Lapis lazuli: meaning, properties and lore

The mineral

Encyclopaedia Britannica calls it a semiprecious stone valued for its deep blue colour. It is classed as a rock because it is made up of various minerals.⁶⁸³

The Gemological Institute of America describes the rock as an aggregate of several minerals, mainly lazurite, calcite and pyrite. Lazurite gives the stone its prized royal blue colour, and the higher the lazurite percentage, the darker the blue.¹²⁵

Lazurite is composed of sodium, aluminum, silicon, oxygen, sulfur and chlorine, and can be written as (Na,Ca)8(AlSiO4)6(S,SO4,Cl)1-2. Gems & Gemology calls lazurite the pure blue mineral in the stone and notes that pyrite is always present in it.³⁷

Diopside, amphibole, feldspar, mica, apatite, titanite and zircon may also occur in lapis lazuli.⁶¹²⁵

Lapis lazuli has a Mohs hardness of 5 to 6, depending on the mix of minerals, and fair toughness. It has a refractive index of 1.500, sometimes 1.670, no birefringence and a specific gravity of 2.75 (+/- 0.25).²⁴³¹

The stone is semitranslucent to opaque, with a waxy to vitreous luster. Its colour ranges from greenish blue to violetish blue, and the colour depends on the amount of impurities and the combination of minerals in the aggregate.²¹⁵⁷

Lapis is found in veins in which calcite and dolomite are closely associated with silicates such as diopside, scapolite and forsterite. It usually occurs in crystalline limestones and forms through contact metamorphism.⁷⁶³

The most important sources are the mines in Badakhshan, northeastern Afghanistan, and those near Ovalle, Chile. The deposits at Sar-e-Sang in Badakhshan lie in the Hindu-Kush Mountains, and Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia, is another major source.⁶⁷²

History and lore

Lapis was treasured by the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, Greece and Rome, according to the Gemological Institute of America. Beads were discovered at a cemetery outside ancient temple walls in southern Mesopotamia, now Iraq, and the royal Sumerian tombs of Ur held more than 6,000 lapis statuettes, dishes, beads and cylinder seals.¹⁹⁸³

Marco Polo described ancient Bactria's lapis mines in 1271, and the Gemological Institute of America records that merchant caravans carried the stone across Bactria to the Greeks, Indians, Egyptians, Mesopotamians and Persians. The stone was carved into game boards, bowls, dagger handles, hair combs and amulets.¹⁹

Pliny described sapphirus as a stone sprinkled with specks of gold, and ancient writers appear to have referred to lapis lazuli as sapphire. Pliny also recorded that the stone was not fit for seals when mixed with hard foreign particles such as quartz.³¹⁰

Ultramarine, the pigment made from powdered lapis lazuli, was used by painters as early as the European Middle Ages. Renaissance painters used it as an expensive pigment of unrivaled brightness and stability, and the pigment was first produced artificially in the late 1820s in France and Germany.⁶¹⁸

Camillus Leonardus used the name ultramarine in 1502, and the name was probably first used in Italy. Vanuccio Biringoccio, in the first half of the sixteenth century, gave directions for preparing real ultramarine from lapis lazuli.¹¹

The name lapis is Latin for stone, and lazuli comes from a Persian word meaning blue, so the name means blue stone.⁸¹⁰

The Egyptian Book of the Dead, in its 140th chapter, describes lapis lazuli in the shape of an eye set in gold as an amulet of great power. The ancient Romans believed the stone was a powerful aphrodisiac, and it was once ground, mixed with milk and applied as a dressing for boils and ulcers.³

Birthstone and zodiac links

The birthstone list and modern modern modern zodiac links for lapis lazuli are not set out in the claims in a way that can be stated here. Crystal practitioners link the stone to the Sabian symbol 'The Pyramids and The Sphinx' at Sagittarius 14, a link that is modern and made by practitioners.

What crystal practitioners say

Crystal practitioners associate lapis lazuli with the mind and with truth. Practitioners say the stone sharpens inner vision, speaks truth and helps bring visions into reality.

Lapis lazuli is treasured the world over for its beautiful deep blue colour, and this colour is the reason many people keep it. Practitioners place the stone among blue gems for its appearance, and they describe it through its colour rather than through any effect.⁵

Care of the stone, however, is advice from a gem institute and not a practitioner view.⁴

What testing has found

Ernst wrote that a scientific proof of any positive effect of crystal healing beyond a placebo effect does not exist.¹²

Christopher French conducted a 2001 study that challenged 80 volunteers to tell real from fake crystals after holding them and meditating. Ernst reported that six people felt nothing, while the rest reported feeling energy such as tingling or improved wellbeing, with real and fake crystal groups reporting similar impressions, suggesting a placebo effect.¹²

Ernst wrote that pleasant feelings from crystal healing can be attributed to the strong placebo effect or believers' cognitive bias.¹²