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Garnets have had a special
place for centuries as talismans, as jewelry, as fetishes, as medicine, as means of trade, as badges of prestige, and as objects
of beauty.
In the vocabulary of gemstones, many kinds of garnets are gemstones of commitment,
of order and stability, denoting faith, consistency, and truth.
Especial powers have been attributed to garnets for centuries. Garnets have been viewed as sacred by
both many American Indian nations and by certain African tribes. Bghai tribes of Burma, now Myna mar, used garnets as fetish
stones in their households. In another part of the world, Europeans in the Middle Ages thought of garnets as protective in
nature.
I have read also that some Asiatic people believed that garnets fashioned as bullets would inflict more deadly wounds
than ordinary ammunition. For example, the Hunzas, in 1892, fashioned bullets from garnets during hostilities with the British
on the Kashmir frontier. A similar use has been recorded in accounts of the Southwest Indian Wars.
On a more peaceful note, Noah is said to have placed
a garnet of great size in the Ark to give light. A wonderful notion.
Many garnets have been fashioned into memorable gemstones. Examples have been found from the ancient kingdom of Persia
where many garnets bore the image of the reigning sovereign. Then there is the 468 carat garnet that the King of Saxony commissioned
for the Order of the Golden Fleece. There are also garnets with engravings of well formed figures of a lion that have protected
travelers in Europe for centuries. The power of such garnets was believed to double for the traveler wearing garnet jewelry
who was born in January.
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