Also called Whitby jet, gagate, azabache, black amber
Jet is fossilised wood, a light black gem that Romans in Britain carved into amulets against the evil eye and Victorians wore in mourning. Today people use it as a protective and grieving stone.
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Take care: Jet is soft and brittle, so keep it away from heat, harsh cleaners and hard knocks. Never leave the candle burning unattended.
Jet collected near Whitby was worked in York and Malton into rings, beads and pendants. Medusa-head pendants found with young women in Roman York were believed to turn evil away, and small jet bears buried with infants may have been guardians.
Uses: carved jet pendant
At the end of the Middle Ages, Santiago de Compostela became a centre for jet religious objects and amulets sold to pilgrims, made from Asturian jet. In Spain and Latin America an azabache, often a jet fist or bead, is still pinned on babies against mal de ojo.
Uses: azabache charm
Queen Victoria wore jet in mourning, most famously after Prince Albert died in 1861, and mourning dress made Whitby jet a booming industry that peaked in the early 1870s. Cheaper mourning pieces used black glass called French jet, vulcanite or bog oak.
Uses: jet brooch or beads
Jet is a type of lignite formed from wood, much of it from trees related to the monkey puzzle, compressed under the sea about 180 million years ago. The best-known source is the Jet Rock of the Yorkshire coast near Whitby. People in Britain wore jet from the Neolithic, and Bronze Age necklaces of jet beads survive. In Roman Britain jet from Whitby was worked at York and Malton in the 3rd and 4th centuries, into Medusa pendants and animal figures believed to guard against evil.
Santiago de Compostela sold jet pilgrim amulets from the late Middle Ages, and the azabache still guards against the evil eye. Victorian mourning made Whitby jet famous, with over 1,000 workers in Whitby at its peak in the early 1870s, falling to about 300 by 1884. Today it is worn as a protective and grieving stone. Crystal healing has no scientific support: in a 1999 Goldsmiths experiment by Christopher French and colleagues, volunteers holding fake crystals reported the same sensations as those holding real quartz. Black glass, vulcanite, plastic and anthracite are all sold as jet; real jet feels warm and light and leaves a brown streak.
A blue glass eye bead hung in the home or worn on the body so that envious or admiring looks are caught and reflected before they can do harm.
A gentle remembrance ritual for someone who has died, drawing on old mourning customs: stopping the clock, covering the mirror, telling the bees and giving the grief a voice. It is a way to honor loss, not to make it disappear.
The Latin American evil eye, believed to strike babies and small children who are admired too strongly. Families prevent it with a touch from the admirer and a red bracelet or jet azabache charm, and treat it with an egg sweep and prayer.
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