June Birthstone
The month of June, traditional month for weddings, has two modern birthstones – the Pearl and the Moonstone. The two stones have a great deal in common – not only appearance, but lore and traditions associated with them. Both are lustrous, glowing rather than sparkling. Both are associated with purity and innocence, and both are traditional gifts for brides. There are differences as well – one comes from the sea, the other – at least by tradition – from the sky. Pearls are opaque, with a soft, warm glow that can’t be reproduced. Moonstones are often translucent, possessing an inner luster that that makes them seem to carry their own light source within.
Long referred to as the Queen of Gems, pearls have been known and revered since ancient times. Today, we think of pearls as modestly expensive, lovely adornments, but before the exploration of the Americas pearls were among the costliest of gems. They are not, strictly speaking, gems at all. Rather, they are the buildup of a natural protective substance in a shellfish – the oyster. When an irritant – like a grain of sand – finds its way inside the shell of an oyster or other mollusk, its body reacts by forming a small sac around the intruder, then building up layer after layer of nacre around it. The result – a pearl. Until the 1800s, pearl divers might have to bring up 500 oysters from below the sea to find enough pearls to make their day worthwhile. A perfectly round pearl was a rarity – it might take days of diving to find several perfectly round pearls of the same size. Their rarity and the difficulty of diving for pearls made them among the most expensive and highly prized of all gems. In these days of farmed and cultured pearls, it’s almost impossible for us to conceive of the value of pearls in ancient times. It’s said that a Tsar of Russia built an entire army on the sale of just one of his mother’s pearl earrings. And when Cleopatra wanted to impress Mark Anthony with the wealth of her kingdom, she served him the most expensive dinner of all time – a single ground pearl dissolved in wine.
Ancient Indian tradition knew nothing of irritants and bodily substances. In Indian lore, pearls are drops of dew that fall from the night sky beneath a full moon and are swallowed by oysters. Other traditions call them the tears of heaven, and Indian warriors often adorned their shields with pearls to represent the tears that their swords would cause in war. For all of that, pearls are seen as the gem of perfect and pure love – round, lustrous and white. There is a long standing tradition that a bride wears a strand of pearls on her wedding day – often one handed down through the generations from mother to daughter. Perhaps one of the most romantic of all wedding gifts was given by Shah Jahan – who also built the Taj Mahal as a tribute to her – to his wife on their wedding day. The Star of Asia (sometimes called the Pearl of Asia) is a teardrop shaped pearl weighing nearly 14 pounds. It was taken by the King of Persia who presented it as a gift to the Chinese emperor, with whom it was buried. The pearl was stolen by grave robbers, and its trail is muddied – but it eventually landed in the hands of a collector who now allows its display.
Other famous pearls in history have included matched sets owned by Mary Tudor, the Empress Eugenie, Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth Taylor.
While moonstones have never enjoyed the history and popularity of pearls, they too are considered sacred stones. Moonstones are generally thought to be translucent white, but they also are found in pink, yellow and blue. In India, they are considered to be a talisman of good fortune, and in ancient Greece they were thought to be droplets of moonlit dew hardened on the ground. Moonstone is known as the traveler’s stone, protecting those that journey, and is said to improve intuition.
Moonstone is a feminine stone – it is the stone worn by the High Priestess in the second of the Major Arcana cards in most tarot decks. It brings focus and clarity, as well as harmony and soothed emotions. Shimmering as if lit from within, it truly seems to be a piece of the moon, capturing its cool, pure glow. Like pearls, moonstones are traditionally given to and worn by brides.
White and pure, pearls and moonstones are the perfect symbol for the month of June and the astrological symbol of Cancer, whose planet is the moon. Set in silver or gold, or strung on a silken strand, there are few gifts with the traditions of pearls and moonstones.
