony to all areas of ones life.  Focusing intention and raising consciousness, it brings in positive actions, eliminating negativity and enhancing the ability to enjoy life to the fullest.

Emerald enhances psychic abilities, opens clairvoyance, and stimulates the use of greater mental capacity.  It helps bring awareness of the unknown to conscious recognition, imparting reason and wisdom.  Emerald assists in inciting activity and focus in ones actions.  It strengthens memory and imparts clarity of thought.  It inspires a deep inner knowing, promoting truth and discernment.
Emerald treats disorders of the heart, lungs, spine and muscular system.  It aids in recovery after infectious illness, helps sinuses and soothes the eyes, improving vision.  It has a detoxifying effect on the liver and alleviates diabetes and rheumatism.

June's pearl signifies faith, charity and innocence.  It enhances personal integrity and helps to provide a focus to ones attention.  Pearl symbolises purity and is known as a “stone of sincerity”.  It brings truth to situations and loyalty to a “cause”.  Inhibits boisterous behaviour.

Pearl treats digestive disorders and the soft organs of the body.  It relieves conditions of bloating and biliousness.  Pearl increases fertility and eases childbirth.



July's ruby encourages passion and a zest for life.  It improves motivation and setting of realistic goals.  Balances the heart and instills confidence.  Ruby encourages joy, spontaneity, laughter and courage.  It promotes positive dreams and stimulates the pineal gland.  Aids in retaining wealth and passion.  Ruby encourages removal of negative energies from your path.  It overcomes exhaustion and lethargy and imparts potency and vigor.  Calms hyperactivity.

Ruby detoxifies the body, blood and lymphatic system.  It treats fevers, infectious disease and restricted blood flow.  Ruby stimulates the adrenals, kidneys, reproductive organs and spleen.

August's peridot is a powerful cleanser.  It releases and neutralises toxins on all levels.  Alleviates jealousy, resentment, spite, bitterness, irritation, hatred and greed.  Reduces stress, anger and guilt.  Peridot opens our hearts to joy and new relationships.  It enhances confidence and assertion, motivating growth and change.  Sharpens and opens the mind to new levels of awareness.  Banishes lethargy, apathy and exhaustion.  Peridot enables you to take responsibility for your own life.

Peridot strengthens the immune system, metabolism and benefits the skin.  It aids disorders of the heart, thymus, lungs, gallbladder, spleen and intestinal tract.  Treats ulcer and strengthens eyes.  Balances bipolar disorders and overcomes hypochondria.

September's sapphire is known as the "wisdom stone" and each color of Sapphire is thought to bring its own particular wisdom.  It releases mental tension, depression, unwanted thoughts and spiritual confusion.  Sapphire restores balance within the body, aligning the physical, mental and spiritual planes, bringing serenity and peace of mind.  It stimulates concentration, brings lightness, joy and peace of mind.  Sapphire is also known as a "stone of prosperity", attracting gifts of all kinds and fulfilling dreams and desires.

Sapphire treats blood disorders, combatting excessive bleeding and strengthening the walls of the veins.  It is used for cellular disorders, regulates the glands and calms overactive body systems.

October's opal intensifies emotions and releases inhibitions.  Encourages both freedom and independence.  Opal enhances cosmic consciousness and induces psychic and mystical visions.  It stimulates originality and creativity.  Helps to release anger and claim self-worth, aiding in accessing and expressing one’s true self.  Opal strengthens memory.  It encourages an interest in the arts.  Wearing Opal brings loyalty, faithfulness and spontaneity.

Opal strengthens the will to live and treats infections and fevers.  Purifying the blood and kidneys, Opal also regulates insulin.  It eases childbirth and alleviates PMS.

October also has another birthstone, Tourmaline.  Tourmaline aids in understanding oneself and others.  It promotes self-confidence and diminishes fear.  Tourmaline attracts inspiration, compassion, tolerance and prosperity.  It balances the right-left sides of the brain.  Helps treat paranoia, overcomes dyslexia and improves hand-eye coordination.  Tourmaline releases tension, making it helpful for spinal adjustments.  It balances male-female energy within the body.  Enhances energy and removes blockages.

November's citrine energises every level of life.  It cleanses the chakras and opens the intuition.  Citrine attracts wealth, prosperity and success.  It imparts joy, wonder, delight and enthusiasm.  Raises self-esteem and self-confidence.  Stimulates the brain, strengthening the intellect.  Citrine promotes motivation, activates creativity and encourages self-expression.  Enhances concentration and revitalises the mind.  It releases negative traits, depression, fears and phobias.  Emotionally balancing.

Energising and recharging, Citrine also reverses degenerative disease.  Stimulates digestion, the spleen and pancreas.  Negates kidney and bladder infections.  Citrine helps eye problems, increases blood circulation, detoxifies the blood, activates the thymus and balances the thyroid.  Relieves constipation and removes cellulite.

November also has another birthstone.  Topaz soothes, heals, stimulates, recharges, remotivates and aligns the meridians of the body – directing energy to where it is needed most.  It promotes truth and forgiveness.  Topaz brings joy, generosity, abundance and good health.  It is known as a stone of love and good fortune.  Releases tension, inducing relaxation.  Topaz promotes openness and honesty, self-realisation and self-control.  It aids problem-solving and assists in expressing ideas.  Stabilises the emotions, making you receptive to love from all sources.
Topaz aids digestion and combats eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia.  It fortifies the nerves and stimulates the metabolism.

December's turquoise is a purification stone.  It dispels negative energy and can be worn to protect against outside influences or pollutants in the atmosphere.  Turquoise balances and aligns all the chakras, stabilising mood swings and instilling inner calm.  It is excellent for depression and exhaustion, it also has the power to prevent panic attacks.  Turquoise promotes self-realisation and assists creative problem solving.  It is a symbol of friendship, and stimulates romantic love.

Turquoise aids in the absorption of nutrients, enhances the immune system, stimulates the regeneration of tissue, and heals the whole body.  It contains anti-inflammatory and detoxifying effects, and alleviates cramps and pain.  Turquoise purifies lungs, soothes and clears sore throats, and heals the eyes, including cataracts.  It neutralises overacidity, benefits rheumatism, gout, stomach problems, and viral infections.

I hope you found this information as interesting as I do.  All I can really say is try them for yourself if you feel drawn to this form of healing.  Many civilizations and cultures before ours have used gemstones for their healing.  They just may work for you.

The information for this post has come from various sources:  

Charms of Light by Caryl Haxworth
Love is in the Earth-A Kaleidoscope of Crystals by Melody
The Crystal Bible by Judy Hall