Jasper is an opaque, impure variety of silica, usually red, yellow or
brown in color. This mineral breaks with a smooth surface, and is used
for ornamentation or as a gemstone. It can be highly polished and is
used for vases, seals, and at one time for snuff boxes. When the colors
are in stripes or bands, it is called striped or banded jasper.
The Mayans, Druid priests, and Tibetan monks all knew the spiritual
power of crystal. The ancients used it to strengthen the sun’s rays
to bring heat, and the Chinese science of Feng-shui teaches that
arranging crystals around the home retains positive energy. Crystals
became important to these people because of the belief in their capacity
to store and amplify any power source fed into them - physical, mental,
emotional, or spiritual. Today’s crystal therapists say that
the stones' ability to work as a conductor allows energy to be
focused via a person's thoughts to stimulate healing. And many
people use crystal to focus attention on what they want. With a
little imagination, you too can use crystal's energy to access a
higher level of consciousness and turn a desire into reality.
The name means "spotted or speckled stone", and is derived via
Greek iaspis, (feminine noun)from a Semitic language
(cf. Hebrew yashepheh, Akkadian yashupu.
Green jasper was used to make bow drills in Mehrgarh between
4th-5th millennium BCE. Jasper is known to have been a
favourite gem in the ancient world; its name can be traced
back in Hebrew, Assyrian, Persian, Greek and Latin. On
Minoan Crete within present day Greece jasper was carved to
produce seals circa 1800 BC based upon archaeological recoveries
at the palace of Knossos. The word yashepheh in the Masoretic
text of Exodus 28:20, referring to a stone in the Hoshen, is
thus reflected in the Septuagint by the word Iaspis, and usually
translated into English as Jasper. Despite the most common form
of Jasper being red, scholars think that the yashepheh here
actually refers to a green form of Jasper - which was very
rare, and so highly prized; the Greeks used Iaspis to refer
to the green form, while the red form simply fell under
the term Sard - which just means red. Rebbenu Bachya argues
that this stone represents the tribe of Benjamin, but there
is actually a wide range of views among traditional sources
about which tribe the stone refers to.
In the Book of Revelation (21:11), the new Jerusalem descending
from heaven is described as follows: "It shone with the glory
of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious
jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal."
In jewelery practices, jaspers are traditional birthstones
for anyone born in the month of March.