Blue topaz ring

Topaz is an ancient stone, and while it is being used in new and modern ways to make gorgeous topaz jewelry, it is also really interesting to find out what it meant to people hundreds and thousands of years ago.

Topaz, the birthstone for November, is one of the traditional birthstones, and there are a couple of sources that these are supposed to have been derived from. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately!) birthstones were determined in the times before democracy reigned supreme. Where nowadays a birthstone would need to be elected, to put forth its virtues and run the popularity race against its peer gemstones, in olden times birthstones were determined quite arbitrarily! The Exodus chapter of the Bible refers to the breastplate of Aaron, in which were mounted four rows of precious stones. The topaz appeared in the first row – although which row a stone appeared in does not necessarily relate to which month it belongs to nowadays. So, strangely, the reason for topaz being November’s birthstone is simply that it was on the breastplate of a warrior thousands of years ago!

Blue topaz pendant

Topaz was also one of the precious stones to adorn the walls of the holy city of new Jerusalem, as listed in Revelations in the Bible. It appeared alongside other stones which are now all but out of circulation – like jacinth, chalcedony, beryl and sardonyx! Topaz, however, was one of these stones to ‘survive’ over the many intervening years, along with sapphires, emeralds and amethysts.

Topaz was said to form one of the gates of the real ‘Holy City’ also – that is, Heaven! The king of Tyre wore it, as did the high priest in the Bible.

Back in the times when leeches were a popular form of medicine, topaz also had many other excellent medicinal qualities! Note that while people of ancient cultures believed in these qualities of topaz we don’t recommend powdering any of our topaz jewelry and taking it in wine to cure asthma, nor dropping it in boiling water if you want to cool it down quickly! It was meant to calm the passions (although why you would want to, we are not sure!), and to prevent the wearer having bad dreams.

Along with all this historical mumbo-jumbo though, comes the fact that topaz is associated with spiritualness and faithfulness. While we are not advocating that it has any magical properties that convey these qualities, it could be a nice verisimilitude to give topaz jewelry to someone that you think reflects these qualities.

Not all history is mumbo-jumbo!