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Direct Shopping Network is revamping the "opal section" of our website. Look here starting this weekend for new and exciting opals. Every day new opals will be made available

Opal is recognized as October’s birthstone and the fourteenth year anniversary gemstone. The opal is very distinctive within the world of gemstones. Many gem collectors develop a true passion for opals. The interest in opals is not limited to the vast rainbow of obtainable colors and individuality of every stone but also the many legends and folklore related to them. The Greeks and Romans believed the stones to be of good luck. This stone was also associated with mystical powers. Marbodius, Bishop of Rennes, an ecclesiastical writer and hymnologist, in the year 1035 at Angers, France, declared the opal as the patron stone of thieves; claiming it gave the wearer the power of invisibility.  

However it is Australia where the most fascinating and wide spread stories are still told. The Australian miners whose country is a major source for opals refer to the opal as the Rainbow Serpent, translated from the mythological creature of the Aborigines. The name makes perfect sense, as the Aborigines believed that this mythological creature left a rainbow colored trail of Opals as it moved across the geography of Australia. The Rainbow Serpent was a powerful and compassionate protector, it was closely associated to land, water and fertility. Considered "the agent of destiny" for the Aborigines, its trail of what we know as opals was a sign of protection provided by the Rainbow Serpent.