FA (فارسی)
Feldspar & the feldspathoids · Indigo ray
Sodalite
Sodalite is a deep navy feldspathoid, usually veined with white, and it is what most people are actually buying when they buy cheap lapis. It was described and named in 1811 from Greenland material, which means it has no ancient tradition whatsoever, and everything attached to it was written in the last century.
At a glance
Lapis without the gold flecks, at a fraction of the price, and named in 1811, so its lore is entirely modern.
- Composition
- Na₈Al₆Si₆O₂₄Cl₂
- Crystal system
- Cubic
- Hardness
- Mohs 5.5
- Family
- Feldspar & the feldspathoids
- Colour ray
- The indigo ray
- Main sources
- Brazil, Canada (Ontario), Namibia, Greenland, Russia
- Care
- Softer at 5.5 and porous. Keep it dry and out of acids.
Themes
reason
the clear head
study
the honest substitute
the modern stone
What it actually is
A feldspathoid, sodium aluminium silicate with chlorine, cubic, hardness 5.5 to 6.
Feldspathoids form where there was too little silica for true feldspar to crystallise, which places sodalite in a family with lazurite, hauyne and nosean, all of which occur in the same alkaline igneous rocks.
Sodalite is usually royal to navy blue with white calcite veining, and it can also be grey, green, yellow or pink. Some material is hackmanite, which shows tenebrescence: it darkens under ultraviolet light and fades back in daylight, a genuinely unusual and reversible property.
It is porous and takes dye, and it is softer and less durable than most people expect from its appearance.
Where it comes from
Brazil supplies most of the tumbled and carved material on the market. Bancroft in Ontario, Canada, produces the classic blue material, some of which was used in the decoration of Marlborough House in London after Princess Patricia of Connaught chose it in 1901, which briefly gave it the name Princess Blue.
Namibia, Greenland, Russia's Kola peninsula, Portugal and the United States also produce it. Greenland's Ilimaussaq complex is the type locality and the source of the original 1811 description.
Hackmanite comes principally from Afghanistan, Myanmar and Greenland.
What the traditions claimed
There is no traditional lore for sodalite, and this page will not invent any. It was first described in 1811 from Greenland material collected on an expedition, and before that it was not distinguished as a separate mineral.
Some blue stones described in ancient sources may have been sodalite rather than lapis, since the two occur in similar geological settings and look alike, but nothing in the record identifies it specifically.
The modern reading, which is all there is, ties sodalite to rational thought, to clear-headedness under pressure, and to the reconciliation of feeling with logic. It appears in crystal writing from the mid twentieth century onward and is now standard.
That reading is coherent and slightly unusual, since most stones are given emotional or protective meanings rather than intellectual ones. It also makes sodalite one of the few stones commonly recommended for study and work rather than for feeling.
How it is worked with
The study reading is the useful one and it makes sodalite a sensible desk stone. If your problem is scattered thinking rather than distress, this is the more appropriate object than the calming stones usually recommended.
It is inexpensive enough to buy several and keep them in different places, which is a practical way to use a reminder object.
At 5.5 with porosity it is not a working ring stone and should be kept out of water and away from acids and cosmetics.
Hackmanite is worth owning for the tenebrescence alone: expose it to ultraviolet light and watch it darken, then leave it in daylight and watch it fade back. It is one of the very few visible, repeatable and genuinely strange behaviours in the mineral world.
Buying it honestly
Sodalite is cheap enough that faking it makes little sense, but the reverse problem is common: sodalite is regularly sold as lapis lazuli.
The distinction is simple. Lapis contains pyrite and shows irregular gold flecks; sodalite does not, and shows white calcite veining on a slightly duller, more purple-navy ground. Lapis is also considerably more expensive.
Some sodalite is dyed to deepen the colour, and dye lifts with acetone, particularly at bead drill holes.
Dyed howlite and magnesite appear in the same colour range and are much softer.
Blue-dyed quartzite is occasionally substituted and will not scratch with a steel pin where sodalite will.
Handle with care
Soft at 5.5 and porous. Keep it dry, away from acids, cosmetics and cleaners. No ultrasonic cleaning. Wipe with a dry cloth.
پرسشهایی برای تأمل
- Is my problem here distress, or is it that I am thinking about too many things at once?
- What would I decide if I wrote down only the facts?
- Does a stone need an old story to be useful to me?
Follow the thread
Frequently asked questions
آخرین نوشتهها
حکمت باستانی کارتهای تاروت را کشف کنید و اسرار سفر معنوی خود را باز کنید. وبلاگ ما دروازه شما به درک نمادگرایی غنی، معانی و کاربردهای عملی خواندن تاروت است.
