Easter brides and June brides have one thing in common, commercially that is: diamonds. In the Madison Avenue book ‘You prove you love me by giving me expensive things.’ And diamonds are always pretty expensive. I thought that maybe a word or two about what they are and why they are so respected, apart from obvious market manipulation, might be a good Easter tide thing to do.
In country music, as distinct from the greedhead advertising of Madison Avenue, maybe you prove you love me by “Cry me a River… I cried a River over you.” But let’s stick to diamonds at the moment. Maybe tears in a later post.
In the middle 70’s I had a tenuous connection with the Old Town Players in Chicago, helped them with grunt work, and went to see many of their shows. In one of them a remarkably pretty blonde lady, named Renata covered with gleaming paste and crystals, appeared on stage as the focus of three spotlights. It hurt my eyes just to look at her as she gave a wonderfully spirited performance of the song “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” It was very believable as she put it across.
I have met her several times in random places in Chicago over the years and I just look at her in passing and say “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” She usually says, “I love you.” Not that she knows me at all, but I remember a performance that she really got into, and performers like being remembered for something they did well, and thought they did well.
Now diamonds are crystals, and crystals have become a big thing among the New Age groupers since the discovery of Chiron. Many people in this writer’s set of folks who do magic and perform rituals have asked me why I don’t do crystals, or write about crystals, since it seems I am into just about everything else occult or metaphysical, and have been since the late 30’s.
Their inquiry is valid. And one reason is that that my first major was in chemistry and I taught chemistry and physics in European high schools. The mindless twaddle that I read in some of the New Age books on crystals is so nonsensical that I tend to keep away from the subject for fear of being too outspoken, to no purpose.
I honour the statement, “In your faith the Supreme Being dwells,” It isn’t for me to cast doubts on the matter, which may be only acting as a temporary step in a long ladder of evolution and not as a final mould. If you contradict someone's ideas the only effect is to make them hold those ideas more strongly. I don't want to do that in case their views are a temporary phase that they will outgrow, unless forced to defend those ideas. I only cast doubt when people insist that I MUST believe what they believe. Then of course I appear ruthless and abrasive to them, because they usually want me to believe in something that can be demonstrated to be false.
But the memory of the pretty singer, flashing like a magnesium flare, and her song came back after forty years with the “Here’s an Eastertide article” feeling so I thought to write something that I have experienced and know about…the history and fascination of diamonds.
Here is my genuine disclaimer. There are some people whom I know personally, and who are associated with various New Age stores and pagan groups, who have a definite and obviously innate connection with the crystal world that I don’t. Their experience of it is perceptibly different from mine, and I have to accept that. Such people can use crystals to add something to their own healing modalities. They can use crystals to scry or focus energies. Observation of their activities makes it clear that some people can do these things. I accept that totally. And I listen with respect when such gifted people speak about crystals.
But I don’t have to accept the sheer unmitigated nonsense that fills so many books that have recently been published about crystals. They contain page after page of what is mind-trip drivel, not all of course, but many have been written by non-experts just for publishers eager to have a book in the market niche.
The same thing happened when Ralph Blum had a stunning market success with runes. Everyone wanted a rune book on their list, quality didn’t matter, and a lot of trash was published as every runist can testify.
I can recommend from my own experience only one book on crystals, which I understand perfectly, doesn’t anywhere make me want to throw up, and which deals expertly with the named drivel merchants, while evincing a deep love and respect for the subject matter. It will be noted at the end of this essay. So as a tribute to Renata, and to diamonds, here we go.
It was a Portuguese, Garcia de Orta, physician to the Viceroy of Goa, India, who wrote the first account of the diamond mines of Golconda. There was a great fortress there to protect the town and the workers who produced most of the diamonds of antiquity.
Amsterdam and Antwerp were competing to be the diamond capitals of Europe in the 15th century, and that was when diamonds first began to be used in the West.
Around 1665 Jean Baptiste Tavernier brought back stories of the fantastic gems owned by Oriental monarchs, and diamonds became the most prestigious stones among the wealthy. And then in 1725, in Brazil, then a Portuguese colony, a wonderful diamond field was discovered. It produced so many fine stones that the market value of diamonds was threatened.
So the Portuguese government imposed very heavy duties and charges on diamonds to keep the price up, a system that is now used reflexively for many commodities, as we all know. It’s a system. There is no LAW of supply and demand. It’s a system.
For 150 years Brazil was the dominant country for diamonds, and most of the fine stones of the 19th century are Brazilian. Then a small boy picked up a pretty pebble on the banks of the Vaal river in Africa, and another diamond rush began. Nowadays about 80% of diamond production is from S. Africa and about 16% from Siberia.
There is something about diamonds that fascinates most human beings. They are beautiful. They are expensive. They are the hardest natural substance, about 1000 times harder than quartz. They are romantic. But there is something else, some hidden root that makes them fascinating. The true stories of some of the world’s famous diamonds sound like far-fetched novels.
Almost everyone has heard of the diamond Koh-i-nor. The Indian tradition is that it was found in Malwar, in the Godavary river about 5000 years ago and was worn by some of he ancient heroes of ancient times.
It was taken by conquest from the Rajah of Malwar by another prince and passed into the hands of the Mogul emperors in 1526, remaining in their treasury in Delhi until 1739. During their rule it was one of the eyes in the famous Peacock Throne. Then it passed into the hands of the Persian conqueror Nadir Shah. When he first saw it he exclaimed, “Koh-i-nor “ which means, ‘Mountain of Light.’ It has had the name ever since.
It was moved from India to Persia for a while, and every successive owner was murdered, tortured, or imprisoned. This is a fairly standard story for the owners of really precious jewels.
Eventually the stone ended up in a bracelet on the arm of Runjit Singh, the Lion of the Punjab. After he died it stayed in the Punjab treasury until Britain took over the Punjab in 1849. Of course the stone was presented to Queen Victoria, Empress of India, and she, wanting to be up-to-date, had the stone re-cut to its present form. This reduced it from 186 carats to 108, made it more brilliant and wiped out most of its historical interest.
The French have a stone as bound up in their history as the Koh-i-nor is with India. It was discovered in 1701 not far from Golconda. The native laborer who found it decided to keep it. In the found state it weighed over 400 carats, so he cut his leg and hid the diamond in the bandages.
Though he experienced several nearly fatal problems en route, he finally made his way to the coast and bargained with an English ship’s captain for a voyage to some place far away from his current problems.
His wish was granted when he was fed to the sharks as soon as the ship was at sea, and a Parsee merchant bought the stone from the captain for about $5000. The same merchant sold the stone to Sir Thomas Pitt, Governor of Madras, for the equivalent of $100,000 and the stone became the Pitt Diamond. The criticism that Pitt endured in England after returning from India with the stone caused him to have the stone cut down to become a brilliant of about 143 carats. He put it on the market and the Duke of Orleans bought it for just over $600,000.
As the Duke was the Regent of France, the stone now became the Regent Diamond. In 1792 it was stolen during the French Revolution, together with other of the Crown Jewels. No fence would dare touch such a well-known stone and the thieves ended up throwing it in a ditch.
Being a diamond it was unscarred by these adventures and when it was found it took its place again as the top jewel in France. When Napoleon wanted money for his wars he borrowed it from the Dutch, using the Regent as his pledge. After winning the war and repaying the debt he had the stone put into the hilt of his sword, where it still is, in the museum of the Louvre. Notice that he didn’t just print more money, as we do now.
The old Hollywood plot of the adventurer who steals the jeweled eye of an idol may have come from the story of the Orloff Diamond. This great diamond was the eye of Brahma in the major temple of Mysore in Southern India.
In the 18th century a rather gutsy French soldier disguised himself as a devotee, was made guardian of the temple, stole the eye and escaped to Madras. He sold the diamond to one of the ever-present English ship’s captains for $10,000, and the captain sold it to an English gem dealer for $60,000. After many such exchanges it finally ended up in the hands of Prince Orloff of the Russian Court—for $450,000.
The Prince, hoping to curry favor with the Empress Catherine, donated it to the Russian Crown Jewels. It is now in the Royal scepter, and weighs about 195 carats.
Probably the most romantic of all diamonds is the Sancy. Louis de Berquem began the cutting of diamonds in 1475. The Sancy is the one he cut for Charles the Bold. Charles got himself killed at the battle of Nancy in 1477 and the stone disappeared, probably into the pocket of a Swiss soldier.
In 1570 the Seigneur de Sancy was the French Minister of Finance and also Ambassador to the Ottoman Court, where he saw the stone. He bought it and brought it back to France. The stone was offered as surety to Henry IV of England against a loan for the French army. The courier carrying it was intercepted, murdered, and robbed. Sancy knew of the loyalty of his servant however, and had the body cut open. As he hoped, the diamond was found in the stomach of the courier who had swallowed it as soon as he suspected foul play.
Around 1595 the Sancywas sold to Queen Elizabeth I for the Crown Jewels. When Charles I was executed his widow gave the diamond to the Earl of Worcester, but somehow it got back into the Crown Jewels again, because James II sold it to Louis XIV of France in 1695 for $625,000. It was stolen, with the Regent, in 1792, during the French Revolution, but was easier to fence being only 53 carats.
It reappeared again when a French dealer sold it, no questions asked, to Prince Demidoff of Russia in 1828. It has been sold several times since to diamond lovers, and currently is reported to be in the possession of the Maharajah of Patiala.
What then was the largest diamond ever discovered? At the moment the record is held by the Cullinan named after the President of the Mining Company that found it. Uncut it weighed 3,106 carats! In grocery terms, that’s roughly 22 ounces.
The stone was bought by the Transvaal Government, remember the little boy and the pretty pebble in the Vaal river, for close to $800,000 and was presented to King Edward VII of England on the occasion of his birthday, November 9th 1907. Quite a present. My mother heard about it as a girl.
The diamond cutters Asscher and company of Antwerp cut the stone into three pieces. One piece weighs 516 carats and is the largest cut diamond in the world. It is in the British royal scepter and was at first still called Cullinan 1.
Another piece of it, weighing 309 carats is in the Crown. Seven other stones from the Cullinan are in the Crown Jewels. The Cullinan 1 was renamed the Star of Africa by King George V of England.
The Tiffany, the Hope, the Star of the South, and many others have equally interesting stories. But what is it that attracts people to these things, which after all are only pretty stones?
It obviously isn’t just the financial aspect. There are many stories of people who sacrificed a lot to get the diamond they wanted, and then would not get rid of it even when they endured financial hardship.
Maybe it’s because diamond is pure carbon, the basic element of all living things, including the owner. Maybe it’s the natural indestructibility and stability of the diamond. Somewhere in the world, maybe re-cut, are the diamonds of the Queen of Sheba, or the wife of the Buddha when he was a Prince.
Diamonds are forever, people say, and it is almost true. Many millions of years down the pike, all the diamonds will have transformed into their final form as graphite, the softest, but most stable form of carbon. Another paradox. The hardest and one of the softest substances in the natural world, so soft that it can be used as a lubricant for machinery, have identical chemical formulae as pure carbon.
Only the arrangement of the molecules is different. In diamond the atoms are arranged in interlocking tetrahedrons and resist all forces of change except cleavage. In graphite they are arranged in sheets and can slide like sheets of paper in a stack. That’s why B pencils write so smoothly.
And what is the name of the book I spoke of by the crystal devotee who doesn’t like the word-salad of the New Agers? It is The Book of Sacred Stones by the eminent scholar, and deliciously caustic feminist, Barbara G. Walker, and if you have several of the popular crystal books, all of which she has read, you will benefit from the quotations she mentions from dozens of books, chapter and verse with every stone she describes. The sub-title is Fact and Fallacy in the Crystal World. Everything she has written is worth reading.
The other expensive stone in the world is Jade. Imperial Green Jade is more valuable than diamond, and its history is a story of hundreds of thousands of people sacrificed in the search for it. Both the Jade and Diamond industry have been notorious for the way their workers are treated, and for the way their products have been used by terrorists to finance their activities. Jade and diamonds are always valued more than paper or coins, except gold of course, and the CIA world wide currency of drugs.
If you think you may be interested in the story of the green stone even more mesmerizing to its owners than diamonds, just get a copy of The Stone of Heaven, subtitled Unearthing the Secret History of Imperial Green Jade, by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark.
In April 2003 President Bush surprised me by signing the then recently passed Clean Diamond Trade Act in time for the U.S. delegation to take the news to an international meeting that week in Johannesburg, South Africa, convened to fine-tune the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. If you are to be an Easter or June bride you might check that your diamond is a non-conflict stone, or at least, is certified as such.
