Precious Stones: Moonstone, Onyx, Opal

In a return to Kunz’s “Lore of Precious Stones”, we find an interesting covenant site, we discover that the Pale Mountains are even more enchanting than we recall, and we discover how Roman soldiers kept their spirits up.

Moonstone

As a gift for lovers the moonstone takes a high rank, for it is believed to arouse the tender passion, and to give lovers the power to read in the future the fortune, good or ill, that is in store for them. To gain this knowledge, however, the stone must be placed in the mouth while the moon is full.

Antoine Mizauld tells us of a selenite or moonstone owned by a friend of his, a great traveller. This stone, about the size of the gold piece known as the gold noble, but somewhat thicker, indicated the waxing and waning of the moon by a certain white point or mark which grew larger or smaller as did the moon. Mizauld relates that to convince himself of the truth of this he obtained possession of the stone for one lunar month, during which time he sedulously observed it. The white mark first appeared at the top. It was like a small millet-seed, increasing in size and moving down on the stone, always assuming the form of the moon until, on reaching the middle, it was round like the full moon; then the mark gradually passed up again as the moon diminished. The owner declared that he had “vowed and dedicated this stone to the young king [Edward VI], who was then highly esteemed because he had good judgment in regard to rare and precious things.”

A swallow, on a celonite, establishes and preserves peace and concord among men.

In one of those lovely coincidences, the sources of moonstone in Mythic Europe are near Rheinwaldhorn, which is one of the tallest mountains in the part of the Swiss Alps that’s near all of those moon faeries I mentioned a long time ago in Sanctuary of Ice. Also that book mentions the Mercere having magic items called lickstones, which are small items which adhere to the roof of the mouth. This prevents them being stolen from the Mercere. Again, this is a coincidence, but it’s a suggestive one given the oral application of moonstones.

I’d suggest measuring time +6, calming emotions +3. People with the True Love Virtue get an extra +3.

Onyx, Sardonyx and Sard

Onyx is a banded stone, white and black. In Mythic Europe the large deposits are in Germany, Britain and the Maghreb. The coloured bands are great for making intaglios, because if you slice the stone so that the colours are flat sheets, you can carve out the white to show the darker colour underneath, creating strikingly two-tones relief images.

“The onyx, if worn on the neck, was said to cool the ardors of love, and Cardano relates that everywhere in India the stone was worn for this purpose. This belief is closely related to the idea commonly associated with the onyx,—namely, that it provoked discord and separated lovers.

A camel’s head or two goats among myrtles, if on an onyx, has the power to convoke, assemble, and constrain demons; if any one wears it, he will see terrible visions in sleep.”

Sard and Sardonyx

Sardonyx swaps out the black chalcedony for sard, which is brown to red. Beyond what I’m quoting from Kunz, Roman soldiers used to wear amulets of Mars made of sardonyx, for bravery.

The sard was regarded as a protection against incantations and sorcery, and was believed to sharpen the wits of the wearer, rendering him fearless, victorious, and happy. The red hue of this stone was supposed to neutralize the malign influence of the dark onyx, driving away the bad dreams caused by the latter and dispelling the melancholy thoughts it inspired.

A curious amulet to avert the spell of the Evil Eye is an engraved sard showing an eye in the centre, around which are grouped the attributes of the divinities presiding over the days of the week. Sunday, the dies Solis, is represented by a lion; Monday, the dies Lunæ, by a stag; Tuesday, the dies Martis, by a scorpion; Wednesday, the dies Mercurii, by a dog; Thursday, the dies Jovis, by a thunderbolt; Friday, the dies Veneris, by a snake; and Saturday, the dies Saturni, by an owl. In this way the wearer was protected at all times from the evil influence.

Onyx: darkness +4, death +4. Suggested additions causing arguments +6, foolhardiness +6, melancholy+6, nightmares +4, summon and control demons +3.

Sardonyx: Bravery +6, protection from magic +3

Sard: Dreams +3, positive Mentem effects +3, protection from magic +3

Opal

Opal is a really soft gemstone: at it’s molecular level its made up of balls of silicon dioxide held together by water and luck. Even the medieval people knew opals could dry out and crack. That it is so soft makes it easy to work, and the way that enchantment makes items more durable might protect them sufficiently to make them worth enchanting.

In parts of Mythic Europe, opals are considered unlucky (so carrying them grants a Flaw), but this is not a universal belief. One way to get around the problem was to donate the opal to the church: there’s a statue of Mary in Spain with a particularly fine opal necklace, as a result of this sort of devotion. In some sources, I note, this is claimed to be a backformation of folklore: Sir Walter Scott may have popularised the idea that opals were evil in the C18th and people adjusted their folklore accordingly.

Opal was only found in one location in Europe: Červenica in modern Slovakia, and this seems perfect for a covenant placement. Opals are so rare only royalty and the princes of the church regularly wear them. For example, the central stone in the Crown of the Holy Roman Empire is an opal from Červenica. Far later Queen Elizabeth I was “delighted” to get a parure of opals, likely mined at Červenica, from Sir Christopher Hatton. He seems to be following my researches about at the moment, but more of him at another time. No wonder people thought they were a couple.

Modern opal is so cheap because in the Nineteenth Century the opal fields of Australia were discovered, and the price went through the floor. I’m Australian, and its our national gemstone. With the fakes you can now get, that are a sliver of opal with resin over the top, costume opal is ridiculously cheap here, and so I was shocked to discover it was the centrepiece of the Imperial Crown. I also notice a lack of discussion of opalised fossils in European sources.

Opal, at its simplest, forms when water leaks into a fracture in rock. It can also be laid down by biological processes, but let’s skip that for now. Here in Australia, one of the largest opal fields is at Lightning Ridge, and the opals formed on the bottom of a shallow sea. The fractures in the rock were sometimes places where the bones of animals had decayed away, leaving a mold for a fossil to form. The largest opalised fossils I’ve seen are plesiosaur skeletons. For a few years I’ve been meaning to write up an opalised plesiosaur skeleton as a sort of dragon, and a necromancer doing similar things with human skeletons, but I haven’t seen any reference to opalised fossils in Mythic Europe. My search has only been brief, however, so I still think it’s a great idea for a covenant in Červenica to have luminescent Loch Ness monster skeleton as one of its guardians.

Opal: I’d suggest images +2, imagination +2, invisibility +2, memory +4, travel +4, eyes +6.

Folkloristically, opal is so valuable because it can express the virtue of every stone it has the colour of. This means opal can substitute for any other gemstone in an enchantment, so it has the material bonuses of any other gemstone. This seems wonderfully significant to, for example, House Verditus and re-enforced the need for a covenant in Červenica.