Lightning, plague and poisons will never harm wearers of a garnet, or so says the myth that promises to protect owners against being struck by lightning or other evils.
There are many types of garnet: Almandine, Demantoid, Rhodolite, Pyrope, Mozambique, and Tsavorite (green), just to name a few. Garnets do come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors (except blue). They were traditionally considered to signify faith, constancy, truth and cheerfulness.
The name garnet is derived for the Latin word "granatus" meaning seedlike. The stones in the surrounding rock formation look like the seeds in a pomegranate. Garnets are round, naturally shaped crystals that range in size from a grain of sand to beach balls. They have a hardness of 7 - 7.5 on the Mohs Scale of Hardness. Garnets are hard, but still brittle and should be worn with some degree of caution. They are principally found in Africa, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and India, but can be found on all continents including Antarctica.
The garnet is one of the most affordable gemstones because there are great abundant supplies available. It has beautiful, deep luscious hues that vary from orange to purple casts to green. Any are acceptable to represent the birthstone for the month of January, Aquarius and the Guardian Angel stones for September and May.
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