"The beginning of wisdom," as Confucius said in his Analects, "is to call things by their right names."
That is the purpose of this book.
In Colombia, there is a such a mystique surrounding the Emerald that in some mines, when workers hit a pocket of crystals, all operations cease, and they are not even allowed to look at the specimens! The owners or their agents will collect the stones themselves…because they believe (erroneously) that some kind of Magic is preserved by others not-knowing.
If Knowledge really IS power, then my intent, dear reader, is to pass on the full breadth of my understanding for this gemstone to you. If you like Emeralds, or have ever been interested in how they form, then I wrote this book for you, too. If you are a fan of one emerald, chances are, you will be interested in both…because that is what happened to me.
I KNOW that red beryl is also Red Emerald…because I have seen it. It is hard to argue that a precious gemstone does NOT exist when it's staring you in the face. When I fell in love with this gemstone back in 2013 and began researching online...I discovered that only a few dozen photos existed! But the proof for what this variety is, for me, was found in the visual evidence shared in these pages.
There are written receipts listing sales of 'red emeralds' which date back to the 1970s…the name has been around for longer than I have been alive. Many scientists have even tried to prove red beryl was the same as the green, before...but they only ever managed to reveal pieces of the argument. Science can be purchased, and therefore, it is not the best source for providing consumers with the "Proof" they are entitled to -- Math is that discipline.
There are 77 classes of Uniform Polyhedra which exist in the entire world. Forever and ever. These "Geometric Solids" are the set of shapes for physical matter that exists in our universe. The first five are known as the Platonic Solids. The next thirteen are the Archimedean Solids. Kepler got four, and fifty-three are self-intersecting "star" forms or stellations. The last two classes are known as the Infinite Sets -- Prisms and Anti-Prisms.
In nature, the HEXAGONAL PRISM is treasured by mineral collectors for producing some of the most complex and intricately beautiful specimen geometries ever discovered. Although the number of modifications and morphologies are technically infinite, each variety of beryl can be defined as a limited number (or finite set) of known structural geometric alterations to the standard prism. The aquamarine set is the most-diverse (and the most-common)…but the red and green beryl sets are the most-identical.
Two things that are equal to the same thing (a geometric shape) are equal to each other. These photos serve as undeniable mathematical proof of equivalence between the red and green varieties. This is more than enough scientific justification to call both by the same name, as well.
A Dictionary's purpose is to define terms. My descriptors are not necessarily gemological, mineralogical or geological. I have chosen the words myself, and defined them simply to serve the collectors -- so they might have a vocabulary to describe these permutations to others. It doesn't sound like science…and it doesn't sound like math. Hopefully, it just sounds like me, describing to you what I see.
Some of the crystallographic and gemological similarities presented here were used to support the trade justification for (and a legitimate defense of) using the Red Emerald name, which this gemstone rightfully deserves. In 2017, the American Gem Trade Association recognized Red Emerald as a valid trade name for faceted Red Beryl. These minerals and photographs will always serve as an essential component in that argument, which helped lead to industry acknowledgment regarding the true nature of this wonderful and mesmerizing National Treasure only found in the United States of America:
The Red Emerald.
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