The curious lore of precious stones : being a description of their sentiments and folk lore, superstitions, symbolism, mysticism, use in medicine, protection, prevention, religion, and divination, crystal gazing, birthstones, lucky stones and talismans, astral, zodiacal and planetary / by George Frederick Kunz, with 86 illustrations in color, doubletone and line.

  • Kunz, George Frederick, 1856-1932.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The curious lore of precious stones : being a description of their sentiments and folk lore, superstitions, symbolism, mysticism, use in medicine, protection, prevention, religion, and divination, crystal gazing, birthstones, lucky stones and talismans, astral, zodiacal and planetary / by George Frederick Kunz, with 86 illustrations in color, doubletone and line. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    nomena embraced under the designation of telepathy,— the subconscious influence of one mind over an absent or distant mind,—and the wireless transmission of power in wireless telegraphy and telephony, may go far to make us hesitate before condemning as utterly preposterous many of the tales of enchantment and magical influence. If the unconscious will of one individual can affect the thoughts and feelings of another individual at a great distance and without the intervention of any known means of communication, as is confidently asserted by many competent investigators in the domain of tele- pathy, their claims being supported by many strange happenings, perhaps the result of coincidence, but pos- sibly due to the operation of some unknown law, does this not give a color of verity to the statements regarding the ancient magicians and their spells'? Auto-suggestion may also afford an explanation of much that is mysterious in the effects attributed to precious stones, for if the wearer be firmly convinced that the gem he is wearing produces certain results, this conviction will impress itself upon his thought and hence upon his very organism. He will really experience the influence, and the effects will manifest themselves just as powerfully as though they were caused by vibrations or emanations from the material body of the stone. All this may serve to explain the persistence of the belief in magic arts. A few hundred years ago, a Hun- garian woman was accused of having murdered two or three hundred young girls, and at her trial she confessed that her object was to use the blood of her victims to renew her youth and beauty, for the blood of innocent virgins was supposed to have wonderful properties. In some parts of England to-day there is a superstitious belief that an article of clothing worn by a person, or