Bloodstone
Also Heliotrope
Opaque dark green chalcedony flecked and spotted with red iron oxide, so that it looks like drops of blood on moss. Some pieces are nearly black-green with only two or three marks.
- Crystal system
- Trigonal
- Hardness
- 6.5-7 Mohs
- Handling
- Hard, tough and unproblematic. Safe in water, safe in salt, no dust hazard, and the colour does not fade. It will scratch a windowpane before a windowpane scratches it.
- In water
- Safe
What it is held to be for
Pliny knew it as heliotropium and reports that the magi claimed it made the bearer invisible, a claim he did not believe. Christian Europe renamed it. The red flecks became the blood that fell on green jasper at the foot of the cross, and carvers cut Passion scenes into it. It has been a soldier's stone and a healer's stone since.
Pliny XXXVII, on heliotropium; medieval Christian lapidary tradition
Correspondences
These are the tradition's ascriptions, not properties of the mineral.
- Planet
- Mars, Sun
- Element
- Earth
- Signs
- Aries, Scorpio, Pisces
- Chinese phase
- Wood
- Year animal
- Tiger, Dragon
- Centre
- Heart Anahata
- Sephirah
- Geburah
How it is used
Carried in a pocket rather than worn, and usually when something has to be endured: an operation, a court date, a long illness. Some keep one in the first-aid tin. It wants to be held, not displayed.
Today
Wash it under the cold tap, dry it on a clean towel, and put it in the pocket of whatever you will wear tomorrow.
A longer working
On a Tuesday morning, fill a bowl with cold water and hold the stone under the surface until your hand aches with the cold. Take it out, dry it, and write on a scrap of paper the one thing you are afraid you cannot get through. Fold the paper around the stone. Keep the bundle in your bag until the day it names has passed, then burn the paper and keep the stone.
Works with
- Herb
- Yarrow
- Incense
- Frankincense