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When I first started in the gem business, I had very little understanding of the esoteric power of gems or the astrological benefits of gemstones; in fact I was quite skeptical about such matters. My beginnings in the business, however, did have cosmic underpinnings. In the summer of 1979 I was student of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and was participating in a two-month meditation retreat held at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, along with several thousand other practitioners of Transcendental Meditation. I had been to similar assemblies in the United States and Israel and I was happy following the spiritual path.
Maharishi's organization had recently purchased the Fairfield campus of Parson's College in a remote agricultural region of southeast Iowa characterized by rolling hills and vast golden cornfields. Maharishi encouraged us to move to Fairfield to establish a spiritual community and to meditate in large groups. My heart was very settled due to all the meditation going on. When someone mentioned the possibility of importing rubies from Thailand I had a clear "Aha!" experience, and knew immediately that dealing with gems was to be my dharma and Fairfield was to be my home.
Learning the wholesale gem business was not easy, especially based in rural Iowa. I studied at the Gemological Institute of America in Santa Monica and received my Graduate Gemologist degree in early 1981, but it took almost twenty years to successfully master all aspects of buying and selling colored gemstones. Hard as it was to learn, however, the wholesale gem business proved to be a great blessing; the experience and the income generated provided support for what became my real passion--jyotish gems.
As I said, I was a skeptic at first, but in 1982 as I was struggling to find my feet in the business, an 8.68 carat white oval-cut sapphire came across my desk while on a buying trip to New York. It was the most beautiful white sapphire I had ever seen, but it was the strong spiritual energy it possessed that caught my eye. At the time white sapphires were beginning to increase in value, so it was a good commercial investment, but I had an impulse to keep this one for myself and actually wear it. Now, jewelry wasn't my style--all I had on was a wedding ring. So this was a very unusual thought for me. Having agreed to buy it, I wrapped the gem in paper and stuffed it in my wallet with the thought: 'let's see if this is good for me.' Almost immediately, my partner Steve called from Fairfield to say he had a request for a substantial amount of semi-precious stones from a Mid-West jewelry manufacturer. A second subtle impulse prompted me to ask the dealer from which I had bought the sapphire if he could help, even though he didn't normally trade in those kinds of semi-precious stones. Turned out he had exactly the right stones, left over from an old order. We made $7,000 net profit on that deal, more than my last year's entire annual income--a huge windfall! I thought, that's interesting, I wonder if the gem had anything to do with that?
That night, on another impulse, I decided to place the white sapphire under my pillow as I slept. This again was a completely unique thought. It was well before any astrologers in the West were recommending this as a way to test the suitability of a gemstone. I was rewarded with a blissful night of fully wide-awake consciousness. A divine golden light provided a background for all my dreams and during the non-dream state as well. When I awoke I decided that this stone was definitely for me and I had a pendant made to wear it around my neck. But it wasn't until several years later when I had my first Vedic astrology reading that I understood exactly why it worked so well.
As a Virgo rising, a white sapphire (a substitute for diamond/Venus) is good for both income (second house) and spiritual experiences (ninth house) which is exactly what happened. In subsequent years I added a beautiful four carat clear green emerald and, on the advice of an astrologer friend, a one and a half carat diamond. In both cases, I had immediate financial and spiritual results. In the case of the diamond, as soon as I taped it on my finger to try it out, I got a phone call that resulted in a $40,000 gemstone order from a very esoteric group in the Far East that wanted to purchase Jyotish gemstones.
By 1989, as well as developing my wholesale business, I was regularly supplying customers with Jyotish quality gemstones. Based on their experience and mine, I became fully convinced of the amazing power of these gems to improve people's lives. Much to the dismay of my wife, who shies away from the flamboyant, I added a second diamond and a higher quality emerald to my pendant. Fortunately for her peace of mind, it has always remained hidden from view under my shirt. More financial and spiritual benefits came with each stone. Urged on by a desire to find the best possible quality stones, I searched the planet for better and better sources for gemstones. At the same time I made an interesting discovery.
It is common among Vedic astrologers to recommend a minimum of two carats and sometimes five carats or more to have an effect. This has led many people, especially those with limited budgets, to favor size over quality when selecting a gemstone. In order to get the magic number of two, four, five carats or more, they sometimes go for inferior quality stones. I believe this is a huge mistake. I believe the effect of the gem is a result of the particular frequency of vibration of the color of the gemstone and is modified by the purity or clarity of the gemstone. Gems take pure white light, or pure potential consciousness, and transform it into colored, life-changing energy. For this to happen, it is vital that the gems are as flawless as possible and of good color. Experience has convinced me that the importance of high quality far outweighs that of size; and that increased size only matters if all other factors of quality, color and clarity are equal. In my opinion, a high quality two carat stone is much more effective than a four or even ten carat one of poor quality. In the case of certain expensive gems such as diamonds or rubies, one to one and a half carats of high quality will suffice. Furthermore, I believe that poor quality gems may actually produce mixed or negative results.
Another important thing I discovered is that not all gems, no matter what their obvious external qualities may be, are equal. After many years of poring over thousands, probably millions, of gems, I have developed an intuitive sense that some gems are more special than others. The best way that I can describe this is that I can "taste" the quality of gems deep down in my abdomen. Some have a definite "sweetness" which I would describe as more sattva present in them. I noticed that these stones always sell more easily and produce the best effects. People are naturally attracted to this sattva. Along with Vedic astrologer, Andrew Foss, for the past two years, I have been conducting a research project to determine which gems produce the best results based on the above criteria.
The initial results are very positive. From it I hope to develop guidelines to help everyone select the most effective gemstones for their clients. We plan to publish the study and the results will be posted on our web site, www.AstrologicalGem.com, so keep in touch.
