
🍂 October Birthstone: Opal 📿
October Opal 📿
The Natural Birthstone seduced the sign of Scorpio and Libra
Let Her Noble Beauty be fit for a Gallant King of Constantinople
The National Gemstone produced most bounteously in Australia
Set Personal Jewellery worn as a Potent Ring of October Opal
Famous Opals 📿
- The Andamooka Opal, presented to Queen Elizabeth II, also known as the Queen’s Opal
- The Aurora Australis Opal, considered to be the most valuable black opal
- The Black Prince Opal, originally known as Harlequin Prince
- The Empress of Australia Opal
- The Fire Queen Opal
- The Flame Queen Opal
- The Flamingo Opal
- The Halley’s Comet Opal, the world’s largest uncut black opal
- The Jupiter Five Opal
- The Olympic Australis Opal, reported to be the largest and most valuable gem opal ever found
- The Pride of Australia Opal, also known as the Red Emperor Opal
- The Red Admiral Opal, also known as the Butterfly Stone
Good wishes to all and sundry whose birthdays fall in October! The Birthstone for October is Opal, a hydrated amorphous form of silica (SiO2·nH2O); its water content may range from 3 to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6 and 10%. Due to its amorphous property, it is classified as a mineraloid, unlike crystalline forms of silica, which are considered minerals. It is deposited at a relatively low temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock, being most commonly found with limonite, sandstone, rhyolite, marl and basalt.
The name opal is believed to be derived from the Sanskrit word upala (उपल), which means ‘jewel’, and later the Greek derivative opállios (ὀπάλλιος), which means ‘to see a change in color’.
There are three broad classes of opal: precious, common and fire. Precious opal exhibits colour play known as iridescence, or more precisely, opalescence; whereas common opal and fire opal do not.[1] Play-of-color is defined as “a pseudo chromatic optical effect resulting in flashes of colored light from certain minerals, as they are turned in white light.”[2] The internal structure of precious opal causes it to diffract light, resulting in iridescent play of colour. Depending on the conditions under which it formed, opal may be transparent, translucent or opaque, and the background colour may be white, black or nearly any colour of the visual spectrum. Black opal is considered the rarest, whilst white, gray and green opals are the most common. On the whole, the degrees of opalescence and transparency are the major determinants of the classification and desirability of a piece of opal:
Opalescence refers to the optical phenomena displayed by the mineraloid gemstone opal[1] (hydrated silicon dioxide).[2] However, there are three notable types of opal (precious, common, and fire),[3] each with different optical effects, so the intended meaning varies depending on context. The optical effects seen in various types of opal are a result of refraction (precious and fire) or reflection (common) due to the layering, spacing, and size of the myriad microscopic silicon dioxide spheres and included water (or air) in its physical structure.[2][3] When the size and spacing of the silica spheres are relatively small, refracted blue-green colors are prevalent; when relatively larger, refracted yellow-orange-red colors are seen; and when larger yet, reflection yields a milky-hazy sheen.[2][4]
Precious Opal. The general definition of opalescent is a milky iridescence displayed by an opal which describes the visual effect of precious opal very well, and opalescence is commonly used in lay terms as a synonym for iridescence.[5]
Common Opal. In contrast, common opal does not display an iridescence but often exhibits a hazy sheen of light from within the stone—the phenomenon that gemologists define strictly as opalescence.[6] This milky sheen displayed by opal is a form of adularescence.[4]
Fire Opal is a relatively transparent gemstone with a vivid yellow-orange-red color and rarely displays iridescence.[2]
Tyndall effect in opalescent glass: it appears blue from the side, but orange light shines through.[7]
In a physical sense, some cases of opalescence could be related to a type of dichroism seen in highly dispersed systems with little opacity. Due to Rayleigh scattering, a transparent material appears yellowish-red in transmitted white light and blue in the scattered light perpendicular to the transmitted light.[7] The phenomenon illustrated in the bottom photo is an example of the Tyndall effect.
Summing up opal as being “[m]ade of water and quartz, but filled with fire”, Arlene Goldberg-Gist describes the various myths associated with the gem in a 2003 article entitled “What’s that Stuff? Opal” published in Chemical & Engineering News as follows:
Greeks believed [that] opal bestowed its owner with the powers of foresight and prophesy. Romans perceived opal as a token of hope and purity. Arabs believed [that] it fell from heaven. Medieval peoples, however, associated opal with the Evil Eye and even the Black Plague or thought [that] it made a person invisible when the gem was wrapped in a bay leaf. Queen Victoria boosted opal’s popularity by making it a court favorite. More recently, as October’s birthstone, opal is thought to bring luck–but only to those born in October.”
Historical superstitions have also been elaborated by Wikipedia:
In the Middle Ages, opal was considered a stone that could provide great luck because it was believed to possess all the virtues of each gemstone whose color was represented in the color spectrum of the opal.[58] It was also said to grant invisibility if wrapped in a fresh bay leaf and held in the hand.[58][59] As a result, the opal was seen as the patron gemstone for thieves during the medieval period.[60] Following the publication of Sir Walter Scott‘s Anne of Geierstein in 1829, opal acquired a less auspicious reputation. In Scott’s novel, the Baroness of Arnheim wears an opal talisman with supernatural powers. When a drop of holy water falls on the talisman, the opal turns into a colorless stone and the Baroness dies soon thereafter. Due to the popularity of Scott’s novel, people began to associate opals with bad luck and death.[58] Within a year of the publishing of Scott’s novel in April 1829, the sale of opals in Europe dropped by 50%, and remained low for the next 20 years or so.[61]
Even as recently as the beginning of the 20th century, it was believed that when a Russian saw an opal among other goods offered for sale, he or she should not buy anything more, as the opal was believed to embody the evil eye.[58]
Opal is considered the birthstone for people born in October.[62]
Related Articles
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- 🌤️🌾 A September to Remember: Greeting Post-Pandemic and Post-Elizabethan Age 👑🏰 with Sapphires, Asters, Poems and Songs 💎🌼📜🎶 (soundeagle.wordpress.com)
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That is an interesting poem. If ‘the national gemstone produced most bounteously in Australia’, I wonder where the hammer that I use for slapping the thunder was produced in.
Subhan Zein
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Dear Subhan Zeus,
Yes, SoundEagle wonders about that too. Thank you very much for honouring SoundEagle with your very first thunderous comment at SoundEagle’s blog. SoundEagle awaits further thunder bolts and lightning strikes from your heavenly highness!
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ah, that’s too much, please. My comment was just a self-mockery, you know that.
Subhan Zein
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Perhaps we shall grant your sudden self-deprecation with just a little demotion: you are now Subhan Thor instead. 🙂 SoundEagle likes that title.
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Ah, please, nothing like that, not at all. What I have in my tagline of my blog is just a metaphor. The light is happy days, and the thunder is sad days, so it’s all about metaphor. The truth is in the last sentence: I’m just a man who’s learning to write fiction and poetry. Now that’s the truth, because I am an apprentice.
Now that you bring it up, I need to clarify that half of what I say are meaningless, but the only reason for me to do that is so the other half would reach you.
Subhan Zein
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Please pardon any misunderstanding.
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Subhan, since you like this poetic post about October Opal, SoundEagle thought that you might be interested in SoundEagle‘s other poetic post about September Sapphire.
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I read a wonderful story, about how the opal came to have such wonderful colours, when I was a child. It was in a book of children’s stories called “On a Pincushion”. A variety of pins & brooches reside together on a pincushion, in a jewelry box. They take it in turns to relate stories from their ‘lives’. The opal is last & tells a wonderful, but sad, tale of true love between a sunbeam & moonbeam.
You have created a wonderful site here. Congratulations & thank you for visiting my fledgling blog 🙂
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We both have fairly new blogs to the extent that SoundEagle only really started blogging meaningfully and consistently since August 2012. Time and energy are always in short supply, given my caretaking duties and other responsibilities.
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[…] SoundEagle in Art, Poem and Gem ― October Opal (soundeagle.wordpress.com) […]
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[…] SoundEagle in Art, Poem and Gem ― October Opal (soundeagle.wordpress.com) […]
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[…] SoundEagle in Art, Poem and Gem ― October Opal (soundeagle.wordpress.com) […]
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[…] SoundEagle in Art, Poem and Gem ― October Opal (soundeagle.wordpress.com) […]
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[…] 🦅 SoundEagle in Art, Poem and Gem ― October Opal 📿 (soundeagle.wordpress.com) […]
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OOOOOOOOOHHH!!!! I love opals,especially black opals. Opals are my favorite gemstone.
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opals are very colorful stones and each is an unique gem
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I used to be superstitious about Opal especially as my birthstone is Moonstone/Ruby. Then my geologist husband pointed out that you are only unlucky if you don’t own a beautiful opal! I now have a lovely opal band.
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October Opal 📿
SoundEagle🦅 is delighted that opal has begun to grow on you, so to speak.
What do you think of SoundEagle🦅’s single-stanza poem above, and what does your geologist husband think of SoundEagle🦅’s choice of opals shown in this post?
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How beautiful! Who knew? I always thought of opals as just rather plain, white stones. Thanks for sharing these beauties!
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October Opal 📿
Additional YouTube videos have been included since you last visited this post so that SoundEagle🦅 may indeed whet your appetite even more and rid your formerly insipid impression of what you have now realized to be a precious gem with wondrous colour play and variety.
SoundEagle🦅 hopes that you have indeed found the potent opalescent spark needed to offset your effervescent snark chronically induced by the presidential shark.
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Beautiful rocks! You could say, they rock! 😀
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Thank you for having created such a stunning page, SoundEagle. For me, the treasures of the earth are a reflection of God’s own glory. ❤
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Wonderful collection of stones here S, E, and I also like to collect these gems stones .. I too have a page devoted to Gemstones.. I am wearing Rose Quartz with clear quartz crystal at the moment in a pendant…
Wishing you well during these uncertain times.. :🙏💚
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Thank you again for your perusing and complimenting SoundEagle🦅’s glorious and gorgeous celebration of October Opals 📿, which hopefully can resonate strongly with your own collection of these gemstones, especially when you wear them during special occasions or at anytime to bring Opalescent Sparks into your life.
May both this very bespoke comment and SoundEagle🦅’s poem dedicated to celebrating October Opal 📿 as the Natural Birthstone of October begin to spark deep and meaningful resonances with Sue the Dreamwalker!
It is lovely of you to inform SoundEagle🦅 that you are “wearing Rose Quartz with clear quartz crystal at the moment in a pendant”.
By the way, SoundEagle🦅 adores Mystic Topaz, which is a natural colourless topaz gemstone that has been coated with a thin layer of titanium using a modern technique called chemical vapour deposition (CVD) to impart a unique rainbow appearance with alluring play of colour. First seen in September of 1998 at the Hong Kong Jewellery Fair, mystic topaz is much harder than mystic quartz. You can see an example of that in the large centre stone on the necklace that SoundEagle🦅 wore, as shown in the photo with the caption “Khai & Khim in Her Tiffany Blue Dress at a Jewellery Shop — Don’t look at moy, look at mum! (14 Aug 2018, 9:15 AM Tuesday)” from the Special Tribute entitled Khai & Khim: For Always and Beyond Goodbye ❀🌸🦢💮❀ೋღஜஇ💕ღೋ♡ࣰ⋆*ࣰ☀̤̣̈̇🏝☆⋆*ࣰ✻ණි❉˜҈”˜҈░░✲﴾۞ࣰ﴿ࣰ֍ࣰࣰමෙ.
Apart from topaz, other crystals coated with gold, indium, titanium, niobium and/or copper include angel aura, flame aura, opal aura or rainbow quartz.
Happy October to you and your family!
ჱܓSoundEagle🦅
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These really are amazing images, SoundEagle. I can’t imagine where you managed to find them all.
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NYC’s Museum of Natural History has a room filled w/ gems. Do visit sometime, SoundEagle, once this pandemic is behind us. It is like walking into a jewelry box.
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[…] October Opal 📿 […]
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[…] October Opal 📿 […]
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I love the modern opal bracelet!
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Dear Robert
If you love to wear jewellery, then you and I definitely have one more thing in common!
ჱܓSoundEagle🦅
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😎
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