Sodalite
Also Hackmanite
Opaque deep royal blue, marbled with white calcite veins, with occasional grey or violet patches.
- Crystal system
- Cubic
- Hardness
- 5.5-6 Mohs
- Handling
- Reasonably hard, but the white veins running through it are calcite, which is soft and dissolves in anything acidic. Rinse briefly and dry it; do not soak it, and keep it out of vinegar and salt water. Hackmanite, a sodalite variety, darkens in sunlight and pales again indoors. No elixirs.
- In water
- No
What it is held to be for
Sodalite came out of Greenland in 1811 and has no ancient lapidary behind it, so what it carries is recent and honest: a stone for people who think faster than they can speak. Practice gives it to teachers, witnesses and anyone who has to hold a line of argument steady while being interrupted.
Named by Thomas Thomson, 1811, from Greenland material; folk tradition since
Correspondences
These are the tradition's ascriptions, not properties of the mineral.
- Planet
- Mercury, Jupiter
- Element
- Air
- Signs
- Sagittarius, Gemini
- Chinese phase
- Water
- Year animal
- Rat, Pig
- Centre
- Throat Vishuddha
- Sephirah
- Hod
How it is used
Worn as a bead at the collarbone or carried in a shirt pocket for meetings, examinations, and any occasion where you will have to say something exactly once and be understood.
Today
Before you speak, hold the sodalite and put what you mean into one sentence. Say that sentence. Then stop talking.
A longer working
The night before you have to explain something difficult, sit with the sodalite and a sheet of paper. Write your argument out in full, however long it runs. Then cut it to five sentences. Then to three. Read the three aloud, stone in hand, until you can say them without the paper. Sleep on it. Carry the stone and the three sentences with you in the morning.
Works with
- Herb
- Vervain
- Incense
- Camphor