Opals have a very similar chemical composition as quartz, but contain 5-20% of water. The opal gemstone is considered to be a mineraloid, rather than a mineral because its structure is not truly crystalline. Opals, due to this water content, requires some basic special care to keep it looking as beautiful today as the day you bought it:
Opal the birthstone for October and the accepted gem for the 13th wedding anniversary.
We all grew up with parents, family and friends who believe in superstitions. From the expected ones relating to ladders, black cats, spilled salt, and broken mirrors, saying bless you when someone sneezes, “touch wood” to ensure nothing goes wrong (hope it doesn’t rain today, then you touch wood to make sure it does not) are just a few of the superstitions we deal with day to day. Most superstitions date back and link to either religion a belief in magic, or even to public safety for instances like walking under a ladder 200 yrs ago would often find people knocking the ladder down and hurting one or both people involved, though technology today has changed and ladders are much safer and constructed to be a safe place to walk under, though still we do not walk under ladders.
Opal through the ages has been associated with superstitions both good and bad. The early Greeks believed opal bestowed its owner with the powers of foresight and prophesy. Romans perceived opal as a token of hope and purity and once it was worn in amulets to ward off diseases and sickness. Orientals even to this day believe that opal is the ‘Anchor of Hope’ and frequently give opal as a wedding gift. The more fancifully minded Arabs thought that opals must have fallen from heaven in flashes of lightning thus achieving a unique play of color or "opalescence" that never has been matched by man.
During the time of the black plague opal became associated with the outbreak of the plague throughout Europe; some thought it was opal that brought the disease. Later it was proven that rats on sailing ships from poor parts of Europe were responsible for spreading the plague. Opal with its rolling flash appearance even became associated with the Evil Eye and thought it made a person invisible when the gem was wrapped in a bay leaf and worn around their neck. In France a goldsmith broke an opal during it’s setting for King Louis XI and he had his hands chopped off. In the 1950’s and 60’s with the popularity of opals increasing to rates almost as equal to the diamond, a number of diamond merchants may have considered opals a threat, and continued to propagate the superstition and activate brought back to light the superstitions that opal had.
Opal has also featured in literature with Shakespeare referring to it in Twelfth Night as “the queen of gems”. Queen Victoria had to intervene in the near destruction of the 19th century opal market when Sir Walter Scott's Anne of Geierstein started a superstition that opals were bad luck for people not born in October. The novel’s heroine owned an opal that burned fiery red when she was angry and turned ashen gray upon her death. Queen Victoria loved the magnificent colors of the opal and again boosted opal's popularity by making it a court favorite of hers and finally dispelled the curse by giving opal jewelry as gifts at all the royal weddings. Weddings that the receivers went on to great lives and strong marriages in the royal family.
The word opal comes from the word upala, Sanskrit for “precious stone,” and evolved to the Greek opallios, meaning, “to see a change of color,” and then to the Roman word opalus.
Last but not leastm an old Australian Aboriginal legend tells of the creation of opal in Australia (the legends dates back approximately 3000yrs); a beautiful rainbow fell to the earth from the sky and where it touched the ground it created the bright colors of the opal.
Personally I own, wear and have sold opal to many people around the world, not born in October and it was not their 13th wedding anniversary and still today they are happy, healthy and have amazing fulfilling lives.