Stone of the cross (chiastolite)

ETYMOLOGY: By the appearance.

CRYSTAL SYSTEM: Orthorhombic (thick columns)..

PRINCIPLE OF FORMATION: Tertiary.

CLASS MINERAL: Nesosilicatos.

CHEMICAL FORMULA, MINERAL ELEMENTS: AL2 [O I SiO4].

HARDNESS:  7.5 on the Mohs scale.

FIELDS: Spain (Asturias), Brazil, Canada, Russia, Australia, Sri Lanka, USA.

MINERALOGY: The cross stone transparent as gemstone is scarce, its luster is glassy and matte, this gem is part of metamorphic rocks is usually crystallize in a visible, presented in slates generally Stone Cross presents a more or less fleshy purplish color, you can change to gray when external disturbances. It is almost always opaque, although it may occasionally be transparent, and in this case when it is intended to gemology. The crystals have a dominant greenish brown color, but because of its intense pleochroism (change color depending on the crystal orientation.), crystallized in a visible, but when it does, it adopts forms of prismatic crystals of simple habit, square base, or rounded crystals, columnar masses, radial aggregates or granules. The crystals can become sizable.

MYTHOLOGY: The stone cross is also known as the "cross of San Andrés" or "stone of lightning" or "stone of the Celts', they are also known as" lucky stones "because they health and fertility to women; "Celtic Stone" because they apparently used it as a sign of identity and showed when they needed to record its origin, as if it were a pass; "Lightning stone" because among its properties is to drive away the storm; "The snake" because not only protects the bite, but also sucks the poison, and "Sampedra 'name comes from a document from seventeenth century work of a monk Bernard monastery of Villanueva de Oscos in which it has existed an inaccessible port that winds produced such a din that seemed "habitation of devils" in Illano. In this place they came bernardos monks and built there a chapel in honor of San Pedro; hence the habit of calling "sampedras' those white stones with black crosses on which, for any part that's open, is in them the sign of the cross and to which the monk attributed the miracle of being the cause to cease such noises and fears.

PROPERTIES: The yellow and gold minerals exert a stimulatory effect and optimistic, bring luck, carelessness and vigor, Green minerals have a harmonizing and neutralizing effect. Green releases the feelings, increase the speed and responsiveness and arouse interest and enthusiasm. The red minerals will become more impulsive and outgoing, intensifies emotions elementary, Stone Cross helps you persuade those fears and feelings of guilt, promotes a sense of reality and objectivity.

CHAKRAS: Solar plexus, spleen, heart.

USES: Jewelry, 95% of the stone cross that is obtained in the world is intended to produce refractory materials for steel and metallurgical industries, cement kilns and crucibles. Is also part of many rocks used in construction and, with a smaller part of the production, they are manufactured thermal insulation, high quality crockery, candles for lighting and tiles for flooring, collection, jewelery, meditation.