Wearing opals
Wearing opals has been called unlucky for about two centuries, yet the Romans prized the stone and Queen Victoria gave it freely. Its bad name came largely from stories, so it is worth asking which of your own opinions are borrowed.
What it may mean
Few gems have had such a swing in reputation. The Romans prized opal so highly that, by one old account, a senator gave up his seat rather than hand his stone to Mark Antony. By the 1800s opals were called unlucky, and the change is often blamed on Walter Scott's 1829 novel Anne of Geierstein, in which an enchanted opal loses its fire when holy water touches it. Queen Victoria ignored the gossip and set opals in her gifts. The stone itself stayed the same; the story changed. Most of us carry opinions formed the same way, about a city we never visited, a food we never tried, a person we know only through someone else's account. An opal on your hand invites you to sort the views you earned from the ones you borrowed.
Depending on how you saw it
An opal as an October birthstone
An old birthstone rhyme, quoted in 1903, admits that October's child is born for woe, then advises laying an opal on her breast so that hope will lull those woes to rest. The same stone is both warning and comfort. Which thing in your life did you first fear and later lean on?
An opal in a wedding ring
Old wedding lore listed pearls and opals among the stones a bride should avoid, and some couples still steer clear. Others pick opal precisely because it is unusual. How much of what you choose is shaped by who might disapprove?
An opal that cracks or goes cloudy
Opals hold water inside them, and a stone that dries out or meets a sudden change of temperature can develop fine cracks. Owners learn to keep them away from heat and harsh cleaners. What delicate thing in your life needs steadier conditions rather than more effort?
Why it happens in nature
Opal is silica with water held inside it, and its flashes of color come from light bending around tiny, orderly spheres of silica packed within the stone. It is softer than most gems and can crack or craze if it dries out or meets sudden heat or cold, so it needs gentler care than a diamond or a sapphire.
What folk beliefs say
Russia
Russian traders, according to a 1903 collection, stopped trading for the day if they saw an opal among the goods, so unlucky was the stone thought to be.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 739. View the page
Germany (Rhine legend)
A Rhine legend in the same collection tells of a cruel baronial family whose success came from a great opal; when a drop of holy water touched it at a wedding, the gem turned to dull glass and the family's fortunes fell to ruin.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 739. View the page
England
Queen Victoria, the collection notes, made a point of putting an opal in every piece of jewelry she gave as a present, despite the stone's unlucky name.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 738. View the page
To reflect on
Which of your firm opinions comes from one story you heard rather than your own experience?