11 Nov Alexandrite – Meaning, Uses, & Healing Properties
Alexandrite is a rare and beautiful color-changing crystal with an interesting background and many fantastic benefits. Let’s explore the meaning of this rare beauty and how you can use it in your daily life if you’re ever lucky enough to own one!
In This Article
- Alexandrite: a closer look
- History of Alexandrite
- Alexandrite crystal meaning
- Alexandrite benefits & healing properties
- Can you use Alexandrite with water?
- How to use Alexandrite crystals
- Is Alexandrite right for me?
- Cleansing & charging your Alexandrite gemstone
- Is Alexandrite real?
- How rare is Alexandrite?
- How expensive is Alexandrite?
- Is Alexandrite safe to use?
- Alternative & complimentary crystals
- Where can I buy Alexandrite and how do I know it’s real?
- How to clean your Alexandrite stone
- Conclusion
Alexandrite: a closer look
Natural Alexandrite is one of the rarest gemstones in the world. It is more precious than Diamonds and more valuable than Sapphires, Emeralds, and Rubies.
Often described as “Emeralds by day, Rubies by night”, Alexandrite is a rare color-changing variety of the mineral chrysoberyl. It appears to change color from red to green under different light thanks to its traces of iron, chromium, and titanium. It is beautiful bluish green in daylight or fluorescent light, and brownish or purplish red in the incandescent light.
First discovered in the Ural Mountains of Russia, the main sources for the stone are now Brazil, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Madagascar, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe, although they are not as vivid in color as the original Russian Alexandrite stones.
There is also such a thing as manmade Alexandrite, which are created in a lab with the same optical and physical properties as their mined counterparts. However, they don’t hold the same metaphysical powers.
History of Alexandrite
Alexandrite was first discovered in an emerald mine near the Tokovaya River in the Ural Mountains of Russia in 1833. The miners carried the haul of the day back to camp and were taken aback by the stones’ red shine in the firelight. The next day, the stones turned back to green, and its magical reputation was born.
According to legend, it was named after Alexander II because it was discovered the year before his birthday in 1834. It later became the official gemstone of Imperial Russia’s Tsardom because its red and green hues matched Russia’s military colors. Nowadays, as mentioned above, it is highly prized and very valuable.
Alexandrite crystal meaning
Alexandrite is a stone of luck, prosperity, creativity, and intellect. It’s also associated with the heart chakra and the crown chakra, as well as the element of Fire, which represents life-force energy, passion, and rebirth, Mercury, the planet of rationality and communication, and the zodiac sign of Gemini (May 21- June 21).
Alexandrite benefits & healing properties
Let’s take a look at the main benefits and healing properties of Alexandrite.
Alexandrite & the heart chakra
The heart chakra, also called the Anahata, is the fourth chakra in the body, located in the chest area. It governs our ability to love ourselves and others unconditionally, as well as our healing abilities and our ability to feel compassion, empathy, and forgiveness.
Blockages often arise in this chakra from feelings heartbreak or betrayal and they create issues trusting and empathizing with others, as well as issues with loving ourselves, causing negative self-talk and difficulty letting go of the past.
Alexandrite & the crown chakra
The crown chakra, also known as the Sahasrara, is the seventh and final chakra in the body. It is located at the top of the head and it is responsible for our connection to the divine world, as well as our ability to think clearly.
Issues with this chakra stem from denying or ignoring the existence of the spiritual realm. This can cause closed-mindedness, feelings of confusion, and a lack of inspiration in life, as well as poor coordination, bad sleep quality, chronic tension headaches, and fatigue.
Alexandrite & health
Alexandrite has big healing energy when it comes to the physical body. It is the perfect lucky charm to keep close by when you are recovering from an illness, as it has the power to restore the body back to good health and also encourages healthy blood circulation and detoxifying of the internal organs.
It is also believed that alexandrite can induce the reduction of cancer cells inside your body to promote the increase in healthy cell count, which may help to protect against blood cancer. In addition, Alexandrite helps with the regulation of protein digestion in the body and is one of the few gems that can relieve neurological disorders, especially those triggered by hormonal issues.
Alexandrite & wellbeing
Alexandrite is not only a stone of monetary wealth, it is also a stone of inner wealth. It’s a great stone for people with low self-esteem as it raises you up and brings joy into your life. Furthermore, it helps us to find a balance between the emotional and the rational for anxious minds and better decision making.
Alexandrite is also a stone of embracing change. So, it’s an excellent stone for people who are nervous about undergoing a big life change or struggling to adapt to new life circumstances, such as the death of a loved one or moving home.
Alexandrite & spirituality
Alexandrite brings balance between the physical world and the spiritual world; aligning the mind, body, and spirit. As mentioned above, it is also known to be a symbol of positive change, so it’s a great stone for manifesting big changes in your life.
Because it’s linked to the crown chakra, it’s the perfect aid for meditation and other spiritual rituals and can help to amplify your vibration, elevate your consciousness, and awaken spiritual gifts.
Alexandrite & relationships
Alexandrite is famously associated with the heart chakra, so naturally, it can help you to better connect with the people in your life by opening your heart and making you more receptive and loving. It can also help you to attract new love and lasting friendships.
Alexandrite & success
Alexandrite is very famous for its ability to harness intelligent and creative energy, as well as career growth and prosperity. It’s an excellent stone for students who want to get good grades and helps creatives like artists and writers to fuel their minds and attract the right opportunities.
Even if you don’t work in a creative field, it can help you to come up with new business ideas, projects, and strategies, as well as attract money and abundance.
Alexandrite & home
This is a great stone to keep around the home, not only because of its striking beauty and lucky properties but because it brings great joy to those around it. It’s also known as a guardian stone and will help to keep negativity away.
Can you use Alexandrite with water?
Water can a wonderful tool for crystal work, but not every gemstone can be used with water. Some are too fragile and can crumble when exposed to the element – but what about Alexandrite?
Whether or not a crystal is safe to use with water depends on how highly they score on the Mohs Hardness scale; the definitive scientific scale that ranks the hardness of minerals out of ten by testing its resistance against others.
Anything that scores above a 5 on the scale is generally safe to be used with water, and this tough stone scores a hefty 8.5.
How to use Alexandrite crystals
Here is how you can use Alexandrite in your everyday life.
Meditation
If you want to activate your heart and crown chakras, you can hold Alexandrite whilst you meditate and focus your energy. It may help you to visualize them coming into alignment, repeat healing mantras, or listen to sound baths.
Manifestation
As mentioned above, those stone is synonymous with good luck, fortune, and success, as well as creative energy and intelligence, so if you’re looking to manifest wealth or career opportunities, or if you’re a creative, entrepreneur, or student, you can use this crystal alongside to manifest your dreams and goals.
Jewelry
Wearing Alexandrite jewelry is the obvious choice for many people, as it’s such a gloriously beautiful stone and is often sold in the form of wearable pieces anyway! Keeping it so close to your body is a great way to heal yourself – but if you’re not a jewelry person, you can always carry some around with you.
Crystal-infused water
You can also infuse your Alexandrite with water to absorb its goodness straight into your body. Just leave it in a glass of water overnight and drink it the next morning after your meditation. Alternatively, you can spray the water around your home to give the atmosphere a boost.
Crystal bath
Wearing or placing your Alexandrite in the bathtub is a perfect way to absorb its metaphysical properties through your skin.
At home or work
Keeping your Alexandrite somewhere significant in your home or work environment will help to keep the atmosphere positive, creative, and productive, blocking out bad vibes and inviting in joy.
Is Alexandrite right for me?
Buying a piece of Alexandrite is quite an investment, so you need to be sure that it’s right for you. Whilst everyone could benefit from the healing properties of this stone, it is especially beneficial for people who want to open their heart and crown chakras, attract prosperity, and produce more creative energy.
It’s an excellent stone for ambitious people and creatives like musicians and authors, as well as Geminis and anybody who is looking to attract love or love themselves more.
Cleansing & charging your Alexandrite gemstone
If you use your Alexandrite crystal for purely decorative purposes, you don’t need to worry about cleansing and charging it. However, if you use it for spiritual or healing purposes, it’s a good idea to cleanse and charge it once a month to rid it of negative energy and refill it with positive vibes.
The easiest way to do this is with the light of the moon and the sun. To cleanse your crystal, place it outside or on your window sill on the night of the next full moon. Alternatively, you can smudge it with sage or place it on a cleansing plate made of Selenite.
To charge it, you can place it in the sunlight for a while, or have it make contact with the Earth for 24 hours – but most won’t want to do this as it could make your lovely rare gemstone dirty!
Is Alexandrite real?
Alexandrite is a real stone. However, there are manmade versions of the stone. Synthetic Alexandrite has a similar physical composition to the natural Alexandrite stone, but they don’t hold the same powers.
How rare is Alexandrite?
Alexandrite is among some of the rarest gemstones in the world. Natural Alexandrites are rarer than diamonds; smaller stones are more easy to get hold of, but bigger stones and those with more than three carats are extremely uncommon.
How expensive is Alexandrite?
Alexandrite is expensive; they’re more expensive than Rubies, Emeralds, and Sapphires, as mentioned above. However, their exact cost will depend on their size and carat weight, as well as their form – for example, an engagement ring or alexandrite and diamond ring will obviously be more expensive than a small gemstone.
Is Alexandrite safe to use?
Alexandrite is completely safe to use. It is not toxic and it doesn’t typically have any negative side effects, although any crystal can cause you to feel off-balance or unlucky if your energies don’t align. However, this is rare and can usually be fixed with an energy cleansing.
Alternative & complimentary crystals
If you can’t afford to fork out for a piece of Alexandrite, why not try an alternative? Alternative crystals that give off similar energies include Red Apatite, Carnelian, Spinel, Fire Agate, and Rhodochrosite. Crystals that work well with Alexandrite include Malachite and Green Adventurine.
Where can I buy Alexandrite and how do I know it’s real?
As mentioned above, Alexandrite is one of the rarest crystals in the world. Generally, it can only be bought at exclusive and established jewelers, so they will verify the legitimacy of your Alexandrite.
However, there are second-hand pieces of jewelry containing the stone floating around the internet that you can buy from independent sellers. In this case, you should only use websites that you trust and that have good reviews from buyers.
To verify such pieces yourself, you should ask a jeweler to check them out. They will be able to tell if your piece is real by looking at several things; including studying the refractive index of the stone and looking at the way the blue-green color changes when under different lighting.
How to clean your Alexandrite stone
You can use warm water with a gentle, natural soap to clean your Alexandrite stone or jewelry. It’s best to use your hands and/or a gentle cloth; ultrasonic and steam cleaners are usually safe, too, but check with the jeweler you buy from first just to make sure.
Conclusion
Alexandrite is an extremely rare and unique crystal that brings good luck and good fortune. If you’re lucky enough to own one, be sure to follow our guide on how to utilize it safely and effectively.