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Minerals and their healing properties in the Lapidary of Alfonso X (3rd part)

THE POWER OF MINERALS. CURATIVE AND MEDICINAL PROPERTIES.

Aries

MAGNETAT or MAGNETES or AIMANT (MAGNET) (1st degree of the sign of Aries)

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1. Magnetite.

Description: Black, a little bit towards red. The best ones are the ones that look blue. It is located in many places. It pulls the iron with great force, marvelling that, being that the iron defeats all other metals by the force it has, this stone defeats it and makes it come to itself obediently. To lose its power, it must be placed in garlic or onion water for 3 days and 3 nights. To regain it, it must be put in goat’s blood for another 3 days and 3 nights, shedding the blood every day.
Healing/medicinal properties: Carried by weak hearted men, it gives strength, and if they are strong, it strengthens them. If the ground stone mixed with oil is given to a man poisoned with iron filings or another poisons mixed with iron or wounded with poisoned iron, it will come out from underneath and heal. It will also heal the poisoned sore if it is placed over it.
★ The stone seems to correspond to Magnetite, which belongs to the Oxide Class, and its Chemical Formula is FeFe2O4.


GAGATIZ or GAGATES (JET) (3rd degree of the sign of Aries)

Description: Turbid clay color, it is opaque.
Healing / medicinal properties: If it is polished and given to drink what is detached to a man whose body smells badly for reason of sweat, it eliminates it and makes that it smells well. If a man who has worms in his intestines called pumpkin seeds is girded on his belly, he makes them die and throw them away.

ALJOFAR (PEARL) (11th degree of the sign of Aries)

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2. Pearl.


Description: Very white, opaque, round and polished stone. A very noble and precious stone due to its shape and beauty, which does not need the help of a craftsman. It acquires more value the whiter and bigger it is. It is found in many places and is bred in the shells.
Healing/medicinal properties: It helps a lot to the tremors of the heart, to the sad ones and to all illness that comes for melancholy. It cleanses the blood from the heart and clears it, takes away the turbidity from it. For this reason, they are included in the medicines and are given to these patients to feed. In addition, powders are made from them and placed in the eyes since they make vision much clearer, strengthening the nerves, removing the vapours and wiping away the moisture.



ANNORA or LIMESTONE (19th degree of the sign of Aries)

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3. Limestone. Pamukkale (Turkey).

Description: The lime is obtained from it. It is in many places and is very used by the man in his works, because it joins very strong some stones with others, it closes the perforated places, preventing that the water goes out, it fixes the pipes, it closes ships… Mixed with Azarnech and smeared on the hair of the animals, it eliminates them in little time; if they are left a lot of time, they damage the leather.When it is burned, the fire is enclosed in it until water is poured over it. Then it shows the heat inside it as the smoke comes out.
Healing/medicinal properties: Ground with oil and smeared with it the big and wide sores, they heal quickly and well. It is also a great poison if it is ground together with Azarnech, because if someone is given to drink it will perforate the bladder, it causes sores in their intestines and significantly damages their liver.
Limestone is composed mainly of Calcite (CaCO3), which when heated is transformed into Quicklime or Calcium Oxide (CaO) and Carbon Dioxide (CO2). When water (H2O) is added to the Quicklime a large amount of heat is released and the result is slaked or hydrated Lime or Calcium Hydroxide (Ca (OH)2).
😉 In our shop you can find a large selection of Calcites.



YZF or YASPIO (JASPER) (20th degree of the sign of Aries)

Description: The best specimens are green (elongated shape), wine coloured (round), with white and translucent veins (various colours), air coloured and smoke coloured. Most of them are translucent and, those that are not, are splendid.

jaspe-oceano-vetas-esfera-madagascar-mineralitum
4. Jasper with veins, from Madagascar.

Curative/medicinal properties:
Green Jasper has the colour of the stone called Prasma. Hanging from the neck, it helps in throat illnesses, as it ends the pains and heals them soon. Moreover, if you look at it every day in the morning, it strengthens the vision and comforts the spirit of the person who wears it and gives him/her joy.
White wine Jasper (which turns to red-yellow) is known as Cumynon and is beautiful, clear and translucent. It is the most precious of all. The one who carries it heals from the called falling sickness (epilepsy). It is good for the diseases that come from melancholy, straining the heart and making it happy. That is why it is included in the medicines that treat these illnesses. Ground up and given to drink to the one with the sore intestines, it heals much more quickly.
Jasper with translucent white veins is the noblest of all jaspers. It is called Astarnuz, which means “similar to a star”, since the veins shine like a star. When it is put into the fire and stays longer, the more it increases its light and beauty. The one who carries it strengthens his heart and gives him joy and allows man to do his business with ease. If the one who has a bellyache or a liverache hangs up the stone, he is healed if the disease is new; if it is old, he gets great benefit and does not allow it to advance.

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5. Mosque of Cordoba. Columns of Jasper.

The air coloured Jasper is known as Belyniz. It has no color of its own. It is clear and transparent when there is clarity, and cloudy, when there is turbidity. It removes migraine headaches if it is hung over the part of the head where the pain occurs. If it is hung over the lads, their breeding is better and they are healthier. Also, it makes them not crybaby.
Smoke coloured Jasper is Known as Gaciuz, which means “smoky”. It is dark and the least valuable of all the jaspers mentioned. The large stones are used to make pillars or thresholds for doors and beds. If you drink its powder in a weight equivalent to 4 drachmas (1 drachma= 3,594 g.), the one who has pain in the colon, heals. If he sticks it or hangs it over his belly, he also gets the same effect, but not as quickly.
Jasper is considered a type of Calcedonia, which is a microcrystalline variety of Quartz.
😉 In our shop you can find a great selection of Jaspers and a great variety of Quartzes. Visit us.


ANNOXATIR or AMMONIA SALT  (30th degree of the sign of Aries)

Description: The best are the white and clear ones that resemble glass, although there are some that have black or white drops and others that are brown. They are taken out of the mines in small and very hard stones and they are very salty, blocking the tongue when they are put in it. By spraying the house with the brine, the snakes do not approach.
Healing/medicinal properties: Used to clean impurities, mixed in alcohol used for the eyes or in powder for the teeth. In animals, the powder is used to pour down the throat of those who have leeches, and kill them and have them thrown out.
Ammonia Salt belongs to the Halides Class and its Chemical Formula is NH4Cl.

Tauro

DIAMOND or MEZ (1st degree of the sign of Taurus)

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6. Diamond.

Description: The best are those that resemble glass. Some people make counterfeits of these stones with glass, although, if they are put into the fire, they melt, which is not the case with diamond. There are other stones that are yellow, purple or similar to burnished iron. Only the smaller stones carried by the Baribicen River reach us, since it is not possible to reach their source where there are also very large pieces due to the existing danger (snakes and other poisonous beasts).
It breaks all the other stones, piercing or cutting them and none of them can overcome it. But there is a type of Lead called Tin, which does break this stone, being able to turn it into dust.
They’re square and sharp in shape. They are used to make cameos on other stones or to carve them, using very small, thin and sharp pieces of this stone.
Healing/medicinal properties: In powder form or by introducing a small piece into the bladder placed on the tip of a thin iron, it breaks the stones formed there and the person heals. It should only be done if the sick seem not to heal.
The stones are toxic, because of their angular shape the beasts scratch on them and transmit poison to them. So when men put them in their mouths for a long time, their teeth fall out. Also, if they are given to drink ground, in weight equivalent to a drachma, along with ground Tin, the man dies.
Diamond belongs to the Elements Class and its Chemical Symbol is C. It is constituted by crystallized Carbon in the cubic system. It is the hardest mineral (10 on the Mohs scale).

CORAL (11th degree of the sign of Taurus)

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7. Coral.

Description:

It forms in the sea, as a tree, and while it is there it is soft and, when they take it out, in contact with the air, it hardens. It resembles the so-called sea grass. It is found in many places. It is opaque and reddish in colour, the more the better.
Healing/medicinal properties: Its property is to constipate. If it is given to drink, ground and dissolved in wine or something, to those who spit blood, it helps a lot. It does the same to those who cannot urinate.Drunk with some liquor, it will undo the abscess that forms in the spleen.
Coral is made up of colonies of many small animals, called polyps.


BLACK CORAL (12th degree of the sign of Taurus)

Description: It has the same characteristics as coral, but its smell is stronger and it is drier.
Healing/medicinal properties: It has all the virtues of the red coral, and in addition, if it is drunk ground it helps to the sores of the intestines and to the tremor of the heart, entering inside the medicines that are given for the happiness. Burnt and powdered, it helps a lot to wipe the tears from the eyes and is good to put into the alcohols that are applied to the eyes.

AMBER (18th degree of the sign of Taurus)

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8. Amber.

Description: Its color is pure yellow, although those that have green drops are the best and of greater virtue. It is a strong stone and hard to break. They are of big or small size, but always round. It is located in mines of clay, in the West.
Healing/medicinal properties: The one who carries it with him, does not get drunk by wine he drinks, nor does it feel as bad as the one who does not carry it. The effect is greater if it is carried in the mouth. If it is put in a vat or jar or container with wine, it takes away the power to intoxicate, but it does not take away the taste. It is usually hung from the necks of children so that they do not feel bad about the wine and grow up better and faster drinking it. For this reason, they set them on their glasses and other things they drank from, since the wine tasted good to them and was not bad for them.
Amber belongs to Organic Compounds Class. It is a fossilized tree resin.



IRON (24th degree of the sign of Taurus)

Description: : Its color is between black and brown, although it is more black. It lightens easily and more easily becomes cloudy. It is located in mines in many parts of the world and is one of the most well-known stones by man. Heated on fire, it can be shaped in any way. It is used to make weapons of many kinds. There are stones of a soft nature and of a strong nature, and of these there are some that the more they are put in hot water the more they harden and others that soften. There are irons that when they are melted and put into them medicines become so strong that they cut other irons (Alhinde/Andanico) and others that are strong in themselves (Steel) and that cut softer irons than these.
Healing/medicinal properties: If you heat it on fire, put it in water or wine and give it to drink to the one who has old diarrhea, it gets a great benefit and heals faster. The same healing effect is obtained by those who have sores in the intestines, abscess in the spleen or weakness in the stomach due to loosening and vomiting. Physicists use the slag and its powdered filings and put them into medicines because it helps many diseases.
Iron belongs to the Class called Elements and its Chemical Symbol is Fe (from latin “Ferrum”).
Steel is  an alloy of Iron and Carbon, the latter being in the range of 0.02% to 2%.

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9. Steel railway bridge in the Firth of Forth (Scotland).

THE END