If your birthday is in October, your birthstone is the pearly, iridescent Opal. Almost 97% of this shimmering stone is mined from Australia, where the Opal is also the national gemstone. Opals can also be found in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Turkey, Indonesia, Brazil, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Ethiopia. Opals are also mined closer to home, in Idaho and Nevada, where the state gemstone is the Black Fire Opal. Each stone reflects many colors over the surface, but each has a base color that determines the type of Opal it is. The most common Opals are white and green and the rarest are black, but they also come in gray, orange, yellow, blue, pink, and brown.
Like all birthstones, Opals have mystical qualities to them, too. Legend holds that opals were created when the lightning god grew jealous of the rainbow god and petrified rainbows with lightning. The broken and hardened pieces of rainbow fell to Earth as Opals. The opal’s resemblance to an eye also gave it a bad name; some civilizations in the Middle Ages thought it to be a dragon’s or evil god’s eye and the eye of an evil being was unlucky. Others, though, held a high respect for it. In the same time period, some found it to be very lucky, because the powers of all other gemstones were collected and reflected in the Opal’s ability to reflect all colors. Monarchs took its similarity to an eye to mean an Opal was the eye of a deity, a good god. They set Opals in their crowns and necklaces to ward off evil and protect their human eyesight. Some believe that if you wrap an Opal in a bay leaf and hold it in your hand, you are granted invisibility.
An alternative birthstone to Opal is Pink Tourmaline, and Tourmaline in general is widely accepted. Abeille has strands of many colors of Tourmaline starting as low as $20. For those economizing, we also have pink Swarovski crystals and beads to make your own October Birthstone jewelry!
