Should we use birthstones and horoscopes?
22nd Nov 2015
As I am sure many of you are aware (and if not you know now) August's birth stone is the Peridot. I came across numerous posts during August informing me (as I have an August birthday myself) that the Peridot gemstone is an essential item for me - believed to 'instill power’ as well as bring ‘qualities of peace, good fortune and happiness.’
The birthstones have been used as a marketing strategy for a number of years, enticing customers, who believe that they must have their birthstone. It is also used as the perfect way to personalize a gift by adding the recipient’s birthstone.
Personally, this is a problem for me as the peridot birthstone is not the gemstone I would have chosen for myself. Green is not my favourite colour. That got me thinking, who decided which gemstone was assigned to each month? As I would have personally chosen a sapphire as my birthstone which all you September birthdays were fortunately assigned. (Below comment, I am interested to see who is happy with their assigned birthstone and who isn’t).
It was this that inspired me to write today’s blog. I thought many of you would find it interesting to discover who choose the birthstones.
Initially there were four different systems of gemstones:

- Mythical Tibetan birthstones
- Biblical birthstones referenced in the Old Testament and associated with the twelve tribes of Israel.
- Ayurvedic birthstones from ancient Indian culture which were believed to have medicinal effects.
- Zodiac birthstones, which astrologers assigned to the twelve signs of the zodiac to represent the power of the planets.