March's birthstones - In need of some luck ... Bloodstone and aquamarine

Happy birthday to you, March child. Your birthday flower, the wild jonquil(le) or narcissus jonquilla, which delivers a lovely fragrance oil, has clusters of small golden yellow trumpet flowers with a crown and long narrow cylindrical leaves.

The jonquil stands for spring and means 'friendship' and 'domestic happiness or returned love'. In Victorian times, its hidden message was 'you are an angel'... and aren't we all. :-)

Your lucky stone or modern birthstone is a blue-green beryl, the aquamarine, which means 'water of the sea'. Its color, produced by traces of iron, ranges from very light green-blue to deep blue-green; the dark blue or sapphire blue version being called maxixe is sometimes heat treated to create green, pink or yellow beryl. As deep sky blue aquamarine is considered more valuable than the clear or green shades, most blues have also passed the heating process to deepen their color and remove the green tint.

For the amateur aquamarine looks very similar to blue topaz, but as it is more valuable, you'd better buy your set stones from a trustworthy jeweler.

Aquamarine stands for courage, faithfulness & friendship and is the lucky stone of sailors. It is also said to facilitate communication.

Your alternative traditional gemstone is the two-toned heliotrope or Bloodstone and means 'sun turning'. It shares its name with the flower which was supposed to turn towards the sun. It is a form of dark green to dark blue-green chalcedony with red to red-brown iron-oxide inclusions. The green tends to have darker and lighter zones. The red is due to iron oxide, such as hematite, while the green is formed by Chlorite minerals, sediments of marine water, in the cryptocrystalline (very fine grained) quartz. The dark green variant with yellow spots is called plasma. Heliotrope is usually not enhanced.

It is said that heliotrope gives courage and strength. It should heal a broken heart and bring good luck.

So a very 'lucky' birthday to you and enjoy the sea!

Who in this world of ours their eyes
In March first open shall be wise,
In days of peril firm and brave,
And wear a bloodstone to their grave.

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