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CRYSTALS
AND THEIR PROPERTIES
OPAL
Chemical
Composition: SiO2-nH2O
Crystal System:
Amorphous Hardness: 5.5 - 6.5
Habit:
Massive; often as stalactitic, botryoidal and rounded forms; also as
veinlets; cavity-fillings such as in fractures and geodes, nodular or as a
replacement of other minerals and wood
Colour:
Variable from colourless through milky white, grey, red, brown, blue,
green, pale yellow, pale red, pink, grey or black, when impurities are common.
Diffraction can cause flashes of any colour of the rainbow (opalescent)
KEYWORDS:
EMOTIONAL MIRROR
The name opal comes from Sanskrit and means ‘gem’
or ‘precious stone’. Opal has
been a popular gem for many centuries and has a very interesting structure.
Opal is considered a mineraloid because this structure is not truly
crystalline. The chemistry of opal
is primarily Si02 and varying amounts of water. Although there is no crystal structure (meaning a regular arrangement of
atoms), opal does possess a structure nonetheless. Random chains of silicon and oxygen are packed into extraordinarily tiny
spheres. These spheres in most
opals are irregular in size and inconsistent in concentration.
Yet in precious opal, the
variety used most often in jewellery, there are many organized pockets of the
spheres. These pockets contain
spheres of approximately equal size and have a regular concentration, or
structure, of the spheres. This has
the effect of diffracting light at various wavelengths, creating colours. Each pocket produces a different colour, with a different intensity
depending on the angle from which a viewer sees it. The multicoloured flashes of light which opal emits give it a truly
exquisite quality.
Hyalite is colourless,
botryoidal opal; wood opal is wood that has been replaced in part by opaline
silica; and hydrophane is a variety, which becomes transparent when immersed in
water. Siliceous sinter and
geyserite are opaline deposits formed around geysers or by precipitation from
hot waters. They generally form
stalactitic and delicate filamentous forms of various colours. Precious opal has a milky white and sometimes black body
colour. Fire opal is a variety in
which red and yellow colours are dominant and produce flame-like reflections
when turned.
Opal has been treasured
throughout history around the world. Archaeologist
Louis Leakey found six thousand-year-old opal artefacts in a cave in Kenya.
Roman historian Pliny described the magnificence of opal as the
combination of the beauty of all other gems: “There is in them a softer fire
than the ruby, there is the brilliant purple of the amethyst, and the sea green
of the emerald - all shining together in incredible union. Some by their splendour rival the colours of the painters, others the
flame of burning sulphur or of fire quickened by oil”.
Opal was much loved and valued highly by the Romans,
who called it opalus. In Greek
mythology opal is said to have formed out of the tears of joy Zeus cried after
his victory over the Titans.
The Aztecs mined opal in
South and Central America. Opal was
also treasured in the middle Ages and was called ophthalmios, or eye stone, due
to a widespread belief that it was beneficial to eyesight.
Blonde women wore opal necklaces to protect their hair
from losing its colour. An opal
called the orphanus was set in the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor. It was described as follows: “as though pure white snow flashed and
sparkled with the colour of bright ruddy wine, and was overcome by this
radiance”. This opal was said to
protect the regal honour. Opals are
also set in the crown jewels of France. Napoleon
gave Josephine a beautiful opal with brilliant red flashes called “The burning
of Troy”, making her his Helen.
Shakespeare found in the opal
a symbol of shifting inconstancy, likening play of colour to play of mind in one
of the most apt uses of gemstone symbolism in literature. In ‘Twelfth Night’, he writes: “Now the melancholy God protect
thee, and the tailor make thy garments of changeable taffeta, for thy mind is
opal”.
In India, opal is thought to
be the Goddess of rainbows turned to stone when fleeing from the romantic
advances of the other Gods. Queen
Victoria loved opals and often gave them as wedding presents. Ancient opal came from the mines near Cervenica, Hungary, in what is now
Eastern Slovakia, where hundreds of men mined the stone.
Ancient opal devotees never
had the opportunity to see the opal of Australia, where the opal of today was
born, which far surpasses the beauty of Hungarian opal in fire, colour and sheer
brilliance. Gold panners in
Australia found the first few pieces of precious opal in 1863. Mines at White Cliffs began producing in 1890.
The strength of the colours seen in opal also depends on the background
body colour and the transparency of the stone. Opal is the birthstone for those born in October.
Opal is absorbent, it picks up your emotional
energies, positive or negative, and works with the karmic law of return: what
you send out is returned amplified like a boomerang. The reason the energy is magnified is very simple: like
attracts like! This makes some
people very wary of wearing opal, and rightly so - for if you are not sending
out positive loving energy and are instead deeply focused on negativity, the
last thing you need is even more negativity! But don’t blame the beautiful opal, it is just showing you the
Universal Law of resonance: what you focus on attracts even more of the same
energy; this law makes you very aware of your every thought, word and deed.
What you give out will always be yours; you just attract even more of the
same! This law can cause havoc when
you consider all the ~black’ spots on the planet. We have all had enough of killing, of chaos and confusion.
I know from my own experience that we can change our field of reality. It is as simple as owning your thoughts, feelings, emotions - your
vibratory pattern. Pure mind power
- don’t be the problem, be the cure. Opals
are wonderful emotional healers when you are ready to accept responsibility for
owning your own emotional energies and vibratory pattern.
Opal is also used for ‘Soul
Star’ activation in body layouts. The
brilliant flashes of light frequency emitted by the opal cause a significant
vibrational shift in the chakra immediately above the crown chakra. Although the ‘Soul Star’ chakra is not actually located on the
physical body, its influence and activation will cause a download of light
vibrational information’ that can greatly induce emotional healing and deepen
the spiritual results of meditation practice.
Most recently opals have been frequently used to send
healing to the Earth’s energy matrix; this is activated by sacred sounds or
mantras. Each ‘Star Seed’ on
the planet at this time holds a Divine ‘key’ within their own personal ‘Mandala’;
as we gather in groups of other ‘Light Workers’ we should tone our own
sacred ‘sound key’. This energy
is then carried via the opal to the Dolphins and Whales within the Earth’s
oceans - which will then be anchored into the Earth’s energy grid. This will cause a raising of the vibrational energy. By bringing the
vibration of the planet into a higher octave, we should find a lessening of
aggression and negative frequencies within the ‘black spots’. Just as the ‘Universal Law of Resonance’ works on the human energy
field, the same applies to the Earth.
Mysterious opals contain the
wonders of the skies - sparking rainbows, fireworks and lightning -shifting and
stifling in their depths. They can
be extremely inspiring and have been used by artists to gain heavenly Divine
inspirational flashes. The opal
vibration is very motivating.
Opal can also be used in visualisation practice.
As we hold a beautiful opal we begin to visualise ourselves seated on a
beautiful white lotus flower set in the midst of an endless perfect blue sky.
As we focus on the ‘rainbow’ opal, its iridescent light begins to
enter our heart chakra. There it
begins to turn anticlockwise; as it does so, rainbows pour from it, filling our
whole body and purifying it, until finally we sit transformed; our gross
physical body is now iridescent rainbow light. Having filled our body, the rainbows overspill from the crown of our head
and cascade down through our aura. You
can stay as long as you like in this visualisation, but please allow all
feelings of ‘light-headedness’ to dissipate before you move about.
Blue Opal (Andean
Blue Silica)
Contains no fire. So it is soothing emotionally, it enhances personal courage and
confidence. A powerful healer for
the etheric blueprint, within the auric field. Realigns you to your highest spiritual purpose this lifetime on the earth
plane and gives you the courage to complete. It is a tool for sacred living and sacred gatherings; it is a very
sociable crystal. It encourages you
to share your heartfelt emotions.
Blue opal is very good for
overcoming self-sabotage. It also
has a strong affinity with all the sea creatures, including Dolphins, Whales and
Mer-fairies.
Pink Opal (Andean
Pink Silica)
Contains no fire. Use the pink opal after a person has been assaulted in any way, or after
they have had part of their body removed or modified in an operation. Pink opal gets rid of emotional hang-ups.
It is spiritually uplifting and creates achievement through love.
It helps you release sorrow
with dignity, rather than the distraught expression of emotional turmoil. It enhances your spiritual awakening, bringing Divine joy to all your
ventures. It has a beneficial
effect on the entire endocrine system. Releases
guilt and teaches you to not to be a victim. It is also a good stone to use when the sweetness has gone out of life
and has been used to alleviate the symptoms of diabetics.
Fire Opal
Fire opal is used on the area
of the lower back and lower intestines, the abdomen and the kidneys. It helps the function of the adrenal glands and is good when used during
stressful situations to stop emotional ‘burnout’. When someone feels they have been mistreated or are deeply outraged –
‘it isn’t fair’ syndrome - fire opal will bring them up through the shock
and emotional turmoil. Fire opal
can release deep-seated fears and grief. It
helps people to deal with the past and let go. Fire opal frees the spirit and brings optimism and creative power.
Fire opal also teaches you self-reliance and to trust your gut instinct
regardless of the intellect.
Black
Opal
This is used for going into
your own personal darkness to discover the Universal Light. It is also used for gazing, providing insight and vision.
Also a very high vibration grounding stone, useful when other grounding
stones would be too dense a vibration for the energy field of the awakened
‘Light Worker’. It is good for
souls who have lost faith in tomorrow. Black
opal also brings order out of chaos and banishes chaotic thought patterns.
Oregon Opal
This opal is from volcanic
deposits in Oregon. It is
transparent bluish-white material and rainbow material. It is the gentle form of opal; it is emotionally uplifting and
encouraging. It has a lovely
lulling quality about it.
Oregon opal tones down the
harsh and abrupt. It has a purity
and innocence about it; it induces faith and trust in the self. It teaches you to be a free spirit, to break away, to loosen the chains
that bind you from reaching your soul’s maturity. It is good to use on those souls who are moody with an unforgiving
temperament, who needlessly hold on to resentment and hostility.
Affirmation: I now choose to work with the ‘Universal Law of Resonance’ in a
positive loving way.
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