Sugilite
Also Luvulite, Royal azel
Opaque purple, running from a soft lilac-grey to an intense magenta-violet, usually mottled or veined and often carrying black manganese oxide or brown patches. Only rarely translucent at an edge.
- Crystal system
- Hexagonal
- Hardness
- 5.5-6.5 Mohs
- Handling
- Soft enough to scuff on ordinary grit, so keep it in its own bag away from quartz, steel and keys. Quick contact with water is fine, but do not soak it and do not make an elixir: it is a mixed material, and the veining and manganese oxide in it are softer than the purple and can loosen or stain. A polished piece raises no dust. Some pale material is dyed to deepen the colour, and dye bleeds.
- In water
- No
What it is held to be for
There is no lapidary behind sugilite. A pale form was found in Japan in 1944 and named for the geologist who described it; the deep purple that made its name came out of the Wessels Mine in South Africa in 1979. Everything ascribed to it has been ascribed since about 1980, and mostly by people working with the dying and the bereaved. That is a young tradition, said plainly.
Modern lapidary tradition; Wessels Mine material, 1979
Correspondences
These are the tradition's ascriptions, not properties of the mineral.
- Planet
- Jupiter
- Element
- Water
- Signs
- Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces
- Chinese phase
- Earth
- Year animal
- Pig, Goat
- Centre
- Crown Sahasrara
- Sephirah
- Chesed
How it is used
Given more often than bought: put into the hand of someone in hospital, or in grief, or newly somewhere they do not belong. Kept under a pillow. Wipe it dry, and do not leave it standing in water.
Today
Put it in the hand of someone who is having a bad week and say nothing about crystals. Let them keep it.
A longer working
For grief, on any evening you are alone. Sit with the stone in both hands and say the person's name once. Then say one ordinary thing about them: how they held a cup, what they always got wrong. Not the eulogy, the small thing. Say a second. Say a third if it comes. Put the stone on the table and leave it out overnight where you will see it in the morning.
Works with
- Herb
- Lemon Balm
- Incense
- Frankincense