Associated Birth
Month and Sign: 12th Anniversary, Gemini (may 21- Jun 20)

Agate was named after the Achates River, now the Drillo, in Sicily where it was first found over 2000 year ago. Agates are actually a banded or patterned, translucent or semi-translucent from of chalcedony (a micro-crystalline variety of quartz). Most agates are formed when vapor occurs within pockets of eruptive rock or lava. The agate itself is actually the layering of siliceous matter as cooling occurs.


There is a great variety of agates from all over the world with very distinct patterns and markings, but agate is most commonly associated with Idar-Oberstein, Germany. In the mid-1900's agate was found and subsequently mined heavily in Idar-Oberstein, used for carving stone bowls and figurines. That agate has since been depleted, but new deposits have been found in Uruguay and Brazil as well as Madagascar, the southwestern US, China, Australia, Mexico, India, and Russia.


While different properties are generally associated with the different sub-categories of agates, it is part of Middle-eastern folklore that the wearer of agate jewelry was protected from dangerous mishaps, stimulating longevity.