Iolite Meaning: The Viking Sunstone, Explained
Iolite is gem cordierite that shifts from violet-blue to yellow as you turn it. What is true about the Viking sunstone, and how to spot and care for...
Aura Quartz: How It's Made, Types and How to Spot It
Aura quartz glows like a rainbow on an oil slick, yet it is ordinary rock crystal with a breath of gold or titanium on its skin. How the...
Mount Shasta and Lemuria: Where the Legend of Telos Actually Comes From
The Lemurian city of Telos inside Mount Shasta traced book by book, from an 1864 zoology paper to channeled books, and the older sacred traditions of the mountain.
Seraphinite Meaning: Origin, Care and How to Spot It
Few stones look so much like their name. Silvery feathers on deep green, as if someone had laid wings into the rock. Here is where seraphinite comes from,...
Pietersite Meaning: The Storm Stone and How to Spot It
Some stones look like weather seen from above. Pietersite is one of them: blue-gray streaks, golden bands of fiber, and between them broken edges that look as if...
Bronzite Meaning: The Stone With a Bronze Sheen
Bronzite is a stone most people walk right past at a gem show, because in the bowl it looks like a pebble from the yard: brown, dull, a...
Spinel: The August Birthstone That Was Called Ruby
The "ruby" in the front of the British Imperial State Crown is not a ruby. The 170-carat stone that has come down through history as the Black Prince's...
Zircon vs. Cubic Zirconia: How to Tell Them Apart
Two stones, almost the same name, and nearly everyone mixes them up. Zircon is a natural mineral older than anything else you will ever hold: the oldest known...
Aragonite: Sputnik Crystals, Calcite, Meaning and Care
Same formula as calcite, different crystal: why aragonite sputniks look the way they do, how pearls and corals are built from it, how to tell it from calcite...
Kunzite: Why It Fades, and How to Spot the Real Thing
Kunzite and hiddenite are the two faces of spodumene — one discovered in California, one in North Carolina. Why the pink one loses its color, why cutters dread...
How to Use Selenite (and What You Probably Bought)
Selenite is the crystal most often recommended for cleansing other crystals, and the one most often sold under the wrong name. Both of those are worth knowing before...
Moonstone vs Rainbow Moonstone: Difference and Care
It is one of the most common mix-ups in the crystal trade, and it sits in almost every product description: that rainbow moonstone is a particularly beautiful grade...