Crystals and Colour

Here we share an excerpt from Luna Holistics’ Crystal Healing Diploma about crystals and their colour.

Pure light energy

Crystals embody pure light energy because they absorb and reflect light rays. As white light passes through a gem, certain wavelengths may be filtered out and those that survive the passage give the stone its colour. The gem embodies the power of the coloured ray it reflects. A crystal or gem is said to be transparent when light passes through it without interference. If a particular wavelength of colour is absorbed, the remaining rays will pass through the stone and give it a certain colour. If only some colours pass through the gem it is said to be translucent or opaque.

Opaque Stones

Opaque stones are impervious to light. These stones will absorb all the colours of the spectrum except for one colour wavelength. This colour will be reflected back, giving the stone its colour. Therefore, if all wavelengths are absorbed except for example green, the stone will appear green. If all the light is absorbed, the stone will appear black.

Sometimes, the interaction of light with a gemstone, produces not a single colour but several. Gems such as diamonds have the capacity to separate out the different wavelengths as light passes through them so that all the colours of the rainbow are produced. Other minerals also have this ‘fire’ quality, for instance, the fire opal. These stones should be used on their own for healing as they work on all the body energy stores.

The mineral kingdom

Crystals are classified as minerals, but not all minerals are crystals. Crystals are only those whose atomic structure are regular and form a crystalline pattern. Minerals are inorganic in nature, although we do include organic material such as amber, coral and pearl as part of the mineral kingdom.  The mineral families we deal with in our Crystal Healing Diploma course are macro crystalline quartz, microcrystalline quartz or chalcedony, agates, feldspar, corundum and beryl.