Whether you’re engaged to be married or simply love wearing rings, these precious metal pieces of jewellery hold a lot more meaning than meets the eye. From a symbol of commitment and trust to an amulet of balance and empowerment, each ring can tell a story that is unique to the wearer.
But the meaning of rings goes well beyond just those worn on a finger and can even help us to better understand ourselves and our relationships with others. Each finger and each ring holds different energy, and wearing several rings can be likened to having many antennas on one’s body – each one bringing its own vibration.
From a purely practical perspective, we can use this knowledge to decide which rings are most effective and what types of gemstones work best for each finger. If you’re a person who struggles with decision making, for example, it can be helpful to wear a ring on the index finger. This enables you to make decisions with more ease and balances your intuition, which can bring you greater clarity in your life.
The ring finger (which is the middle finger) connects to our heart, which is why it’s traditionally used as an engagement ring. It’s also considered the power ring, as it brings you the ability to notice other people’s good qualities and help them express those qualities.
It’s also an important ring for our creativity and a powerful tool for healing. Often people who wear rings on all the fingers are said to be extremely expressive, but if you’re not careful with this, it can have negative effects. Wearing rings on all the fingers can destabilize your energy field and can cause you to be very empathetic, but also easily overwhelmed.
If we move onto the world of mathematics, there are a lot more rings to explore. These are not the ones exchanged at weddings or forged by Sauron but rather mathematical rings – a generalization of Dedekind domains and a key component of algebraic number theory, and algebraic geometry via polynomial rings and rings of invariants.
Whether you’re designing custom jewellery or looking to buy an engagement ring, knowing the difference between the different parts of a ring will make it much easier for you to communicate with a designer and ensure that each piece of your collection has its own rich narrative.
In a diamond, for instance, the four Cs are the characteristics that most impact a diamond’s value as a gem. These are carat, cut, color and clarity. They’re also the characteristics that are evaluated when a diamond is graded for quality by gemologists. They’re also the same four characteristics that are referred to when someone punches in on their time clock at work, or when they register a sale in a cash register.