Opal

Properties: Opals are mysterious stones. this silicate stone contains water, metaphysically, correlating with our emotions. Like jasper, the classification and naming of opal varieties presents a challenge. Terms attributed to various well-defined materials includes the geographic locality where it is found or the colors it displays.

Opals help by clarifying, amplifying and mirroring our feelings, can bring up buried emotions, or desires (including love and passion). With opals in your life, you can find less inhibition, more spontaneity. These stones have often been associated with the higher or Crown Chakra and Third Eye Chakra. They assist in visualization, imagination, dreams, and the power of healing.

They are efficient as they can easily absorb and store our emotions and thoughts. Opal is a stone of inspiration which enhances the imagination and creativity as well. It helps one release inhibitions and enhances the memory. Opal is also said to be a very spiritual stone, and can help one be “invisible” in situations where they don’t care to be noticed. It has been known to bring happy dreams, and also to ease the process of change. With that said, opals are extremely sensitive and must be treated with great care. They easily diversify and scatter energy. Some literature states frankly that many who wear this stone have a fickle nature. Anytime the wearer feels uncomfortable with an Opal, the stone should be removed.

Folk Remedies:  In the Middle Ages, opal was considered a stone that could provide great luck because it was believed to possess all the virtues of each gemstone whose color was represented in the color spectrum of the opal. It was also said to confer the power of invisibility if wrapped in a fresh bay leaf and held in the hand.

Feng Shui:  Opals are prized in the ancient world as a stone of good luck and self-healing. Use opal in the Center area of the bagua map of your home or office. Depending on its color, it can be applied in any room that needs it coordinating color for transforming.

Crystal Cleansing: Methods 1 – 8 (May change color with high energy/intensity people.)

History:  Opal is a hydrated amorphous form of silica (SiO2·nH2O); its water content may range from 3 to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6 and 10%. Because of its amorphous character, it is classed as a mineraloid, unlike crystalline forms of silica, which are classed as minerals. It is deposited at a relatively low temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock, being most commonly found with limonite, sandstone, rhyolite, marl, and basalt. Opal is the national gemstone of Australia.

The internal structure of precious opal makes it diffract light. Depending on the conditions in which it formed, it can take on many colors. Precious opal ranges from clear through white, gray, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, magenta, rose, pink, slate, olive, brown, and black. Of these hues, the black opals are the rarest, whereas white and greens are the most common. Opals vary in optical density from opaque to semitransparent and show opalescence, a form of iridescence.

Visible light cannot pass through large thicknesses of the opal. This is the basis of the optical band gap in a photonic crystal. The notion that opals are photonic crystals for visible light was expressed in 1995 by Vasily Astratov’s group.  In addition, micro-fractures may be filled with secondary silica and form thin lamellae inside the opal during solidification. The term opalescence is commonly and erroneously used to describe this unique and beautiful phenomenon, which is correctly termed play of color. Contrarily, opalescence is correctly applied to the milky, turbid appearance of common opals.

In the early 17th century, opal was considered a stone of good luck. Following the publication of Sir Walter Scott’s Anne of Geierstein in 1829, opal acquired a less auspicious reputation. In Scott’s novel, the Baroness of Arnheim wears an opal talisman with supernatural powers. When a drop of holy water falls on the talisman, the opal turns into a colorless stone and the Baroness dies soon thereafter. Due to the popularity of Scott’s novel, people began to associate opals with bad luck and death. Within a year of the publishing of Scott’s novel in April 1829, the sale of opals in Europe dropped by 50%, and remained low for the next 20 years or so.

Even as recently as the beginning of the 20th century, it was believed that when a Russian saw an opal among other goods offered for sale, he or she should not buy anything more, as the opal was believed to embody the evil eye. Opal is considered the birthstone for those born in October.

Fire Opal

Fire Opal is a transparent to translucent opal, with warm body colors of yellow, orange, orange-yellow or red. It does not usually show any play of color, although occasionally a stone will exhibit bright green flashes. The most famous source of fire opals is the state of Querétaro in Mexico; these opals are commonly called Mexican fire opals. Fire opals that do not show play of color are sometimes referred to as jelly opals. Mexican opals are sometimes cut in their ryholitic host material if it is hard enough to allow cutting and polishing. This type of Mexican opal is referred to as a Cantera Opal. There is also a type of opal from Mexico referred to as Mexican Water Opal, which is a colorless opal which exhibits either a bluish or golden internal sheen. Fire opals may stimulate passion, temper, energy. Opals, particularly Fire Opals, are good for business. This is an enhancer of personal power, awakening the inner fire, as well as protection against danger. It is a symbol of hope, an energy amplifier, facilitating change and process. It supports through emotional turmoil, and is a wonderful stone in releasing and letting go of the past.

Garisol Opal

Girasol Opal is a term sometimes mistakenly and improperly used to refer to fire opals as well as a type of transparent to semi-transparent type milky quartz from Madagascar which displays an asterism, or star effect, when cut properly. The white aspects of an opal help balance left and right brain. Greatly increases general productivity through activation of the necessary glands. Regularizes the biorhythms of the wearing, avoiding discordant energies which may lead to uncontrolled behavior between frantic activity or total inactivity. Harmonizing desire, creating lovemaking rather than pure appetite, restores pleasure to eating which alleviates food related disorders.

There is a true girasol opal that is a type of Halite Opal, that exhibits a bluish glow or sheen that follows the light source around. It is not a play of color as seen in precious opal but rather an effect from microscopic inclusions. It is also sometimes referred to as water opal as well when it is from Mexico. The two most notable locations of this type of opal are Oregon and Mexico.

Green Apple Opal

Green Apple Opal combines the empowering burst of yellow with the heart healing color of green. Its soothing mixture brings both strength and awareness to our character. It is also helpful for someone who maybe over sensitive or are “too much in their head.” This crystal is best used for finding emotional balance between the desiring heart and the reality of the ego. Green Apple Opal helps the Solar Plexus energy with strength, and provides us the ability to hold this energy for personal power and emotional control. When placed between the physical Solar Plexus and Heart, this stone brings spontaneity and non-dominating power. It soothes the heart spirit and empowers us by helping to engage with our own free will.

Therefore, this stone assists with self-realization, the belief in who we are, and the ability to stand up for ourselves. This stone is especially good for someone who is “loosing their identity” in a relationship. It encourages us to make time for ourselves and to find that individualism. The green aspect of this stone further allows us to do this without hurting the other party in the relationship. It better helps us to cope with “how” we express ourselves and “when” to do so.

This stone represents the “tart” and “sweet” after taste, just like a green apple, who’s acidic skin introduces us to the tart aspects of life, but upon realization, we are able to sense the sweet moments life can afford us if we pay attention. Green Apple Opal is about awareness.

Opals, in general, have a connection to water and therefore, our emotions. Meditate with this stone to become more aware of and infinitely more in touch with your emotional balance and the triggers that set you off. Use this meditation time to find an approach that lets you handle these triggers and keeps you on the straight and narrow. Meditation helps us to be with ourselves and this stone can further help us to embrace the imperfections and teach us how to handle the emotional ups and downs.   

Peruvian Opal

Peruvian Opal (also called blue opal) is a semi-opaque to opaque blue-green stone found in Peru which is often cut to include the matrix in the more opaque stones. It does not display pleochroism. Blue opal also comes from Oregon in the Owhyee region as well as from Nevada around the Virgin Valley.  Peruvian opals help us with communication. Especially when we are trying to express matters of the heart!  This deep colored stone gives a sense of transformation. It is a combination of two of the most healing colors on earth. Use this stone at the Heart Chakra for matters of love and expressions of “carinitos” (sweet little words of love). Peruvians use diminutives all the time. as this comes from the Quechua tradition as they are a very loving, caring and affectionate people.  Use this stone at the Throat Chakra to help with speaking, listening and communication.

Black Opal

Black or dark blue opals are one of the most potent. Although opal was regarded as a stone of misfortune at one point in history, black Opal is considered an exceptionally lucky stone. It is said that if you dream of opals, you will receive great possessions. It is known to enhance sexual attractiveness, as well as leading one to a higher spiritual experience. It is told to transform the fears that hold us back from action into optimism and an eagerness to get on with our lives.

Black opal, many times, refracts all the color of the rainbow and in the right light, displays beautiful colors of light. A testament to its yin/yang qualities. It is said to encompass “our entire personality”  (dark and light). Wonderful stone for helping us to find balance. This stone is sometimes referred to as “rainbow opal”  or “peacock opal”

Rainbow Opal

Rainbow opals are the result of diffracting light and water. Rainbow opals are considered a sign of hope. A symbol for bridging the gap between your ego-self and your true self or your unconscious. It is a symbol of happiness. The world is full of color and happiness, if you choose to open your eyes and find it. If you want to see the rainbow, you have to tolerate the rain as the world is a myriad of color. Rainbow opals are also a symbol of inner peace and harmony of body, mind and spirit. It represent the bridge between heaven and earth. Seeing a rainbow is an omen indicating that good fortune may also be an illusion. In spiritual terms, however the colorful arc of a rainbow shows that you are at peace with God and the world. It is always a sign that an important reconciliation is possible. They are associated with mystic vision, imagination and rainbow healing.

Opalite is a tradename for man-made opalized glass and various opal similarities. Other names for this glass product include “Argenon”, “Sea Opal”, “Opal Moonstone” and other similar names.  It is also used to promote impure varieties of variously colored common opal. When opalite glass is placed against a dark background, it appears to have a blue color. When placed against a light background, it is milky white with an orange or pink glow. Because it is glass, it may sometimes contain air bubbles, an after effect of the forming process.

Rainbow Meditation

Using the full color spectrum of light in meditation can be a very peaceful and rewarding attunement to the power of color.  Color holds a special power over us, and often the full spectrum of visible light that we can see, can be the most rewarding of all. So how about recreating the power of the rainbow with this soothing meditation.

Here is what you need: your imagination!  If you want to get creative, you can add in colored lights, crystals of all different colors, knowledge of the Chakra or a single mantra or word!

We are not just our physical selves. We are multi-dimensional beings, composed of an Inner Spirit, a mental body, an emotional body, a vital body, and a physical body.

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Cleansing & Charging Opals

~ Cleansing a crystal is always a good idea to rid it of energies (negative or otherwise) that it may have picked up during handling and excessive use.

~ Charging a crystal is bringing its energy levels back up, after use and cleansing. Like re-charging a battery after it has lost its energy.  A great way to do this (and remind you that it is time to do so) is during a full moon.

Crystal Cleansing: Methods 1 – 8 (May change color with high energy/intensity people.)

The Power of Color

Color plays a major role in determining how your crystal can help you.  A crystal’s color is due to its combination of minerals, which give it it’s own personality.  It contributes in what attracts you to it.  The psychological aspects of color determine how a crystal’s healing properties work.