Belomorite - the magical and healing capabilities of the mineral

Belomorite is also known as moonstone and is a subspecies of feldspar, and the gem received this name due to a specific optical effect. Its diffused, soft blue glow is similar to the light of the moon. But this is not iridescence, but adularescence, which is caused by the scattering of white light on defects in the stone. But in ultraviolet light, belomorite exhibits weak orange luminescence.

Belomorite deposits

A semi-precious stone of igneous origin, belomorite is found in granite and granite pegmatite. Its large industrial deposits are located in Sri Lanka and near the White Sea (to which it owes its name). The stone is also mined on the island of Madagascar, in South and North America, in countries such as Tanzania and India, in the Middle Urals, Karelia and the Kola Peninsula.

Compatibility with other stones

Venus favors the white stone, so it goes well with “related” stones of greenish shades:

• sapphire;
• amazonite;
• malachite;
• green pearls;
• turquoise (shades of green).

It is often combined with adularia, but most often with pearls and mother-of-pearl.

If you combine stones in jewelry by color, then it is believed that white corundum can be combined with stones of any shade.

History of belomorite

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The modern name for the gem was given by A. Fersman after the place of its discovery - in the White Sea in North Karelia. But this mineral has been known to mankind for a very long time.

Thus, in the myths of Ancient Greece, moonstone is called a gift from the land of the Hyperboreans. The Greeks believed that this fabulous people lived in a distant country beyond the northern wind Boreas. The Hyperboreans were characterized by extraordinary cheerfulness and talents in music, dancing and singing. From their regions they brought minerals that had not only beauty, but also magical properties.

According to another legend, the creator of belomorite is the Devil. He saw Eve admiring the beautiful flowers in Paradise and decided to distract her with his creation. So he created an enchanting shining stone. The gem delighted Eve, and because of this incident, greed settled in the hearts of her heirs.

Finally, the ancients believed that in the beginning there was a moonstone in every gem, but not everyone turned into this jewel. To do this, the stone had to lie under the light of the Moon for a thousand full moons in a row. After which the gem glowed like the Moon.

Origin

The mysteriously shimmering gem is accompanied by a legendary and documented history.

Documented history

The time, place and “parent” of belomorite for our civilization are known exactly:

• 1925;
• White Sea coast;
• guru of Soviet mineralogy, academician Alexander Evgenievich Fersman.

If it were not for Fersman’s worldwide authority, love of mineralogy and creative gift, the stone would have remained in science only as one of the varieties of the mineral oligoclase. Belomorite is this, but in the classification it is highlighted in a separate line, and under the name proposed by the Soviet mineralogist.

Fersman described belomorite in such a way that no one in the world was left in doubt: it is an independent mineral.

Legends

The indigenous peoples who inhabited the Russian North have known about belomorite for thousands of years:

• According to legend, the stone was used as a magical artifact by the Hyperboreans, a people of wizards.
• A beautiful legend has been created about the origin of the mineral. Only a stone that had lain in a certain place and absorbed the light of the full moon a thousand times could become magical.
• The one to whom the stone “appeared” became a seer.

Fans of the mineral belomorite claim that on it, like any moonstone, a white spot appears on it during the new moon. It increases as the Moon's disk grows, reaching its maximum at the full moon.

Physico-chemical characteristics of belomorite

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According to the chemical composition, belomorites belong to the olico-glazed feldspars. They have a pronounced blue-gray, blue-blue or pale violet sheen. Hardness on the Mohs scale is 6.0-6.6, specific gravity - 2.6 g/cm3.

Whose variety

Here we have the “matryoshka effect” again. There is a large group of minerals, they are called feldspars. They are divided (let's look at the main nesting doll) into:

1. Potassium feldspars. For example, adularia (we wrote more about this stone here).

   Adularia stone

2. Potassium-barium feldspars.
3. Plagioclases. An example is Labrador. And also albite. And plagioclase. This is the next matryoshka.

   Unique Labradorite stone

Albite has a nice variety. It has a delicate, bluish, bluish shining tint, reminiscent of moonlight. This variety is called (with the light hand of Fersman) belomorite.