Jewels and the woman: The romance, magic and art of feminine adornment

For less extravagant desires, the gem will exercise its most beneficent influence if worn upon the index or the little finger. The December-born may find a new birth of good fortune with the turquoise.

Signs of the Stars

There are some who regard the month of their birth with less concern than the star, the constellation, under which they were born. They look into the heavens for the beasts that prowl the sky in the outspread forms of the stars. The ancients, and all astrologers since, have discerned a close connection between us in this world and the “animals” in the sky. For, though a few other forms have slipped in, the circle of stars that mark the year is called the zodiac, from Greek zodion, which means little animal, from zoon, animal. The zodiac is the zoo of the sky, whose beasts “beset us round.”

The Zodiac

The round of the year begins with the springtime. Our starting the calendar with January is a new-fangled notion, as can still be seen in the names of the last three months. The names October, November and December mean, respectively, the eighth, the ninth, and the tenth month. The year used to begin with March, the opening of spring.

Jewels and talismans have long been wrought with the signs of the zodiac. It is better, of course, to wear a ring with only the particular sign under which you were born. But the signs have been divided into cycles, and for each of the three cycles within a sign there is a special stone. Wearing this stone, especially with the sign carved upon it, increases the charm tenfold. In this fashion the special powers of the animal that rules the period, instead of opposing, will enter into and re-enforce the virtues of the wearer. Unfortunately, different astrologers have suggested different stones; but one who has never failed me believes in the list that I present, for its own values, each under its cycle and sign.

Aries, the Ram

The signs of the year begin with the ruttish male of springtime, the season of fertility.

Taurus, the Bull

More deliberately, but with tremendous power, the year surges on.

Gemini, the Twins

Castor and Pollux take the sky, twin sons of Leda and Jupiter as the swan.

Cancer, the Crab

And now the year moves backward toward the dark.

Leo, the Lion

Patience lashes its tail before the harvest.

Virgo, the Virgin

As this sign approaches, poets gather their powers. Shakespeare and his rollicking fellows sat in the Mermaid Tavern,

The slow ripening draws toward the ever wondrous birth.

Libra, the Scales

Balance the harvest of the moving year.

Scorpio, the Scorpion

Armor of the spirit blunts the sting in the tail of the season.

Sagittarius, the Archer

Aim well through the dark night, for the dawn shall turn.

Capricorn, the Goat

Leap up, heart, with glad resounding as light is born anew!

Aquarius, the Water Carrier

Out of me come all things that live beneath the rainbow.

Pisces, the Fishes

Abundance of untold treasure glints from the depths of the seven seas.

As the zodiac sets a ring around the heavens, so the zodiacal ring around one’s finger sets the sign of heaven in one’s fate. If one does not have a special jewel wrought with one’s astrological sign, it may find fit place as a charm on a bangle bracelet.

Cassius, in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, may exclaim:

but every man is born under a lucky star, and borne along with the virtues of the stars’ configurations, if only he can make it shine upon his fortune. It should be remembered (as Milton records in Paradise Lost) that God smiled upon the angels when they came to calculate the stars. If the astrologer has cast one’s nativity, one then may have it fashioned in a jewel.