Peridot
Also Chrysolite, Olivine, Topazos
Transparent olive to bottle green, always green and never any other colour, with an oily lustre; large stones show facet edges doubled when you look through them
- Crystal system
- Orthorhombic
- Hardness
- 6.5-7 Mohs
- Handling
- Safe in water and hard enough for daily wear, but acids attack it: sweat, lemon juice and vinegar will etch the polish. It dislikes sudden changes of temperature, so keep it out of steam and ultrasonic cleaners, and store it apart from harder stones.
- In water
- Safe
What it is held to be for
Pliny's topazos, mined at first light on an island in the Red Sea, is our peridot, and the medieval lapidaries called the same stone chrysolite, so the name has moved twice. Marbode of Rennes writes that set in gold it drives off the terrors of the night. It comes out of volcanoes and meteorites, and the tradition keeps it for what grows back.
Marbode, De lapidibus, on chrysolite; Pliny XXXVII, on topazos
Correspondences
These are the tradition's ascriptions, not properties of the mineral.
- Planet
- Sun, Venus
- Element
- Fire
- Signs
- Leo, Virgo
- Chinese phase
- Wood
- Year animal
- Dragon, Tiger
- Centre
- Heart Anahata
- Sephirah
- Tiphareth
How it is used
Worn as a ring or a pendant, and traditionally set in gold rather than silver, on the left arm in Marbode's instruction. Put on for the return to something: work after illness, a house after a bad year.
Today
Wear it or hold it, and name one thing that is already recovering. Not a hope, but something you can point to. Say it out loud once.
A longer working
At the new Moon, plant something. A seed, a cutting, a supermarket herb repotted, it does not matter which. Set the peridot in the soil at the rim of the pot while you work, then lift it out, wipe it and put it on. Water the plant on the days you would otherwise not have bothered. When it has plainly taken, the working is finished. Keep the stone for the next return.
Works with
- Herb
- St John's wort
- Incense
- Copal