Garnets: Pomegranates on the Snow
How do we walk through the world with so much before us, unnoticed? How did I just now realize that "garnet" comes from the Latin word "granatus," meaning "pomegranate"? When have I ever looked at a glorious group of brilliant red garnets without thinking of fruit, of juicy arils (the seeds), of the kind of deep red that saturates not only the holiday season just past but those remaining flashes of red we see in winter berries or cardinals against the snow? Of course the garnet is the birthstone of those born in January, when our blood races to warm our bodies. Indeed, in the Middle Ages, garnets were worn at the neck to prevent sore throats.
Garnets come in many colors: green, pink, even yellow and orange. And even the reds run the gamut: from port wine to cranberry to what I lovingly refer to as the "fancy grape jelly" tone of this fabulous pearl and garnet festoon necklace. But all of them symbolize financial stability, good health, and committed companionship--all traits I associate with my Capricorn friends. A more unusual property attributed to garnets by the Greeks is that they permit the wearer to see in the dark. (Noah, it is said, used a garnet lamp to steer the Ark. Now I want a garnet lamp!) Maybe that's why it's the gift for a second wedding anniversary: when you're still finding your way through a new marriage together.
And oh, how the Victorians loved garnets! You see references to them in so many nineteenth-century fairy tales and novels, when Bohemian mines provided garnets in abundance; fictional explorers almost always find "almandines" (a particularly purplish red garnet), and a "blue carbuncle" is the center of a Sherlock Holmes story--although sadly, such a color is an impossibility for the garnet. We here at Isadora's are replete with Victorian sets of garnets--as if Persephone took not just one aril but the whole tree.
Come visit our beautiful garnet collection (and ask to see the raw garnet, still set in its matrix):
Bohemian Garnet and Pearl Festoon Necklace
Victorian Memorial Heart Pendant
