Natural Amber

Amber is a semi-precious stone used in jewelry throughout the world. Almost every female I've ever known has owned at least once piece of beautiful amber jewelry. It's gorgeous transparent golden color has been prized for centuries, and was even prized as much as gold in many ancient cultures because of it's usefulness not only in jewelry, but in the production of smoking paraphernalia, as well as building and craft work material.

One of the more amazing things about amber is that it's a window to our prehistoric past, trapping everything from plants, to insects, to small animals in it's sticky confines and then hardening to make it a perfectly preserved fossil. Some of the most intact fossils that have ever been found in the world have been inside hardened amber, amazingly preserved to show the smallest and most delicate features of the fossil inside.

Amber, also called Succinum, (it's Latin name, derived from their word for "sap") is not only treasured as a fossil, but also as one of the most valuable gems known to man. Because of it's ancient value, amber's true value in crafts and jewelry has never really depreciated. It's still incredibly valuable, and the clear specimens have been found on some of the most important jewelry in the world, including pieces found in ancient China predating the Zhou dynasty!

This beautiful ancient stone has many properties that go far beyond it's beauty and necessity as a preserving agent for millenia old fossils. Amber has been used in healing ceremonies in ancient lands, like China, Europe, and the middle east, ever since history has been recorded. It was used to calm your nerves, steady your breathing, and even relieve a stomach ache. The way ancient Chinese people took in the amber as a medicine, was to ground it into a powder and wash it down with water. Though this might sound like a hocus pocus way to cure an upset tummy, it actually had been used for so long that there must have some truly profound effects.

As well as being used for medicinal purposes, amber has also long been used for metaphysical and magical reasons, in crafting tools that the practitioner uses or even using a smoothed amber stone itself to draw out it's true properties. Many people who practice aspects of metaphysics or magical workings, such as wiccans, shaman, or druids, use amber as a communicatory stone to bridge the gap between our world and the spiritual, natural world of earth. Often, people who practice this way also wear jewelry adorned with amber and other such earthy stones to always keep them grounded and in constant contact with their mother planet and it's inhabiting spirits.

Amber is and has always been a precious commodity, and it's beauty and usefulness as a stone has been valued for centuries upon centuries all throughout the entire world.

Sources:
(Amber Fossils)
(TIME's "Forever Amber" informational)