It’s hard to distinguish one type of agate from another. That’s because it’s found all over the world, in almost every color of the rainbow, and is treasured by people in every culture on earth!
Agate is a beautiful natural chalcedony stone, classified as a semi precious gem and has been used by people as early as the ancient Egyptians in and before 3000 BC! It was and is currently mined from various quarries through the world, most notably Egypt, Russia, Italy, Sicily, and Germany. Agate is still cut, shined, and shaped in the same ways it was in ancient times, and used in many of the same ways.
Agate stones are called “balance stones” in magical workings and many pagan and other earth friendly practices, because it’s been known throughout time to balance your energies within your body, and align your center so you can achieve true consciousness. It’s also one of the major stones of protection in workings like this, being said for centuries to be able to protect from and ward off any intruding bad energies rather then cleanse them in the first place. (To cleanse the bad energies beforehand, amethyst is normally used.)
This stone has also been used in crystal healing over the centuries because of it’s widely known success in aiding sleep, and even curing insomnia. A cleaned piece of agate is often ran on a wand across the person’s form if they have any trouble sleeping.
Agate is used today in some of the most beautiful jewelry available. It’s not only gorgeous, but found in so many different colors and tints that it makes for an incredibly versatile stone, able to be used in jewelry of all styles and color schemes. In one single specimen of agate, there can be several tints and levels of opacity that can make for cabochons and beads for use in several works. It’s most often found as red, blue, green, pink, and black, and varies greatly in the tint and how well you can see through the stone. It’s treasured because of it’s beautiful properties as a semi precious gem, and in fact, variations of the stone are the state gemstone of many states in the US like Tennessee and Nebraska.
Agate is the birthstone for September, and usually in birthstone jewelry the agate you will find is of a lighter, more transparent variety, like blue, pink, or green agate. Fire agate, found in Nevada, Arizona, and parts of Mexico, is used in creating some of the world’s most beautiful, rare, and expensive Fabergé eggs and other ornamental objects.
When working with agate in jewelry, always remember how valuable the stone is even though it’s so plentiful. Get the highest grade of agate possible to make your works of art shimmer with the natural beauty of one of the most gorgeous stones on our planet!
Sources:
(Agate Info Page – Varieties)
