Lepidolite
Also Lithium mica, Lilalite
Lilac to rose-purple, sometimes grey, with a pearly sheen; either a glittering mass of small mica plates or a solid violet stone, often shot through with pink tourmaline
- Crystal system
- Monoclinic
- Hardness
- 2.5-3 Mohs
- Handling
- Very soft and built of stacked sheets, so a fingernail marks it and the plates peel away. Water works between the layers and lifts them, so do not soak it and do not make an elixir. It contains lithium, locked in the mineral and harmless to hold, but do not grind it or breathe the dust.
- In water
- No
What it is held to be for
Lepidolite is a lithium mica, named in 1792 from the Greek for scale, because it splits into glittering flakes. The lithium is genuinely there but bound in the rock, and it does nothing to the person holding the stone. The tradition keeps it for the low weeks: not a crisis, but the flat stretch where the work is simply to keep going until the season turns.
Folk tradition; named 1792 from Greek lepis, scale
Correspondences
These are the tradition's ascriptions, not properties of the mineral.
- Planet
- Moon, Venus
- Element
- Water
- Signs
- Libra, Pisces
- Chinese phase
- Water
- Year animal
- Rabbit, Goat
- Centre
- Brow Ajna
- Sephirah
- Yesod
How it is used
Kept in one place and touched often: a desk, a windowsill, the shelf beside the kettle. The solid lilac stone stands up to handling, the flaky plates do not. Not a pocket stone, since it will crumble against coins.
Today
Put it where you make your morning drink. Touch it while the kettle boils and name one thing you will do today that is entirely for yourself.
A longer working
At the start of a hard week, set the lepidolite where you will pass it every morning and write three small things on a card beside it. Eat, sleep, walk, or whatever yours are. Each morning touch the stone and read the card. Each evening tick what you managed, and say nothing at all about what you did not. At the end of the week, read the ticks in one go and count them.
Works with
- Herb
- Skullcap
- Incense
- Lavender