Chrysoprase
Also Chrysoprasus, Australian jade
Translucent apple-green to deep green, evenly coloured rather than banded, with a waxy rather than glassy shine.
- Crystal system
- Trigonal
- Hardness
- 6.5-7 Mohs
- Handling
- Hard and safe in water, but it fades. Chrysoprase loses its green in prolonged sunlight and in dry heat, and a stone left on a hot sill will go pale and grey; kept dark, it keeps its colour, and some faded pieces recover in damp storage. The green comes from nickel, so do not grind or sand it dry.
- In water
- Safe
What it is held to be for
Pliny lists chrysoprasus among the green stones, and medieval Europe prized the Silesian material enough to line chapel walls with it. Its tradition is gentler than emerald's. Where emerald is the long vow, chrysoprase is recovery, and practice gives it to people coming out of a bad year, on the argument that green returns to ground that was burnt.
Pliny, Natural History XXXVII, on chrysoprasus
Correspondences
These are the tradition's ascriptions, not properties of the mineral.
- Planet
- Venus, Mercury
- Element
- Earth
- Signs
- Libra, Taurus
- Chinese phase
- Wood
- Year animal
- Rabbit, Goat
- Centre
- Heart Anahata
- Sephirah
- Tiphareth
How it is used
Carried in a pocket during convalescence, or kept on the desk through the first months of a new start. Out of direct sun, or the green goes. Often worn as a plain bead against the breastbone.
Today
Hold the chrysoprase and name one thing that is better now than it was a year ago. Say it aloud, even if it is small.
A longer working
On a Friday morning, take the chrysoprase outdoors: a garden, a park, a step with a weed in the crack. Find one green growing thing and stand beside it with the stone in your hand. Say what you are recovering from, once, in the past tense. Then say one thing you intend to plant, keep, or begin. Bring the stone home and keep it in a dark drawer until the next Friday you need it.
Works with
- Herb
- Marjoram
- Incense
- Elemi