The Wilde AltarA developing queer pagan library
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Gay-led and LGBTQ+ affirming. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary, intersex, asexual, questioning people, and respectful allies are welcome. No role here is assigned by anatomy or orientation.

Crystal cabinet

Amazonite

A green variety of microcline feldspar, sometimes intergrown with albite.

The familiar look is opaque blue-green to green, often with a grid of paler streaks where feldspar twins, and a slightly soft, matte polish compared with quartz. Color ranges from mint to a deeper teal. It does not have turquoise's waxy sky blue in the classic Persian sense, and it should not show malachite's swirling velvet bands.

What it actually is

Material identity
Name used hereAmazonite
Mineral or materialA green variety of microcline feldspar, sometimes intergrown with albite.
HardnessAbout Mohs 6 to 6.5.
How it formsMicrocline crystallizes in granites and pegmatites. The green of amazonite is tied to trace lead and water in the feldspar structure, plus radiation damage, which is a reason to admire it dry and not a reason to fear a polished bead on a string.

Trade names and mix-ups

Amazonite is named for the Amazon and is not from the Amazon; the geography was a mistake that stuck. It is also not jade, not turquoise, and not chrysocolla, though all four occupy the same shopping mood of cool green. Chinese amazonite and Colorado amazonite and Russian amazonite can all be real microcline; a plastic turquoise-green with gold lines is none of them.

Care

Feldspar care: it cleaves, scratches more easily than quartz, and dislikes ultrasonics, steam, acids, and salt. Wipe with a damp cloth and dry. Keep it off the sunny radiator. Do not store it in a salt bowl, and do not soak it because someone said the color needs charging. Lead in the crystal structure is part of why it never becomes a drink.

Provenance

Commercial amazonite comes from places such as Colorado, Russia, Ethiopia, Madagascar, and Brazil, none of which is the river on the label. Pegmatite mining ranges from careful small claims to careless ones; ask the locality if it is used as a selling point, and do not pay a turquoise price for a feldspar with a romantic map error.

Symbolism

  • the name you asked for
  • a geographic mistake as humility
  • a shared doorway
  • green that does not pretend to be jade

Folklore, only where it exists

Green feldspar was carved into beads and inlays in ancient Egypt, so amazonite has a real material history older than its modern name. The name itself arrived in the eighteenth century, attached to a reported South American find that mineralogists could not stand up, while the famous deposits turned out to be elsewhere. That wrong map is the best moral the stone has. Later metaphysical lists assigned it hope, truth, and soothed communication, a recent layer with no pharaonic script attached. The Wilde Altar uses the wrong name as a teacher: labels drift, people correct them, and a household can do the same. A dish by the door can hold a green feldspar and a card of the names people in the house actually want. The stone does not bestow calm, and it does not outrank anyone's mouth.

Cautions

An original practice

The Names in the Dish

  • A piece of amazonite
  • A small dish by the door
  • A card and a pen
  • A hook or bowl where keys already live
  1. 1On the card, write the names people in the home have asked to be called, including a new name if someone has offered one. If you live alone, write the name you use and the one you will correct gently when it is mangled.
  2. 2Set the amazonite on the card inside the dish, beside the keys, not in a puddle from wet shoes.
  3. 3Read the names once, as they are spelled, with no diminutive you find charming and they do not.
  4. 4If a name on the card has changed, cross the old one out in ink rather than pretending you always knew. Correction is the point of a mineral whose own name is a geographic error.
  5. 5Leave the dish where coats come off. When the card smudges, copy it clean and recycle the old one. The stone stays dry.
Call people what they ask. A river on a label can be wrong, and so can I. The correction is the welcome.

Wipe the feldspar if the entryway is damp, dry it, and put it back. Do not move the practice into a sink.

A practical action. Update the name in your phone, on the mail, or on a place card, in the actual system that still has the old one.

Substitutions

  • A green glass tile in the dish
  • The card alone, if you would rather not keep a lead-bearing mineral and a paperweight is not the point

Beginner questions

  • Does amazonite come from the Amazon? No. The name is a historical mistake. Deposits are elsewhere, including Colorado and Russia.
  • Is the lead in it dangerous to wear? A polished bead on a string is not the hazard this page worries about. Putting it in drinking water is. No elixirs.
  • Will it make conversations peaceful? No. It can hold down a card of names. Peace, when it happens, is people's conduct.
RhodoniteRhodonite, a manganese silicate, often cut with its black manganese-oxide veins.RhodochrositeRhodochrosite, manganese carbonate (MnCO3).GarnetA group of nesosilicate minerals, not one species. Common red jewelry is often almandine or pyrope; grossular, spessartine, andradite, and uvarovite are other garnets.