Zircon
Also Jacinth, Hyacinth, Jargoon
Transparent and brilliant with strong fire: colourless, honey, golden brown, red, and a heat-treated blue; the back facets visibly double when you look through it.
- Crystal system
- Tetragonal
- Hardness
- 6-7.5 Mohs
- Handling
- Safe in water, but brittle: facet edges abrade against harder stones, so store it on its own. Heat and strong sunlight can shift or fade treated blue and colourless stones. Some zircon holds traces of uranium and thorium, which is why certain crystals go cloudy and soft with age; the amounts in gem material are low and not held a hazard to wear, but do not grind it or breathe its dust.
- In water
- Safe
What it is held to be for
Zircon is the oldest thing a person can hold. Crystals from Western Australia have been dated past four billion years, older than any surviving rock. Under the name jacinth it runs all through the medieval lapidaries, where Marbode writes that it brings sleep and keeps a traveller safe and welcome in a strange house. It is a stone for arriving somewhere you do not know.
Marbode of Rennes, De lapidibus (jacinth)
Correspondences
These are the tradition's ascriptions, not properties of the mineral.
- Planet
- Sun, Jupiter
- Element
- Fire
- Signs
- Sagittarius, Capricorn
- Chinese phase
- Metal
- Year animal
- Rooster, Dragon
- Centre
- Brow Ajna
- Sephirah
- Tiphereth
How it is used
Carried when travelling, in a wallet, a passport sleeve or a coat pocket, and set by the bed on the first night in an unfamiliar room.
Today
Put zircon in the bag you are travelling with. Before you leave, say aloud where you are going and when you mean to be back.
A longer working
The night before a journey, set the zircon on the windowsill of the room you are leaving. Pack around it, so that it is the last thing to go in. In the morning take it up and say the name of the place you are going to. Keep it in the same pocket the whole way. On the first night put it on the table nearest the bed, and bring it home again unremarked.
Works with
- Herb
- Saffron
- Incense
- Sandalwood