Garnet History, Lore, Facts, Myths and Pictures

Garnet is a family of minerals having similar physical and crystalline properties and is actually a large group. Garnet displays the greatest variety of color of any mineral, occurring in every color except blue. Most of the names for garnets relate to a particular color. Rhodolite is a purplish red pyrope-almandite garnet. Hessonite is the variety name for a fine orange, cinnamon brown, or pinkish variety of grossularite. Tsavorite is the trade name for fine dark green grossularite. Uvarovite is also a dark green. Melanite is a black titanium bearing variety of andradite and demantoid is a rich green variety.
 
Fine-quality pyrope garnets from Czechoslovakia are purplish red, purplish red, orangy red, crimson, or dark red and are often called Bohemian garnets. Spessartite garnet can be red, reddish orange, orange, yellow-brown, reddish brown, or blackish brown. A few garnets exhibit a color-change phenomenon. They are one color when viewed in natural light and another color when viewed in incandescent light.
 
Garnets range from a 7.0 to 7.5 on the Mohs' scale of hardness and are found in the U.S. (Arizona), South Africa, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Myanmar (Burma), Scotland, Switzerland and Tanzania . Garnets form under the high temperatures and/or pressures and can be used by geologists as a gauge of how much temperature and pressure the rock has endured. Although garnets are beautiful stones, they are considered by many to be inferior to the other colored gems. This may be due to their abundance and widespread use, and therefore a typically lower price.

Folklore:

Its powers include healing, protection, and strength and it is often worn to relieve inflammations of the skin. It is also believed to regulate the heart and blood flow and aid in curing depression. In the past, garnets were exchanged between friends to symbolize their affection, and to ensure they meet again.