Rhodonite

Also Orlets, Manganese spar

Opaque to slightly translucent rose-pink to red, nearly always webbed and patched with black manganese oxide.

Crystal system: Triclinic
Hardness: 5.5-6.5 Mohs
Handling: Middling hardness, with good cleavage and soft black manganese-oxide veins that pit and dull long before the pink does. A short rinse is fine; do not soak it for hours, and keep it out of vinegar, lemon and salt. The surface can brown slightly with years of air and light. Dry it properly after washing.
In water: Safe

What it is held to be for

Rhodonite is rose-pink shot through with black, and the tradition never separates the two. This is the stone of love that has been damaged and is being kept anyway. Russia mined it as orlets and cut it for the imperial court. Practice gives it after a betrayal or a family falling-out, and to anyone who must forgive without pretending nothing happened.

Named from Greek rhodon, rose; the Russian orlets of the Urals

Correspondences

These are the tradition's ascriptions, not properties of the mineral.

Planet: Venus, Mars
Element: Earth
Signs: Taurus, Scorpio
Chinese phase: Fire
Year animal: Horse, Goat
Centre: Heart Anahata
Sephirah: Geburah

How it is used

Held in the hand rather than worn, and taken out for the particular quarrel. Kept in a drawer between times. Some practice has two people hold the same piece in turn while each of them speaks.

Today

Hold the rhodonite and trace one black vein with your thumb. Name the harm honestly. Then name one thing you will still do for them.

A longer working

On a Tuesday evening, take the rhodonite and think of the person you are at odds with. Write down what they did, exactly, with no softening; this is the black in the stone, and it stays. Underneath, write what you want the relationship to be in a year. Read both aloud, holding the stone. Burn nothing and throw nothing away. Fold the paper, set the stone on it, and leave it a week before you decide what to say.

Works with

Herb: Comfrey
Incense: Labdanum