KNOW THE GAMS

Since the number 12 was also the number of signs in the zodiac if months of the year, the next step was to assign certain gems to certain times of year. The idea of a particular stone being particularly powerful during a given period of time, therefore, has ancient The original idea, in fact, seems to have been that the gems worn as charms or talismans in turn, with the gem changing ~he month or sign of the zodiac.

Although a first-century Roman writer and Saint Jerome in the fifth century suggested that wearing them of the month in which one was born was enough, the suggestion did not gain popularity until the eighteenth century. Even the order and the types of gems varied from country to country w>m one time to another. There was so much variation, more that in 1912 the National Association of Jewelers in the United finally drew up a list which received the association's approval , the one followed today.

Appendix IV lists the birthstones along with the significance of stone. In case the gem for your particular month does not you, you might want to consider wearing the gem for your v the zodiac. Since these gems have not been established as the birthstones have, the list in the appendix is from a seventeenth century source that has been accepted by at least some experts.