APPLICATIONS: | Asbestos, ornamental stone used for carvings, semi-precious to precious stone used in jewelry and metaphysical healing. |
ASSOCIATED MINERALS: | Quartz, lawsaonite, epidote, nephrite, jade and glaucophane. |
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: | Scorpio. |
CHEMICAL STRUCTURE: | Ca2(Mg, Fe)5Si8O22(OH)2, Calcium Magnesium Iron Silicate Hydroxide. |
CLASS: | Silicates. |
CLEAVAGE: | Perfect in two directions at close to 60 and 120 degree angles. |
COLOR: | Green, white, gray and black. |
CRYSTAL HABITS: | Include the flattened prismatic and elongated crystal with a dome-like termination that is actually a two of the four faces of a prism. Also, as a fibrous mass (asbestos) and as a fibrous and very compact mass (nephrite jade). |
CRYSTAL SYSTEM: | Monoclinic, 2/m. |
FIELD INDICATORS: | Toughness (nephrite jade), fibrosity (asbestos), typical green color, crystal habit and hardness. |
FRACTURE: | Splintery to uneven. |
GENERAL INFORMATION: | The compact nephrite variety is extremely tough and is actually stronger than steel. |
GEOGRAPHY: | Lake Baikal Region, Russia; China; New Zealand; British Columbia, Canada and Taiwan. |
GROUP: | Amphibole. |
HARDNESS: | 5.5 - 6. |
LUSTER: | Vitreous. |
METAPHYSICAL: | Black variety produces a wearing-away of what is unwanted. It is an excellent shielding device and expands the bodies energies. Works extremely well when used with sheen obsidian. The expansion of bodies energies provides a connection to "All That Is" and facilitates the "Brotherhood" of everyone. By focusing on unwanted conditions while using this mineral all of the colors can be used to help with strengthening basic conditions and/or decreasing unwanted conditions. |
TRANSPARENCY: | Translucent to transparent. |
SPECIFIC GRAVITY: | 2.9 - 3.3. |
STREAK: | White. |
SUBCLASS: | Inosilicates. |
VIBRATES: | To the number 9. |
