Smoky quartz: meaning, properties and lore

The mineral

Smoky quartz is a brown colour-variety of the mineral quartz, and the Gemological Institute of America describes it as a variety of quartz, one of the common quartz varieties used as gem material. Quartz is the single most abundant mineral in the earth's crust, built from silicon and oxygen. Smoky quartz has the chemical composition SiO2 and is classed as a silicate, with a specific gravity of 2.6 to 2.7.¹³⁴²

Smoky quartz ranges from light yellowish brown to a brown so dark it appears black. Gems & Gemology attributes the colour to natural irradiation of aluminum-rich zones.¹⁵

Smoky quartz has a Mohs hardness of 7 and a trigonal crystal system. It has no cleavage and typically breaks with a conchoidal fracture. These physical properties help separate it from other brown gem materials.¹²

Smoky quartz is mainly found in quartz veins and pegmatite dikes that cut across igneous and metamorphic rocks. Brazil is the current source for most of the world's smoky quartz used in jewelry, and Madagascar is another important producer. Smoky quartz occurs in the Itongafeno pegmatite, 23 km west of Antsirabe in Madagascar near the village of Mahaiza.¹⁶

Smoky quartz is sometimes confused with brown topaz, which is a common topaz colour. Topaz is allochromatic, so its colour comes from impurity elements or crystal structure defects rather than its basic chemical composition.⁷¹

History and lore

As early as the 12th century, flat pieces of smoky quartz were used in China to make eyeglasses, some to shield eyes from bright light. During the Victorian Period, dark brown smoky quartz stones from the Mourne Mountains of Ireland were often used in mourning jewelry.¹

Smoky quartz is the national gem of Scotland, where it is called cairngorm after the Cairngorm Mountains. The Cairngorm mountains are described as a cluster of mountains in which Ben Muich Dhui is the chief summit. The well-known Cairngorm stones are quartz crystals, coloured in various shades with iron, and they occur in cavities in the granite.¹⁸⁹

On May 31, 1985, smoky quartz was designated the official state gem of New Hampshire. Its place as a state emblem is recorded in the same way as its national status in Scotland.¹

Dr. Dee's crystal ball now in the British Museum is of cairngorm, or smoky-quartz, and Dee likely used more than one crystal in his experiments. Dee's smoky-quartz variety may have been chosen because of Scotch superstitions regarding its virtues, since charlatans often exploit existing superstitions. The sphere came to the British Museum in 1700 with the Cottonian Library, donated by the grandson of the original collector, Sir Robert Bruce Cotton.¹⁰

In the story Traced and tracked, or, Memoirs of a city detective, a boy named Dickie carries a broken cairngorm as a fetish and treasures it as a talisman. Dickie's trust in the stone is described as a spice of superstition, with him believing his good luck would leave if he lost it.¹¹

Birthstone and zodiac links

Smoky quartz is linked to the modern modern zodiac sign Capricorn, and is one of the gemstones found on a collection of modern modern zodiac birthstones, a link that crystal practitioners make and that is modern. Smoky quartz is associated with the gods of evil like Hecate, Celtic goddesses such as the Lord of the Occult and the Black Moon, and the Samhain harvest festival, according to crystal practitioners.

Cairngorm (smoky quartz) is listed as the gem of Scotland in a table of national gems. Smoky quartz is listed among the United States stones found in Alabama.¹⁰

What crystal practitioners say

Crystal practitioners present smoky quartz as a stone of connection and transformation. Practitioners also say it is supposed to stop the mental buzzing created by smog, technology and other people, because of its connection to the soil.

Practitioners ascribe protective uses to smoky quartz in the home and around the body. Smoky quartz is placed outside homes or in frames to keep wandering spirits from a family's area. Metaphysical practitioners use smoky quartz to eliminate harmful spirits or vibes from the auric field, by stabilizing techniques or by placing it on the body.

Practitioners associate smoky quartz with sleep and meditation. Smoky quartz is said to help awaken natural intuition when slept with or used regularly. Practitioners say it can be used on the lowest chakras for soothing, stabilizing and balanced energies, and that it is a wonderful stone for the solar plexus chakra.

Crystal healers claim smoky quartz supports the body's posture and muscles. Smoky quartz is said to increase the ability to withstand pressures and strains by inducing a sense of calmness under great stress. Worn for longer periods, smoky quartz is said to reduce any inherent tendency to becoming stressed.¹²

Practitioners described the stone for cleansing and use in a separate working practice. Jeff R. Graham prefers to polish smoky quartz with cerium oxide on a Spectra Ultralap.²

What testing has found

A 2001 double-blind study by Chris French tested 80 participants meditating with either a real quartz crystal or a fake glass crystal.¹³¹⁴

Researchers found that participants holding fake crystals and those holding real ones reported similar impressions, suggesting the placebo effect could be at play. The results have not been replicated in larger studies.¹⁴¹⁵

Edzard Ernst reviewed 150 complementary and alternative treatments and found no rigorous trials that test whether crystal healing has any therapeutic value. Ted Kaptchuk, a professor at Harvard Medical School, noted that placebo effects are frequently left out of such analyses.¹⁴¹⁵

Researchers remain doubtful about crystal therapy, since few studies have set it against other treatments or clarified its mechanism. Some investigators suggest crystals probably do not act directly on physical or psychological complaints, though they may produce indirect benefits that the placebo effect could account for.¹⁵