Is it possible to wear a ruby ​​in your left hand?

Ruby is one of the most expensive jewelry stones. It is a type of corundum, aluminum oxide. It ranks second in hardness after diamond. The color of the stone is associated with an admixture of chromium. Corundums colored in other colors are called sapphires. Can be confused with less hard zircons, garnets and spinel (the latter being a precious but less expensive stone). In Rus’, all red stones were called yakhonts. Today, artificial rubies from dark pink to red and deep red (corundum), which, unlike natural rubies, have ideal transparency, even color, large size, absence of cracks and foreign inclusions, are very popular. Like sapphire, natural ruby ​​is star-shaped: rutile mineral inclusions parallel to the crystal faces sometimes intersect at an angle of 60 degrees, forming a 6-pointed star (clear rubies with a star are very expensive, opaque ones are cheaper). Origin From a mineralogist’s perspective, ruby ​​is a red variety of the mineral corundum, a common naturally occurring compound of aluminum oxide (Al2OXNUMX). Nature has created a very perfect structure in the corundum crystal lattice. It is built from aluminum and oxygen ions in such a way that the oxygen ions are arranged layer by layer in a dense hexagonal packing, like billiard balls in a box, and between the layers of oxygen – in the voids – aluminum ions are placed, filling two-thirds of all existing voids. This is one of the most perfect and dense mineral structures. And it is no coincidence that the properties of pure precious corundum are so close to the properties of diamond. The famous color of a candle flame appears when chromium replaces some of the trivalent aluminum ions in the mineral lattice. The Cr2O3 content in red rubies is about 2%, in red-black rubies it is about 4%. Ultraviolet and infrared rays “excite” trivalent chromium ions, charge them with energy, and they themselves begin to emit visible light – to luminesce. Their red color is truly luminous. The origin of this stone is in association with feldspars, biotite, garnet or hydrothermal metasomatic in secondary quartzites in association with endalusite, quartz, hematite. Deposits are river placers in India, Thailand, Kenya, Tanzania, Burma and Afghanistan. Applications. Ruby has been known since ancient times and is used for inserts in jewelry. For a long time it was mined and stored in Burma and India, but with the development of trade relations it began to reach Egypt, Greece and Rome. Almost all of these stones ended up in jewelry and regalia of the highest nobility, royal dynasties, clergy, and nobles of the court. The first information about rubies dates back to the 6th century. BC, to the ancient legends of India and Burma. Ancient Indian texts dating back to 2300 BC call the ruby ​​the king of gems. In the Mediterranean countries, the ruby ​​was also known and appreciated – it is mentioned in the Bible. The Greeks called it “anthrax”, the Romans called it “carbunculos”. By the tenth century AD. in Rus’, colored varieties of corundum began to be called yakhonts. Healing properties Ruby plays a large role in the healing of various ailments. It helps cure chronic tonsillitis, diseases of the spine, joints, kidneys, liver, digestive organs, and helps stop bleeding. Ruby prevents epileptic seizures, fever, has a positive effect on the nervous system, relieves depression, helps with schizophrenia, insomnia, and drives away nightmares. Ruby is able to heal skin diseases, stomach ulcers, helps with high fever, heart and blood diseases. Doctors note that the red ray of ruby ​​activates the immune system, improves metabolism, suppresses inflammatory processes and regenerates tissue faster. Light emissions from ruby ​​have a beneficial effect on the functioning of the brain and heart, strengthen the immune system, increase vitality and enhance potency. Magical properties Among Buddhists, ruby ​​was one of the most revered magical stones. Its main magical property is to create an attraction to the great. Indian magicians said that he was able to give unlimited power and have an irresistible effect on people. At the same time, ruby ​​enhances the feeling of unity with other people, generosity and the ability to compassion. Ruby strengthens strength, drives away melancholy and protects from evil spells. Owning a ruby ​​gives courage and dignity, helps to cope with mental pain and revive lost interest in life. Ruby strengthens the mind and heart, protects against negative energies, returns lost strength, and drives away melancholy. As a talisman, it inspires a person to great deeds, gives courage, awakens passions, and pushes them to heroic deeds. Ruby has always been considered a symbol of fiery passion, strength, violent energy, power and ardent love between a man and a woman. This stone brings people happiness in love. You should give a ruby ​​to your beloved so that the love is mutual. Ruby gives women fertility. The ancient Chaldeans advised ladies who wanted to become pregnant: “A woman who cannot give birth, let her take a ruby ​​and give birth immediately.” Ruby is a stone of pure thoughts and self-confidence. Therefore, weak people were not recommended to look at the ruby, as they risk being in the grip of illusions. According to legend, ruby ​​enhances the properties given to a person from birth. It makes a good person kinder, while in an evil person it strengthens the negative qualities. It was believed that the ruby, by changing its shades of color, warned its owner of danger. Rings with rubies were always worn by people who feared poison: immersed in a poisoned drink or brought to the tip of a poisoned dagger, the ruby ​​allegedly changed its color and lost its shine. Talismans and amulets Ruby is a talisman for people engaged in activities involving risk to life: warriors, firefighters, police officers, rescuers. It must be remembered that as a talisman, ruby ​​helps people with a pure heart and thoughts. It gives them courage, fuels them with energy and protects them from injury. A ring with a ruby ​​as an amulet will give the owner a feeling of joy, increase vitality, improve memory, and prolong life. A stone of the fiery element, ardent and passionate love – ruby, a stone of earthly love, love between a man and a woman. The energy of ruby ​​ignites the fire of love and maintains its raging flame. Indian astrology calls ruby ​​a stone of power, strength and violent energy associated with the karma of strong and bright people. It strengthens strength, drives away melancholy and protects from evil spells. In India in the Middle Ages, ruby ​​was used to treat bile and gas accumulation. The main mystical property of ruby ​​is to give rise to an attraction to the great. Ruby makes a good person even kinder, turns an evil person into a real villain, helps the noble and courageous to win victories and accomplish feats, and gives ordinary people happiness and love, warns them of dangers by changing its color. It strengthens the heart and gives women fertility. Application To have the greatest effect on the body, it is recommended to wear a ruby ​​on the little finger of the left hand. In addition, when meditating, it is recommended to place the stone on the chakra to which the power of the stone should be directed. Cleaning and care Ruby jewelry can be washed in warm soapy water (1/2 cup) with ammonia (1 teaspoon). If we talk about metaphysical cleansing of the stone, it is better to do it under warm running water, and charge it with rock crystal or clear quartz. Date: Monday, January 05, 2015 “The owner of rubies is destined to learn to control the hearts and thoughts of people and become the ruler of the world,” says ancient Indian sources. Tatyana Chukhrova
January 18 2016 “This stone is born and matures deep underground, feeding on its flesh and blood, absorbing its fire and acquiring its color.” Photo: Fotodom.ru “The owner of rubies is destined to learn to control the hearts and thoughts of people and become the ruler of the world,” says ancient Indian sources. One problem: the manuscripts say nothing about how many rubies you need to have (and at the same time how they should be worn: on your neck, on your fingers, or just in your pocket) in order to “gain power over the world.” But these vital questions have been haunting some people for a long time. For example, the famous woman lover, the younger brother of the Sultan of Brunei, Prince Geoffrey. The prince gifts rubies not only to himself, but also to his many girlfriends, each time tormented by one question: is the gift too small (or simple)? In the end, in order to put an end to this torment, darling Geoffrey decided not to waste time on trifles and bought at an auction for his young mistress a pink peignoir, embroidered with as many as two dozen excellent Burmese rubies. True, the poor prince never expected that, having received a priceless gift, his insidious girlfriend would immediately imagine herself as the “mistress of hearts” and exchange Geoffrey for some elderly English lord. “Serves him right, this prince,” some representatives of the stronger half of humanity will grin maliciously. There is no point in pampering women with rubies – you won’t get any gratitude in return anyway. But the famous computer tycoon Bill Gates has a different opinion on this matter: the more rubies you give to the woman you love, the happier your family life will be. And, mind you, his wife completely agrees with this. There’s just one single moment that darkens Mrs. Gates’ cloudless happiness: the acquired rubies have nowhere to go. The lucky girl decorates her precious ears, neck, fingers, and even nails with them! Yes, yes, don’t be surprised – nails! And in the mid-2000s, caring Bill took his wife to the salon exactly once every two weeks, where she received a special manicure: tiny diamonds and rubies were glued to the nail plates, and then all this splendor was covered with varnish. “The owner of rubies is destined to learn to control the hearts and thoughts of people and become the ruler of the world”
Photo: Fotodom.ru But this is not enough for the generous tycoon: in 2005, he bought for his wife for one and a half million dollars a miniature mobile phone, the keys of which are made of rubies, and the body is decorated with sapphires and diamonds of the purest water. Having learned about such generosity, Prince Jeffrey instantly forgot that after the “trauma” inflicted on him, he had sworn off showering women with rubies, and decided to “beat” Gates at all costs. For his new girlfriend, he looked for a miracle – sandals from American designer Stuart Weitzman worth 1,8 million dollars: as many as 642 rubies were built into the straps of the slippers. However, Jeffrey never bought this creation: his picky lover wrinkled her nose at the sight of the little shoes, saying that the stones were “small and dull.” The young lady, by the way, said the same thing about the rubies adorning the French crown of the 6,14th century, sold at the Christie’s auction for XNUMX million dollars. And in this matter, the prince trusts his friend – after all, she has read a ton of scientific literature about precious stones. Which, by the way, advises others too. But of course! After all, ruby ​​is a special stone: it is not for nothing that ancient sources call it “a secret sealed with seven seals,” which not everyone can reveal. This can only be done by someone who is able to see the bright star inside the stone. It is this nameless star that bestows upon the lucky ones not only the sweetness of boundless power, but also unbridled passion. However, first things first.

About siblings and impostors

“This stone is born and matures deep underground, feeding on its flesh and blood, absorbing its fire and acquiring its color. Birds of prey and two-headed monsters guard the treasure day and night and do not let people near it,” says an ancient Burmese legend about the birth of the ruby, the king of gems. An ancient legend also mentions the “half-brother” of the ruby, in which “blood blue as the sky” flows. And there is no mistake here: the ruby ​​actually has a “brother” – the sapphire. Both stones are a variety of the mineral corundum – ruby ​​acquires its red color due to chromium impurities, and sapphire owes its noble blue to particles of titanium and iron. Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers from Oz
Photo: Fotodom.ru According to Indian legend, the “brothers” turned out to be extremely different from each other: ruby ​​represents obsession and passion, and sapphire – peace and restraint. However, an undeniable similarity between these stones has always existed. Inside each of them a star sparkled (jewellers call this phenomenon asterism), captivating people’s eyes and instilling in their souls the only desire – to possess these treasures at any cost. It just so happened that Europeans learned about the “family connection” between sapphire and ruby ​​only at the end of the 1851th century. In ancient treatises, no “relatives” of the carbuncle (the name “ruby” from the Latin “ruber” – red – appeared in the Middle Ages) were mentioned. Carbuncle was considered the most expensive stone – even a diamond could not compete with it. Blood-red and crimson rubies with a violet tint (the so-called color of “the first two drops of pigeon blood”) were valued above all. It is interesting that in those days carbuncles were divided into “female” and “male”: the latter were distinguished by their special color saturation. It was believed that “male” stones (they were supposed to be worn on the left hand) protected their owners from danger and bestowed harmony in love. And from “female” rubies in Ancient Rome they prepared the “elixir of life” (the stones were pounded in a mortar and poured with hot water), supposedly saving them from loss of strength, fever, and at the same time from shipwreck, night terrors and even baldness. Over time, they completely forgot about the division of rubies into “male” and “female”, but they found out an interesting fact. It turned out that not only rubies were called carbuncles: by mistake, other red stones, for example, spinel, also fell into this category. This stone is really quite difficult to distinguish from a ruby ​​(not many people know that spinel is significantly inferior to ruby ​​in hardness, so chips often form on the corners and edges of the former). By the way, one of the famous jewels of the British crown – a spinel called “The Black Prince” (the stone adorns the front cross of the royal crown) – has long been considered a ruby. Among the impostor rubies was another, no less famous stone, called the “Tamerlane Ruby”. In XNUMX, it was presented as a gift to Queen Victoria from the East India Company, and then set into a diamond necklace, which is now kept in the great hall of Buckingham Palace. Like the “Black Prince,” the stone turned out to be a large dark red spinel that once belonged to the Persian rulers and later passed into the hands of the conqueror Tamerlane. A real ruby ​​has many secrets that allow you to distinguish a gem from a fake.
Photo: Fotodom.ru

Treasures of the ruby ​​mines

According to experts, a real ruby ​​has many secrets that make it possible to distinguish a gem from a fake. For example, if there are small bubbles inside the stone, then they will definitely be the same color as the stone itself (in an artificial ruby, the internal bubbles are always whitish). In addition, the cracks on a “fake” form straight lines, while on a natural ruby ​​they have a zigzag shape. An artificial gem, unlike a natural one, quickly heats up when placed on the eyelid and acquires an orange tint under the rays of an ultraviolet lamp. Nowadays, the most beautiful rubies – transparent, free of bubbles and foreign inclusions and with a bright, rich color – are mined in the famous “red” mines located in Upper Burma near Mogok. Stones here are found in calcareous deposits on hillsides and in pebbles – however, large specimens without defects are very rarely found. In 1875, two beautiful carmine-colored rubies were found here – after cutting, they acquired a teardrop shape and weighed 37 and 47 carats. Both stones were presented to the ruler of Burma, who sold them to a resourceful London jeweler for two thousand pounds sterling. In England, the rubies were resold to a private collection; today the fate of these gems is unknown. Crown of Saint Wenceslas
Photo: Fotodom.ru It was rumored that one of the stones was exhibited in the 70s of the twentieth century at Sotheby’s and was sold for half a million dollars. In the mines of Mogok at the beginning of the 400th century, a giant ruby ​​weighing 44 carats and a blood-red “Dragon God” weighing 138,7 carats were discovered. Excellent rubies are also found in the mines of Thailand, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Tanzania. You can admire the best representatives of the ruby ​​family by visiting, for example, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington – the cherry star-shaped Rosser Reeves weighing 100 carats is kept here – or the New York Museum of Natural History, whose exhibition is decorated with a 166-carat De Long. and a 250-carat beauty called “North Star.” And one of the world’s largest red rubies (2000 carats) sparkles in the crown of St. Wenceslas, kept in the cathedral in Prague. But you definitely won’t be able to admire another uncut giant weighing more than XNUMX carats: the ruby ​​is owned by a modest lawyer, a native of Delhi, who treasures his inherited treasure like the apple of his eye.