Are opals bad luck? It’s a persistent rumor, one that I’ve heard and seen many times. Let’s take a look at where this idea comes from and see if it’s worth heeding or not.

Are opals bad luck? Let’s trace the myth.

I was in high school the first time that I heard that opals are bad luck. A friend pulled me aside and said that a mutual acquaintance’s new opal jewelry was pretty, but wasn’t it a shame that she would now have bad luck?

I was shocked. This ethereal, iridescent, alluringly color-changing stone was unlucky? How could that be true for something that looked so magical?

Since then, I’ve head many versions of the opals are bad luck myth: that they’re only bad luck if you buy them for yourself, that they’re bad luck to give as a gift, that they’re only bad luck to wear if you weren’t born in October (because if opal is your birthstone, it negates the bad luck).

Today we’re going to answer the question “Are opals bad luck?” by taking a look at the historical associations of opals and see where this bad luck association came from, while also enjoying 15 years worth of photos of opal jewels I have encountered in my career.

Ancient associations

Humans have revered opals for most of recorded history. The ancient Greeks believed that opals could lend their owners the gift of prophecy and guarded them from disease. To the ancient Romans, opals symbolized love and hope. Ancient Arabic legends said that opals fell from the heavens in flashes of lightning.

The Romans believed that because opals carried the colors of all other stones, they also contained the virtues of all other stones. Pliny the Elder wrote of opals in his Naturalis Historia: “For in them you shall see the living fire of the ruby, the glorious purple of the amethyst, the sea-green of the emerald, all glittering together in an incredible mixture of light.”

Because of its changeable appearance, opals were frequently associated with magic. One legend even said that carrying an opal wrapped in a bay leaf would keep people from noticing the carrier, making them functionally invisible.

In the Middle Ages, opal was called ophthalmios, or the eye stone, because of the widespread belief that the stone could cure any eye disease.

Creation of the myth

Pretty much any ancient society that left records of its feelings about opals had overwhelmingly positive associations with the stone: it was credited with everything from good luck to magic to prophetic abilities and invisibility. So what went wrong? Why do so many contemporary jewelry lovers think opals are bad luck?

It’s Sir Walter Scott’s fault.

Famed gemologist George Kunz wrote the following passage in his 1913 book, The Curious Lore of Precious Stones:

Here can be little doubt that much of the modern superstition regarding the supposed unlucky quality of the opal owes its origin to a careless reading of Sir Walter Scott’s novel, ‘Anne of Geierstein’. The wonderful tale therein related of the Lady Hermione, a sort of enchanted princess, who came no one knew whence and always wore a dazzling opal in her hair, contains nothing to indicate that Scott really meant to represent the opal as unlucky.

Lady Hermione’s gem was an enchanted stone just as its owner was a product of enchantment, and its peculiarities depended entirely upon its mysterious character, which might equally well have been attributed to a diamond, a ruby, or a sapphire. The life of the stone was bound up with the life of Hermione; it sparkled when she was gay, it shot out red gleams when she was angry; and when a few drops of holy water were sprinkled over it, they quenched its radiance. Hermione fell into a swoon, was carried to her chamber, and the next day nothing but a small heap of ashes remained on the bed whereon she had been laid. The spell was broken and the enchantment dissolved.”

To summarize Kunz: there was almost no evidence that anyone thought opals were bad luck before Sir Walter Scott published his popular Gothic novel, Anne of Geierstein, in 1829. Fans of the story associated the opal in the fictional Lady Hermione’s hair with the misfortunes that the character suffered and, eventually, that connection spread and simplified into the more general belief that all opals are bad luck.

So, are opals bad luck?

It’s true that opals are a fragile stone, difficult to work with at a jeweler’s bench and prone to breaking. But before Sir Walter Scott’s novel, this scintillatingly stunning gem’s only associations were positive!

As much as I love fiction (and I really, really love fiction) I’m not going to let a myth that a long-dead man invented for his book stop me from wearing a stone as gorgeous as the opal and you shouldn’t, either!

October – opal’s birthstone month – is just around the corner, so let’s make this the October that we free the opal and reclaim this month’s glorious birthstone for its original meanings – magic, love, and hope.

If this put you in a shopping mood, you can find a curated selection of available opal jewelry – both vintage and new – here on my ShopMy page!

And if anybody gets that invisibility trick with the bay leaf to work, please let me know.

Bibliography:

Braid, Fara. “Opal Symbolism.” International Gem Society, 10 Jul. 2025, www.gemsociety.org/article/history-legend-opal-gems-yore/. Accessed 26 Jul. 2026.

“Opal History and Lore.” Gemological Institute of America (GIA), www.gia.edu/opal-history-lore. Accessed 26 Jul. 2026.

Zair, Kaouter. “The History of Why: A Love Letter to the Unlucky Opal.” NYC Jewelry Week, nycjewelryweek.com/history-of-why-opal/. Accessed 26 Jul. 2026.