As promised some birthstone information

General Information about birthstones Each month has a tradional birthstone, also referred to as as the major birthstone. There are also alternative birthstones. From my reading it seems that the major reason for alternative birthstones is affordibility. Jewelers wanted to sell more birthstone jewelry so they are largely responsible for offering the idea of alternates. Additionally, in some cases the major stone is hard to come by because of such things as accessibility ( that is, finding the deposits and mining it) or scarcity due to over use (more on this as those instances come up).

Further, there are cultural, Biblical and astronomical (zodiac) reasons for the assignment of stones to different months and zodiac signs. In a book published in the late 1800s by George Frederick Kunz, he writes : "The Jewish superstitions relating to gems were probably derived from earlier races and adopted by the Arabian philosophers in their works, by which they became known throughout Europe. The influence of gems was believed in until early in the 17th century, and in regard to some gems up even to the present century. The association of a special gem with each month was probably suggested by the original breastplate of the High Priest, which contained twelve gems, one for each of the tribes of Israel. The original breastplate was a span long and a span high: 1 span = 8 inches. The arrangement by months came in vogue during the 15th and 16th centuries, but was first suggested in the seventh century, although it is attributed to the Jews, Romans, and early Arabians."

Although I used a variety of sources and, shame on me, failed to document all (as originally the notes were for my personal use), there is one favorite source I want to recognize as you might enjoy reading more. The author(s) "used the 4 most unique arrangements of birthstones: by birth month, guardian angel birthstones, by zodiac sign, and special apostle birthstones list." Link: https://www.birthstone.guide/january-birthstones Another interesting site, one that deals more with the healing aspects is: https://www.crystaldigest.com/crystals/ and https://www.gempundit.com/ If you want to learn about really rare stones and crystals, try this site which focuses on healing aspects of stones in alternative therapy and spiritual growth. https://www.crystaldigest.com/crystals/