‘You will find more in the woods than in books.
The trees and rocks will teach you things no teacher will tell you.’
(Saint Bernard of Clairvaux)
One of the few gems of organic nature.
As you may know, it is an ancient resin that time has transformed into crystal.
The first jewels of ancient civilizations were made of amber and man has always wondered about the origin of this carefree explosion of sunshine.
Pliny the Elder, a historian who made Nature the protagonist of History, came close to intuiting the truth. For him, amber came from ancient pine trees of the ‘pinus succinifera’ family and was a balm and a self-healing substance for the same trees.
Amber is in fact a fossil resin deriving from conifers which have become ‘amberized’ over millions of years.
They have trapped air bubbles inside them but also insects or species that are now extinct.
Amber, my friends, has decided to become the most radiant of diaries witnessing the becoming and changing of the world.
The oldest are 400 million years old, the most recent are just 100,000 years away from us.
While we are here, in many places around the world resins are starting to turn into gems.
Characteristics of the crystal
Amber is translucent, with a color that can vary between yellow, gold, orange, red and brown.
The most important deposits are found in the Baltic Sea and on the beaches it washes.
The most appreciated is that of Lithuanian or Polish origin.
The color amber is not ‘yellow’. Friends, the color of amber is extremely varied and often turns towards a darker shade. There is also the very rare blue amber.
Its profound inner richness brings to the surface the tension between the radicality of the earth and the sea, given the powerful connection between the two elements, which explode in the passion of red and the serenity of blue.
Its meaning is all about the two poles of the sea and the earth: life and death (and Rebirth) which chase each other and merge in the ‘brown’ shades of brown.
Poles of Life and Death which are essential in the human experience and constitute its fabric.
The legends
The legends that different peoples have paid to this sparkling gem are splendid.
For the ancient Greeks (who called it ‘electron‘, a name full of modernity) it was the tears cried by the Heliades, the young sisters of Phaethon, son of Helios, struck by Zeus for wanting to drive the chariot of the sun with arrogance. The Heliades were transformed into poplar trees along the river into which the unhappy young man had fallen. Their crying turned bright amber.
Chinese mythology, however, considers this crystal to be the soul of the Tiger after death, so much so that it is called hu-pu ‘soul of the tiger’.
Benefits
If rubbed with a cloth it becomes charged with static electricity and is capable of attracting small bodies such as dust, sheets of paper and pieces of paper.
Just as it can attract friendship and love into our lives.
This is the stone of childhood. Perfect for bringing light-heartedness and light into the lives of little ones, even to help their teething.
The mother will be able to bring an amber jewel and give one to her puppy. It will be a bridge of love between them.
Amber promotes the development of full self-awareness. It makes you spontaneous and open. It elevates the solar nature of the person.
It instills carefreeness and lightness of mind (and it is not true that the lightness of being is unsustainable!).
Increases mental elasticity and creativity. Motivating helps us realize, or at least come close to doing so, our desires.
Amber is connected to the amorphous crystalline system. It attracts those who do not like to align themselves or live for the approval of others.
Like most yellow-orange stones, it is linked to the second and third chakras, the sacral one and the solar plexus one.
The ‘eighth wonder of the world’ is made of amber, I’m talking about the famous ‘amber room’ that we can admire in the Catherine Palace in Pushkin (Tsarskoye Selo). Unfortunately it is not possible to tell you its entire adventurous story, but I absolutely invite you to go and look for it.
