Sapphire Stone

Sapphire Stone Meaning

Sapphire stone gets its name from the Greek term "sappheiros" meaning blue stone. Sapphire gemstone is, in fact, the blue variety of the mineral corundum. When the color of this mineral is red or dark pink instead of blue, it is then known as ruby gemstone. Therefore, ruby is a red sapphire as it is identical to sapphire in all properties except color. However, sapphire stone is not exclusively found in blue color but in other colors too.

Sapphire Stone Information

Sapphire stone is one of the very popular gemstones due to its attractive color, hardness, durability, and luster. It can be called the most precious of blue gemstones. The most popular color of sapphire is cornflower blue also known as Kashmir sapphire or Cornflower blue sapphire. There are yellow sapphire stone, white sapphire stone, and even colorless sapphire stone used for making different types of gemstone jewelry. However, sapphires are mostly used for their astrological benefits which are many and very effective for the wearer of sapphire gemstone.

Sapphire Stone Colors- Properties and Benefits

As mentioned earlier, sapphire gemstone is available in almost all possible colors. However, blue sapphire stone (those with rich, but not too deep blue) are considered to be the most valuable among all sapphire stone types. Other sapphire stone colors are not too much in demand because it is not usually realized that sapphire stones exist in all possible colors (except red which is ruby gemstone). Orange sapphire stones (often called Padparadschas) have a reddish-orange color and are rare. They fetch high prices among gemstone collectors.

Sapphire stone colors have many more factors to consider about. In fact, sapphire stone benefits depend upon their colors. These gemstones are mostly used for their astrological value and properties. Each sapphire stone color has different effect on health and luck of the wearer. The most popular sapphire stone colors with their properties and benefits have been described below.

Blue Sapphire Stone

Blue sapphire stone popularly known as "Neelam" in Hindi and "Yakut" in Persian, is considered to be the strongest and fastest acting gemstone among the nine planetary gemstones. Blue sapphire is the Saturn's stone - the gemstone of the planet Saturn. The best blue sapphires are found in Sri Lanka. Other sources of blue sapphire stone include India (Kashmir), Russia, America etc. According to Indian vedic astrology, blue sapphires do not suit all and may bring losses, harms and damages to a person in the form of accidents, financial losses, serious illness etc. Therefore, astrologers ask wearers to test them for the first 3 days within which, its effects on the person can be known. If it suits the wearer, it brings all good things, profits, good health, solutions to major problems in life etc. When suitable, blue sapphire is the best healing gemstone for depressive psychosis, frustration and alcoholism etc.

White Sapphire Stone

White sapphire is the pure form of sapphire with the same hardness and features as other members of the mineral corundum family. It is also popular by the name of colorless sapphire stone. White sapphire stone is generally used as a substitute of diamond in gemstone jewelry to accent other stones as well as to bring out the brilliance of the central piece in the jewelry. Although white sapphires do not glitter as brilliantly as diamonds yet they are an excellent option for people unable to afford the very expensive diamond gemstone. Larger sizes of white sapphire stone having good quality are rare to find. In fact, the value of a white sapphire stone depends upon the region from where it has been sourced. The best white sapphire stones come from Kashmir, India. Other fine quality white sapphires are found in Burma (Myanmar) and Sri Lanka.

Yellow Sapphire Stone

Yellow sapphire (Pukhraj) is considered to be the stone of the planet Jupiter. This yellow gemstone is weighty, smooth, transparent, and can be found in many hues ranging from light and deep yellow to even light orange yellowish. Yellow sapphire stones are found in India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Australia, East Africa, United States and Brazil. A person who wears jewelry made with yellow sapphire stone gets such virtues as knowledge of law, ethics, wit, wisdom, worldly happiness, para physical bliss, physical power, cleverness, long life, good health, prosperity, glory and mental peace. Yellow sapphire is believed to be most beneficial to authors, writers, barristers, traders and businessmen.

Color Change Sapphire Stone

Color change sapphire is one of the rare varieties of sapphire stone. These color changing sapphires display different colors in different lights. For example, in natural light, a color changing sapphire may be blue but in artificial light, it seems to be violet. These color change sapphire stones may also be pink in daylight to greenish in fluorescent light. This effect is due to the same phenomenon which can be seen in Alexandrite. Some of them change their color well while others can only change colors partially. Color change sapphire stones come from different places. However, the gem gravels of Tanzania is their main source.

Synthetic Sapphire Stone Manufacturing

Looking at the popularity of these stones, the sapphire suppliers started looking for alternatives to this rare gemstone. Thus, synthetic sapphire stone was invented in 1902 by the French chemist Auguste Verneuil who developed a process for manufacturing synthetic sapphire crystals. This process for synthetic sapphire stone manufacturing was given the name- Verneuil process. However, this is not the only way for the synthetic sapphire manufacturers who produce these stone by many different processes introduced later like the Czochralski process, which was invented in 1916. Synthetic sapphires are so close to the natural ones that only experts can distinguish between the two types of sapphire stones. However, sapphire manufacturers can make this synthetic stone without the flaws that are found in natural sapphire stones.