Birthstone & Birth Flower
Discover the birthstone and birth flower of your month, with a fortune for the month.
Pairing a gem with each month is a long European custom, and the twelve-month list in common use today spread from one drawn up by an American jewellers’ association early in the twentieth century. Other countries and other eras name different stones, so there is no single correct list. The birth flowers follow the European tradition of assigning a meaning to each bloom.
How it works
Your birth month is taken from your birth date to find that month's stone and flower. Lunar birthdays are converted to the solar calendar before the month is set.
What you'll get
You see your month's birthstone and what it stands for, its birth flower and meaning, the personality the stone describes, the texture of love, career, money, and health, and this month's fortune.
Where the meanings came from
The meanings attached to birthstones mostly came from the colour and nature of the stone. Red garnet was linked to blood and vitality, green emerald to what grows, clear diamond to what does not change. These are figures of speech people arrived at from long looking, not meanings that arise from any power in the stone itself. If the figure stays with you, that is enough, and if it does not, nothing is lost by setting it aside.
How to read the flower and its meaning
The meanings given to birth flowers come from the European custom of assigning a sense to each bloom and sending them back and forth. It is the language of a time when a flower tucked into a letter stood in for words, so it still reads like a sentence today. If the stone and the flower tell different stories, there is no need to choose between them: take it as one month seen from two angles. Both are long-used figures, and neither has any claim to being the correct one.
Using it without buying the stone
There is no need to buy your birthstone. Using its colour once, in clothing or in some small object, does the same work, and a notebook or a scarf in that shade is easier to live with than a ring. Glass or ceramic in the same shade serves just as well. Keeping the symbol near you is the point, not the price, so do not let this section become a reason to spend. As a hint when choosing a gift it is about right.
When you do not like your stone
It is common not to care for the stone of the month you were born in. The list itself is only one tradition among several, so there is nothing wrong with keeping a stone from another month that you do like. Countries genuinely differ on some months, and some lists give two or more stones to a single month. Remembering that this is not a list with a settled answer makes it easier to treat the whole thing as a choice rather than an assignment.
What not to use a birthstone for
There is no scientific basis for the claim that a stone cures illness or alters the energy of the body. If you are unwell, treatment comes first, and a stone should never stand in for it. The same goes for the notion that a costlier stone works more strongly, which reads more like a selling point than a tradition. Enjoying an old symbol tied to your month is what this section is for.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do birthstones not differ by country?
There are several traditions. Here we follow the widely used Western list of monthly birthstones and birth flowers.
Which month applies to a lunar birthday?
It is converted to the solar calendar first, and the stone of that month is used. Choosing lunar on the form handles it automatically.
How am I meant to use the stone and flower?
Read what that month's symbol stands for and take the line that stays with you as a guide for the month — that is about the right use. When choosing a gift, checking the other person's birthstone and birth flower gives you something to talk about, and it makes a nice line to write in a birthday card.
When does the monthly fortune change?
The monthly reading here is fixed to your birth month, so it stays the same as the calendar moves. For a flow that changes by the day or month, read it alongside the daily fortune or the horoscope.