Quartz is such an interesting mineral. Ancient Greeks called the clear crystal ‘crystalos’ (permanent ice) because they thought the ice was frozen so solid that it wouldn’t melt. Simply put, quartz is the most abundant mineral in the earth’s crust, and has been prized for centuries.
Quartz is known to amplify energies of other stones if placed nearby, helps reveal the truth, and is used for divination and scrying. Healing includes amplifying/strengthening the aura, cleansing/shifting energy, releasing blocked emotions, bringing calm, increasing clarity of though, and bringing spiritual peace (for meditation, etc). Keywords include Brightening, Organizing, and Amplifying.
There are so many varieties of quartz given its common chemical component of silica dioxide (SiO2). Macrocrystalline varieties (larger grain sizes visible to the naked eye) include:
| Clear Quartz | “Rock Crystal”, clear, colorless |
| Amethyst | Purple, transparent |
| Citrine | Yellow to reddish orange to brown, greenish yellow |
| Rose quartz | Pink, translucent |
| Rutilated quartz | Contains acicular (needles) inclusions of rutile |
| Milk quartz | White, translucent to opaque |
| Smoky quartz | Brown to gray, opaque |
Cryptocrystalline varieties (microscopic grain sizes) include:
| Chalcedony | Cryptocrystalline quartz and moganite mixture. |
| Agate | Multi-colored, banded chalcedony, semi-translucent to translucent |
| Onyx | Agate where the bands are straight, parallel and consistent in size. |
| Jasper | Opaque cryptocrystalline quartz, typically red to brown |
| Aventurine | Translucent chalcedony with small inclusions (usually mica) that shimmer. |
| Tiger’s Eye | Fibrous gold to red-brown colored quartz |
| Carnelian | Reddish orange chalcedony, translucent |
Essential Guide to Crystals (Simon & Sue Lilly)
Wikipedia – Quartz
© A Year And A Day (2012)
West Coast Pagan 