Crystals and their colours, explaining meaning
Looking at the beautiful spring bright yellow and orange flowers in our garden got me thinking of how powerful colours can be in shifting my mood.
I pondered a little more on how important colour is when we select which crystals to buy for our business and how often we don’t necessarily choose a crystal based of its known healing properties but because we like its colour(s) and how it makes me/us feel at that moment in time.
So, let’s take a deep dive into colours, we are going to explore:
- What are colours
- How do crystals get their colours
- Healing with colour
- How do you know which crystals heal what & their connection with the body
- How does a crystal heal me regardless of its colour
- What are the most powerful crystals and more...
What are colours?
Colours are wavelengths of electromagnetic energy. The colours that most humans can see are known as visible wavelengths also known as the “visible spectrum” which fall in the 390 to 750 nanometre range.
How do crystals get their colours?
The colours of crystals are determined by the elements and impurities in them, basically in their physical structure.
Raw Amethyst
“The color of any object is determined by the wavelength of light it refracts. Daylight is white, and it contains all the colors of the spectrum. When the light hits the object, it absorbs some light, and refracts the rest. What is refracted is the perceived color of the object. It’s the same with gemstones; each particular mineral absorbs some of the light and refracts some of the light, and the wavelength of that refracted light determines the color that we see in the gemstone. When the gemstone is formed with impurities inside, different impurities can present with different colors. For example, beryl is colorless. However, if there is some chromium present in the beryl, it appears green; with manganese, it appears pink; and with iron, it appears light blue.” https://www.leohamel.com.com
Check out this youtube video for more detail on how crystals get their colour
It’s important to acknowledge that colours are not only absorbed by the eyes but also by the skin. Colours are vibrations, frequencies that have a conscious and unconscious effect on us on a psychological, emotional, and physical level.
Healing with colour
How does Colour Light Therapy work?
Chromotherapy or light therapy is the use of colour to help promote positive, healing effects and balance the body. This healing method typically uses seven colours to balance the 7 main chakras in the body.
Therapists use different methods depending on their preferences, some prefer to place colourful silks on the body, others use mediation with colour or pointing coloured light onto the body just to name a few techniques.
Now that we understand what colours are, it’s time to look at some of the different colours and how they can help with physical and mental healing.
Red - Anti aging, weight loss - Root Chakra
Red Jasper
Red light therapy has become very popular lately with quite a few companies selling red light therapy devices that can be used at home. A simple google search will bring you to all kinds of scientific articles and a library of books explaining how it works for anti-aging, weight loss, muscle gain, recovery, and brain optimization to name just a few benefits that have been officially documented by the scientific community.
Orange - Lower back pain - Sacral Chakra
Carnelian
A strong motivator and empowering crystal. Perfect for the workplace for clarity of mind and to facilitate decision-making. This popular crystal also promotes self-trust, personal and financial success. It promotes courage, concentration and revitalizes the body and mind.
Yellow - Removes stagnant energies - Solar plexus Chakra
Orange Calcite
Yellow helps awaken the body, just like the sun does in the morning 😉 in chromotherapy yellow is used to treat issues with the stomach, liver, and intestines.
Green- For chronic pain - Heart Charka
Green Aventurine
In simple words, exposure to green light has shown to stimulate the brain to produce pain killer chemicals in the body.
Blue- To calm and soothe the body - Throat Chakra
Apatite
Blue light therapy is being used very successfully to clear acne, so to calm and soothe the skin.
Indigo & Violet - Spirituality - Third eye and Crown Charka
Sodalite
I couldn't find much content on Violet light therapy but we know for sure that crystals like Amethyst and Sodalite are connected to the Third Eye and Crown Charka and they have been and are used to calm the mind and encourage spiritual awakening.
Here is a summary of what we just leaned:
- Muladhara, the Root Chakra: Color Red e.g Red Jasper
- Svadisthana, the Sacral Chakra: Color Orange e.g Orange Calcite
- Manipura, the Solar Plexus Chakra: Color Yellow e.g Citrine, Orange Calcite
- Anahata, the Heart Chakra: Color Green e.g Green Aventurine
- Vishuddi, the Throat Chakra: Color Blue e.g Blue Calcite
- Ajna, the Third Eye Chakra: Color Indigo e.g Sodalite
- Sahasrara, the Crown Chakra: Color Purple/Violet e.g Amethyst
https://www.colorsexplained.com/chakra-colors-and-meanings/
During my research I found the below infographic which I thought was spot on! It highlights how the choice of logo colour by the top brands out there is no coincidence, they understand exactly how colours are associated to our emotions and translated in our brain.
https://dailyinfographic.com/logos-a-look-at-the-meaning-in-colors-infographic
How does all this information link to crystals?
Well, as we have highlighted above colours have an impact on our mood and physical wellbeing so when we hold and/or look at a crystal of a particular colour our body will react in a specific way whether consciously or unconsciously.
The way a colour might make us feel is oversimplified in the diagrams above, please remember that each person and particularly culture is different and might have a completely different reaction to a colour.
How do you know which crystals heal what?
Why is Amethyst known as a calming stone that helps with meditation and sleep whilst Red Jasper is linked to courage and enhanced sexual pleasure?
Firstly, let’s back up a minute, there are a few factors to consider here in addition to their colour and molecular structure.
Crystals have been used for thousands of years by our ancestors, there is a great book out there called “Crystal Lore, Legends & Myths: The Fascinating History of the World's Most Powerful Gems and Stones” that explains in more detail the history behind some of the most popular crystals and how they were used by the Egyptians and the Romans to name a few civilisations.
Crystal healing is not a modern-day practice, that’s for sure! So, a lot of what we know today comes from the way our ancestors used these crystals, ancient knowledge.
Each crystal has a different energetic frequency. The colour red for instance vibrates at a lower frequency than blue.
As we just learned, red is linked to the root chakra which is one of the lower chakras which vibrates at a lower frequency. No wonder Red Jasper is liked to grounding, courage and facing your problems.
Purple, on the other hand, represents the crown chakra which is linked to consciousness and spiritually. Therefore, Amethyst tends to be used to promote higher states of consciousness, it’s the go to stone for meditation, relaxation, and sleep.
Let’s dig a little deeper…
How does a crystal heal me regardless of its colour?
Crystals have a stable energy frequency that doesn’t change because they are made of a fixed, repeating, perfect geometric pattern of molecules. This is the opposite of our constantly changing, non-stable human nature.
The more the energy is stable the more powerful it is, and this is exactly why crystals can so deeply influence our unstable human energy.
Orange Calcite tower point
If a Charka is unbalanced, spinning too fast or too slow, placing a crystal near that chakra during breathwork and meditation can “override” the way the chakra is spinning and rebalance it to its optimal frequency. This can happen in 5 minutes like it could take months of healing, it all depends on the person, their circumstances and level of intent in their practice.
One of the most powerful crystals is clear quartz, “white” light reflects ALL the colours of the spectrum. How powerful is that? This is why clear crystals are called the MASTER HEALERS!
Clear quartz tower point
Use your intuition, let yourself be guided by your heart and/or solar plexus (your belly) when choosing which crystal(s) to work with. Maybe you need help sleeping better but you don’t particularly like Amethyst but feel really attracted to Orange Calcite. Even though Orange Calcite is usually associated with the sun, awakening, creativity, and energy it might have the completely opposite effect on you.
We suggest using the above information as a general guide to get you started, the best way to really know which colour crystal is best for you at this moment is to look at that crystal or hold it and see how it makes you feel.
Raw Black Tourmaline
