Jewelry, Healing and Wellness Wisdom
Using minerals and gemstones for healing and wellness is an ancient ascribed practice. Awaken the Peace high vibrational jewelry organically allows positive energy to flow through your vibratory field resulting in joy and inner peace. Here we focus on two powerful gemstones that were of great importance to ancient cultures, jade for the Mayans and turquoise for the Native Americans.
The Importance of Jade to the Ancient Mayans
Jade was a prized and rare commodity for the ancient Mayan civilization. This resource was found primarily in Guatemala’s Motogua Valley. Jade was valued in higher regard even than their coveted gold and silver metals. Mayans considered jade to be sacred and holy and the ultimate symbol of vitality and eternal love.
The Mayan elite commonly presented jade jewelry, both beads and carved, as prized gifts. They often used Jade as an offering to the gods, traded it as currency, and the healers and shamans used it as a treatment for kidney disease.
“Since medicine was so closely related to religion and sorcery, it was essential that Maya shamans had vast medical knowledge and skill. It is known that the Maya sutured wounds with human hair, reduced fractures, and were even skilled dental surgeons, making prostheses from jade and turquoise and filling teeth with iron pyrite.”*
Archeologists have discovered jade, turquoise and other types of precious stone and mineral in the Mayan ruins amongst the countryside of Central America and inside the tombs of the Mayan elite. It was common to find a single jade bead buried with the deceased, as the Mayans were highly superstitious. They believed deeply in assuring an easy transition to the afterlife.
Mayans also valued the healing properties of their minerals and created sweat baths similar to modern day saunas. These Zumpulché were constructed of specific stones and used for purification, revitalization and healing.
Turquoise in the Native American Tradition
Native Americans have long respected gemstones for their healing properties, most notably Turquoise, which is deemed more precious than gold. Long before the Europeans arrived, Native Americans mined for turquoise with stone mauls and antler picks.
It is the belief of the Native American culture that the earth is alive. Turquoise is life. Medicine men keep these tones close to them because they believe they possess powers of healing. Turquoise is also thought to aid communication and improve mental functions. Ancient legend tells of its origin as Native American Indians dancing and rejoicing at the arrival of rain. It is said, their tears of joy blended with the rain and seeped into the Earth to become turquoise.
Turquoise is also known as “the fallen sky stone”, as if the sky’s color had fallen into the stone. It has been cherished as a gemstone of good luck, strength and long life.
The natural variations and cracks in Turquoise are prized as part of its beauty. If you are wearing a turquoise ring and a crack appears in it, the Native Americans would say, “the stone took it”, meaning the stone took the blow for you.
Turquoise and jade have both been prized by cultures the world over for over 7000 years for their beauty and reputed life-affirming qualities.
*http://www.educatinghumanity.com/2012/11/Facts-Secrets-Mayans-Top-10-List-Photos.html