Far back during the time of Moses, twelve gemstones featured on the Jewish High Priest’s Breastplate of Aaron. Each stone represents one of the twelve tribes of Israel. In ancient India, gems were correlated with the planets and Hindu astrological signs.  From these origins, we have derived the idea of “birthstones”. Mystical writings, which have been dated back to the first century AD, indicated a particular stone was to be worn during each astrological sign in order to live harmoniously with the celestial spirits. Gemstones were not worn as birth amulets until the eighteenth century.