Crystal · Quiet, true fire
Spinel
- Chakra
- Root, Heart
- Element
- Fire
- Planet
- Mars
- Tarot
- Eight of Wands
Crystal correspondences are traditional; the descriptions are original to this site.
What Spinel means
For centuries, red spinel was sold and worn as ruby, including two of the world's most famous 'rubies', the Black Prince's Ruby and the Timur Ruby. It forms as octahedral crystals in marble, coloured red by chromium and other trace metals.
Emotional properties
Rubies and sapphires are routinely heated to improve their colour, but spinel rarely is; what comes out of the marble is usually what gets set in the ring. Put it on for a day when you are tempted to polish yourself up for someone else's approval. The version of you that arrives unimproved is allowed to be the one they meet.
Spiritual properties
A well-formed spinel octahedron has eight identical triangular faces, so no side of it is the front and none is the back. Let your practice have no back either: the dishes done with attention count as much as the candle lit for ritual. Give the next ordinary chore the care you would give an altar.
Physical properties
At 7.5 to 8 on the Mohs scale, spinel is harder than quartz and tough enough to wear every day in a ring. Choose it for days that ask the body for stamina rather than finesse, moving house or hauling a garden's worth of soil. Its hardness means you can forget it is there until the work is done.
Care and cleansing
Spinel takes water, sun and daily wear in its stride. Scrub it with a soft toothbrush and soapy water, then leave it in full sun for a morning to charge. Store it by itself in a ring box, since at its hardness it marks most stones it rubs against.
A question to sit with
Has anyone met the unimproved version of you lately?
Stones that share a chakra
- StilbiteSheaf of soft light
- Tiger's eyeGolden vigilance
- Tourmalinated quartzThreaded opposites
- TourmalineLive current
- UnakiteMottled balance
- VanadiniteContained blaze
- VarisciteQuiet authenticity
- Watermelon tourmalineTwo-toned heart