Moonstone
By Rhea Raghaven
For centuries now, the moonstone has captured the imagination of countless lovers and romantics with its bluish-white luminosity. It is the closest a man can get to bringing his lover a piece of the famed moon. So similar is this precious gem in its luminosity to the moon that it actually led the ancient Romans to believe that the moonstone was infact a frozen piece of moonlight. The mysticism and the romanticism of the stones continue to draw in admirers even today across the world.
 Within the gemstone industry the stone is better known as “adularescence “due to its mysterious shimmer when held in different positions against the light. Its cooling lunar light is cause by the presence of two distinct types of feldspar with different refractive indexes. The rarest and perhaps the purest forms of the stone are found and mined in Sri Lanka and Burma and display an almost translucent background with a pale blue shimmer. While those found in India, Brazil, America and Australia could vary in color from pinks, light browns to yellows and gray’s. However nothing says true romance like the pale blue lunar lit moonstone.
 Regarded very highly for its mystical properties, the stone enjoys a fair amount of popularity across religions and cultures. In India the stone is considered magical and heavenly and is worn by many to incite good fortune, luck and happiness. It also symbolizes fertility in the Middle Eastern culture. The stone is said to bring equilibrium and balance in a persons emotional and mental sustenance and is often suggested to short tempered people by astrologers in India.
Its discreet color has resulted in women and men across borders, kingdoms and cultures to wear it in their jewelry and was perhaps one of the most popular gems worn in the ancient times.
The stone’s allure and its angelic hue have also won it the name of ‘the lovers’ stone’. Even to date it symbolizes the bond between lovers and is said to evoke tender feelings and safeguard the wondrous joys of love. In effect the moonstone takes on almost all the qualities that lovers and believers ascribe to the moon itself. Its calming appeal both in appearance and texture is perhaps the reason why so many thousands reach out to keep a piece of the ‘moon’ for themselves.
A truly heavenly gemstone, the surreal beauty and aura of the stone has transcended all levels of religion, romance and mysticism. Cut as cabochons to help maintain and accentuate their shimmer, the demand for moonstones has sharply risen in the last half century or so. While the classical blue moonstones are steeply prices in view of its intensity of color and increased transparency the Indian moonstones are equally enchanting and a lot more reasonable.
Desirable, sensual and seductive, these stones portray a subtle elegance that enchants and  evokes love. A love and desire to own a piece of the symbol of romance- the enchanted moon.
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