Verdite The Green Stone Of Africa
Verdite is a variety of muscovite, a green color rock of chrome mica with chemical composition Aluminium Silicate.
Alternative Names-: Buddstone, African jade and African green gold, Brown serpentine.
Color & Appearance-: Shades of green often mottled with yellow, red white and light green patches
Occurrence-: Barberton district of South Africa, eastern Zimbabwe, Australia, U.S.A.
Properties-:
- Verdite is an emerald looking stone with brown variations to it.
- The green emerald color is due to the high percentage of chromium and it is a good simulant for emerald.
- It is generally formed either in fibrous or massive form in pegmatite.
Hardness-: 2.5-4
Varieties: Fuchsite & Serpentine.
Lustre-: Vitreous to waxy.
Cause of Color-: Chromium
Simulants (with key separation tests)-: Emerald (S.G., structure, inclusions), Jade (R.I., S.G., spectrum, inclusions, structure)
Cuts-: Faceted, cabochon, etc.
Healing Properties– :
- Raises oxygen levels & aids dizziness.
- Cleanses the blood, removing toxins, and genital disorders.
- Increases resistance to infection, soothes allergic conditions.
- Brings reliability, fortitude & constancy.
- Used to access and assimilate ancient knowledge.
- It is an excellent stone to stimulate the movement of the Kundalini.
Note-: It is advised not to use it in day to day life as it can get scratch, due to the low hardness.
Tourmaline Quartz
Tourmaline Quartz, also known as Tourmalinated Quartz is a variety of Clear Quartz with naturally occurring needle-like inclusion of Black Tourmaline also known as Schorl.
Color-: Clear or milky with black needles.
Hardness-: 7 to 7.5 on the Mohs scale.
Zodiac Sign-: Capricorn, Libra and Scorpio.
Occurrence-: Worldwide, the vast majority is mined in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Metaphysical Properties-:
- Grounding excess energy.
- It is a well-known purifying stone that deflects and transforms negative energy.
- It can transform and remove negativity from an individual or an environment.
- It is often used as an aura cleanser, and can help one attain higher levels of awareness.
- Used for repelling and protecting one from black magic.
- Used to deflect radiation energy from TVs and computer monitors.
- Emotionally, excellent for dispelling fears, obsessions, neuroses, bringing emotional stability.
- To strengthen the immune system, help with heart diseases, arthritis, and gout.
Care and Cleaning-:
- Tourmalinated Quartz is generally best cleaned using warm soapy water and a soft brush.
- It should be kept away from household chemicals and from prolonged exposure to extremes of heat as this can cause damage or permanent changes in coloration.
- It should be kept in a fabric-lined box away from other Jewellery items in order to avoid scratching.
Psilomelane
Psilomelane,also known as black hematite.
Origin-: Named in 1758 from the Greek psilos – “smooth” and melas – “black.”
Color-: Variable from iron-black to bluish black to steel grey with grey pyrolusite bands.
Streak-: Brownish black.
Hardness-: 5-6 on the Mohs scale.
Diaphaneity-: Opaque.
Luminescence-: Non-fluorescent.
Luster– : Sub Metallic, Dull.
Occurrence-: Austinville, Wythe County, Virginia, Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Tucsons, Arizona, USA; Schneeberg, Germany; Cornwall, England; Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Metaphysical Properties-:
- Facilitates trance states and enhances awareness.
- It can assist one with self-analysis to reveal previously unrecognized thoughts and experiences.
- This in turn stimulates corrective action for emotional disturbances and over-emotional states.
- It can also be used to repair unwanted, unloving behaviour patterns.
- It is said to help change outmoded patterns of thinking and redirect your energies.
Pietersite
Pietersite was first discovered by Sid Pieters in 1962 while prospecting farmland. He registered the find in mineral records of Britain, which was published in 1964 naming the material Pietersite.
It is often called the Tempest stone (connection to the storm element) Eagle’s Eye, and said to truly be a mix of blue and gold tiger eye quartz which has then been folded in the earth.
Color-: Brown, Gray, Red, Swirlied Blue, Yellow.
Hardness-: 5 on the Mohs scale with the trigonal crystal structure.
Availability-: Rough or Polished slabs, tumbled, flat or calibrated cabochons.
Zodiac Sign-: Leo, Sagittarius.
Occurrence-: China and Africa.
Metaphysical Properties-:
- It is believed to hold the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
- It links daily consciousness to be spiritual.
- Used as a stone of vision, it works well during meditation to assess higher levels of awareness, stimulating the third eye and increasing your inherent intuition.
- It will help calm animals during a storm.
- It can be used to help lessen the chaotic living conditions of most teenagers.
- It has a very positive effect on growth hormones and will have to regulate blood pressure and temperature.
- It is an excellent stone for anyone having to move house or relocate because of work.
- Support your willpower.
- Strengthen inner guidance.
- Recognise truths.
Pilbara Jasper
Gorgeous Jackson Pollock style Jasper has poles of streaky colors layered across each other creating a hatching effect across its surface.
Color-: Shades of grey, beige, red, mustard, dark brown with some black and white, usually colored by Iron oxide.
Hardness-:7 on the Mohs scale.
Luster-: Silky.
Astrological Sign-: Virgo, Libra, Scorpio.
Occurrence-: Wodgina, Pilbara Region, WA, Australia.
Metaphysical Properties– :
- Stone of selflessness; it is the mother of all stones bringing about Love of all mankind.
- Red jasper assists in transmuting pain, especially menstrual pain.
- To draw away focus from pain, back to the centre.
- For emotional, mental and physical pain, it is a grounding and healing stone.
- Jasper makes its effects known slowly and gradually, just like nature.
- It’s considered an emotionally calming stone.
- It can be an excellent stone for either those who are hypersensitive to crystalline energy and find it difficult to work with or for those who like change to be a gradual and unfolding process.
Pink Opal
Pink opal is an opaque variety of Opal, sometimes referred to as “Andean Opal” or “Peruvian Opal”.
Color-: Pink and white to lavender and cream.
Hardness: 5.5-6.5 on the Mohs scale.
Lustre-: Vitreous.
Birthstone-: October.
Zodiac Sign-: Cancer, Libra, Pisces and Scorpio.
Occurrence-: Andes Mountains near San Patricio, Peru, Canada, Mexico, Australia, USA, UK.
Metaphysical Properties-:
- Pink Opal is a stone of peace and tranquility for the aura.
- “Stone for Renewal” and “Spiritual Awakening”.
- It can help guide us on our life’s journey.
- It teaches love and non-violence, helping nourish all aspects of our development.
- To help inner healing on the emotional, physical and intellectual levels.
- It can help us release old patterns, bring deeper insights into psychological issues and to cleanse and purify the mind and heart.
- Treatment for physical conditions: lungs, spleen, heart and the connective tissue.
Care & Cleaning-:
- Opal is very sensitive to heat or sudden change in temperature.
- Never clean your Opal jewelry in an ultrasonic cleaner, it will crack the Opal.
Smoky Quartz
The name is obviously derived from its brown to grey colour. Very dark smoky quartz is called Morion.
Color-: grey, brown, black.
Lustre-: Vitreous.
Diaphaneity (Transparency) -: Transparent, Translucent.
Birthstone-: November
Astrological sign-: Capricorn and Sagittarius
Hardness-: 7 on the Mohs scale
Occurrence-: Brazil, Madagascar, Switzerland, USA, Australia, Spain, Smoky quartz from the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland is called their Cairngorm.
Metaphysical properties-:
- Provide good grounding and cleansing qualities to the wearer.
- Able to chase away some negative energy and gives endurance.
- Reduce depression and has a calming effect.
- Good for our root chakra (the one at the base of our spine )- the kidneys, adrenal glands, bones, colon, spine and legs.
Enhancement -:
Smoky Quartz is occasionally produced by irradiation of colorless quartz.
Health warning-:
Quartz is usually quite harmless and thus broken or powdered. Broken crystals and masses may have razor sharp edges that can easily cut and flesh. Handle with care. Do not grind dry since long-term exposure to finely ground power may lead to silicosis.
Rhodonite
Origin-: Rhodonite is derived from the Greek word rhodon for rasy, although there is also a reference that credited a celtic word the rhod, which means wheel.
Color-: Pinkish red to brownish red but may be pink grey or yellowish. Transparent material can be a vivid red to orange red.
Hardness-: 6 on the Mohs scale triclinic crystal structure.
Streak-: White.
Transparent-: Transparent to translucent.
Zodiac Sign-: Taurus, Scorpio.
Lustre-: Vitreous, Greasy.
Occurrence-: Russia, Australia, Japan, Madagascar, Sweden, Brazil, Peru, USA at New Jersey.
Metaphysical Properties-:
- It is a calming stone.
- It will decrease anxiety and increase attention to detail.
- It can increase language skills and raise self-esteem.
- The pinkish hue of rhodonite is said to enhance passionate love, while the black inclusions keep the wearer grounded.
- It helps to restore physical energy after a trauma, improves the sense of hearing, helps with emphysema, ease joint inflammation, decreases sensitivity to light and even helps with strep throat.
Silver Leaf Jasper
Reminiscent of silvery leaves in a forest, the finely colored and patterned jasper.
Formation-: Nodes in volcanic rocks, banded masses and geodes.
Properties-:
- Distinguished by its grey silver green coloration resembling foliage patterns.
- In silver leaf jasper, the swirls and spotted patterns as well as the colors are heightened when you combine them with black onyx or smoky quartz.
- It is an opaque variety of Chalcedony, which is variety of microcrystalline fibrous Quartz
Color-: shades of cream and black, bits of brown and, occasionally, hints of red.
Hardness-: 6.5 to 7
Metaphysical Properties-:
- Gives protection and healing.
- It instills a feeling of wholeness, serenity and being cared for.
- It aids mental clarity and functioning.
- It assists the body to restore cellular tissue.
- Useful in treating the urinary system, lower digestive system, reproductive system.
Occurrence-: India, Russia, France, East and West Germany and USA.
Prehnite
Origin-: Named after the Dutch Colonel H. Von Prehn (1733-1785).
Color-: Pale green, Lemon/Lime green, Yellowish grass green, Grey, White or colorless sometimes with needle like inclusions of Epidote.
Streak-: White.
Hardness-: 6 to 6.5 with an orthorhombic crystal structure.
Luster-: Vitreous and Pearly.
Transparency-: Transparent to translucent,.
Zodiac Sign-: Libra, Virgo.
Occurrence-: Karoo dolerites,Cradock District, Eastern Cape province, South Africa, USA ,Canada, Austria, Germany, China, Scotland, France and India.
Metaphysical Properties-:
- Protective stone.
- It strengthens the life force and generally increases and stimulates energy.
- It aids spirit communication through meditation or visualisation out-of-body travel.
- Prehnite is also known as the stone of prophecy which stimulates inner-knowing .
- Prehnite is helpful in the healing of anemia, gout and kidney problems.
- It also works well in crystal grids, magnifying the purpose of the grid.
- This crystal is useful for dreaming and remembering those dreams.
- It also helps develop your intuitive senses.
- The Prehnite crystal can sometimes give off water when stone is heated.
