My August Birthstone, Peridot

 

I decided to research my birthstone for August, Peridot, and found a lot of interesting information.  I thought it would just say, "this stone is light green and of such and such a composite," but it went much further than that!

Peridot Gemopedia: 

"August's birthstone, peridot is a relatively inexpensive, beautiful gem with a pedigree dating back as far as early Egyptians. Among its accolades, peridot can count being a favorite among royals and clergy, used to adorn everything from a queen's crown to a knight's sword."

 Gemafair: 

"The name "peridot" is Greek for "to give richness." Though adored by the ancient Egyptians and Romans, the peridot has long been under appreciated in the contemporary world. There was much disdain for the "pea green" color and some shades dredged up memories of 1970s shag carpeting. The peridot is seeing a resurgence in popularity, however, especially after the Kashmir mine was discovered in 1994."

Peridot Buying Guide:

"the green stone was first called topazion, and this name remained until the 18th century when the British began to refer to the gem as peridot. Today, the gem variety of forsterite of the olivine group still bears that name."  

About the Peridot gem.  

"It is so ancient that it can be found in Egyptian jewelry from the early 2nd millennium B.C."

The Peridot  "... is easy to look after and fairly robust. Peridot cat's eyes and star peridot are particularly rare and precious."  "In very rare cases, peridot can display asterism (a star) or chatoyancy (the cat's-eye effect)."

Lore and Legend of the Peridot

Peridot, which is used for emotional healing, fosters emotional balance and in recovering from earlier emotional hurts and thus, brings wealth and prosperity to the wearer.

It is believed that peridot makes your dreams come true, as well as have calming and love inducing properties. If you have insomnia, you might want to wear your peridot to bed, since the stone is believed to facilitate sleep. A peridot placed in a gold setting and worn to bed is said to ward off nightmares. And of course,  only wearing the peridot on the left arm to keep the evil away. Maybe a peridot bracelet on the left wrist would work just the same.

Per the UCASB Geology - Bancroft Collection: 

Peridot is the gem variety of forsterite which itself is a member of the Olivine group or family. The oldest known deposit of peridot was worked well before Christ on Zabargad Island in Egypt's Red Sea. In his Naturalis Historia, Pliny tells of the first specimen presented to Berenice, Theban queen of Lower Egypt, about 300 BC. The largest known gem peridot crystal was mined on Zabargad and measures 4.5 cm by 3.5 cm, and the largest flawless faceted gem weighs 146 carats, both of which are in the Institute of Earth Science, London. More recently fine peridot crystals have come from the Jalcot Valley of Pakistan (1996). Peridot is colored a warm soft olive or yellowish-green. Tons of tiny pieces of peridot are mined from ant hills in Arizona and New Mexico.

Pillar and Stone. 

"Peridot is an attractive green gemstone which is mainly found in Myanmar ( Burma), northeast of Mogok and in Pakistan. Smaller stones are also found in Arizona, USA.

Stinson's Gemcutting

Photos and notes of gems from a meteorite. I promise the last one! But this is really interesting stuff to me. Especially this particular webpage.

"...few even know about peridot created somewhere in space, at the beginning of our solar system!  Even more rare, is extraterrestrial cat's-eye peridot.  I found some of this extremely rare chatoyant cat's-eye meteorite peridot in August 2006, in a pallasite meteorite."

I even learned how to properly pronounce the name!    
"Peridot (pronounced pair-uh-doh) is the August birthstone."  

You really need to visit their webpage to read all the information they give! It is really interesting and there is something to learn here, such as how to pronounce the name!