What Is Smoky Quartz?

Variety

• Smoky quartz has three known varieties. The Cairngorm variety gets its name from where it originates, the Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland. This variety can be recognized by its yellowish brown or grayish brown luster. The Morion variety of smoky quartz is very dark and oftentimes black opaque in its luster. The Coon Tail variety is banded with black and gray luster, like a raccoon's tail.

Formation

• Natural smoky quartz is formed over many years of slow pressurized processes, mainly occurring as fillings of clefts in large serpentine rock. The smoky quartz nodules formed are a product of the irradiation. Often, the smoky quartz available to at rock and gem stores is artificially irradiated.

Significance

• Smoky quartz has been Scotland's national gem since the times of the Druids. The mineral was utilized as tools and as objects in many rituals.

Ancient Powers

• The Druids were not the only civilization to find the smoky quartz full of mystical wonder. Wiccans and Pagans used the smoky quartz in their rituals and for aiding in balancing and calming the mind, helping with back pain, relieving hand and feet pains, easing depression, opening psychic abilities such as telepathy, addiction and obsession, stopping negative feelings, and creativity. Early American Indians thought the gemstone brought calm and patience to their traveling warriors and would send it with them on hunting expeditions.

Fashion

• The ease of cutting and shaping quartz has made it common for jewelry designers and for accessorizing clothing and shoes. American Indians, Druids, Wiccans and Pagans, as well as the Egyptians, incorporated quartz into their designs and ritual clothing.