Text and photos: Sandra Kemppainen, wikipedia.com
Malachite is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral. This opaque, green banded mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses, in fractures and spaces, deep underground, where the water table and hydrothermal fluids provide the means for chemical precipitation. Individual crystals are rare but do occur as slender to acicular prisms. Typical malachite is laminated and whether or not microbes intervene in its formation is unknown.
Malachite was used as a mineral pigment in green paints from antiquity until about 1800. The pigment is moderately lightfast, very sensitive to acids, and varying in color. The natural form was being replaced by its synthetic form, verditer, among other synthetic greens. It is also used for decorative purposes, such as in the Malachite Room in the Hermitage, which features a huge malachite vase (see right), and the Malachite Room in Castillo de Chapultepec in Mexico City.
Malachite is named after Greek word for “mallow” because of its resemblance to the leaves of the Mallow plant. It is a green, very common secondary copper mineral with a widely variable habit. Malachite shows a banding of light and dark layers with concentric rings, straight stripes and other figurative shapes caused by its shell-like formation.
Malachite was popular in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome and was used for jewelry, amulets, as a powder for eye shadow and colouring pigment. Nowadays it is popular for jewelry and ornaments.
Malachite dust is toxic and must not be inhaled during cutting and polishing.
Malachite, with its beautiful, rich green color, leaves no doubt of its importance as a jewel. Its opaque strength and power demands respect, mesmerizing the viewer. Yet the movement, flow and energy in its lines, circles and designs soothe and welcome. It is spiritually inviting.
Malachite personifies the deep healing green of nature and represents the innate beauty of flowers, trees, roots and plants. It is a Stone of Transformation, assisting one in changing situations and providing for spiritual growth. It heals on physical and emotional levels, drawing out impurities and stimulating the Life Force throughout the aura and body.
Inherent in Malachite is lighter green eye-shaped forms or bands on its surface. These “eye stones,” believed to enhance great visionary powers, were used to ward off negative happenings. They were stones of security and protection for children, and their most remarkable association today is the ability to warn of impending danger by breaking into pieces.
Malachite is a protection stone, absorbing negative energies and pollutants from the atmosphere and from the body. It guards against radiation of all kinds, clears electromagnetic pollution and heals earth energies. Keep near microwaves in the kitchen and televisions in living areas. In the workplace Malachite protects against noise, over-bright fluorescent lighting, and harmful rays from technological equipment, negative phone calls and emails.
Sandra Kemppainen.
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