Shades of colour: Deep red changing to black and green. Example: Pyrope. Under the celestial Aquarius.
The Pyrope or Bohemian Garnet derives its name from the Greek word PUROPOS, fiery, and is known to Pliny as Apyroti. It is a stone of the same hardness as the beryl and is commonly called the “Cape Ruby,” or the “Arizona Ruby.” In the regalia of Saxony, set in the Order of the Golden Fleece, is a large pyrope, 468½ carats in weight, and that strange Emperor Rudolph II under whose patronage Tycho and Kepler worked at the Rudolphine (Astronomical) Tables, is said by De Boodt to have possessed a specimen worth 45,000 thalers. One as big as the egg of a pigeon lies in the Green Vaults at Dresden. Large pyropes are, however, rare. Swedenborg corresponds Pyrope to “good,” and it is regarded as a talisman of faithfulness and stability, of hope, of happiness and true friendship. Its influence is said to aid psychic development and occult understanding. It is a health stone, and in the East is regarded as a banisher of plagues and poison, changing colour, it is said, when danger or mishap of any kind threaten the wearer.
(d) MANGANESE ALUMINA GARNET
Shades of colour: Red, brownish red, hyacinth red. Example: Spessartite or Spessatine. Under the celestial Virgo.
The Spessartite obtains its name from SPESSART in Germany. It is sometimes called the Brown Garnet, but is little used in jewellery. The Spessartite is a prayer charm for the uplifted soul.
IRON GARNET
The sesquioxide base is chiefly iron.
LIME IRON GARNET
Shades of colour: Various.
Example: Andradite, named after the Portuguese mineralogist D’Andrada. In the variety called Topazolite (so named after the topaz), the colour is wine yellow, in Jelletite it is green, and in Melinite and Pyreneite it is black or grey-black. The Aplome (named by Hauy after the Greek word APLOOS, simple), is red. The Kolophonite, named after Kolophon in Ionia, is coarse, granular, resinous and frequently iridescent. Green Andradite has been termed the “Uralian Emerald” and the Olivine (wrongly so-called under this head). Brilliant specimens have been named by jewellers DEMANTOID. A dark, almost black, andradite showing a gleam of red was much used in mourning jewellery. This is the stone which Leonardus said drove away pestilential airs and banished unworthy thoughts. It was a binding charm for friends. It protected from epidemics and the lightning-stroke, and lent favour to the desires of the native. Specimens have been found engraved with the names of angels in Chaldaic, Hebrew, Greek and other ancient languages. It is under the celestial Aquarius.