Crystals: Unleashing the Powers Within
It's all Green
By Jill Bentley
I guess this time round I got caught on a green fixation. Maybe it's that with all the construction going on at my house and the fact that both my front and back yards are all dirt and dead weeds, my dreams and longings of real live plants have finally demented me. Anyway this time around we're going to explore emerald, fluorite, and aventurine: all crystals that come in shades of green. The other factor that all these crystals all have in common are elements of balance and stability, two things I seem to be lacking in my life right now.
For me green has always symbolized the peace and harmony of nature as well as its flip side - power. Green is the color of life and springtime. In ancient Rome, green was the color of love and beauty, and the goddess Venus's color. Unfortunately, I have Italian olive skin and most greens turn my skin sickly yellow, so beautiful green clothing is out. But I'm having my house color-coated a nice light mossy green - I might not be able to wear it but, I'll be able to live in it.
I knew right away that I wanted to do emerald when the first thing I read about it was that it was a "stone of inspiration and infinite patience," both things I greatly need. The done date for the construction at my house as been pushed back one too many times, I didn't have any emerald then. But surprisingly I found some rough stuff that wasn't too expensive at Bestcrystals.
I've always liked emeralds and while doing research I found that a lot of other people do too. Try doing an emerald search on Google - at least 75% had nothing to do with the gemstone, just it name seems to symbolize everything from new technologies to towns to organizations. Obviously, in everyone's mind "emerald" stands for something more then just a jewel, everyone wants a part of its brilliance to reflect on them by using its name.
Emeralds go back to ancient times in Egypt and Rome. It is reported that Cleopatra loved emeralds and was always adorned in them. The oldest known ones comes from mines near the Red Sea in Egypt known as 'Cleopatra's Mines' and had already been exhausted between 3000 and 1500 BC. One of the world's largest weighs 217.80 carets and about 10cm tall. In 2001 it sold for 2.2m US dollars to an unidentified buyer.
Today emeralds are the most valuable gemstone in the world by weight, the finest even more valuable then diamonds. Emeralds have their own fingerprints in the form of inclusions or flaws. In fact a deep green with inclusions is more valuable then a flawless paler one.
Emerald's metaphysical properties tend towards the softer and lighter side, focusing on the positive, very much like the unique gem itself - its flaws are not flaws but each stone's individuality. Emerald promotes loyalty, sensitivity, successful love and domestic bliss. It enhances memory and mental capacity and eliminates negativity while bringing balance and harmony to all aspects of life. It's a couples stone: balancing and enhancing the relationship. It helps overcomes life's misfortunes, always a tuned to the positive side, and helps find solutions by broadening vision on all planes.
With its green brilliance, emerald is a great healer. It aids in recovery, and treats sinuses, lungs, heart, spine, muscles, and eyes. It helps with rheumatism and diabetes, and is great at regulating your breathing during meditation. So with all these good qualities that emerald brings both on the metaphysical and the healing realm we women have some good arguments for some new jewelry.
Emeralds may be made unique with their flaws but fluorite is made unique with their bands of color. The name "fluorite" comes from the Latin "fluere," which means "to flow." If you've ever studied a large piece you can see how it got its name. Fluorite is like a colorful stream frozen in time. I picked up a nice size piece that's mostly green but with ribbons of white and purple swirled throughout the crystal. Compared to emeralds, fluorite is very common and inexpensive, but that just makes it easer for us rock hounds to get our hands on it. In fact it is so popular for us rock lovers that it has its very own website: Fluorites.com.
Pure fluorite is colorless as it is various impurities that give it its coloring. These impurities are usually hydrocarbons and as such can be removed by heating, but what would be in the fun in that? Like the emerald it is fluorite's inclusions that make this crystal so unique. These inclusions come in many colors: green, purple, brown, blue, and yellow.
Fluorite has its own claim to fame - it where we get fluorescence from. It will glow strongly in ultra-violet light. Also, fluorite is used as a flux in the manufacturing of steel, the making of opalescent glass, enamels, and hydrofluoric acid - the list goes on.
Like emeralds, fluorite also stabilizes and balances, but energy instead of relationships. Not to say that fluorite doesn't help in that department too, it's great for large groups, to promote open-mindedness and understanding, objectivity (do you think I could get all my construction workers to wear fluorite bracelets...maybe if I sneak small bits into their pockets...hmm...I might even get a date). It also helps in discerning the truth and reality and overcoming disorganization - hmm, maybe beads on shoes laces. Switching planes, fluorite protects against physic manipulations and outside influence/stress, grounds and integrates spiritual energies, and can quicken spiritual awakening. It opens doors to the subconscious and helps heal unresolved issues and feelings. Fluorite can also be used as a learning aid.
Fluorite is great for physical healing as well. It deals mostly with infections and disorders, but can benefit teeth, cells, and bones. It fights against viruses, regenerates the skin and muscles, provides pain relief, helps stomach disorders and craps in the intestines, and even removes blemishes and wrinkles.
The last pick is aventurine, again a crystal alike, yet completely different from both emeralds and fluorites. Aventurine is in the quartz family and as such is more of a rock than mineral, like the other two. But like fluorite it comes in many colors: blue, red, brown, peach, but mostly green. Also like the other two, aventurine has inclusions that make it what it is - the inclusions are of shiny minerals, giving the stone a sparkling effect known as aventurescence. These minerals are usually mica, hematite, or something similar. Aventurine is even more inexpensive then fluorite and I picked up two nice light green pieces with mica inclusions giving them a silvery hue.
Unforturnity, I didn't come up with many folklore or legends on aventurine but I did find out that it is considered a talisman for Saint Andrew. Other then that the stone is so common it wasn't ever valuable and since ancient times has been used for common jewelry, vases, and other decorations.
Aventurine's most distinctive quality is that of its healing. It has always been known as the universal-healer that can be used in all realms of life: metaphysical, spiritual, emotional, and physical. One great way to use its healing properties is to drop some in your bath water while your bathing, just add it in with the bath salts. Of course a little glass of wine while you soak wouldn't hurt either. Aventurine is especially helpful to troubled souls and can be worn for long periods for long term healing of emotional and spiritual scars. On he physical plane it helps heal the thymus gland, connective tissue, nervous system, blood pressure, allergies, migraines, sooths eyes, adrenals, lungs, sinuses, heart, and muscular systems.
Besides its healing powers, aventurine also is considered the stone of prosperity, probably because it concentrates on the positive like the emerald. Aventurine reinforces leadership qualities and decisiveness, promoting compassion, empathy, perseverance, perception, creativity, and a feeling of well-being and self-acceptance.
I hope you all enjoyed this exploration of very different stones with very similar attributes and qualities that link them all together. So go out and get something green.
Using Crystals in Your Daily Life
By Angus
Bring Balance and Passion to Your Relationship
There is no magic able to fix an ailing relationship, just as there is no spell to create love. But there are rituals and magics you can use to help you and your partner in your efforts to heal and strengthen your love. This one combines the powers of emerald, rose, rosemary, and lavendar to help restore balance, trust, communication, and passion. Three days before the moon reaches full place two cups of fresh rainwater (or distilled) in a bowl on a windowsill where the sun and moon can bathe it. Add 1 cup of fresh rose petals and 1/2 cup of fresh lavender buds and leaves. Place a piece of charged emerald in the water and leave the bowl to soak up the energy. On the night of the full moon, strain out the herbs and crystal, reserve a few ounces of the liquid and decant the rest into ice-cube trays. Place a fresh rose petal and lavender bud or leaf in each compartment and freeze for future use.
Take the reserved portion and the crystal to your bedroom, along with a sprig of rosemary. The crystal should be placed near the bed with a photo of you and your partner. Use the rosemary to sprinkle the bed with the water.
Anytime your relationship hits a bump you can defrost some water and repeat this ritual. Remember, this won't fix the problem, but it will help smooth the path for you two to do so.
Fluorite Energy Balancing Ritual
Fluorite will add its power to this ritual helping the herbs to balance and stabilise your internal energy. Take equal parts of the following herbs (fresh is best, but dried also works): lavender, rosemary, sage, and thyme and mix with one 3-ich cinnamon scroll in a large bowl. Pour 2 cups warmed olive oil over the herbs and then place in the sunlight to steep and charge. When the water has cooled, add charged fluorite crystals, and then leave until sunset. Decant into a bottle, with the crystals and herbs included. Use this oil to annoint the seven major chakra points, palms, and soles prior to meditating.
Healing with Aventurine
Sometimes we get rundown. There's no particular illness for diagnosis and treatment. But nonetheless we feel stuffed up, bogged down, and just generally blah-like. A good night's sleep and some decent food doesn't seem to fix the problem and life continues to demand we meet our obligations - work, school, children, and so on. This is a good time to bring the power of aventurine to bear. You need seven pieces - smooth, green, and unflawed. Cleanse them under fresh running water and then leave outside or on a windowsill to be charged by the sun for three days.
Place the crystals in a circle and sit inside to meditate on why you feel so rundown. Reach out to the stones mentally and draw upon their energy, visualising it surrounding you. When you finish, gather up the stones and place five in a pouch to be worn or carried. Tape the remaining two to the backs of your hands and leave them there for at least a few hours each day. The longer you can wear them the better. Recharge the crystals as needed.
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Emerald
Emerald is a silicate, and a member of the Beryl group. The chemical information for Beryl (Be3Al2Si6O18) is as follows:
Formation - hexagonal
Occurance - abundant
Colour - variable from yellow to green to blue, white, and pink
Streak - white
Luster - vitreous to dull
Diaphaneity - transparent to translucent
Density - 2.6
Hardness - 7.5-8
Cleavage - imperfect
Fracture - uneven to conchoidal
Morphology - long prismatic to tabular crystals, columnar and radial aggregates, granular, and massive
Available forms for use - touchstone, pendant, jewelry, rough stone, tumbled
Cleaning - wash in fresh water, no soap
Metaphysical Cleansing and Charging - Wash under warm running water after use. Charge by leaving out in the sunlight or in a bowl of rock crystal and/or ruby
Fluorite
Fluorite is a halide rock. The chemical information for Fluorite (CaF2) is as follows:
Formation - cubic
Occurance - extremely common
Colour - colourless through white, yellow, red, green, blue, purple, brown, and black
Luster - vitreous
Diaphaneity - transparent to translucent, opaque
Density - 3.2
Hardness - 4
Cleavage - perfect
Fracture - conchoidal to splintery
Morphology - combinations of cubic crystals, granular, and massive
Available forms for use - feldspar pieces, touchstone, pendant, jewelry, geode, rough stone, tumbled
Cleaning - wash in fresh lukewarm water, no soap
Metaphysical Cleansing and Charging - wash after each use in lukewarm running water. Place amidst rock crystal to charge overnight, or out in the sunlight
Aventurine
Aventurine is an oxide rock, and a member of the Quartz group. The chemical information for Quartz (SiO2) is as follows:
Formation - trigonal
Occurance - extremely common
Colour - white, light green through to dark green, dark blue
Luster - vitreous, silky, dull
Diaphaneity - transparent to translucent, opaque
Density - 2.6
Hardness - 7
Cleavage - none
Fracture - conchoidal
Morphology - long to short prismatic, acicular, dipyramidal to tabular crystals, fibrous, botryoidal and stalactitic aggregates and coatings, concretions, geodes, granular, massive
Available forms for use - touchstone, pendant, jewelry, rough stone, tumbled
Cleaning - wash in fresh lukewarm water, no soap
Metaphysical Cleansing and Charging - wash after each use in lukewarm running water. Place out in the sunlight to recharge
On Golden Bay Shore
Recommended books
The Complete Mineral Encyclopedia by Petr Korbel and Milan Novak
Encyclopedia of Rocks, Minerals, and Gemstones by Henry Russell, Chris Pellant
Minerals: Identifying, Learning About, and Collecting the Most Beautiful Minerals and Crystals (Barron's Nature Guide) by Rupert Hochleitner
Healing Crystals and Gemstones: From Amethyst to Zircon by Flora Peschek-Bohmer, Gisela Schreiber, Sibylle Dausien
The Crystal Bible: A Definitive Guide to Crystals by Judy Hall
Recommended websites
Toprock: Gemstones and Minerals
Amethyst Galleries' - Mineral Gallery
The Mystic Eye
All That Gifts - Gemstones
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