Red Banded Agate
Banded Red Agate
(Silicon Dioxide)
Rarity: Common
Source: United States, India, Morocco, Czech Republic, Brazil, Africa
Image - R.Weller/Cochise College
Banded Agates:
The banded agates have layers of agatized quartz, giving an appearance of bright bands or stripes. They too are the strong protectors, reinforcing your strength and providing protection if you are a very sensitive person. Wearing a banded agate is like taking extra Vitamin B. It is recommended if you are someone who needs extra courage or extra energy to face your stresses. For you who are drained by upsetting energies in your environment, it is an excellent stone. Banded agates have been reported to ease spastic discomfort from within, as well as from without. You might call them an antispasmodic soother stone as well as stress relieving. When you are under heavy stress, you often express yourself as being tied in knots and the bands of the agate can untie those holds. Then can serve to keep out your tensions. This is a “call out the troops for protection” stone.
A fragment of a Greek Lapidary, probably written in the third of fourth century, gives a list of seven amulets used for seafaring people. The number might suggest a connection with the days of the week, and the amulets were perhaps regarded as most efficacious when used on the respective days. For the sixth amulet the ophiokiolus stone was selected, most probably a kind of banded agate, for it is said to have been girdled with stripes like the body of a snake; whoever whore this had no need to fear the surging ocean.
One of the rarest and most significant specimens illustrating the use of valuable stones for religious ceremonial purposes in the pagan world is in the Morgan-Tiffany collection. It is an ancient Babylonian axe-head made of banded agate. So regular, indeed, is the disposition of the layers in this agate that one might be justified in denominating it an onyx. Its prevailing hue is what may be called deer-brown; some white splotches now apparent are evidently due to the action of fire or that of some alkali. This axe-head bears an inscription in archaic cuneiform characters, and presumably in the so-called Sumerian tongue, that believed to have been spoken by the founders of the Babylonian civilization. The form of the inscription indicates that the object dates from an earlier period than 2000 B.C.E.
Branded Agates in High-Priest Breastplates:
In the attempt to determine the identity of the stones enumerated in Exodus xxvii and xxxix, as adorning the breastplate of the high-priest, we must bear in mind that this “breastplate of Aaron” and the one described by Josephus, and brought by Titus to Rome after the capture of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., are in all probability entirely distinct objects. The former, if it ever existed, must have been composed of the stones known to and used by the Egyptians of the thirteenth or fourteenth century, B.C.E. The stone placed in the eighth position called Shebo was an agate. The etymology of the word shebo suggests that it designated more especially a banded agate, and that set in the proto-breastplate was most probably one with gray and white bands, as this variety often appears in Egyptian work. There would have been no lack of contrast between this stone and the reddish or yellowish brown agate, of uniform color, which may have occupied the seventh position. For the later breastplate we may choose any one of the many kinds of banded agate.
Red Babded Agate
This is a stone for grounding and centering the energies of the Root or
Base Chakra. The color for the Root Chakra is red or black and it is
grounded with your power. When this Chakra is open, you feel in good
health and connected with your physical body. It is used to ground
your essence into your physical body. This Chakra gives you
determination, grounds you and helps in survival in the physical
realms. Red is a projecting stones which assists in destroy disease,
strengthens conscious, courage, strength, physical energy, luck, and
success. Red stones are used for protection, courage, energy. Help
with blood, relieve anemia, stop bleeding, heal rashes and wounds.
General Agates:
Agate is a form of chalcedony or cryptocrystalline quartz, having many varieties, which are described by a long list of different names and nicknames. Bishop Marbodus of Rennes said in the twelfth century, and Pierre de Boniface repeated in the fourteenth century that agates make their possessors eloquent, prudent, amiable, and agreeable. These miraculous tones also sharpen eyesight, increase physical strength, and alleviate thirst. Moslems claimed that powdered agate drunk in water would cure insanity. The Book of Saxon Leechdoms said in 1864 that agate prevents harm from thunder, sorcery, demonic possession, poison, disease, drunkenness, and skin eruptions.
Modern notions about the powers of agate have obvious correlations with ancient ones. One New Age mystic says that agate will prevent nightmares, help eyesight, improve blood circulation, strengthen the heart, stomach, and hair, protect children from falls, and prevent poisonings. Another declares that kidney stones and gallstones can be “disintegrated and flushed” by no more troublesome therapy than daily meditations with an agate.
The principal difference between the ancient notions and the modern ones is that the latter usually support their prescriptions by bizarre pseudoscientific explanations having no relation to physical realities. For example, picture agate is said to assist in the body’s assimilation of silica, although silica is not assimilated by a mammalian body. It is said that agate “reverses the flow of energy within the body or center that is upset, much like reversing the poles in a magnet.” One would like to see a verifiable demonstration of this. Moreover, agate “has the interesting ability of defining truth or helping to bring it out,” something that might profitably accompany such a demonstration.
According to Edgar Cayce, agate carries “an incense to the finer self that makes for an awakening, an opening of the inner self for the receptiveness. And attunement is made through such vibrations.” The inner selves of crystal mystics, however, seldom open for the receptiveness when they approach the mysteries of syntax.
Diversity is perhaps the most obvious quality of agate, as may be seen from its many nicknames. Its patterns and colors are infinitely variable. Some agates of the “landscape” or “ruin” type can so closely resemble pictures that one can hardly believe they were not painted by an artist. Agates can be opaque, waxy, translucent, or almost transparent in thin slices. Lapidaries love agate because it is fine-textured and tough, fracture-resistant, yet easy to cut and polish. It takes dyes well. It is an excellent cabochon stone. Many a key ring charm or pocket “lucky piece” is a piece of agate. With all its diversity, agate can constitute the entire collection of a specialist and still look like a collection of many different stones.
Attributes:
Formed from microscopic crystals of quartz laid down in bands, this is a very stable crystal. Agates are grounding stones, bringing about an emotional, physical, and intellectual balance. They aid in centering and stabilizing physical energy.
Agate has the power to harmonize yin and yang, the positive and negative forces that hold the universe in place. A soothing and calming stone, Agate gently facilitates acceptance of one’s self. This builds self-confidence. It aids self-analysis and perception of hidden circumstances, bringing to your attention any disease that is interfering with your well being.
Agates enhance mental function as they improve concentration, perception, and analytical abilities, leading to practice solutions. Agate’s love of truthfulness encourages speaking one’s own truth. Agates with clear crystals can stimulate memories.
Emotionally, this crystal overcomes negativity and bitterness of the heart. It heals inner anger, fostering love and the courage to start again. It is useful for any kind of emotional trauma. It creates a sense of safety and security by dissolving internal tension.
Spiritually, Agate raises consciousness and links into collective consciousness and awareness of the oneness of life. It encourages quiet contemplation and assimilation of life experiences, leading to spiritual growth and inner stability.
Healing:
Agate stabilizes the aura, eliminating and transforming negative energies. Its cleansing effect is powerful at the physical and emotional levels. Placed on the heart, it will heal the emotional disease that prevents acceptance of love. Placed on the abdomen or taken as an elixir, Agate stimulates the digestive process and relieves gastritis. It heals the eyes, stomach, and uterus; it cleanses the lymphatic system and the pancreas; it strengthens blood vessels and heals skin disorders.
Magical Uses:
In general agate is utilized in spells and magical rituals involving strength, bravery, longevity, and so on. The numerous types of agate – vaguely distinguishable by color or markings – are used in various types of magic. Though any type of agate may be worn for the above uses, there are particular types of agate with traditional energies. The Banded Agate restores bodily energy and eases stressful situations. The Red Agate is also known as “Blood Agate,” this stone was worn in ancient Rome to guard against insect bites, to heal the blood, and to promote calm and peace.
Worn on the arm or carried while gardening, the agate increases your plant’s fertility and ensures a bountiful crop or healthy flowers. Charged agates can be ‘planted’ in the garden to promote abundance and small agates hung on trees increase their yield.
In ancient Rome an agate worn in a ring on the hand or bound to the left arm ensured the favor of the vegetative deities, who would cause the Earth to be fruitful.
A stone often utilized in love spells, agate is also worn to avoid envious thoughts and to remove spite; in other words, to make its wearer amiable and agreeable. Spite has no place in the search for love.
It is also worn as a truth amulet, to ensure that your words are pure, and also to ensure favors from powerful persons.
Agate jewelry is given to children to be worn as protective amulets. Agate is thought to be particularly useful in preventing children from falling and is also worn by adults to avoid stumbling.
An agate held in the mouth relieves thirst. It was once used to agate reduce fevers by applying it to the forehead. Held in the hand the agate calms and refreshes the body and helps it heal minor health problems.
Agates were popular talisman in the Middle East to ensure the healthy state of the blood. In ancient Britain they were worn to guard against skin diseases. Triangular shaped agates were used in Syria to avert intestinal problems.
Agates taken to bed were generally supposed to cure insomnia and bring pleasant dreams. Ancient Britons believed that agates would ward off skin diseases.
In ceremonial magic, agates were engraved with serpents or men riding on snakes. Worn as an amulet this magical jewel prevented snake, scorpion, and insect bites and stings.
The agate is sometimes used in protective spells and rituals and was once thought to be a sovereign guard against sorcery, demons and fiendish possession.
In Asia, agates were used much as quartz crystal is today. To ascertain future trends the scryer gazed at the markings on the stone, allowing the deep mind to project its psychic impulses to the conscious mind.
Sources:
Cunningham, Scott; Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem and Metal Magic; Llewellyn Publications; 1988
Hall, Judy; The Crystal Bible; Godsfield Press; 2003
Kunz, George Frederick; Curiour Lore of Precious Stones; Halcyon House; 1913
Mella, Dorothee L; Stone Power; Warner Books; 1986
Walker, Barbara G; The Book of Sacred Stones; Harper Collins Publishers; 1989
Research done by Belladonna in From the Branch Studies