Emerald
σμάραγδοςThe pivotal stone: where the breastplate had garnet (which cannot split light), Revelation has emerald, the swap that makes all twelve stones split light.
- Greek name
- smaragdos (σμάραγδος)
- Modern identification
- Beryl (var. Emerald)
- Chemical formula
- Be₃Al₂(SiO₃)₆
- Crystal system
- Hexagonal
- Optical class
- Uniaxial (−)
- Birefringence (Δn)
- 0.004–0.010
- Refractive indices
- 1.565–1.602
- Color / appearance
- Green (Cr/V-bearing)
Strong dichroism: green/blue-green. The one substitution from the Exodus breastplate that changes the list's optics (replacing cubic, isotropic garnet), completing the list as wholly anisotropic.
Emerald is anisotropic: enter it with a single ray of light and it leaves as two, split apart by the crystal's inner order. This is birefringence, the same property shared by every one of the twelve foundation stones, and by none of the cubic stones left out of the list.
In the high-priestly breastplate of Exodus 28, this position held Carbuncle (Garnet?), a cubic stone that cannot split light. Its replacement here by Emerald is the single substitution that makes all twelve stones light-splitters.
Hold the light in your hand
The Revelation Stones collection brings each foundation stone into the room with you, and the Light Between research explains what you are looking at.