Sapphire: meaning, properties and lore

The mineral

Sapphire is a gem variety of corundum, the mineral species that also includes ruby. Corundum is composed only of aluminum and oxygen, and in its purest state it is colorless. When gem professionals use the word sapphire alone, they normally mean blue sapphire, and colourless sapphire is known in the trade as white sapphire.¹²³⁶

Sapphire has a Mohs hardness of 9 and ranks as relatively hard. It has excellent toughness and no cleavage. Its specific gravity is 4.00, its refractive index runs from 1.762 to 1.770, and its birefringence is 0.008 to 0.010.⁵⁴⁷

The blue colour of sapphire is caused by trace amounts of iron and titanium in corundum, and the more iron, the darker the blue. Chromium causes the red of ruby and the pink of pink sapphire. Sapphire occurs in every colour except red, including violet, green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, and grey, black, or brown shades.²⁸⁵

Some sapphires show colour change, most often going from blue in daylight or fluorescent light to purple under incandescent light. Blue sapphires often show greenish blue and violetish blue pleochroism, and their colour zoning is common, with angular zones of blue and lighter blue. Sapphire often contains delicate intersecting needles of rutile called silk, and these needles give rise to asterism in cabochon stones.⁵²¹

Rough sapphire most often forms as a barrel- or spindle-shaped hexagonal pyramid. Madagascar has become a major source with intense blue stones, and in the 1990s discoveries in East Africa and Madagascar brought fancy sapphires wide recognition. Sapphire is found in Myanmar, where it occurs alongside ruby in the Mogok area in much smaller quantities, and in Sri Lanka, where alluvial gravels yield stones. Kashmir sapphires are intensely saturated and velvety.¹²⁴⁵

Natural sapphires originate in certain igneous or metamorphic geologic environments and are commonly heat treated to improve their colour. In heat treatment, titanium from rutile silk dissolves into the crystal lattice at high temperatures. Yogo Gulch in Montana yields untreated stones, and Kashmir stones may contain tourmaline inclusions indicative of that origin. Synthetic sapphire has been produced for more than a century and is used for the windows of supermarket scanners and spacecraft.⁸⁵

History and lore

The name sapphire is said to come from a Greek word meaning blue, according to GemKids. Elites of ancient Greece and Rome believed blue sapphires protected their owners from harm and envy, and sapphire was thought to be an antidote to poison.³⁴⁶

Sapphire has decorated the robes of royalty and clergy for centuries. During the Middle Ages, the clergy wore blue sapphires to symbolize Heaven, and ordinary folk thought the gem attracted heavenly blessings. Sapphire is considered one of the Big Three coloured gemstones along with ruby and emerald, and it rose to public attention when Princess Diana's engagement ring featured one.⁶⁹

Pliny the Elder described a kind of amethyst that deviates towards the sapphire in colour, which he said the Indians call socos. He also described the crateritis as having a colour between that of yellow sapphire and of amber, and being very hard, in his Natural History, Book 37.¹⁰

The Second Anglo-Norman Prose Lapidary has a chapter on sapphire that describes three kinds of sapphire. It says the sapphire is called by God the holy stone and the gem of gems. The lapidary says sapphire comforts the heart and limbs, is good for swellings, and cools a person with too much internal heat. It also says sapphire helps prisoners to be freed and sets men to agree with one another.¹¹

Hindu lore recorded in The magic of jewels and charms described sapphire as bitter to the taste and lukewarm. A potion of sapphire was said to help those bitten by a scorpion. One authority asserted that anyone who looked long at a sapphire would have his eyes protected from all injury. A medieval test placed a spider beneath a sapphire, and the spider fell victim to the stone.¹²

Frederike Hauffe, the Seeress of Prevorst, was placed in contact with sapphire in experiments, and the sapphire produced a somnambulistic state in her, as recorded in The Curious Lore of Precious Stones. Shelley wrote of the sapphire ocean and sapphire-tinted skies in his poetry. In the 1757 price-list of a German druggists' firm, a pound of sapphire was quoted at sixteen groschen.¹³¹²

Birthstone and zodiac links

Sapphire is the birthstone for September, as designated by the Gemological Institute of America. It is also the gem of the 5th and 45th anniversaries, according to the same institute. These are modern lists rather than ancient ones.⁵¹⁴

Sapphire has been associated with royalty and romance for centuries. In 1981, Britain's Prince Charles gave a blue sapphire engagement ring to Lady Diana Spencer, reinforcing that association. Sapphire has always been associated with the colour blue in folklore, history, art, and consumer awareness.⁶

The padparadscha is a rare and valuable pinkish-orange sapphire, and its name comes from the Sanskrit word for the lotus blossom. Stones from Sri Lanka were initially the only ones labeled with the padparadscha name, and Sri Lankans have a special affection for the colour, which has traditionally been linked with their country.⁵²¹⁶

What crystal practitioners say

Crystal practitioners treat sapphire as a stone of the mind, and their teachings tie it to focus and clarity. Practitioners of Jyotisha prescribe different gemstones, including sapphires, to promote favourable birth planets or to ameliorate unfavourable ones. Gazing for a long time at a sapphire, among other stones, is believed to induce a semi-trance that gives an insight into the future.¹³

Believers in the East hold that a living spirit dwells within star sapphires and other moving-light gems, a spirit potent for good. Star sapphires are regarded by believers as exceptional for protective qualities, with the rays of the star representing faith, hope, and destiny.¹³

Blue sapphires are said to be especially effective for chakra healing, particularly the throat chakra, according to crystal practitioners. Practitioners who work with chakras describe the link as a modern one, not an ancient teaching.

Some practitioners make sapphire elixirs or tinctures taken internally, while most experts agree wearing gemstones touching the skin is most effective. Crystal practitioners who prefer wear describe the stone as most effective when it touches the skin.

What testing has found

Edzard Ernst, in his analysis of 150 complementary and alternative treatments, found no rigorous trials testing the therapeutic value of crystal healing. He stated that no scientific proof exists for any effect beyond placebo. He proposed that pleasant feelings reported from crystal healing may stem from a strong placebo effect, or from believers noticing only what confirms their expectations, a cognitive bias.¹⁴

A 2001 study by British psychologist Christopher French asked 80 volunteers to distinguish real crystals from fake ones after holding them and meditating. Both groups reported similar impressions, and the researchers concluded that suggestion, rather than the crystals, produced the helpful feelings.¹⁴¹⁵

Some researchers say crystals likely do not directly act on physical and psychological woes, but may offer indirect benefits explained by the placebo effect. Scientific research into crystal therapy remains lacking, and few studies have compared it with other therapies.¹⁵