Malachite

Meaning in lithotherapy

The Crystal Council regards malachite as one of the most important minerals for protection against negative energy — it is meant to surround the wearer with a “cloak of invisibility”. It opens the heart and allows balance on all levels. Its themes include travel, balance, creativity, intuition, transformation, protection, confidence, leadership, self-discipline and prosperity. [56]

Crystal Vaults calls it the “Stone of Transformation”, helping in changing situations and in spiritual growth and carrying the deep green of nature. It encourages change and emotional risk-taking, shows what blocks growth, helps overcome shyness and build relationships based on love rather than need. Its patterns are also used for gazing: letting the eye travel along its convoluted bands is meant to free the mind and open it to insight from the subconscious. [140]

Ways of working with the stone

Crystal Vaults links malachite above all with meditation: holding it, one speaks one’s fears and sorrows aloud each day. The stone is worn as jewellery or held as a talisman, and as an amulet it is meant to protect loved ones, possessions and physical security. Placed on the forehead it is said to stimulate visualisation, and on the solar plexus to support deep emotional release. Crystal Vaults also recommends it for children’s rooms and for placing near microwaves and televisions. [140]

Chakras, elements and astrology

Both sources link malachite with the heart chakra, but differ on sign and element: The Crystal Council gives Scorpio, Capricorn, fire and Venus, Crystal Vaults Taurus and the element of wood. Crystal Vaults also invokes the Egyptian Hathor, called the “Lady of Malachite” and patron of miners. [56] [140]

Chakras

heart and solar plexus (The Crystal Council); heart, with work also on the third eye and solar plexus (Crystal Vaults) [56] [140]

Element

fire (The Crystal Council); wood in feng shui — growth and new beginnings (Crystal Vaults) [56] [140]

Zodiac signs

Scorpio, Capricorn (The Crystal Council); Taurus (Crystal Vaults) [56] [140]

Planet

Venus (The Crystal Council) [56]

Engraving

an image of the sun — an old talisman against enchantment and venomous creatures (Kunz) [120]

Cleansing in the tradition

In this tradition malachite is regarded as a stone that readily absorbs negative energy but does not release it. The Crystal Council therefore stresses that it must be cleansed constantly if worn or carried daily, and Crystal Vaults that it should be cleansed after every use. Crystal Vaults also mentions leaving it overnight in a sheltered place outdoors. [56] [140]

Older beliefs

Kunz wrote that, for reasons not easy to fathom, malachite was considered a talisman especially suited to children: a piece of the stone tied to a cradle was meant to keep evil spirits away so that the child slept peacefully. In parts of Germany, like turquoise, it was believed to protect against falls and to warn of disaster by breaking into pieces. In Italy — for example in Bettona — people wore malachite “peacock stones”, triangular amulets set in silver whose eye-like markings were meant to guard against the spell of the evil eye. [120]

Kunz also recalls that the Egyptians knew malachite well — mines between Suez and Sinai were worked as early as about 4000 BC — and often made amulets of it; he even cites the conjecture that the biblical “shoham” stones may have been malachites. The most fitting design to engrave on malachite was the sun: a stone so decorated was believed to protect against enchantment, evil spirits and venomous creatures. [120]

Pliny the Elder (Natural History, book 37, chapter 36) already described “molochitis” — malachite, according to his translators — as an opaque stone of a deeper green than smaragdus, named after the colour of the mallow and highly esteemed for seals. He wrote that Nature had endowed it with properties that protect infants from certain dangers — a theme of caring for children that also appears in the later customs described by Kunz. [145]

Where the sources differ

Here the contemporary practitioner and the historical source overlap unusually closely: Crystal Vaults repeats from Kunz the cradle, the German protection against falls and the Italian “peacock stones”. It adds, however, elements we did not find in Kunz — pharaohs’ headdresses, the tsars’ malachite halls, and a link with St Francis and the language of animals. The Crystal Council limits itself to a brief mention of Egypt and medieval protection against the evil eye. [140] [120] [56]

An Avonoria editorial suggestion

Watch the bands of a securely placed, polished specimen and let your eyes follow them for a while. Then write down one change you want to make and what balance means to you in everyday actions.