August Birthstone: Peridot
August’s birthstone is Peridot, with Sardonyx as the traditional alternative — the meaning attached to it, the color it is, how it is worn, and the zodiac signs that share the month.
- Birthstone
- Peridot
- Alternative
- Sardonyx
- Color
- Lime Green, Olive
- Recorded for
- Strength, Protection, Renewal, Joy
- Leo
- stone: Peridot
- Virgo
- stone: Sapphire
August's stone and its single color
Peridot is one of only two gems that occur in a single color regardless of what you do to them — the other is the similarly stubborn green of the same mineral family — and it is August's birthstone. The green is not emerald's deep forest tone or jade's milky one; it is brighter, slightly yellow, olive in larger stones and lime in smaller ones, and it has been mined in the same place for three thousand years.
Sardonyx is the month's alternative: a banded chalcedony, usually red and white, and the traditional stone for engraved seals and cameos. It belongs to the older lists rather than the modern ones, and its association with August predates any organized birthstone calendar.
The recorded qualities for the month are strength, protection, renewal and joy, and they divide cleanly between the two stones. Peridot carries renewal and joy — the lightness of the color does most of the work there — while sardonyx carries strength and protection, being the stone people carved into seals and armor settings.
What peridot has meant
Peridot's history is unusually old and unusually literal: it was mined on an island in the Red Sea from before records begin, and the Egyptian sources describe it as the gem of the sun. Meteorites have also delivered it to Earth, a fact the modern trade enjoys rather more than the ancient one did.
Its recorded use is against the things that arrive uninvited — nightmares, bad luck, ill intent — and the older lists kept it as a stone for people who had reason to sleep badly. The word renewal attached to it comes from the same root: something worn for getting through a hard stretch and coming out the other side.
The joy in the list is the odd item and probably the most accurate. Peridot has never been a ceremonial stone and rarely a royal one. It has been the gem people chose for themselves, which is why its reputation is domestic rather than imperial, and why it appears so often in the animal records of this site as well.
August's signs: the Sun's month
Leo runs through most of August, and its recorded stone is peridot, which is also the month's stone. The Leo page gathers that portrait: fixed fire, ruled by the Sun, confident, generous, charismatic, and famously aware of being watched.
Virgo takes over around the twenty-third and its recorded stone is sapphire — the blue of September. The Virgo page carries the rest: mutable earth, ruled by Mercury, meticulous, practical, and harder on itself than on anyone else.
So the Sun's own month is also the month when the Sun's sign agrees with the calendar. That happens for exactly half the year's months and it happens here for the brightest one, which the tradition has never treated as anything other than pleasing. A birthday before the twenty-third of August has one clear answer to what its stone is; anyone born later holds a green and a blue and has to choose.
Wearing peridot and sardonyx
Peridot is soft for a gem — around six and a half — which means it scratches more easily than its price suggests and should be treated like the delicate stone it is. It also dislikes sudden temperature changes and cleaning solutions, and the traditional care note is a dry soft cloth rather than a bath. Large stones are usually set in protective mounts for exactly this reason.
Sardonyx is tougher and takes carving, which is why it survives in ancient seals and why it was set into signet rings. It was traditionally worn as a flat surface rather than a sparkle, and it is one of the few stones on the calendar whose value lies in what can be cut into it.
Neighboring months: July keeps ruby and September keeps sapphire, so August's green sits between the year's most expensive red and its most recognizable blue.
Common questions
What is August's birthstone?＋
Peridot is August's birthstone, a green gem that occurs in only one color and has been mined on the same Red Sea island for roughly three thousand years. Sardonyx - a banded chalcedony carved for seals and cameos - is the traditional alternative, and its association with the month is older than any formal birthstone list. The month's recorded qualities are strength, protection, renewal and joy, split roughly between the two stones: sardonyx takes the protective half, peridot the lighter one. Unusually for a gemstone, peridot also arrives on Earth in meteorites, which is true and has been used in marketing ever since.
What does peridot symbolize?＋
Renewal, joy, and protection against things that arrive uninvited. The older lists kept peridot for people who slept badly, and the Egyptians called it the gem of the sun because it was mined in the Red Sea and never changed color. Renewal follows from that use: a stone for getting through a difficult stretch and out the other side. The unusual part of its reputation is how unroyal it is. Peridot was rarely ceremonial and seldom a stone of rank. It became the gem a person bought for their own pocket, which is why it turns up in household amulets far more often than in crowns.
Which zodiac signs are born in August?＋
Leo holds most of August and Virgo takes the last third, with the month handing over in its final third. Leo's recorded stone is peridot, which is also August's birthstone, so a birthday in the month's opening stretch finds both systems agreeing on one green stone. Virgo's stone is sapphire, which belongs to September, so a late-August birthday produces two different colors and two different traditions of use. The sign pages linked above set out the full portraits, including the reasoning behind each assignment in the traditional lists.
The birthstone calendar
Previous month: July — Ruby·Next: September — Sapphire