Larimar
Also Blue pectolite, Dolphin stone, Stefilia's stone
Opaque sea-blue to green-blue, mottled and marbled with white and sometimes rust-red, in patterns like sunlight falling through shallow water.
- Crystal system
- Triclinic
- Hardness
- 4.5-5 Mohs
- Handling
- Soft at about 5 and easily scratched, so never carry it loose with keys or coins. Sunlight and heat fade the blue, and that fading is permanent, so store it in the dark. Wipe it with a damp cloth rather than soaking it, and do not grind the rough, whose crystals are needle-like.
- In water
- No
What it is held to be for
Larimar is blue pectolite, found in one river valley in the Dominican Republic and nowhere else on earth. It was named in 1974, so there is no old lapidary standing behind it and honesty requires saying so plainly. Its use has grown quickly all the same, and it is now held as a calming stone, for the temper that runs hot and speaks faster than it thinks.
Folk tradition
Correspondences
These are the tradition's ascriptions, not properties of the mineral.
- Planet
- Moon, Venus
- Element
- Water
- Signs
- Pisces, Cancer
- Chinese phase
- Water
- Year animal
- Pig, Dragon
- Centre
- Throat Vishuddha
How it is used
Carried loose in a soft pocket, kept out of the sun, and held in the hand rather than worn where it will rub against a buckle or a desk. Taken up when you feel yourself speeding up.
Today
Hold the larimar in your palm and take six slow breaths before you answer. Answer on the seventh, or do not answer at all.
A longer working
On an evening when you have snapped at somebody, take the larimar to the quietest room in the house. Sit with it in cupped hands and breathe until your hands are warm. Then say aloud the thing you actually meant, underneath the thing you said. Only that, nothing else. Put the stone somewhere dark for the night, since light fades it, and apologise in the morning in your own words.
Works with
- Herb
- Vervain
- Incense
- Rosemary