54 crystals and stones with their planets, history and lore from Pliny to the Victorians, magical uses, care (water, salt, sunlight) and safety — with a stone of the day, your birthstone, when to charge each one, the hardness scale, and your own collection with its gaps and storage advice. The stones that belong to the Hindu navaratna say which planet they serve. Every stone is set on the Mohs scale of hardness, with a scratch test between any two, and a quartz crystal can be turned in the hand and coloured as each of the quartz family, from rock crystal to flint.
Organic: fossilised tree resin · hardness 2–2.5 · ☉ Sun · Fire
Sunny protection, warmth and good luck.
Caution: Soft and melts with heat. Amber teething necklaces are a choking and strangulation risk — health authorities advise against them.
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The Greeks called it elektron; rubbed, it attracts straw and dust — the origin of our word “electricity”. Myth made it the tears of the sisters of Phaethon, and Baltic amber was traded across Europe for thousands of years.
Good for
Protection, Calm, Luck
Cleanse with
incense smoke, moonlight, a rinse in running water
Confidence, warmth and success; a modern “merchant's stone” kept in the till.
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Named from the French citron, “lemon”. Natural citrine is rare: most citrine on sale is amethyst or smoky quartz that has been heated until it turns yellow-orange.
Modern association · Solar plexus chakra.
Good for
Prosperity, Courage & energy, Focus & study
Cleanse with
incense smoke, moonlight, a rinse in running water
Water: rinse OKSalt: avoidSunlight: fades
Diamond
Easy to handle
Carbon · hardness 10 · ☉ Sun · Fire · April birthstone
Invincibility, purity and strength of will.
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From Greek adamas, “unconquerable”. Pliny claimed it could be broken only after soaking in warm goat's blood. Before the 15th century diamonds were rarely cut, and were valued for their hardness more than their sparkle.
Good for
Courage & energy, Protection, Focus & study
Cleanse with
incense smoke, moonlight, a rinse in running water, resting on dry salt, an hour of morning sun
In India
The gem of Venus (Śukra) in the navaratna.
Water: rinse OKSalt: OKSunlight: fine
Peridot
Easy to handle
Chrysolite · Olivine (forsterite) · hardness 6.5–7 · ☉ Sun · Fire · August birthstone
Driving off fear and envy; warmth and renewal.
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Mined for over 3,000 years on Zabargad, St John's Island, in the Red Sea. The “chrysolite” of old texts was often peridot; set in gold, it was said to drive away terrors of the night.
Good for
Protection, Prosperity, Calm
Cleanse with
incense smoke, moonlight, a rinse in running water, an hour of morning sun
Water: rinse OKSalt: avoidSunlight: fine
Ruby
Easy to handle
Corundum (coloured by chromium) · hardness 9 · ☉ Sun · Fire · July birthstone
Passion, courage, nobility and vitality.
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In Sanskrit ratnaraj, “king of gems”. Kunz records that Burmese warriors set rubies under their skin to make themselves invulnerable.
Good for
Courage & energy, Love & friendship, Protection
Cleanse with
incense smoke, moonlight, a rinse in running water, resting on dry salt, an hour of morning sun
In India
The gem of the Sun (Sūrya) in the navaratna, the Hindu set of nine, and the one set at its centre.
Water: rinse OKSalt: OKSunlight: fine
Sunstone
Easy to handle
Feldspar (oligoclase) with tiny metallic plates · hardness 6–6.5 · ☉ Sun · Fire
Warmth, optimism, leadership and good fortune.
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Its glitter comes from tiny plates of copper or haematite. The Vikings' “sunstone”, used to find the Sun through cloud, was probably not this stone but clear Iceland spar.
Good for
Courage & energy, Luck, Prosperity
Cleanse with
incense smoke, moonlight, a rinse in running water, an hour of morning sun
Water: rinse OKSalt: avoidSunlight: fine
Tiger's eye
Easy to handle
Quartz replacing fibres of crocidolite · hardness 7 · ☉ Sun · Fire
Confidence, clear judgement and protection.
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Its rolling band of light (chatoyancy, from the French for “cat's eye”) made it a natural charm against the evil eye — an eye that watches back.
Modern association · Solar plexus chakra.
Good for
Courage & energy, Protection, Prosperity, Focus & study
Cleanse with
incense smoke, moonlight, a rinse in running water, an hour of morning sun
Water: rinse OKSalt: avoidSunlight: fine
Topaz
Easy to handle
Aluminium silicate fluoride · hardness 8 · ☉ Sun · Fire · November birthstone
Calm, generosity and steady confidence.
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Pliny's topazos came from an island in the Red Sea and was probably peridot. Medieval writers said topaz could cool boiling water and calm anger.
Good for
Courage & energy, Focus & study, Calm
Cleanse with
incense smoke, moonlight, a rinse in running water, an hour of morning sun
Water: rinse OKSalt: avoidSunlight: fine
How hard is each stone?
In 1812 Friedrich Mohs ranked minerals by which will scratch which, from talc at 1 to diamond at 10. A stone scratches anything softer than itself, which is why soft stones are kept apart from hard ones. Every stone in the library is set on the scale below.
Rest on a dot to see the stone; tap it to look it up.
THE SCRATCH TEST
Amethyst scratches Malachite, and not the other way: keep malachite in its own pouch.
Glass and a steel knife are about 5.5, so any stone softer than that can be marked by a jar, a blade or the dust of quartz. ★ marks the stones in your collection. Test only on a hidden spot, or better, don't: the scale is for keeping stones safe, not for marking them.
One mineral, many stones
Quartz is silicon dioxide, grown as a six-sided crystal with a point. Where the crystals are big enough to see, it gives rock crystal, amethyst, citrine, smoky and rose quartz; where they are too fine to see, chalcedony: agate, carnelian, jasper and flint. Turn the crystal, and choose a stone.
CRYSTALS YOU CAN SEE
TOO FINE TO SEE: CHALCEDONY
Rock crystal: pure silicon dioxide, clear as Pliny's 'eternal ice'.
SETS OF STONES IN OTHER TRADITIONS
The Hindu navaratna
Nine gems, one for each of the nine grahas.
Ruby is for the Sun, pearl the Moon, red coral Mars, emerald Mercury, yellow sapphire Jupiter, diamond Venus, blue sapphire Saturn, hessonite Rāhu and cat's eye Ketu.
They are set with the ruby in the centre. Sources give the outer order differently.
Sanskrit gem-lore is old: Varāhamihira's Bṛhat Saṃhitā, of the 6th century, has a chapter on gems. The planetary set is taught in the later astrological texts.
The stone is chosen from the birth chart, not by month.
WHERE IT DIFFERS The tool follows the planets of the West. Rāhu and Ketu, the Moon's nodes, have gems of their own.
Sources: Skyjems, “Hindu navaratna”
Safety. Stones are symbols and focuses for magic, not medicine. Never put toxic minerals — malachite, turquoise, lapis, pyrite and other metal ores — into water you will drink; keep small stones away from children and pets; and wear a mask if you ever cut or polish stone.
Lore from Pliny's Natural History (77 CE), the medieval lapidaries and G.F. Kunz's Curious Lore of Precious Stones (1913); “modern association” marks 20th-century ideas such as the chakra links. Planets follow the Correspondences tables. Learn more in Stones & Metals.
PRACTISE WITH IT
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A few things to do with this tool, from a first try to a habit. Each one you tick counts as practice for the day, towards your streak and milestones.
Kept in this browser. Notes you send to the journal are kept there as well.