Fluorite

Chakra

Third eye, Crown

Element

Air

Planet

Neptune

Signs

Pisces, Capricorn

Tarot

Six of Swords, Justice

Crystal correspondences are traditional; the descriptions are original to this site.

What Fluorite means

Cubes and octahedrons of fluorite layer purple through green, blue and clear, sometimes all in a single piece. Under ultraviolet light some pieces glow, and in 1852 that glow gave science the word fluorescence.

Emotional properties

A mind stacked with too many open tabs is exactly where fluorite proves useful, its banded colours standing in for the separate threads that need sorting before any of them can be finished. Set a piece on a cluttered desk and let each colour represent one thread you are willing to set down for now. Put away one colour's worth today, and leave the rest of the stone for tomorrow.

Spiritual properties

Knock fluorite and it splits along the same four directions every time, the grain of the crystal deciding where it gives. Your own grain runs somewhere too: the direction you give under pressure, and the direction you never do. Its purple and green sit in separate bands, and neither bleeds into the other.

Physical properties

Fluorite's name comes from the Latin fluere, to flow, because smelters once added it to help metal ore run. Keep an octahedron on the kitchen counter and turn it once in each hand while the kettle boils, rolling the wrists through the motion. The small motion gives a slow morning somewhere to start.

Care and cleansing

Soft and easily cleaved along its flat planes, fluorite belongs away from harder stones, out of the ultrasonic cleaner, and away from heat and sudden temperature changes. Cool water is fine for a brief clean, as long as you dry it soon after. Charge it in indirect light rather than on a sunny sill, since strong sun fades its colour.

A question to sit with

What in you only shows up under a particular kind of attention?