Book of Revelation Gemstones- Amethyst

Amethyst is the final gemstone of the Apocalyptic ring. Since 610 A.D. it has been the gemstone of the bishop's ring in the Roman Catholic church. It mainly appears in pyramidal hexagonal violet crystals. The color stems from iron together with titanium and manganese, two of the higher congenial elements of iron. So, we have before us a scale of higher ego aspects together with the violet color which involves the blue of devotion and the red of the blood forces. Add to these the sun-like hexagonal symmetry and we have the basic features of what in the Gospels is called love of one's neighbor. The Greek word amethustos means: sober, not inebriated. How true it is that love of one's neighbor should be free from any intoxication.

By the way, amethyst is the third gemstone with hexagonal crystals. The three: amethyst, emerald and beryl form a triangle within the circle. The Greek author Lucian, in the second century A.D., describes in his Vera Historia the city of the Islands of the Blessed. The walls of this city are of emerald, the temples of beryl, and the altars therein of single amethysts.

Complementary qualities appear in amethyst and carnelian, love of one's neighbor is both conditional to and as a result of the way which leads to resurrection. They are the response (German: Antwort) on the Word of God.

Bringing now together the qualities which arise between the pairs of gemstones we recognize the "armor of God" St.Paul describes in the sixth chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians:

"Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints."

- Dr. Simon van der Heide, Haarlem, Holland- past Secretary-General of the International Union of Geological Sciences.