Prehnite
Also Cape emerald
Translucent pale yellow-green to apple green, with a soft inner glow and a fibrous grain; often botryoidal, sometimes crowded with black epidote needles
- Crystal system
- Orthorhombic
- Hardness
- 6-6.5 Mohs
- Handling
- Safe in water and reasonably tough, but brittle along its fibrous grain, so it chips if knocked against a harder stone. The green can pale after long exposure to strong sun or heat. Keep it off a hot windowsill.
- In water
- Safe
What it is held to be for
Prehnite came into the record too late for Pliny. It was described in 1788 and named for a Dutch colonel who brought a specimen back from the Cape, the first mineral named after a person. Its lore is modern, and honesty requires saying so. The tradition keeps it as the stone of the settled mind: the one held to quiet the noise around a decision before the decision is made.
Folk tradition; first described 1788
Correspondences
These are the tradition's ascriptions, not properties of the mineral.
- Planet
- Jupiter, Venus
- Element
- Earth
- Signs
- Sagittarius, Libra
- Chinese phase
- Wood
- Year animal
- Rabbit, Dragon
- Centre
- Heart Anahata
- Sephirah
- Chesed
How it is used
Carried loose in a pocket where the thumb can find it, or set on the desk beside whatever is unresolved. It is held while a decision is being turned over, not after it has been taken.
Today
Hold it in a closed hand. Name the decision aloud, once. Then say nothing for a full minute and notice which thought arrives first.
A longer working
On a Thursday, clear a table and put the stone at its centre. Write the question you keep circling on a slip of paper and set it under the stone. Leave both overnight. In the morning, before you look at your phone, read the slip aloud. Then write one sentence, only one, saying what you now think. Bin the slip. Keep the sentence where you will find it again.
Works with
- Herb
- Sage
- Incense
- Cedar