Crystals: Opal/ Opalite

Birthstone: October
Meaning: Confidence
Chakras: Heart, Third Eye
Zodiac: Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius
Planet:
MOH’s Scale: 5.5- 6
Element: Air, Water, fire
God/Goddess: Eros
Anniversary Gift: 14^th year

Known as the “Queen of Gems”, the “Stone of the Gods”, the stone of visionaries, a stone of hope, and a stone of great achievement, opal is one of the most beautiful stones and has been highly prized for thousands of years. Deposited as a mineral gel, opal can be found in a wide variety of rock formations, including basalt, limonite, sandstone, and rhyolite. It is formed from a solution of silicon dioxide and water. Essentially, this precious gemstone is formed when water runs down the earth and seeps down into crevasses in the rock. The water eventually evaporates thus causing the silica to dry out and harden into precious Opal. 3%-20% of the total weight is water. Australia is the source of a vast majority of the world’s opal supply.

Enhancing your self-image and improving your good luck are just two of the ways in which you may benefit from working with opal. If you are having a run of bad luck and wish to improve your fortune, employ the help of opal combined with the power of the sun. Harness the fiery energy inside opal to help bring you good luck by bathing it in sunlight and then wear or carry your opal to promote good fortune. Wearing opal was said to boost your powers of divination.

Opal equates to power, prosperity, growth, influence, fame, and love. Opal was thought to cure eye infections, maintain a healthy heart, prevent fainting, and ward off evil and nightmares. Opal can be used to increase inspiration and creativity as well as help with headaches. Opal will bring faithfulness and confidence to its wearers. It is said to be the stone of love, but only to faithful lovers. The opal will bring misfortune to an unfaithful lover.

Opal promotes visions and helps you to attain your desires. It helps bring inspiration, psychic insights, and clairvoyance. Opal is also useful for astral projection. It is a stone of self-assurance and creates peace in the midst of chaos. It is inspirational and can help to enhance memory. Used correctly, it intensifies positive attributes and helps you to see your soul while promoting a higher level of understanding. When used on the wrong person, it can cause difficulties in regards to amplified emotion and spontaneity. Opal is a great stone to use when casting beauty spells and also has the power to magnify energy and boost positive feelings. Allow opal to guide you when drawing your astrological chart by wearing opal jewelry.

Named after the Latin word opalus meaning precious stone, the opal is believed by many to bring good luck to its wearer, a tradition which continued through to the medieval period when English ladies gave their knights opals for good fortune. In the Middle Ages, opal was thought to be beneficial for eyesight, some people even believed it could render the wearer invisible and so it was thieves’ and spies’ chosen talisman. It was known as patronus furum (patron of thieves). During that period, the change in an opal’s color intensity was believed to show the state of its wearer’s health. Some even believed it to have caused the Black Death plague that swept across Europe in the mid-14^th century.

In Ancient Egypt and Babylon, opals were considered a powerful healing gem, combining the qualities of fire and water.

Arabs believed opals fell from the heavens in flashes of lightning. One story goes that the Ancients believed that opal came into being when the storm god, jealous of the beauty of the rainbow god, shattered the rainbow to bits which then fell to the earth and were captured within the opals. Hindu legend has it that opal was once a beautiful woman desired by Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. The Eternal turned her into a creature of mist, which each of the love struck gods endowed with a color: Blue (Brahma), gold (Vishnu), and red (Shiva). The wind swept away the lovely mist and it later became a stone that shimmers with the colors of the rainbow.

Many opals, especially fire opals, are found in Australia so it is not surprising the Aboriginal tribes have many myths surrounding this gem. According to one legend, a huge opal governs the movement of the starts in the heavens. This great gem also guides human love and controls the amounts of gold in the ground. Other myths denounce opal as an evil gem, stating that the stone is a devil- half human and half serpent. It lurks in the dark holes of the ground, always ready to lure humans to their doom with flashes of wicked magic.

Opalite on the other hand…..

Birthstone: N/A
Meaning: Balance
Chakras: Third Eye, Crown
Zodiac: Cancer
Planet: Venus, Mars
MOH’s Scale: 6
Element: Air
God/Goddess:
Anniversary Gift: N/A

Opalite is a man-made variety of glass — in essence, it has no connection to nature whatsoever. It’s just a pretty glass which happens to be called Opalite. Opalite is a trade name for man-made Opal-like stones. Most people also consider Opalite to be the general term for low-grade Opal with inclusions. Opalite is a man made stone that is made with fluorite which contributes to the glowing effect. It does not display the same qualities as real opal. They are used for meditation and Feng Shui to transmute negative energy into positive energy. It is known as the stone of eternity and brings forth the understanding of the true self, the true spirit, to free the spirit, and brings knowing that one can soar higher than expected, to unimaginable goals.

Opalite is a stone of emotional balance. It improves your sense of self worth and assists in making smooth transitions. I can be helpful in success in business. Opalite is said to enhance visions, stabilize mood swings, helps bring forth of the true-self, the true spirit, to free the spirit. The knowing that one can soar higher than expected, can reach unimaginable goals, and join as one with the ultimate all, the whole of who we are and why we are. Opalite is also useful in meditation for its calming and relaxing energy which can also aid in sleep and help bring about peace and serenity.

From our altar to yours, with love from the sea,