Athena Perrakis - Crystal Lore, Legends & Myths: The Fascinating History of the Worlds Most Powerful Gems and Stones

Lore, Legends & Myths

The Fascinating History of the Worlds Most Powerful Gems and Stones

Athena Perrakis, Ph.D.
Founder of Sage Goddess

But wee, not satisfied therewith, peirce deeper and enter into her very bowels and for to seeke out gemmes and some little stones, we sinke pits deep within the ground. Thus wee plucke the very heart-strings out of her, and all to weare on our finger one, to fulfill our pleasure and desire. How many hands are worne with digging and delving, that one joint of our finger might shine againe savage beasts (I well thinke) ward and save her, they keep sacrilegious hands from doing her injurie.

Pliny the Elder, 2379 CE

The Historie of the World (alternatively known as Natural History)

G ems and minerals have always been a source of fascination. Kings, queens, pharaohs, oracles, priestesses, priests, and wisdom keepers from all spiritual paths have adorned themselves with and/or been buried with them. These gemstones help connect them to power, privilege, spiritual wisdom, and protection and ensure safe passage to the majestic palaces of the afterlife. Battle breastplates and belts of Roman warriors held gemstones bezel set in shining metalcertain crystals, including topaz, to protect them; others, such as chrysoberyl, to make them invisible to their enemies. Queens from every monarchy, their crowns often bejeweled with diamonds for longevity and rubies for power, assume an otherworldly, divine right authority when wearing their royal jewels. Brides often wear a single, round, white diamond before they receive and accept the marital band. Gemstone carvings are found in nearly every burial site of significance around the world, from ancient Sumer to modern monarchies.

Why? Perhaps on some level there is universal recognition crystals could represent a code, a hidden language of stored and embedded wisdom reflecting the state of our planet at the time of their formation. Such a code could even be an unspoken language among humansconscious or subconscious. The colors, markings, mining locations, and energies of our crystals are like dialects of a sacred language we are all still learning, hints and secrets of times past.

Even beyond their meaning, we must consider the beauty of gemstones. Human beings are conditioned to appreciate beauty, symmetry, balance, and simplicity; aesthetically, these qualities please the human eye most. Crystals grow in specific and unique molecular structures, and each structure offers a unique balance and play of light, like a fingerprint. Yes, crystals are Gaias beautiful, divine fingerprints. They tell you she was here, and she has wisdom to share with her children.

Something magical happens when you hold a crystal or slip on a jewel-encrusted ring. The crystals energy fuses with your energy field. Suddenly you feel grounded and safe as you gaze into the deep, blood-red Indian garnets glow, or come into a deep sense of calm when you look down into the facets of a brilliant-cut African amethyst, glimmers of burgundy and hints of bright orange glowing from its fiery depths. Our ancestors did not resist these crystal enchantments; rather, they learned to appreciate and seek the wisdom of the mineral kingdom by carrying and wearing prized, specialty-cut gemstones from around the world. Their fascination with crystals might be why we had such profoundly successful early trade routes from Africa through Asia and as far north as the remote Himalayas of Tibet. Gemstones, much like herbs and spices, were traded and sought after by monarchs and common people from all walks of life. No mortal could resist the call of the glimmering jewels mined from deep within Gaias bountiful belly. The longer their route to market, the more precious and desired they became. After all, humans have always most desired the things farthest from their reach.

But human interest in crystals has not been driven by rarity alone. Crystals each have a unique energetic vibration, as all matter doesa cosmic imprint sensitive beings can translate and understand. For example, Cleopatra may have intuitively sensed lapis lazuli was uniquely powerful. Perhaps that is why she initiated long-distance trade for it from remote regions of Afghanistan direct to her palace. Lapis lazuli has been mined continuously for thousands of years in northern Afghanistan, and, even today, Afghan sources provide the highest quality lapis lazuli in the world.

Cleopatra secured most available sources of lapis during her rule and had the walls of her palace inlaid with the deep-blue stone. She ground it into powder and lined her eyes with it, believing the blue color enhanced both her personal power and her intuition. She may have learned of its power-bearing reputation from legends of her predecessor, Queen Puabi of Sumeria. In the ancient Sumerian tombs of Ur located underneath modern-day Baghdad, thousands of ornate lapis carvings were found alongside graves and mummified remains. In fact, Queen Puabis seal was found at her gravesite, carved into a lapis stamp wheel; it is now housed at the British Museum. The lapis seal of Puabi dates to 2600 BCE, predating Cleopatras reign by more than 2,000 years.

Gemstones are timekeepers and record holders of an ancient wisdom helping you lead a more meaningful, powerful, prosperous, and intentional life.

While lapis lazuli may simply mean blue stone, it is much more than just a blue gem. Lapis lazuli is the currency of queens. Even modern prophets and psychics, such as Edgar Cayce, have credited lapis (as well as other gems from the region, including azurite) with increased access to higher levels of conscious awareness.

Indeed, crystal legends, lore, and myths open you to a powerful and magical lineage you may have never been exposed to and it is, indeed, your lineage. Once you learn the legends, you understand why humans have been intrigued by crystals for millennia, traveling many miles to acquire, and then insisting on being buried with, their treasures. No matter how far back into history you search or how far across our planet you travel, you find endless evidence of ancient and modern significance attributed to gemstones. This book is a modern attempt to curate and weave those stories and narratives into a comprehensive, accurate account of how we came to view our gemstones the way we do today.

Whether you are new to gemstones and crystals, or you have been an avid collector and student for years, this book will have something to capture your attention and interest. No matter your age, and no matter how much you know, you never lose your appetite for new wisdom or your desire for a compelling story. We are hardwired to appreciate the past in service of understanding the present and predicting the future.

And that is what gemstones arethe past, eternalized and crystallized into a form you can hold in your hand today. They are timekeepers and record holders of an ancient wisdom helping you lead a more meaningful, powerful, prosperous, and intentional life. As they formed in our Earth over thousandseven millionsof years, they literally crystallized the knowledge of our planet and what was happening as they formed. Crystals arrest time. The ancient Lemurians knew well that gemstones, in particular quartz crystals, were easily programmed to hold, send, and receive information. Perhaps that is why Lemurian elders and priests encoded and encrypted their wisdom and their ways into the Lemurian seed crystals. They set an intentiononce human civilization was ready to return to the Lemurian ideals of universal love and united consciousness, the seed crystals could release their stored wisdom to those light bearers ready to receive and transmit it. Those transmissions are occurring today, connecting healers who share Lemurian roots across space and time. Every stone creates and shares unique transmissions, a rainbow of light spread across Earth in layers of crystallized time.