Aquamarine
Also Blue beryl
Transparent pale blue to blue-green, usually very clean; the colour deepens with size, and most stones are heated to take the green out.
- Crystal system
- Hexagonal
- Hardness
- 7.5-8 Mohs
- Handling
- Hard, stable and safe in water. Stones full of liquid inclusions are brittle, so avoid steam and sudden heat, which can also shift the colour. Long strong sunlight may pale it a little. Have it set protected at the edges, as beryl chips.
- In water
- Safe
What it is held to be for
Aquamarine is beryl the colour of shallow sea. Pliny says the Indians cut beryls into long six-sided prisms because the colour looks dull otherwise, which is a jeweller's note rather than a magician's. Sailors carried it, and the lapidary line makes it a stone of safe passage and of speaking calmly under pressure, on the understanding that the two are the same skill.
Pliny, Natural History XXXVII (beryllus)
Correspondences
These are the tradition's ascriptions, not properties of the mineral.
- Planet
- Moon, Mercury
- Element
- Water
- Signs
- Pisces, Aquarius
- Chinese phase
- Water
- Year animal
- Dragon, Rat
- Centre
- Throat Vishuddha
- Sephirah
- Hod
How it is used
Worn at the throat, or held in the hand while making a call you have put off. Carried on water and on long journeys, which is the oldest use anyone has recorded for it.
Today
Hold the aquamarine and say the difficult sentence out loud to the empty room first. Then go and make the call.
A longer working
Before a conversation you are dreading, pour a glass of water and set the aquamarine beside it. Say what you need to say to the empty room twice: once angrily, to get it out of your system, and once in the words you actually intend to use. Notice the difference between them. Drink the water, put the stone in your pocket, and go and say the second version.
Works with
- Herb
- Peppermint
- Incense
- Lavender