The thresholds that divide this world from others are rarely clear; they sit veiled in mist, shrouded in smoke. We are about to leave behind one world, that of the old year by the calendar’s reckoning, crossing perforce into the world of the new year.
And so for this, the last entry in our Jewels and Gems series for 2015, I thought it would be appropriate to explore a stone that is the very embodiment of mist and smoke.
Today’s gem is seraphinite.
It’s a fitting stone for this edition’s theme for another reason, too: Its name derives from the name of the Seraphim, spirit beings of Judaism and Christianity. The Seraphim (a plural term; each being was a Seraph) were the highest order of the angels, those who guarded a very powerful threshold: the throne of God himself. While not a part of our tradition, there are parallels between the Seraphim and the guardians and gatekeepers of our own spiritual path.
The Seraphim held themselves aloft on multiple wings made of lush and delicate feathers, and it is those feathers that are the source of the stone’s name. The feathery effect is obvious in the cabochons pictured above and below, most obviously in the large teardrop at top, which really does look much like a silvery-gray feathered wing. It’s not merely a surface effect, either, but a quality that inheres in the stone itself: You can both see and feel the feathery lines, fracture points, on the reverse of the cut stones.
Working with seraphinite will be a new experience for Wings, who has not used the stone previously. But a dear friend who lives half the country away went to a gem and mineral show last week, and picked up a stunning variety of stones he thought Wings would like — everything from more mainstream gems like lapis lazuli to “gems” that are not technically stones at all, such as ammonites and a trilobite. Among the cabochons he sent were the half-dozen mysterious seraphinite cabochons pictured here today.
So, aside from being a stone of the angels, of feathers and mist and smoke, what is seraphinite?
First, seraphinite is the name given to one particular variety of a mineral otherwise known as clinochlore. Clinochlore is itself a part of a larger subgroup of minerals, one known as the chlorite group. We’ll begin with the parent category, and work our way down to the specific stone.
The chlorite group of minerals is a collection of minerals known as phyllosilicates, a subcategory of the broader silicates group. Phyllosilicates are also known as “sheet silicates,” from their crystal structure: They manifest in thin parallel sheets, in a structure known as silicate tetrahedra (think mica, for example, which is common in the earth of this area and is a member of the same family of phyllosilicates). Phyllosilicates are hydrated minerals (meaning that water is present), and are subdivided into four major categories, which include a variety of discrete minerals: the chlorites; clay minerals; the mica group; and the serpentine group.
The chlorite group is subdivided into four main mineral categories, or “species,” each of which contains one differing chemical element: clinochlore, characterized by the presence of magnesium; chamosite, by the presence of iron; nimite, by nickel; and pennantite, by manganese. There are at least three other species, as well: ones containing, respectively, calcium, lithium, and zinc, manifesting in a variety of specific minerals. Clinochlore is the chlorite group species that includes seraphinite.
The names “chlorite” and “clinochlore” both derive from the Greek word chloros, or “green,” and, indeed, looking closely at seraphinite in natural light shows its soft gray to be more of a greenish-gray. Chlorite is a soft mineral, subject to scratching even with a fingernail. When scratched, the powdery dust that forms likewise has a greenish tint to it.
What makes seraphinite different from other forms of chlorite is, in part, its granular structure: It is finer-grained that other forms, and more dense, resulting in its exceptionally beautiful feathery pattern. Its near-chatoyance, the mirror-like shimmer emanating from its polished surface, results from inclusions of its fellow phyllosilicate, mica. Because of its relative softness, it is susceptible to carving as well as to cutting and cabbing for jewelry.
Seraphinite is unique in one aspect. As far as is currently known, it occurs in only one place in the world: Russia, where it is (thus far, at least) found solely in the far eastern reaches of the region known as Siberia. In a part of Siberia known as Irkutsk Oblast is the Korshunovskoye iron mine, a deposit of iron skarns, also known as tactites. These skarns are deposits of calc-silicate rock that occur where magma meets sedimentary rock, fusing granitic and carbonate substances through a metamorphic process known as metasomatism into new substances that are heavy with specific minerals, such as aluminum, iron, magnesium, and silica. In the Korshinovskoye region, a resulting mineral is seraphinite, occuring secondarily to the iron skarn deposits.
Seraphinite is considered by some to be merely a “trade name” for the stone; they insist that the mineral itself is simply clinochlore. I find that this elides the differences that make seraphinite . . . well, seraphinite. As noted above, there are varieties of clinochlore, and they manifest differently; only seraphinite possesses this very specific “feathery” structure, a color and pattern that looks like mist and smoke. For that reason, we regard it as this mineral variant’s “proper name,” for lack of a better way of putting it — at least, its proper name insofar as the dominant culture recognizes and understands its name. I have no doubt that the peoples indigenous to that part of Siberia have long had their own name for it, in their own language, a name that would be more properly conceived as its “real name,” if it were known to the rest of the world.
Because it is a stone of a specific region, it does not, obviously, have any particular symbolic meaning for our own peoples (although, given the ethnic links between our peoples and those of Siberia, it might be said to have closer connections than many other minerals sourced elsewhere). Still, the fact that it is indingeous to only one spot on the planet (so far as is known) has not stopped other cultures from seizing the opportunity to impute specific “powers” and symbolism to it. Because the given name hails from Judaism and Christianity, rather than from the traditions of the people indigenous to its own region, seraphinite has had all manner of qualities hung around its metaphorical neck. It’s been called a mineral of “light energy,” of “higher vibrations,” of “ascension.” It’s said to be associated with “Kundalini energies,” with the “clearing of chakras” generally, and of “bringing light” into one’s DNA to speed healing.
For us, it’s a beautiful, mystical stone, a stone of mist and light, of feathers and smoke. it brings to mind the tendrils that arise from burning cedar at morning prayers or during ceremony and healing. And, indeed, it’s fitting: After all, it is the feathers we use to direct the smoke, and it is the smoke that carries our prayers across the threshold between worlds, to Spirit. For us, that makes it perfect stone for this time of year, a reminder of the mist and smoke that help us cross the threshold from the world of the old year into the world of the new.
~ Aji
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