Favoured stone of teens, goths and teen goths, amethyst is a purple variety of quartz which has a vibrancy and hardness that makes it suitable for jewellery.
Its name loosely translates from the Greek for “not intoxicated”, and it was believed to protect you from drunkenness. Medieval soldiers wore amethysts as protection from more general harm, though I guess the drunkenness deal didn’t hurt. Tibetans consider the amethyst sacred to Buddha and make prayer beads from it.
I guess the combination of availablity and affordability have give the amethyst a rich, global history that goes beyond the teenage me shopping for cheap purple and silver rings in the markets of Birmingham back in the late 80s…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amethyst
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