Vedic Gems and Ayurvedic Jewelry

The Moon

Pearl is the gem for the Moon. Pearls are organic, having been created by the secretions, called nacre, produced by a mollusc to coat a foreign object that entered its shell. Throughout history, divers would harvest many molluscs in order to discover the occasional Pearl that was completely created by the mollusc, known as a Natural Pearl. In order to be called a Natural Pearl there must have been no human interference in the creation of the Pearl. You will know that you are buying a gemologically certified Natural Pearl by the many thousand dollar price tag, yes for one pearl! You can assume that you are buying a Cultured Pearl, one where humans have nucleated and farmed the molluscs if your price is in the hundreds. If I were buying a Natural Pearl, I would insist upon a certificate from The Gemological Institute of America stating Natural Pearl. X-radiography is part of the testing and the $100- fee would be worth it if I were spending thousands of dollars on a Natural Pearl.

For your Vedic planetary gem recommendation you will ideally want an undrilled Pearl that is as round, white and free of blemishes as possible. So while your strand of Pearls may be helpful, try to have at least one undrilled Pearl to fill your Vedic gem requirement.

Cultured Pearls have been produced for centuries, with beginnings in China in the thirteenth century. At the end of the nineteenth century, Koichi Mikimoto began experimenting and ultimately obtained patents enabling him to take the Cultured Pearl market worldwide in a big way! Japanese saltwater Cultured Pearls from a particular species of oyster are called Akoya, and yet the same oyster is used in many other countries culturing processes. The warm waters of the South Pacific are home to a mollusc that is much bigger than the cold water species, thereby producing the larger South Seas and Tahitian Pearls. The Chinese began commercial culturing of freshwater Pearls in the 70's and have revolutionized and flooded the market with their tons of production. Beginning with the misshapen 'Rice Krispies' Pearls that many associate with freshwater Pearls, they quickly became very sophisticated in their culturing. Instead of a large shell bead which is inserted into Akoya oysters, the Chinese began with a piece of mollusc flesh, or tissue. These tissue-nucleated Pearls were then grown in fast producing mollusc species, then tumbled round and used as a starter 'bead' inserted in the next round of mollusc. This produced Cultured Pearls that closely mimicked the Natural Pearls as a majority of the Pearl is composed of nacre. In slow-growing cold saltwater Akoya oysters, the nacre produced over a three year period can be as little as one millimeter. In recent decades, the Chinese culturing has become more and more sophisticated and they now produce Pearls in the quality that we are looking for in our Vedic gems; round, white, and free of blemishes. Watch for bleaching, simulated and imitation Pearls.

Many of the finest Pearls throughout history came from The Persian Gulf. There is still a big market for these expensive Natural Pearls as some Middle Eastern cultures in particular prefer and highly prize Natural Pearls.

All Pearls are extremely fragile and require special care: no cleaners, soaps, perfumes, or lotions in contact with the pearl. The most cleaning they can handle is wiping with a very soft cloth. Therefore I have chosen to create a Moon pendant instead of a ring. The undrilled 10 millimeter Freshwater Cultured Pearl is held so that it is in contact with the skin and can be worn at the throat chakra.

*Moonstone was determined to be associated with the blue ray of the visible light spectrum as opposed to Pearl, which emits the orange ray when viewed through a prism. This is based on the work of Dr. A. K. Bhattacharya and can be found in his book 'Cosmic Ray Therapy', as well as many other sources subsequent to his original research. The blue ray is associated with Yellow Sapphire and Topaz and therefore would make Moonstone Feldspar a Jupiter secondary gemstone!