Black Tourmaline
Also Schorl
Opaque glossy black, in three-sided prisms with deep grooves running the length of the crystal, like a bundle of rods fused together
- Crystal system
- Trigonal
- Hardness
- 7-7.5 Mohs
- Handling
- Hard and safe in water. Brittle across the crystal, so it snaps if dropped on a hard floor, and it will scratch softer stones kept beside it. It takes an electrical charge when warmed and then collects dust and lint, so wipe it now and then.
- In water
- Safe
What it is held to be for
Schorl was a miner's word long before it was a magician's. Dutch traders in the eighteenth century called tourmaline the ash-drawer, because a warm crystal pulled pipe ash across the table. The stone really is electric when heated, and the tradition took its character from that: something that gathers what is loose and holds it away from you. It is the plain protective stone, given to thresholds.
Folk tradition; Dutch traders' aschentrekker, 1700s
Correspondences
These are the tradition's ascriptions, not properties of the mineral.
- Planet
- Saturn, Mars
- Element
- Earth
- Signs
- Capricorn, Scorpio
- Chinese phase
- Metal
- Year animal
- Monkey, Rooster
- Centre
- Root Muladhara
- Sephirah
- Binah
How it is used
Placed rather than worn: by the front door, under the bed, beside a screen or a desk. If you carry a piece, keep it in a pocket of its own, since it scratches other stones and snaps if dropped.
Today
Set one piece on the floor beside your front door tonight. Each time you come in, touch the frame and leave the day's argument on the other side of it.
A longer working
Take four pieces, one for each corner of the room you sleep in, and set them down in order: north, east, south, west. At each corner say aloud one thing you do not want carried into the room. Leave them for a week. Then sweep the room properly, wash the floor, and put the four stones back exactly where you set them. Renew the whole working at the turn of each season.
Works with
- Herb
- Rue
- Incense
- Dragon's Blood