A jewel is admired by it’s beauty and considered by it’s value. A jewel is an artistic and monetary investment. In the past, a jewel was also a talisman, beyond it’s material value.

In past civilizations, the human being saw it’s world as a Whole, as a big organism commanded by Forces or Deities. Every being was an expression of the Whole, and from that emerges the Hermetic principle “What is below is like that which is above, and what is above is like that which is below”.

What was, and is above are the planets seen to the naked eye, in a starry sky, they look like fixed stars.

Each planet has it’s qualities and flaws like the human beings, the reality that “is below”.

Each planet is associated with a noble metal. The Sun is associated with gold, the Moon with silver, Mercury with quicksilver, Venus with copper, Mars with iron, Jupiter with tin and Saturn with lead.

Gold represented the male energy in a patriarchal world. Silver, the feminine energy; iron, the energy of courage; quicksilver is androgynous and a communicator; copper, beauty and attraction; tin, protection and good luck; and lead, limitation.

Each day of the week was associated with a planet, and the same with each hour of the day.

The assigning of the days of the week of the occidental world, of Latin and catholic influence, was an heritage from the Mithra worship and it’s seven steps, reversed and with some changes made to the metals.

Sunday is the day of the Sun. Monday is the Moon, Tuesday is Mars, Wednesday is Mercury, Thursday is Jupiter, Friday is Venus and Saturday is Saturn’s day.

Let’s try an example. We want a fertility talisman. Fertility was a feminine matter, connected to the moon. Therefor this talisman should be made in silver, on a Monday, on the 1st, 8th, 15th or 22th hour (Moon’s astrological hours on a Monday) and adding some gemstones related to the Moon.

The jewels made from gold were associated with the more precious gemstones, which also possess characteristics beyond the physical.

And why all this? A jewel is a talisman, and as such it must be made on the right day and the right hour, so it can receive the above energies and become powerful and effective.

Ismenia Gomes
Astrologer

You can visit her portuguese only website: Astrograal.net.

In the modern day, most of us wear it to express ourselves, our individuality or our sense of belonging to a group, or even perhaps both.

Just like the clothes we wear, our jewelry might say something about us. We choose what we identify with and we wear. We are expressing a part of ourselves, hinting who we are to the world around us.

Adornment

I believe this is the strongest reason most of us wear jewelry.

Mankind started wearing jewelry in prehistory. The first pieces were done with seashells, small crustaceans, unpolished stones, small hunted animals’ teeth and bones. These were stringed in natural fibbers and made into necklaces and bracelets. The intention was to stand out, attract attention. Much like a peacock.

We like wearing pretty elegant things, to make us feel that way about ourselves. We might see it as vanity, but it’s probably much more connected to self-esteem and confidence boosts. Many of us strive for happiness, so we probably grab on to anything that makes us feel good. The feeling provides us with the illusion of happiness. Small moments of well being we wish to extend.

Status

Man evolved into hunting bigger and dangerous animals. So, the jewelry made out of these animal’s bones and teeth, was mainly worn as a trophy, a display of valency from the hunter to the community, assuring them a high position on the hierarchy.

Throughout the history, there has always been a social hierarchy based on wealth, thus being reflected in the quality and abundance of jewelry.

Today we see a display of status through extremely expensive jewelry, with extravagant sparkling jewels. Those who are wealthy display it with exclusive pieces, with astonishing and inaccessible prices to the non rich.

Amulets & Talismans

People used to believe that each jewel and metal had a specific beneficial magic property. Also colored glass was used to emulate jewels, but the color alone was believed to hold power as well.

There’s been a huge decrease in this type of jewelry, but some folklore amulets still survive depending on the culture.

Also there’s been a bit of a revival of jewels magical properties due to the New Age movement.

There’s probably more…

We have many types of jewelry, such as functional, religious, remembrance, official, and so on…

Related links:
Jewelry History

This is my first and only so far, book of the series. I choose the Head Ornaments mostly because it’s something we don’t seems to wear as much as before. It’s become much more discreet and functional, traditionally speaking, to wear these days.

The book is divided by the four major regions provided in the title. Each one starts with an introduction to the continent. Africa and Asia are further divided into areas. The text refers the symbology and use of jewelry, more specifically head ornaments. The history and culture is put into context.

Then follow full pages of beautiful photography. This book is somewhat big in dimensions, ideal to to admire the details in each piece.

In order not to clutter the amazing photos through out the book, there’s a section at the end named “captions”. Here you find every photo smaller and in black and white, with page number, country, materials, size and a description of the pieces. How those were used, their place it in the history and culture of the region.

I think it’s a great history source and very visual inspiring, it takes us back to the roots of jewelry.
I would love to get the rest of the volumes.

Africa
- North Africa
- The Sahara
- West Africa
- East Africa
- Central Africa
- Southern Africa

Asian
-The Levant
- Turkestan
- India
- The Himalayas
- Mongolia
- The Middle Kingdom
- The Land of the Rising Sun
- Indonesia

Oceania & America.

View book details on Amazon: UK.