A Curious Detail of Natural Magic

[ecosophia]

These days people in most Western countries assume as a matter of course that engagement and wedding rings have to have diamonds on them. That didn't become the universal custom until after the Second World War, though; it was in 1947 that the DeBeers diamond syndicate launched the first of a series of massive ad campaigns under the slogan "Diamonds Are Forever." Well, maybe they are, but...

In the lore of natural magic, every kind of gemstone has a different effect on consciousness; these are normally categorized by the old scheme of the seven planets. Diamonds correspond to the planet Mars. Their magical virtue is that they give strength and victory in battle, but they are also traditionally unlucky, and make their wearers unhappy. 

Maybe it's just pure coincidence, but I find myself noticing that it was right after a stone of war and unhappiness became standard wear for married women that the divorce rate began to soar, and many branches of the feminist movement took on a distinctly angry and bitter tone. 

If you want a better-omened stone for an engagement or a wedding ring, the magical lore suggests going for an emerald. Emeralds correspond to Venus, and are fortunate for love; they were held to strengthen the eyes and the memory; and they make the wearer truthful and difficult to fool by trickery, all of which would be helpful in marriage. I'm sure the diamond merchants won't approve, but it might be worth trying to reverse the trend...

Comments

nice work?

[(Anonymous)]

So is this an example of very clever and successful magic on the part of DeBeers (or their agents)?

Re: nice work?

[ecosophia]

Of course. As Ioan Couliano pointed out in Eros and Magic in the Renaissance, advertising is a debased form of magic. Wearing an emerald, since it strengthens the mind against trickery, would help ward off spells of that sort!

Other Bad Stones for Rings

[packshaud]

I think other stones are also very bad to be used in rings.

Could you please provide some examples?

And because someone may get here through web searches in the future, I will take the liberty to link the famous 1982 article on diamonds by The Atlantic.

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for this! As a bit of anecdata: my wedding ring has an opal and two garnets, because neither my husband nor I like diamonds and I wanted vintage rather than dealing with the silliness of modern jewellery shops. I didn’t do it intentionally and I’m finding very inconsistent results for opal’s properties, but it seems to be something like fidelity and devotion, and garnets are a traditional gift of friendship and love. I’d originally wanted emerald, funnily enough, but those were out of my budget. :)

(I clearly need to pick up a copy of the Encyclopaedia of Natural Magic; finding information on these kinds of things is halfway impossible as most sources will promise that the thing will manifest everything under the sun, and good luck picking out what it might actually be helpful for from that long list.)

engagement ring

[dfr1973]

Amusing you would post this. In early 2006, I told now-hubby I didn't want a diamond on my engagement ring. Instead, I wanted an emerald. Seems to be working so far ... of course, marrying a nice guy helps as well.

Deliberate Sabotage?

[(Anonymous)]

The Imp in me just had a nasty little thought: what if DeBeers’ advertising campaign was backed by mages who knew the Martial properties of diamonds and figured that it’s a great way to ding a customer more than once, since those who divorce often remarry! What company doesn’t want repeat customers?

Ron M

Re: Other Bad Stones for Rings

[ecosophia]

Let's see..

Onyx is a stone of Saturn, and brings depression, bad dreams, and discord; you can counteract those effects by wearing it together with sard, which is the opaque form of carnelian. (These two are often found layered, forming the stone sardonyx, which has powerful magical properties.)

Opals are generally bad luck to wear; the opal corresponds to the Moon in its waning phases, and attracts all kinds of misfortune. The one exception is the very rare black opal, which has the opposite effect and attracts good fortune of all kinds.

Those are the two I know of. Most other gemstones have beneficial influences when worn.

[ecosophia]

Interesting! Opals have a bad reputation in the old magical lore, but you may have hit on a way of balancing them -- just as onyx is safe when worn together with sard, the protective energy of garnets may make it possible to wear an opal safely. Garnets are stones of Mars, with a warm protective energy; they strengthen the will, especially in the matter of promises -- swear an oath over a garnet and you will keep it -- and they also banish nightmares, depression, and misfortune.

Re: engagement ring

[ecosophia]

Makes sense. You'd been practicing magic for how long in 2006? ;-)

Re: Deliberate Sabotage?

[ecosophia]

Hmm! I suppose it's possible -- and there's also the notion, heavily marketed by DeBeers as well, that if your wife is unhappy, you should get her something pretty -- say, some more diamonds..

[neonvincent]

Oh, my! This adds a whole new meaning to the phrases "conflict diamonds" and "blood diamonds." Those and not wanting to contribute to the DeBeers monopoly were the reasons I wanted to avoid having diamonds in the my second wife's wedding ring (my first wife insisted on the biggest diamond I could afford; that marriage was riven by conflict and ended badly). Instead, the gem in my wife's ring is a blue sapphire. It may still be associated with Saturn, but at least it is also associated with wisdom, communication, and healing.

gems in wedding rings

[deborah_bender]

American wedding rings didn't necessarily have any kind of gemstone. In the middle of the twentieth century, they were often slender gold bands, with or without some decorative engraving. The matched set of an engagement ring and a wedding band both bearing diamonds is a marketing scheme to sell more diamonds.

The social utility of engagement rings with gemstones is that they show that the suitor has money (or in the case of a ring that is handed down in the family, that his family has money). The engagement ring is spoken of a love token, but this is chivalry; an engagement ring with a big rock is a bride price. If the fiancee breaks the engagement, she is supposed to return the ring.

[(Anonymous)]

A cheaper option -
for us in winter of culture
Topaz for friendship!

[methylethyl]

Always thought diamonds were a racket. Why pay so much for something that isn't even pretty? I like color! I forbade my now-husband to get me anything with diamonds on it. My engagement ring has three little stones: citrine, peridot, and aquamarine. Hardly ever wear it, because I'm just not much of a jewelry person. But now I'll have to go look those up...

Love is pure gold

[(Anonymous)]

What would be the magical properties of a plain gold wedding band with no stone at all?

...

[(Anonymous)]

(Sven Eriksen)

The word "conflict diamond" comes to mind... ;-)

Re: Other Bad Stones for Rings

[(Anonymous)]

Are they bad luck for those whose birthstone is opal?

Opals

[(Anonymous)]

An interesting note about opals:
Lore in my family had it that opals were fine if worn by those born in October, opals being the birthstone of the month of October, but were unlucky if worn by anyone not born in October.

Yanocoches

diamonds

[(Anonymous)]

I have an engagement ring with a diamond, I don't use it more than once or twice a year... I am married and not unhappy about it so a suppose one must use it to fill the effects. I only use cristals, which have no particular magical effects, right?

[(Anonymous)]

Does the color of the diamond have any effect? I am not so much thinking about wedding rings as much as a certain notorious stone known as the Hope Diamond. Its cursed reputation was largely a marketing ploy but the blue color is the result of trace amounts of boron in the stone. If it is bombarded by ultraviolet radiation it will briefly glow a startling red color (best viewed in a darkened room). The curious thing about that is most blue diamonds will glow bluish-white if exposed to UV.

And it now resides in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. where it has been since 1958. Hmmm.....

JLfromNH

Re: Other Bad Stones for Rings

[ritaer]

I had always heard that opals were bad luck for everyone except Libras--or those born in October, whose birthstone they are. Of course I know there are many conflicting lists of stones for various magical purposes, including birthstones and suspect that modern birthstone lists, like modern lists of 'traditional' anniversary gifts are a marketing ploy.

Rita

[espresso_addict]

Interesting. I've accumulated my late mother's and two grandmothers' diamond engagement rings but don't ever wear them (I dislike diamonds). All three had stable till-death-do-us-part marriages. My grandmothers both married in the interwar period, decades before the DeBeers campaign started. I wonder if UK trends have been different from US ones?

[(Anonymous)]

Ah, thanks. I was curious about the effects of blue sapphires since my wife's engagement ring has one, too (surrounded by a ring of tiny diamonds).

Would have looked it up in my copy of the Encyclopedia of Natural Magic, but we're moving and it's packed away in storage...

-escher

Investment

[(Anonymous)]

So, did you just invest all your savings in an emerald mine and are trying to drum up biz?;)
any indications for the metal used in the rings? My wife and I only have platinum bands, no stones.

[(Anonymous)]

JMG,

For the sake of thought experiment (with disclaimer I understand your stance on fictional magic, and that it don't work. Let's say we are discussing the chaos magic idea of stealing symbolism from fiction), if you wanted to create real-world replicas of Tree Elven Rings (Vilya, Nenya and Narya), what materials and gems would track the closest? I am pretty sure that some occultist give such speculations some thoughts;)

Changeling