Whether or not your jewelry reflects light, it reflects you. You might be drawn to one emerald earring tonight, to accent your gold lip rings. Who are you tonight? Each jewel has its own “energy.”

Stones, Gems and Crystals, Precious Metals

Categories only matter so much. In some ways, onyx is arguably more like bronze than like turquoise, but there’s still something onyx and turquoise share as stones.

Both stones and metals come from the Earth, but stone uniquely suggests the Earth itself and makes a “body connection” to our planet.

Stone

Much stone jewelry, like amber and limestone, even derives from once-living matter. Wearing it says that your beauty is dignified but warm and approachable. Stone jewelry often also suggests that in our deepest self we’re nodding toward the indigenous and tribal peoples of the world and to our own deep past. Is any of that you tonight?

Gems and crystal jewelry

Gems and crystal jewelry can be grouped somewhere between the stones and the metals. They are from the Earth, like the stones. But they also seem to have a connection to the heavens.

The most obvious connection crystals and their more uptown cousins the gems have with the heavens is in that they reflect the sunlight. They glitter, make rainbows and divide the light into its spectrum. But they also tend to break down into shapes that are so precise they recall the mathematical harmonies behind them.

They’re sparkly – all those facets!- and more than stone or metal jewelry, gems and crystals really want to be looked at and want to look expensive. They might also suggest a lover, or husband, who gave you that diamond belly button stud. Nothing can say, simultaneously, “Look at me!” and “I’m taken, boys” like gems. Is that you tonight?

The Magnificent Metals

But there’s something almost purely cosmic about metal jewelry even if it’s a product of mining the Earth just like other jewelry. Of course, the metals can even arrive from space as meteors. They don’t just glitter in the light, they can conduct lightning.

If we associate stone jewelry with indigenous peoples, we associate metal jewelry with “advanced civilization,” and not just any advanced civilizations but the glitzy ones we know from movies, like Ancient Egypt and Krypton. Wearing silver, gold, or platinum also means first-class, aristocratic living. Fine metals don’t merely conduct electricity, they literally are currency, the life-blood of empires.

This body jewelry always has one foot in glamor, high style, and power. Your gold lip rings may have a rebellious spirit, and they might be part of an underground look, but something about them always whispers “Cleopatra.”

Gold, silver, and platinum don’t need to want to be looked at. They will be looked at, and so will you. Gold jewelry says you must be a star. You’re shining, after all. Is tonight the night you want to express that power? Then go for it. Stone, gem, and crystal jewelry have their own moods and their own occasions.

Know your jewelry. It’s yours!