Moonstone
Also Adularia, Hecatolite
Translucent to nearly transparent white, grey, peach or smoke, with a blue-white sheen that floats below the surface and moves as you tilt it.
- Crystal system
- Monoclinic
- Hardness
- 6-6.5 Mohs
- Handling
- Safe in water and not toxic, but brittle: two perfect cleavages mean it chips or splits on a knock, so it is a poor choice for a ring worn hard. Keep it out of ultrasonic cleaners and away from sudden heat.
- In water
- Safe
What it is held to be for
Moonstone is feldspar built in layers so fine that light scatters between them, and a blue-white sheen seems to float over the surface as it tilts. Pliny describes a selenitis that waxes and wanes with the Moon, though what he had in hand was probably not this stone. The association held regardless: it is worn for the parts of a life that come and go.
Pliny, Natural History XXXVII (selenitis)
Correspondences
These are the tradition's ascriptions, not properties of the mineral.
- Planet
- Moon, Venus
- Element
- Water
- Signs
- Cancer, Pisces
- Chinese phase
- Metal
- Year animal
- Rabbit, Pig
- Centre
- Brow Ajna
- Sephirah
- Yesod
How it is used
Worn in the evening rather than in daylight, and kept under the pillow or on the bedside table for sleep and for dreams that are worth the trouble of remembering.
Today
Put the moonstone under your pillow tonight. In the morning, before you speak to anybody at all, write down whatever is left of the dream.
A longer working
Keep a notebook and the moonstone together by the bed. For one full month, new Moon to new Moon, put the stone under the pillow each night and write in the morning, even when all you have is a colour or a mood. At the month's end read the whole thing through in one sitting. What recurs is the point; a single strange night is not.
Works with
- Herb
- Jasmine
- Incense
- Myrrh