Petalite/ Castorite
Petalite also known as Castorite is a light coloured gem most often found to be a light pink colour but can also be white, grey and clear/colourless, it’s also known as the “stone of the angels” due to its white and clear/colourless “pure” colouring. Its name comes from the Greek word “petalon” for leaf, and being the direct translation and root word for the word “petal”, it was originally discovered in 1800 by Brazilian mineralist Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva. Castorite was thought to be a new discovery but was then later identified as a stone that had already discovered, the gem with the name Castorite was renamed to its current name, Petalite. This gem has been used for a range of things from sculptures to jewellery and as the original source of lithium. This gem is used by Namibian artisans to craft animal sculptures and has also been used for ceramics. It has an incredible reflective shine making the clear/colourless variant a showpiece for jewellery such as rings, pendants and earrings. It also as already said, is the original and main source of lithium. Petalite has a hardness of 6-6.5 and is a lithium aluminium phyllosilicate mineral, from what I could find the way lithium is extracted from petalite is by using extreme heat, a lot of pressure and some chemicals. I am not confident explaining any more than that since I will admit I had no clue what I was reading or what trying to understand. This gem is found primarily in Brazil, Sweden, Afghanistan and Namibia. Petalite symbolises spiritual-awareness, purity and peace. It is heavily associated with the crown “chakra”/energy source.
On the left Image by DonGuennie. On the right Image by Rob Lavinsky
Image above by Smithsonian Institution: National Museum of Natural History (the image has "been marked as dedicated to the public domain." but I will still give credit just in case)
This information is not my own nor are the images, I am not an expert. It was all found from various websites. If this actually gets seen feel free to ask for the websites I use and I will comment all the links. Please let me know if any information is incorrect and provide links to resources if possible :)
Same mini note as last time- Please let me know if anything is written weirdly I can say with confidence that this has NOT been proof read.
My little ramble of the week/NOTE!!!
This took over an entire disk of soul eater to write, OVER AN ENTIRE DISK (like 8 episodes BUT STILL) it was a struggle to write this one, I began taking notes on it earlier on in the day but then thought it was too much of a "sciencey rock" rather than "pretty gemstone oooo" rock. After trying to find another gem to write about I eventually gave up and used the notes I wrote to actually start writing (I really need some ideas on what gems to write about T-T). I ended up writing more than I thought I would tho so it all ended up okay!
I was gonna write yesterday but I once again spent the day watching soul eater instead. I also refused to load up my pc during a HEATWAVE due to my pc being basically a heater and one update away from being a fire hazard. Anyway THANKS FOR READING!!! <3 (this is my 30th post ooooo)
