MAY BIRTHSTONE: EMERALD

As the birthstone for May, the emerald, a symbol of rebirth, is believed to grant the owner foresight, good fortune, and youth.

Since antiquity, emerald has been a symbol of spiritual awareness, protection, love, and wisdom. Ancient Romans and Greeks believed it to be the representative of the Goddess Venus. Hence, they perceived this gemstone as a conveyor of hope and love.

Emerald is known as the “stone of successful love”. It brings loyalty and provides for domestic bliss. 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.

Emeralds are also believed to hold healing powers, both emotional and physical. It is believed that an Emerald can lift depression, cure insomnia, detoxify blood, and cure ailments of the heart, eyes, pancreas, backbone, lymph nodes, intestines, kidneys and thymus.

Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl (Be₃Al₂(SiO₃)₆) coloured green by trace amounts of chromium and/or sometimes vanadium. Beryl has a hardness of 7.5–8 on the Mohs scale. Most emeralds are highly included, so their toughness (resistance to breakage) is classified as generally poor.

The center of world emerald mining is in South America, with Colombia and Brazil as major producers.

The Egyptian mines that supplied Cleopatra’s passion have long since been played out. However, today the African continent is second only to South America in production, with mines in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, and Nigeria. Each of these locales typically produces a certain colour, size, and clarity. Since 2016,  Ethiopia has also produced some high-quality emeralds with grass green to blue-green colours that don’t need oil treatments.