Jade
Also Jadeite, Nephrite, Yu
Translucent to opaque. Jadeite runs from emerald green through lavender, white and orange; nephrite from creamy mutton-fat white through spinach green to near black.
- Crystal system
- Monoclinic
- Hardness
- 6-7 Mohs
- Handling
- Two distinct minerals share the name: jadeite, a pyroxene at 6.5-7, and nephrite, an amphibole at 6-6.5. Both are extraordinarily tough, nephrite among the toughest minerals known, which is why the ancients made axes of it, and both are safe in water and safe to wear constantly. Avoid strong heat and acids. Be warned that a great deal of cheap jade is dyed quartz, serpentine or glass, and dye of that kind bleeds and fades.
- In water
- Safe
What it is held to be for
Two minerals answer to jade, jadeite and nephrite, and both are so tough that the ancients made axes and blades of them. That toughness is the whole of the tradition. Confucius, in the Book of Rites, reads the virtues of a good man in jade: its warmth, its evenness, the fact that it will break before it bends. Spanish sailors called it the stone of the flank, for colic.
Confucius on the virtues of jade, Book of Rites (Liji); Spanish piedra de ijada, 16th century
Correspondences
These are the tradition's ascriptions, not properties of the mineral.
- Planet
- Venus, Moon
- Element
- Earth
- Signs
- Taurus, Libra, Virgo
- Chinese phase
- Earth
- Year animal
- Goat, Ox
- Centre
- Heart Anahata
- Sephirah
- Chesed
How it is used
Worn continuously rather than for occasions: a bangle, a ring, a pendant that never comes off. The tradition holds that jade takes on the wearer, and should be given, inherited, or worn until it is yours.
Today
Put the jade on and leave it on. Each time you notice it today, finish the thing in front of you before starting another.
A longer working
Choose one piece of jade and one long undertaking: a craft, a debt, a study, a repair. Wear or carry the stone every day you work on it, and only then. Each evening you did, write one line, the date and a sentence. When the undertaking is finished, read the pages through, then either give the jade to someone who is starting something or put it away for the next long thing. Never use it for two at once.
Works with
- Herb
- Peony
- Incense
- Cassia