Turquoise
Also Callais, Turkey stone
Opaque sky-blue through to green, usually webbed or blotched with the brown or black rock it grew in, which dealers call matrix. The blue greens as the stone loses water or takes up oil.
- Crystal system
- Triclinic
- Hardness
- 5-6 Mohs
- Handling
- Soft and porous, and it drinks whatever it touches. Hand cream, perfume, sunscreen, cooking oil and sweat all soak in and turn the blue green or brown, and that change is permanent. Take a turquoise ring off before washing up; never soak, steam or ultrasonically clean it, and do not make an elixir. Be aware too that most turquoise sold is stabilised, meaning impregnated with resin so it is hard enough to cut, and a great deal of cheap material is dyed howlite, dyed magnesite or reconstituted powder, all of which bleed. Untreated turquoise is uncommon and expensive.
- In water
- No
What it is held to be for
Persia mined it at Nishapur and put it on the bridle: turquoise is the horseman's stone, worn against a fall, and held to crack in the rider's place. Boodt wrote in 1609 that it changes colour with its owner's health, which it does, though the cause is oil and water, not omen. Tibet, the Pueblo peoples and the Dine all keep it as a stone of sky and rain.
Pliny XXXVII, on callais; Anselmus Boetius de Boodt, Gemmarum et Lapidum Historia (1609)
Correspondences
These are the tradition's ascriptions, not properties of the mineral.
- Planet
- Jupiter, Venus
- Element
- Air
- Signs
- Sagittarius, Scorpio, Aquarius
- Chinese phase
- Wood
- Year animal
- Tiger, Rabbit
- Centre
- Throat Vishuddha
- Sephirah
- Chesed
How it is used
Worn openly, as a ring, a bead on a cord or a stone on the dashboard, and worn while travelling. Take it off to wash, cook, or put on cream. It is more often given than bought for oneself.
Today
Put it in the bag you travel with and say where you are going and when you intend to be back.
A longer working
Before a journey, on the morning you leave. Set the turquoise on a windowsill facing the way you are going. Say aloud the name of the place, the day you expect to return, and one person who is expecting you. Breathe on the stone once and put it in an inside pocket, dry, away from sunscreen and hand cream. When you are home, take it out first, before unpacking, and say that you are back.
Works with
- Herb
- Mugwort
- Incense
- Copal