Stone of the month

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Zircon (December)

Colorless through yellow, orange and brown, red, pink, green and blue. (The colorless, golden-brown and sky-blue owe their color to heat treatment.) Zircon is an incredibly brilliant stone. A well-cut Zircon approaches the fire of a well-cut diamond. Zircon is a very clean stone, cut stones display few inclusions. It offers a fair range or very pretty colors. Zircon is very affordable, it looks a lot like a diamond, but cost a mere fraction of that gems price. Zircon is one of the accepted birthstone for the month of December, hence it signifies success or prosperity. Mysteriously, the blue Zircon is a brown color in the rough, and must be heated to attain its blue shade. Lore, magic and romance. During the depressions, Zircon often replaced diamonds in engagement rings. The name Zircon is said to come from the word “zargoon”, this means “vermillion” in Arabic, and gold-colored in Persian. Another source say it all comes from the Arabic work ”zirk”, which means jewel. Zircon was said to increases its wearer’s riches, because it gave him wisdom with which to conduct his financial affairs. Purportedly, Zircon had a calming effect on its wearers, too and made it easy for people to fall asleep. For one who was bewitches by evil spirits, Zircon was the sought-after cure. The victim was to take a freshly-baked loaf of bread, cut the image of a cross in it, rub the Zircon over that image, and recite a prescribed chant, after this operation the victim was to eat the bread. Shortly thereafter, the spell would vanish. Primary sources of Zircon are Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and Australia.