THE BOOK OF DIAMONDS
The
sapphire has the same composition, hardness, electrical and other
properties as the ruby. It differs in name from the ruby on account of
its color, which varies from white to the deepest blue and black. To
the sapphire has been ascribed the following magical properties: it
prevents evil and impure thoughts; it is such an enemy of poison, that
if put into a glass with a spider or venomous reptile, the creature
would die.
Blue
stones call to mind truth and constancy. There is something of
divinity, something of heaven, in the deep blue of the sapphire or the
opaque ultra marine of lapis lazuli. In the Vedic tale of the churning
of the ocean, the sapphire was born from the last concentrated drop of
Amrita, the drink of the Gods "whose shadow is immortality". Because
this legend originated in India where Kash-mirian or Singhalese
sapphires must have been known in very early times, we have every
reason to assume that the writer of the Rig Veda referred to the blue
sapphire. The sapphire mentioned many times in the older books of the
Bible, on the other hand, was in reality lapis lazuli. This latter is
the blue stone referred to in the Talmudic legend as being the material
upon which the Ten Commandments were engraved.
Many
and various are the legends involving blue stones, but always their
symbolism points to immortality, to divinity, to heaven. It is
significant that the human-headed falcon that in Old Egypt represented
the soul had its feathers beautifully inlaid with slabs of turquoise
and lapis lazuli.
Sapphires are found to be much larger in size than rubies.
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