Birthstones by Month, September: Sapphire, Lapis and Lore

On every modern chart of birthstones by month, September belongs to sapphire, and few gems sit in their calendar slot so comfortably. The deep blue of a fine sapphire matches the cooler skies at the turn of autumn, and the stone’s long reputation for wisdom and loyalty makes it a natural choice for birthday jewelry. Look a little further, though, and September turns out to have more than one answer. Britain’s official list adds lapis lazuli, and older European lists named a stone called chrysolite.

This guide walks through each of those stones: what they look like, what they mean in crystal traditions, how people wear and use them, and how to look after them. You will also find a full-year chart, a short history of how the lists came to be, notes for Virgo and Libra birthdays, and practical help choosing a stone for yourself or as a gift.

What Is the Birthstone for September?

A birthstone is a gemstone linked to the period of someone’s birth, almost always their month. People usually wear it as a ring, pendant or pair of earrings, or keep it as a small personal stone. Across the different lists of birthstones by month, September has three names you are likely to meet:

• Sapphire, the modern birthstone. It has held the September spot on the American list since 1912 and is still the stone most jewelers mean.
• Lapis lazuli, an alternate on Britain’s standardized list, which pairs it with sapphire.
• Chrysolite, the stone named for September on lists used in Europe from roughly the fifteenth to the twentieth century.

So in most lists of birthstones by month, September has two answers when you want a pair: sapphire and lapis lazuli. When someone asks for three, chrysolite joins them as the historical choice. You may also see charts that suggest other stones for September, including moonstone or agate. These come from alternative or modern “mystical” lists that vary from source to source, so treat them as optional extras rather than official choices.

If you want the bigger picture before focusing on one month, our overview of the birthstones by month and their meanings sets out all twelve, and the crystal library has individual articles on hundreds of stones.

Sapphire: The Modern September Birthstone

What sapphire looks like

Most people picture sapphire as a velvety, saturated blue, and that classic shade is the one most tied to September. Yet sapphire is not always blue. It also occurs in pink, yellow, orange, green, purple and colourless white, and jewelers often call these “fancy” sapphires. Any colour counts: in the lists of birthstones by month, September simply says sapphire, not blue sapphire, which gives you more freedom than many people realize. A pale pink sapphire for someone who rarely wears blue is every bit as fitting as a cornflower-blue stone.

Sapphire is usually cut and faceted, meaning it is shaped with many small flat polished surfaces that catch and return light. You will occasionally see it as a smooth domed cabochon, especially in stones with a soft glow or a star-like shimmer. Sapphire is famously hard and durable, which is part of why it works so well in rings worn every day. Our article on sapphire hardness on the Mohs scale explains what that ranking means in practice. (The Mohs scale is a simple scratch test that ranks minerals from softest to hardest.)

Sapphire’s meanings in tradition

In folklore and crystal traditions, sapphire is linked with wisdom, truth and faithfulness. Its blue has long been associated with the heavens, and over the centuries it became a stone connected with royalty and religious devotion. Today many people describe it as a stone of calm, clear thinking and honest commitment, which is one reason sapphire engagement rings remain popular. These are beliefs passed down and reinterpreted over time, not proven properties, and part of the pleasure of a birthstone is deciding which of those meanings speaks to you.

In chakra practice (a tradition that maps seven energy centres along the body, each with its own colour), blue stones like sapphire are often placed with the throat chakra, associated with communication, or the brow chakra, associated with intuition. If that interests you, our guide on how to use chakra stones explains the basics.

How people use sapphire

• Jewelry: rings, stud earrings and pendants are the most common way to wear a September birthstone, and sapphire’s toughness suits all three.
• Meditation: some people hold a sapphire or look into its colour during a quiet moment, using it as a focus for an intention such as patience or honesty.
• Keepsakes: an unset sapphire, or a raw piece (uncut stone straight from the rock), can live in a small box on a desk or shelf as a reminder of a birthday or milestone.

Caring for sapphire

Of all the birthstones by month, September brings one of the easiest to look after. Clean set sapphire jewelry with warm water, a drop of mild soap and a soft brush, then dry it with a lint-free cloth. Store it apart from softer stones, because a hard gem can scratch its neighbours in a jewelry box. Many sapphires on the market are treated to improve colour or clarity, and some contain fillers that dislike harsh chemicals or ultrasonic cleaners, so ask the seller what treatment a stone has had before using anything stronger than soap and water. Lab-created sapphire is also widely available and can be a sensible choice for budget or ethical reasons, as long as it is labelled honestly.

Lapis Lazuli: September’s Traditional Alternate

What lapis lazuli looks like

On Britain’s list of birthstones by month, September has a second stone, and where sapphire sparkles, lapis lazuli glows. It is an opaque stone of deep royal blue, often scattered with tiny golden flecks and sometimes streaked with white or grey. It is usually polished into smooth cabochons, beads, carvings and tumbled stones. (Tumbled stones are small pieces rolled in a barrel with grit until they come out smooth and rounded.) The golden flecks are part of its charm; a piece with a few sparkles is often more beloved than one that is perfectly plain.

Meanings and uses

In crystal traditions lapis lazuli is linked with truth, wisdom and inner insight, which overlaps nicely with sapphire’s meanings. Many people use it as a stone for honest conversation and self-reflection, carrying a tumbled piece in a pocket or wearing lapis beads. Like sapphire, it is often associated with the throat and brow chakras. Because it is affordable compared with fine sapphire, lapis is a popular way to celebrate a September birthday with a larger, bolder piece such as a bead bracelet or a carved pendant.

Caring for lapis lazuli

Lapis needs gentler handling than sapphire. It is noticeably softer and can be scratched or dulled, so wipe it with a soft, slightly damp cloth and dry it straight away rather than soaking it. Keep it away from household cleaners, perfume, hot water and ultrasonic cleaners, and take off lapis rings before washing up or gardening. For energetic cleansing, choose dry methods such as moonlight, sound or resting the stone on a clear quartz cluster (a group of crystals growing from a shared base) rather than any water ritual. Lapis also should not be used to make crystal elixirs or placed in drinking water.

Birthstones by Month: September in the Full-Year Chart

Seeing September beside the other eleven months shows how much the lists have shifted. The table below sets the current American list beside Britain’s list and the older European stones.

A few things stand out. Sapphire once appeared under April on older lists before settling into September. In the American list of birthstones by month, September has been unusually stable: sapphire was chosen in 1912 and has never been replaced, while months like June, August and December have gained extra stones. For closer looks at neighbouring months, see our guides to June’s pearl, moonstone and alexandrite and March’s aquamarine and bloodstone. If colour is what you care about most, the birthstone colours chart and our page on alternate stones by colour lay the year out by shade.

Where Birthstone Lists Came From

The idea of twelve stones for twelve months is old, but the specific lists are surprisingly recent. The first-century historian Josephus connected the twelve stones of the high priest’s breastplate described in the Book of Exodus with the twelve months and the twelve signs of the zodiac. Later, St. Jerome suggested the twelve foundation stones of the New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation as a Christian counterpart. In the medieval period it became a practice to own a set of twelve stones and wear one each month.

Wearing a single stone for your own birth month is a younger custom. Historians disagree on where it began: one account places it in eighteenth-century Poland, while the Gemological Institute of America dates it to Germany in the 1560s. Translations of the ancient stone names varied so widely that modern lists have little in common with the breastplate itself. On older lists of birthstones by month, September went to chrysolite, and it is a good example of that drift; old gem names often covered several different stones, and their meanings shifted over the centuries.

Modern lists are mostly the work of the jewelry trade:

1. 1870: a New York jeweler published a pamphlet of anonymous poems pairing each month with a stone.
2. 1912: the American National Association of Jewelers, meeting in Kansas City, adopted an official list, naming sapphire for September.
3. 1937: Britain’s National Association of Goldsmiths created its own standardized list.
4. 1952: the American list was updated, adding alexandrite, citrine and pink tourmaline among other changes.
5. 2002 and 2016: tanzanite joined December and spinel joined August.
6. 2021: Japanese industry associations added ten new birthstones to their own list.

Through all of those revisions, among the American birthstones by month, September stayed with sapphire. One writer famously dismissed the 1912 list as salesmanship, and it is fair to say commerce has shaped these charts. That does not make them meaningless. A birthstone carries whatever personal meaning you give it, and our editorial approach explains how this journal treats crystal traditions: with respect for their history and honesty about what is belief and what is fact. Hindu tradition takes a different path again, linking nine gems, the Navaratna, to celestial bodies in a person’s birth chart rather than to the calendar month.

Virgo, Libra and Other September Connections

Outside the calendar lists of birthstones by month, September is split between two zodiac signs, and each has its own traditional stone on older zodiac lists. These are separate from the month stones, so a September birthday can come with more than one option.

• Virgo (about August 23 to September 22): the traditional zodiac stone is carnelian, a warm orange-red member of the quartz family. A Virgo can also borrow from either calendar month, choosing August’s peridot or September’s sapphire.
• Libra (about September 23 to October 22): the traditional zodiac stone is chrysolite, which neatly echoes September’s historical month stone. Libras born in late September may also look to October’s opal and tourmaline.

There is even a set of stones for the days of the week. Thursday is assigned sapphire and carnelian, so a September baby born on a Thursday has a pleasing double link to sapphire. You can read more about carnelian and its relatives in our Quartz & family section, and about sapphire, lapis lazuli and other gems in Earth treasures. If you came across moonstone on an alternative September chart, it lives in our Moon & light collection.

How to Choose and Wear a September Birthstone

When it comes to shopping for birthstones by month, September is one of the easier months, because sapphire suits almost any setting and lapis offers a more affordable, bolder alternative. A few simple questions help narrow things down.

Questions to ask first

1. How will it be worn? For a ring worn every day, sapphire’s durability makes it the safer choice. Lapis is better in pendants, earrings or bracelets that avoid hard knocks.
2. What colour suits the wearer? Classic blue, a soft pink or a sunny yellow sapphire are all correct for September. If they love strong blue with a little sparkle, lapis may please them more.
3. Which meaning feels right? Sapphire leans toward loyalty and wisdom; lapis toward honest expression and insight. Neither is better, only different.
4. Natural, treated or lab-created? Ask what you are buying. Honest labelling matters more than any single choice.

A worked example

Imagine choosing a gift for a friend born on September 18, a Virgo who wears silver every day and works with her hands. A sapphire set in a low bezel ring, where metal wraps the stone’s edge, would sit close to the finger and stand up to daily wear. If her budget-minded partner wanted something larger, a lapis bead bracelet could be worn on quieter days and taken off for chores. To add her zodiac link, a small tumbled carnelian tucked in the gift box makes a thoughtful extra. The result combines September’s main stone, its alternate and her sign stone without feeling crowded. When you match birthstones by month, September birthdays leave plenty of room for combinations like this. If you enjoy building small collections, Spirit Magicka is this journal’s own crystal shop.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Assuming blue is the only option. Many people pass over beautiful fancy sapphires simply because they did not know the colours count.
• Treating lapis like sapphire. Lapis scratches and dulls far more easily, so it should not be cleaned in water baths, ultrasonic machines or with chemicals.
• Confusing month and zodiac stones. Carnelian is Virgo’s traditional sign stone, but on lists of birthstones by month, September belongs to sapphire and lapis lazuli. Both traditions are valid; just know which one you are following.
• Trusting every online chart. Alternative lists differ wildly. When in doubt, sapphire is the widely recognized answer.
• Expecting a stone to do the work. In crystal practice a birthstone is a reminder and a companion for your own intentions, not a substitute for care, advice or effort.

Simple ways to enjoy it beyond jewelry

Some people mark their birthday by holding their birthstone for a few quiet minutes and setting an intention for the year ahead. Others place a sapphire or lapis piece on a desk as a calm focal point, or include it in a small crystal arrangement at home. These are personal rituals that many people find comforting and grounding. If you want to start exploring stones in this way, browsing Spirit Magicka alongside our month-by-month birthstone history is a gentle place to begin, and the library will help you learn each stone before you choose.

However you read the lists of birthstones by month, September offers a lovely set of choices: a cornflower-blue sapphire, a gold-flecked lapis cabochon or a nod to the old chrysolite. These gems share a thread of clarity and truth that has run through their lore for centuries. Pick the one that feels most like the person wearing it, and look after it well.