Carnelian
Carnelian is red-orange chalcedony, one of the oldest stones engraved as seals. Ancient Egyptians made heart amulets of it, Islamic tradition held that the Prophet wore a carnelian seal ring, and a medieval Spanish lapidary said it gave a timid speaker courage.
Meaning
Carnelian is the red stone the Romans called sarda. Pliny the Elder wrote that it was first found at Sardis, and that no precious stone was in more common use among the ancients; the Bostock and Riley notes identify his sarda as carnelian, a variety of chalcedony. A crystal seller interviewed by The Guardian in 2019 called it a stone of empowerment, and George Frederick Kunz recorded the custom in Persia of engraving it with the name of one of the twelve imams.
Origin and history
In Egypt carnelian was the favourite precious material for heart amulets. Of the 47 heart amulets Kunz counted in the Cairo Museum, nine were carnelian, more than any other stone, and a chapter of the Book of the Dead, the 29th, was cut on carnelian. The Metropolitan Museum of Art explains why the colour mattered: in Egyptian amulets red was linked with dangerous forces and for that very reason was thought protective.
Pliny adds that the most esteemed sarda came from near Babylon, and that the comic poets Menander and Philemon made much of it on stage.
The Prophet’s ring and the imams
Kunz reports that carnelian’s popularity as a talisman among Muslims was put down to the Prophet having worn a silver ring set with an engraved carnelian seal on the little finger of his right hand, and that the imam Ja‘far said that a man who wore one would have all his desires granted. Carnelians engraved in Arabic with prayers against the devil and the envious were worn, Kunz writes, because envy was believed to take away a person’s health or wealth.
Courage for the timid
The Lapidario of Alfonso X of Castile recommended carnelian to anyone with a weak voice or a fear of speaking, so that the warm-coloured stone would give them the courage to speak boldly and well. An Armenian writer of the seventeenth century, quoted by Kunz, went further: no man wearing a carnelian, he said, was ever found in a collapsed house or under a fallen wall.
Napoleon’s seal
One carnelian seal, engraved “The slave Abraham relying upon the Merciful (God)”, was picked up by Napoleon in Egypt. Napoleon III said that the First Consul “always carried it about him, as his nephew did later”, and it passed to the Prince Imperial, who wore it on a string round his neck. It was lost when he was killed in South Africa.
In crystal shops today
A vendor at the Tucson gem show told The Guardian in 2019 that carnelian was a stone of empowerment, good for women going out on their own or moving into a new home. In Kunz’s table of older birthstone lists, carnelian is August’s most common stone, ahead of sardonyx (August birthstone).
Where you’ll see it today
whatdoesthissymbolmean.comAugust birthstones: peridot, spinel and sardonyxCarnelian is August's commonest stone in Kunz's older lists; sardonyx is on today'sRead next
- Next in Crystal and gemstone loreOnyxOnyx is banded chalcedony, its layers often black and white, and its Greek name means “fingernail”. In lapidary lore it was the stone of discord: worn at the neck, it was said to cool love and part lovers.
- The same shape in Christmas symbolsHollyAn evergreen with prickly leaves and red berries, used to deck English houses and churches at Christmas since at least the 15th century. The carol The Holly and the Ivy pairs its white flower, red berry, prickle and bitter bark each with a verse about Mary and Jesus.
See also
Amethyst, Rose quartz, Clear quartz, Citrine, Bloodstone, Moonstone.
Sources
- Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, book 37, chapter 31, Translated by John Bostock and H. T. Riley, 1855, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 37, chapter 31 (Sarda)
- The Curious Lore of Precious Stones, by George Frederick Kunz, 1913, J. B. Lippincott (Project Gutenberg edition), ch. 2 (Carnelian); ch. 1 (Egyptian amulets); ch. 4 (talismans)
- Ancient Egyptian Amulets, Isabel Stünkel, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Materials
- Dark crystals: the brutal reality behind a booming wellness craze, Tess McClure, 17 September 2019, The Guardian, Tucson gem show
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from circles.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
Added .