Many gold zodiac rings of a simple type are made on the Gold Coast and brought thence to Europe. The hoop is a flat band, on which the conventional symbols of the zodiacal signs are soldered, scroll borders also being applied in the same way.[544] While these rings are totally lacking in artistic quality, their production on the Gold Coast may indicate that long ago some better work of the class was done here, probably under Portuguese influence.
Rings holding truly “celestial stones,” gems from the heavens as they are called, are those in which have been set small, but perfectly cut chrysolites (peridots) from crystals found in meteorites. One of these was of the pallasite type, from Brenham, Kiowa County, Kansas[545] and gems were also cut out of chrysolite from the meteorite of Glorietta Mountain, Santa Fé County, New Mexico.[546]
A most attractive kind of natal ring is that having the birth stone in the centre between the stones of the guardian angel and of the apostle of the month. While this particular arrangement of the settings is followed in the greater number of cases, it sometimes happens that a better artistic effect is obtained, a better harmony of color, by making either the stone of the angel or that of the apostle the central gem. The essential thing is that the three particular stones assigned to the given month shall be grouped together. The following table renders it easy to find the proper combination for each month, or each zodiacal sign:
| Month | Zodiacal Sign | Natal Stone | Guardian Angel | Angel’s Gem | Apostle of Month | Apostle’s Gem | Flower of Month |
| January | Aquarius | Garnet | Gabriel | Onyx | Peter | Jasper | Snowdrop |
| February | Pisces | Amethyst | Barchiel | Jasper | Andrew | Carbuncle | Primrose |
| March | Aries | Bloodstone | Malchediel | Ruby | James and John | Emerald | Violet |
| April | Taurus | Diamond or Sapphire | Ashmodel | Topaz | Philip | Carnelian | Daisy |
| May | Gemini | Emerald | Amriel | Carbuncle | Bartholomew | Chrysolite | Hawthorne |
| June | Cancer | Agate | Muriel | Emerald | Thomas | Beryl | Honeysuckle |
| July | Leo | Turquoise | Verchiel | Sapphire | Matthew | Topaz | Water Lily |
| August | Virgo | Carnelian | Hamatiel | Diamond | James the Less | Sardonyx | Poppy |
| September | Libra | Chrysolite | Tsuriel | Jacinth | Thaddeus | Chrysoprase | Morning Glory |
| October | Scorpio | Beryl | Bariel | Agate | Simon | Jacinth | Hops |
| November | Sagittarius | Topaz | Adnachiel | Amethyst | Matthias | Amethyst | Chrysanthemum |
| December | Capricornus | Ruby | Humiel | Beryl | Paul | Sapphire | Holly |
If, like Apollonius of Tyana,[547] anyone should wish to wear on each week day a ring set with the stones especially appropriate to the day, the following list gives for the successive days the pair of stones whose combination was believed to unite the most favorable planetary and celestial influences:
| Gem of the Day | Talismanic Gem | Astral Control | |
| Sunday | Diamond | Pearl | Sun |
| Monday | Pearl | Emerald | Moon |
| Tuesday | Ruby | Topaz | Mars |
| Wednesday | Amethyst | Turquoise | Mercury |
| Thursday | Carnelian | Sapphire | Jupiter |
| Friday | Emerald | Ruby | Venus |
| Saturday | Turquoise | Tourmaline | Saturn |
The use of fraternity rings is often connected with a certain amount of sentiment or even superstition concerning their emblematic value. The most important of this type of rings are those worn by the Free Masons.
The greater number of Masonic rings are intended for those Masons who have attained the two highest degrees, the thirty-second and the thirty-third; some, however, are appropriate to those of the lower degrees. The bezels of the Blue Lodge, or Master Mason rings, frequently have the square compasses and the latter G in gold on a background of blue enamel; occasionally emblems and paraphernalia used in the Lodge are enamelled in blue on the gold hoops of the ring. Sometimes, instead of enamel, the background is formed of sapphire, bloodstone, or some other stone on which the emblems are encrusted in gold. An example of the ring of a Past Master bears a raised gold sun-face. In a ring for the Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, the keystone is usually enameled white with a black circle and white centre. Shrine Rings are distinctly Oriental in type, the prevailing design showing a simitar passed between the horns of a crescent moon. In rings of the Knights Templar the design is usually a cross passed through a crown, with the motto of Constantine the Great: In hoc Signo vinces. The cross will be of black enamel (occasionally of red enamel) and the crown is gold. A special ring for this order has a Blue Lodge emblem on one shoulder and the Chapter emblem on the other, and is arranged for a diamond to be set in the centre of the bezel. On a fourteenth degree ring (Lodge of Perfection) appears the initial Hebrew letter (yod) of the Tetragrammaton, or Ineffable Name, now approximately sounded Yahweh. Sometimes the symbols of more than one degree appear on the ring, one example bearing those of the fourteenth, sixteenth, eighteenth, thirtieth and thirty-second; this is one of the Consistory rings, as those for thirty-second degree Masons are denominated. These usually have the double eagle on the bezel.
MASONIC RINGS